A mobile ad hoc network consists of certain nodes that communicate only through wireless medium and can move arbitrarily. The key feature of a mobile ad hoc network is the mobility of the nodes. Because of the mobility, communication links form and disappear as nodes come into and go out of each other's communica- tion range. Mobile ad hoc networks are particularly useful in situations like disaster recovery and search, military operations, etc. Research on mobile ad hoc networks has drawn a huge amount of attention recently. The main challenges for mobile ad hoc networks are the sparse resources and frequent mobility. Most of the research work has been focused on the MAC and routing layer. In this work, we focus on distributed services for mobile ad hoc networks. These services will provide some fundamental functions in developing various applications for mobile ad hoc networks. In particular, we focus on the clock synchronization, connected dominating set, and k-mutual exclusion problems in mobile ad hoc networks.

Wireless networks become more and more important in modern information systems as the last mile/meter solutions, thanks to the flexibility of mobile access to facilitate Internet access anytime, anywhere. Given the limited resources, e.g., spectrum and energy supplies, to meet the ever increasing demand for wireless data services, new approaches are beckoned to enhance the spectrum and energy efficiency. We investigate this problem from three important aspects, digital modulation, clock synchronization and concurrent transmission scheduling. The contributions of this dissertation are four-fold. First, we employ the cross-layer design to explore the spatial diversity and broadcast nature of wireless links and propose a novel network modulation scheme that can superpose the information bits of different priorities into one symbol. It offers a new dimension to improve the network throughput since we can flexibly configure the transmission according to the channels among transceivers. Moreover, it is compatible with the main-stream hardware and we just need a software upgrade to implement the idea. Second, we propose modulation schemes based on hexagonal tiling, which is known to be the most compact way of two-dimensional regular tiling. In order to fully utilize the advantage of hexagonal constellation, we employ the non-binary error controlcoding since the number of constellation points of hexagonal constellation is not necessarily to be an integer power-of-two. The feasibility of these new modulation schemes is verified by the prototype system based on the software defined radio platform USRP2 and GNU Radio. Third, to facilitate a wide range of wireless communications technologies and protocols, clock synchronization among several wireless devices is a fundamental requirement. We investigated this problem by tracing to the source of clock desynchronization, which is the clock skew. However, as shown by measurement results, the clock skew is not constant and related to the working temperature. We propose a novel clock skew estimation algorithm that can leverage the temperature information to accurately estimate the clock skew. Based on the estimation results, we propose a clock synchronization scheme that can directly remove the clock skew according to the working temperature. Fourth, the traditional time-sharing based scheduling schemes usually schedule one transmission within certain area. The emerging broadband wireless devices can dynamically adjust the transmitted data rate according to the received signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR). Allowing concurrent transmissions may be more efficient, while optimal scheduling problem for concurrent transmissions is an NP-hard problem. We propose simple yet effective heuristic algorithms that can significantly improve the system throughput with moderate computational complexity. / Graduate / 0544 / yangzhe2007@gmail.com

Automotive and industrial embedded systems are increasingly dependent on real-time capabilities. TSN aims to offer flexibility of the traffic by providing Ethernet with hard and soft real-time capabilities which allows for integration with other protocols in legacy systems. TSN requires the network to be fully synchronized to achieve high performance. However, there are cases where legacy systems are not able to synchronize with TSN. These systems might nonetheless be able to synchronize with each other through their legacy synchronization mechanisms. In this thesis, we have investigated effects in terms of jitter and clock drift in endpoints by synchronizing them with each other and passing communication through an unsynchronized intermediary TSN switch. Our results revealed that with the introduction of TSN, jitter was reduced, while clock drift between endpoints and the TSN switch was introduced. The results show that negative clock drift leads to packets missing their scheduled TSN windows and positive drift leads to packets being dropped in the switch buffer queues. We proposed two solutions in order to manage the experienced clock drift. In one solution we statically changed the switch cycle, and in the other, we let the receiver node dynamically update the sending period in the sender node. In the static solution, the clock drift was reduced from negative eight microseconds per second to two nanoseconds per second. In the dynamic solution, a packet error rate of one per 100 seconds was reduced to zero errors in 19 hours.

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Clock synchronization in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is essential as it provides a consistent and a coherent time frame for all the nodes across the network. Typically, clock synchronization is achieved by message passing using carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) for media access. The nodes try to synchronize with each other, by sending synchronization request messages. If many nodes try to send messages simultaneously, contention-based schemes cannot efficiently avoid collisions which results in message losses and affects the synchronization accuracy. Since the nodes in a WSN have limited energy, it is required that the energy consumed by the clock synchronization protocols is as minimum as possible. This can be achieved by reducing the duration for which the clock synchronization protocols execute. Synchronous clock synchronization protocols in WSNs execute the clock synchronization process at each node, roughly during the same real-time interval, called synchronization phase. The duration when there is no synchronization activity is called the synchronization interval. Synchronization phases are divided into synchronization rounds. The energy consumed by these protocols depends on the duration of the synchronization phase and how frequently the synchronization phase is executed. Hence, to minimize the energy consumption by each node, the duration of synchronization phase should be as small as possible. Due to different drift rates of the clocks, the synchronization phases at different nodes drift apart and special techniques are required to keep them in sync. An existing protocol, called improved weighted-average based clock synchronization (IWICS) uses a pullback technique to achieve this. If a message from (i + 1)th synchronization round is received by a node still executing the ith synchronization round, the receiving node reduces its next synchronization interval to ensure greater overlap in the synchronization rounds. The reduction in overlap is a gradual and continuous phenomenon, and so, it can be detected and dealt with continuously. In this thesis, first, we make use of TDMA-based MAC protocols, instead of CSMA, to deal with the problem of message losses. We discuss the challenges of using TDMA-based MAC protocols for clock synchronization and how to overcome these challenges. Second, The IWICS protocol calculates the virtual drift rate which we use to modify the duration of the synchronization interval so that there is more overlap between the synchronization phases of neighbouring nodes. We refer to this technique as drift rate correction. Finally, we propose a different pullback technique where the pullback detection is carried out in each of the synchronization phase as opposed to the old pullback mechanism where it would be detected only when an out-of-round synchronization message is received. The proposed pullback technique when applied to the current synchronization interval ensures that the synchronization phases, that follow the current synchronization interval, are better synchronized with each other. As a result of this, we are able to reduce the duration of synchronization phases further. The IWICS protocol with all these modifications incorporated is termed as the TIWICS (TDMA-based IWICS) protocol. Simulation and experimental results confirm that the TIWICS protocol performs better in comparison to the existing protocols.

Aujourd'hui les réseaux de capteurs sont devenus des systèmes pouvant atteindre un très grand nombre de noeuds, avec une zone de couverture déterminée et déployés d'une manière plus ou moins dense dans un environnement hétérogène dont on mesure ainsi son état global. La problématique de cette thèse consiste à concevoir une architecture pour les objets communicants à faible consommation en utilisant des antennes « intelligentes » pour l'instrumentation et la mesure. Intégrant une approche pluridisciplinaire, cette architecture couvre les services offerts depuis les couches MAC jusqu'à celles de plus haut niveau. Basés sur une partie matérielle complètement reconfigurable (amplificateur de puissance et antennes à base de MEMS RF), les services des couches supérieures sont définis en partie sur circuits numériques pour la couche physique (bande de base) et la couche MAC, et de manière logicielle pour les protocoles de routages adaptés et les services innovants. En résumé, le travail consiste à concevoir un système autonome multi capteurs, d'acquisition et de traitement avec mémorisation, communicant à travers un réseau sans fil. Les principaux problèmes à résoudre seront : le contrôle de la topologie, la précision de la synchronisation, la consommation d'énergie. / Researches in the field of sensor networks show the variety and vastness of applications in which these types of systems are used. One of their main features is the large number (up to hundreds of elements) of sensors that must be distributed in different environments. Another concern consists in making routing decisions in order to reduce the energy consumption. Depending on the application requirements, ensuring synchronous network functionality is currently a challenge. The issue addressed in this thesis is to develop an architecture for smart objects using low-power antennas for structural heald monitoring. Integrating a multidisciplinary approach, this architecture includes services from the MAC layer to those of the highest level. In summary, we will develop an autonomous system ofi sensors, for acquisition and information processing, which communicate via a wireless network. The main problems are: the control of topology, the timing accuracy and the energy consumption.

Clock synchronization between any two nodes in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSNs) is generally accomplished through exchanging messages and adjusting clock offset and skew parameters of each node’s clock. To cope with unknown network message delays, the clock offset and skew estimation schemes have to be reliable and robust in order to attain long-term synchronization and save energy. A joint clock offset and skew estimation scheme is studied and developed based on the Gaussian Mixture Kalman Particle Filter (GMKPF). The proposed estimation scheme is shown to be a more flexible alternative than the Gaussian Maximum Likelihood Estimator (GMLE) and the Exponential Maximum Likelihood Estimator (EMLE), and to be a robust estimation scheme in the presence of non-Gaussian/nonexponential random delays. This study also includes a sub optimal method called Maximum Likelihood-like Estimator (MLLE) for Gaussian and exponential delays. The computer simulations illustrate that the scheme based on GMKPF yields better results in terms of Mean Square Error (MSE) relative to GMLE, EMLE, GMLLE, and EMLLE, when the network delays are modeled as non-Gaussian/non-exponential distributions or as a mixture of several distributions.

Les réseaux de capteurs sans fil (WSN) jouent un rôle important dans des applications telles que la surveillance de l'environnement, le suivi de sources et le suivi médical, ...etc. Dans les WSN, les capteurs ont la capacité d'effectuer l'échantillonnage des données, des calculs distribués et de fusionner des données. Pour effectuer ces tâches complexes, la synchronisation des horloges et la localisation sont fondamentales et essentielles. Les WSN ont été largement étudiés ces dernières années et la littérature scientifique rapporte de nombreux résultats qui les rendent applicables pour de nombreuses applications. Pour d'autres, la recherche doit encore trouver des solutions à certains des défis posés par la limitation énergétique, la dynamicité et la faible puissance de calcul. Dans le but de contribuer à la recherche sur les WSN, cette thèse propose de nouveaux algorithmes pour la synchronisation d'horloge et la localisation. La synchronisation d'horloge est nécessaire afin que les effectuent de manière efficace la fusion de données. En appliquant l'algorithme de synchronisation d'horloge, les capteurs établissent un consensus temporel et travaillent donc au même rythme. Compte tenu de la dynamicité, des faibles capacités de calcul et de la parcimonie des WSN, un nouvel algorithme de synchronisation décentralisée à impulsions couplées est proposé pour améliorer la précision de la synchronisation. L'avantage de ce type d'algorithme est que les capteurs échangent des impulsions au lieu de paquets, de sorte que non seulement la communication est efficace, mais aussi robuste à toute défaillance des capteurs dans le réseau. La localisation de capteurs a été largement étudiée dans la littérature scientifique. Cependant, la qualité et la précision de la localisation peuvent encore être améliore. Cette thèse applique l'algorithme LSCR (Régression de régions corrélées à signes dominants) au problème de localisation. Avec LSCR, on évalue des régions de confiance avec des niveaux de confiance prescrits, qui fournissent non seulement on emplacement mais aussi la confiance en cet emplacement. Dans cette thèse, plusieurs approches de localisation sont implémentées et comparées. Le résultat de la simulation montre que, sous hypothèses modérées, LSCR obtient des résultats compétitifs par rapport à d'autres méthodes. / Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) play an important role in applications such as environmental monitoring, source tracking, and health care,... In WSN, sensors have the ability to perform data sampling, distributed computing and information fusion. To perform such complex tasks, clock synchronization and localization are two fundamental and essential algorithms. WSNs have been widely studied in the past years, and the scientific literature reports many outcomes that make them applicable for some applications. For some others, research still needs to find solutions to some of the challenges posed by battery limitation, dynamicity, and low computing clock rate. With the aim of contributing to the research on WSN, this thesis proposes new algorithms for both clock synchronization and localization. For clock synchronization, sensors converge their local physical clock to perform data fusion. By applying the clock synchronization algorithm, sensors converge the time difference and therefore work at the same rate. In view of dynamicity, low computing and sparsity of WSN, a new pulse-coupled decentralized synchronization algorithm is proposed to improve the precision of the synchronization. The benefit of this kind of algorithm is that sensors only exchange zero-bit pulse instead of packets, so not only the communication is efficient but also robust to any failure of the sensors in the network. Localization of sensors has been widely studied. However, the quality and the accuracy of the localization still have a large room to improve. This thesis apply Leave-out Sign-dominant Correlated Regions (LSCR) algorithm to localization problem. With LSCR, one evaluates the accurate estimates of confidence regions with prescribed confidence levels, which provide not only the location but also the confidence of the estimation. In this thesis, several localization approaches are implemented and compared. The simulation result shows under mild assumptions, LSCR obtains competitive results compared to other methods.

Le Radiohéliographe de Nançay est le seul instrument dédié à l'imagerie du soleil en ondes décimétriques-métriques. Il fonctionne sur le principe de l'interférométrie, en utilisant 47 antennes essentiellement réparties sur des axes est-ouest (3,2 km) et nord-sud (2,5 km). Cette étude a pour but d'explorer un nouveau concept de numérisation propre à la radioastronomie du futur, appliquée ici à l'interférométrie solaire. Elle porte sur la numérisation rapide d'un système synchronisé en sortie d'antennes. Ces aspects "numérisation rapide" et "synchronisation" sont d'une importance capitale pour les prochains radiotélescopes du futur. Ils permettent de simplifier les chaînes de réception radiofréquence et de diminuer la consommation électrique ainsi que les coûts d'entretien et de la maintenance. L'application à l'observation du soleil comporte cependant des contraintes originales, comme la grande dynamique des signaux, qui ne sont pas prises en compte actuellement dans les études en cours pour les radiotélescopes du futur. Le radiohéliographe actuel a une chaîne de réception analogique avec une numérisation centralisée. La commutation entre les différentes fréquences dans la bande 150-450~MHz est réalisée d'une façon analogique et temporelle. Ceci nécessite beaucoup de calibrations analogiques et oblige de figer la gamme des fréquences (10 fréquences de largeur 1~MHz). De plus, en interférométrie métrique, les très grandes longueurs de câbles coaxiales sont onéreuses. Les signaux transmis des antennes au récepteur sont toujours sources d'erreurs et des fluctuations importantes réduisent l'information radiofréquence. Toutefois, apporter une numérisation complète de la bande (300~MHz) permet d'avoir de la souplesse dans le traitement et l'analyse des données (résolution fréquentielle et la possibilité d'observer plusieurs bandes simultanément, traitement des parasites). Ceci engendre la nécessité d'avoir une très grande précision des horloges (0,7~ps d'erreur de phase) pour cadencer des ADC (Analog-to-Digital-Converter) large bande (1~GHz d'horloge). L'objectif principal de la thèse est d'étudier la synchronisation pour l'application à un réseau d'antennes multi-réparties. Le saut technologique ainsi induit et les concepts étudiés sont un enjeu grandissant dans les grands projets européens et internationaux. / The Nançay Radioheliograph is the only instrument dedicated to the solar corona imaging in the 150-450 MHz frequency band. It operates on the principle of interferometry, using 47 antennas essentially distributed on the east-west (3.2 km) and north-south (2.5 km) axes. This study aims to explore a new technical concept for future radio astronomy, applied to solar interferometer. It deals with the rapid digitization of a synchronized system at the antenna sides. High speed digitization and high accuracy synchronization are the most important aspects for future radio telescopes. They make it possible to simplify radiofrequency reception chains and reduce their power consumption, as well as maintenance costs and complexity. The application to the observation of the sun, however, has some original constraints, such as the great dynamics of the signals, which are not taken into account in the current studies for future radio telescopes. The current radio telescope has an analog receiver with a centralized digitization. The switching time between each frequency (10 frequencies of 1 MHz width) in 150-450 MHz band analyzed introduce latency in solar images processing, also decrease the signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, in metric interferometry, the several lengths of coaxial cables in which the signal is transported from the antennas to the receiver always cause significant errors and fluctuations in the radiofrequency reception chains. Providing full digitization of the band (300 MHz) allows more flexibility in data processing and analyzing (frequency resolution and the ability to observe multiple bands simultaneously). This required high clock accuracy (0.7 ps of jitter) for ADCs clocks (1 GHz clock). Therefore, the main objective of this thesis is to reach a sub-ns global time synchronization of distributed networks such as radio interferometer array as the Nançay Radioheliograph. The technological leap thus induced is a growing challenge in major European and international projects.

Short range wireless data communication networks that are used for sport and health care are sometimes called Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) and they are located more or less on a person. Sole Integrated Gait Sensor (SIGS) is a research project in WBAN, where wireless pressure sensors are placed like soles in the shoes of persons with different kinds of deceases. The sensors can measure the pressure of the foot relative to the shoe i.e. the load of the two legs is measured. This information can be useful e.g. to not over or under load a leg after joint replacement or as a bio feedback system to help e.g. post stroke patients to avoid falling. The SIGS uses the ANT Protocol and radio specification. ANT uses the 2.4 GHz ISM band and TDMA is used to share a single frequency. The scheduling of time slots is adaptive isochronous co-existence i.e. the scheduling is not static and each transmitter sends periodically but checks for interference with other traffic on the radio channel. In this unidirectional system sole sensors are masters (transmitters) and the WBAN server is the slave in ANT sense. The message rate is chosen as 8 Hz which is suitable for low power consumption. Hence in the SIGS system, it is necessary to synchronize the left and the right foot sensors because of low message rate. In our thesis, we found a method and developed a prototype to receive the time synchronized data in WBAN server from ANT wireless sensor nodes in SIGS system. For this thesis work, a hardware prototype design was developed. The USB and USART communication protocols were also implemented in the hardware prototype. The suitable method for time synchronization was implemented on the hardware prototype. The implemented method receives the sensor data, checks for the correct stream of data; add timestamp to the sensor data and transmit the data to the Linux WBAN server. The time slots allocation in the ANT protocol was found. Alternative solution for the time synchronization in ANT protocol was also provided. The whole SIGS system was tested for its full functionality. The experiments and analysis which we performed were successful and the results obtained provided good time synchronization protocol for ANT low power wireless sensor network and for Wireless Bio-feedback system.