In the past decades, wireless Machine-to-Machine (M2M) networks have been developed in various industrial and public service areas and envisioned to improve our daily life in next decades, e.g., energy, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, and safety. With the advantage of low cost, flexible deployment, and wide coverage as compared to wired communications, wireless communications play an essential role in providing information exchange among the distributed devices in wireless M2M networks. However, an intrinsic problem with wireless communications is that the limited radio spectrum resources may result in unsatisfactory performance in the M2M networks. With the number of M2M devices projected to reach 20 to 50 billion by 2020, there is a critical need to solve the problems related to the design and applications in the wireless M2M networks. In this dissertation work, we study the wireless M2M networks design from three closely related aspects, the wireless M2M communication reliability, efficiency, and Demand Response (DR) control in smart grid, an important M2M application taking the advantage of reliable and efficient wireless communications. First, for the communication reliability issue, multiple factors that affect communication reliability are considered, including the shadowing and fading characteristics of wireless channels, and random network topology. A general framework has been proposed to evaluate the reliability for data exchange in both infrastructure-based single-hop networks and multi-hop mesh networks. Second, for the communication efficiency issue, we study two challenging scenarios in wireless M2M networks: one is a network with a large number of end devices, and the other is a network with long, heterogeneous, and/or varying propagation delays. Media Access Control (MAC) protocols are designed and performance analysis are conducted for both scenarios by considering their unique features. Finally, we study the DR control in smart grid. Using Lyapunov optimization as a tool, we design a novel demand response control strategy considering consumer’s comfort requirements and fluctuations in both the renewable energy supply and customers’ load demands. By considering those unique features of M2M networks in data collection and distribution, the analysis, design and optimize techniques proposed in this dissertation can enable the deployment of wireless M2M networks with a large number of end devices and be essential for future proliferation of wireless M2M networks. / Graduate / 0544 / flintlei@gmail.com

A drastic increase in traffic of mobile broadband is seen in the past few years, which is further accelerated by the increase in usage of smart phones and its applications. The availability of good smart phones and better data connectivity are encouraging mobile users to use video services. This huge increase in usage will pose a lot of challenges to the wireless networks. The wireless network has to become content aware in order to offer enhanced quality of video service through efficient utilization of the wireless spectrum. This thesis focuses on improving the Quality of Experience (QoE) for video transmission over Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks by imparting the content awareness to the system and providing unequal error protection for critical video packets. Two different schemes for the improvement of video quality delivery over LTE networks are presented in this thesis. Using content awareness, the retransmission count of Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) are changed dynamically such that the most important video frame gets more number of retransmission attempts, which increases its success for delivery in-turn increasing the received video quality. Since Radio Link Control (RLC) is the link layer for radio interface, the second approach focuses on optimizing this layer for efficient video transmission. As part of this scheme, a new operation mode called Hybrid Mode (HM) for RLC is defined. This mode performs retransmission only for the critical video frames, leaving other frames to unacknowledged transmission. The simulation results of both proposed schemes provide significant improvement in achieving good video quality without affecting the system performance.

Network coding is a technique used to increase the capacity of a network by combining messages sent over the network. The combined messages could be separated by using sufficient original messages which were used to combine the messages. Network coding can be implemented in different layers of the 051 stack, but to date a complete comparison between different implementations of network coding has not been done. The goal of this dissertation is to implement a wireless node model with network coding in the MAC layer and evaluate the performance characteristics of reference networks that implement the new node model. This will serve as the first step of a greater goal, namely finding the most favourable position in the 051 stack to implement network coding. The characteristics of the different implementations of network coding are presented in this dissertation. Simulations were done in OPNET® to find further attributes concerning the implementation of network coding in the MAC layer. The simulation process used is presented and explained, and the results from the simulations are analysed. Network coding in the simulations was implemented opportunistically. The results show that the more often different nodes send frames to the coding node, the better network coding performs. The work contributes to finding the best layer for implementing network coding for its increased throughput. A benchmark network was created so that network coding could be implemented in all the layers of the 051 stack, and then be compared to each other. An implementation of network coding in the MAC layer was simulated and analyzed. We conclude that, because there are so many different purposes for which networks are used, a single instance of network coding is unlikely to be similarly beneficial to all purposes. There still remains work to find the most favourable position for network coding in the 051 stack for all the different types of network coding. / Thesis (M. Ing. (Computer and Electronical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

In this thesis, research is described which leads to the proposal of a link-directionality-based dual channel MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol (DCP) for carrier sense wireless ad hoc networks. It attempts to double the capacities of such networks using an industrial standard (the single-channel IEEE 802.11 protocol) as a benchmark. Simulations show that the proposed scheme can increase the capacities to more than 1.7 times of the single-channel IEEE 802.11 protocol in large-scale random network topologies. The algorithm, however, requires extra radio spectrum resource which could be costly. In addition to DCP, a signal-to-interference ratio comparison algorithm (SCA) is proposed to further release the protocol constraints imposed by the virtual carrier-sensing mechanism. Interestingly, while the capacity of the pure DCP decreases when link lengths are short, the capacity of the pure SCA increases when link lengths are short. The two algorithms compensate for the downside of each other to bring about a more uniform capacity improvement. Simulations show that the integrated scheme can further increase the network throughputs to more than 2.13 times in random topologies. This thesis also clarifies inter-link interference in wireless ad-hoc networks by using link-directional interference graphs (l-graph). By colouring the l-graphs, independent data streams obtained by Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) are assigned for transmitting up-link and down-link traffic separately in order to eliminate the hidden-node and exposed-node problems in wireless local area networks (WLAN). Finally, a generic approach for capacity analysis is proposed to show that the concept of link-directionality can also be adopted with other network models, protocols and parameter settings. However, in certain scenarios where links are densely packed together, the advantage of using link-directionality could be diminished. Therefore, the proposed generic approach for capacity analysis allows one to determine whether channel allocations according to link-directionalities should be applied to a given network.

Cette thèse analyse la possibilité d'utiliser des communications sans fil inter-véhiculaires pour améliorer la sécurité routière. Les performances du nouveau réseau ainsi créé (réseau ad-hoc véhiculaire) sont étudiées analytiquement et par des simulations dans un environnement réaliste. La thèse se concentre surtout sur des scénarios avec une forte densité de véhicules. Dans ce cas, l'accès au support devient un problème essentiel, en principal pour les applications de sécurité routière qui nécessitent une qualité de service élevée pour fonctionner dans un tel contexte. Ce travail montre que la version actuelle du standard IEEE 802.11, proposé comme méthode d'accès dans les réseaux véhiculaires, ne peut pas résoudre ce problème de passage à l'échelle pour supporter correctement les applications de sécurité routière. Plusieurs améliorations possibles sont analysées, liées à l'utilisation optimale de certains paramètres du protocole comme la taille de la fenêtre de contention ou bien le seuil de détection de la porteuse. Des nouveaux mécanismes adaptatifs visant ces paramètres sont proposés et les améliorations ainsi obtenues sont non-négligeables. Finalement, une nouvelle méthode d'accès est définie, en tenant compte des caractéristiques des applications de sécurité routière. Toujours basée sur des techniques CSMA, cette technique donne des résultats largement supérieurs à la version standard actuelle. / The equipment of vehicles with wireless communication devices in order to improve road safety is a major component of a future intelligent transportation system. The success and availability of IEEE 802.11-based products make this technology the main competitor for the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer used in vehicle-to-vehicle communication. The IEEE 802.11p amendment has been specially designed in this special context of wireless access in vehicular environments. However, as all the other approaches based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA), this protocol presents scalability problems, which leads to poor performance in high density scenarios, quite frequent in the case of a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET). This thesis studies the congestion control problem in the context of safety vehicular communications, with a special focus on the back-off mechanism and the carrier sense function. First of all, a number of important characteristics presented by the safety messages are discovered and understood by the means of an analytical framework. Second, the lessons learned from the analytical study are put into practice with the design of two adaptive mechanisms (one for the contention window and the other one for the carrier sense threshold) that take into account the local vehicular density. These mechanisms remain simple, but highly efficient, while also being straightforward to integrate in IEEE 802.11 devices. Finally, by taking into account the most important properties of a safety VANET, a new CSMA-based MAC protocol is proposed. This new access method, named Safety Range CSMA (SR-CSMA), relies on the idea that collisions can not be avoided in a high density network. However, by increasing the number of simultaneous transmissions between geographically distant nodes, SR-CSMA manages to better protect the immediate neighborhood, the most important area for safety applications.

WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging application worldwide. Since 2016, users can send and receive messages through desktop clients, either through the WhatsApp desktop application or the web client accessible from supported web browsers. The author identified a gap in the literature in terms of WhatsApp forensics for desktop and web clients. The aim of the study was to locate forensic artifacts on WhatsApp clients. These clients included the desktop application on both Windows and Mac operating systems. Chrome and Firefox web clients were also analyzed for the Windows operating system, as well as Chrome and Safari web clients on the Mac operating system. A WhatsApp log file was identified as the main artifact providing information throughout all clients analyzed. Cached profile pictures were also found, as well as history information about visited websites and ran applications.

Our goal in this research is to investigate and determine how to best support a challenging mobile wireless network based in a military operational environment. Since routing protocols used in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) must adapt to frequent or continual changes of topology, while simultaneously limiting the impact of tracking these changes on wireless resources, we focused our initial research on improving the efficiency of route discovery. We proposed and designed a new MAC layer routing protocol that pursues reduced routing overhead, greater interaction of network protocol layers and passive neighbor/path discovery. This algorithm, called Virtual MAC Tag Switching (VMTS), evolved as we implemented a prototype in the ns-2 network simulator and conducted simulation analysis of existing protocols: DSDV, DSR and AODV. Upon analyzing the performance of existing routing protocols using pragmatic metrics not applied in any MANET literature it was found that current MANET models produce unsatisfactory performance. Subsequent analysis of transport layer protocol behaviors pinpointed the causes that undermine the performance of the existing protocols and would have thwarted VMTS as well.

During the 2000s U.S. mortgage borrowing experienced its most volatile cycle in the postwar record, with mortgage debt more than doubling between 2000 and 2008 before declining by more than 10% over the next five years. The consequences of the boom and bust for both borrowers and the wider macroeconomy were significant, with millions losing their homes to foreclosure or their jobs to the ensuing deleveraging-driven recession. Recent research has focused on variations in credit supply as a primary determinant of both the boom in mortgage borrowing and subsequent collapse, as well as the concurrent rise and fall of residential real estate prices and employment. In the wake of the Great Recession many have called for countercyclical policy intervention in the mortgage market, both to restrain over-leveraging during booms and to provide additional access to refinancing credit during busts. Moreover some analysis has placed the blame for the volatile U.S. credit cycle on the policies of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest government-sponsored enterprises, which have been labeled as excessively risky, actively destabilizing, and regressive. Nevertheless, though many have called for their reform these two agencies appear to be a continuing feature of the U.S. housing finance system and are currently well-positioned to implement countercyclical credit supply policies. In my dissertation I propose a novel countercyclical policy intervention by the government-sponsored enterprises and analyze its impact on mortgage borrowers.

La plupart des réseaux de capteurs sans fill d'aujourd'hui fonctionne sur le protocole CSMA/CA. Fournir la qualité de service (QdS) dans un tel réseau est un problème difficile compte tenu de la dynamique du réseau et des contraintes en termes de ressources (énergie et mémoire). Dans cette thèse, sans changer le socle commun du CSMA/CA, nous avons proposé des mécanismes auto-adaptatifs qui permettent de gérer la QdS "best-effort" pour des applications nécessitant de la différenciation de services. Trois mécanismes sont proposés : CoSenS pour "Collecting then Sending burst Scheme", P-CoSenS qui a joute la gestion de priorités à CoSenS, et S-CoSenS qui a joute la dimension énergie à CoSenS. La dynamique du réseau est prise en compte grâce à l'auto-adaptation de périodes de collecte et de transmission en rafale. Il est à souligner que le mécanisme CoSenS permet non seulement d'améliorer les performances de CSMA/CA mais aussi de surmonter la difficulté d'ordonnancer les trafics entrant dans un nœud (routeur) car chaque paquet entrant est immédiatement retransmis vers la sortie. En effet, grâce à la pério de de collecte, les paquets entrants sont mis en file d'attente, rendant ainsi possible d'ordonnancer différemment les paquets selon leur priorité (P-CoSenS). Enfin, le compromis énergie/performance est pris en compte dans S-CoSenS. Selon l'état de l'environnement surveillé, le réseau peut se trouver dans une période où circule un trafic non urgent et souvent faible pendant laquelle il est judicieux de minimiser la consommation d'énergie et une pério de de trafic important pendant laquelle le réseau doit transporter des données urgentes pour suivre une situation alarmante de plus près. Comme CoSenS, S-CoSenS permet de s'auto-adapter dynamiquement en fonction de ces situations. L'ensemble de nos propositions est validé par simulations et CoSenS est implémenté sur une plateforme de réseau de capteurs.

Les systèmes de 3G offrent de nouveaux services support (bearer services) à plus hauts débits pour les modes de transmission "paquet". Ces services vont coexister avec la voix (ou d'autres services temps réels), des scénarios de trafic mixte, voix et données, doivent être envisagés. La norme UMTS permet effectivement aux utilisateurs d'avoir plus d'un service activé simultanément. Les différentes classes de trafic augmentent la complexité de la gestion des ressources radios. Dans ce contexte, deux types de fonctions sont étudiés: l'allocation de TFCI et l'ordonnancement de paquets. Leur impact sur la qualité de service (QoS) ainsi que sur la capacité du système est évalué. On propose des améliorations de ces mécanismes dans le but d'augmenter la capacité du système et par conséquent d'améliorer la QoS des utilisateurs. Les études se restreignent au sens montant, c'est à dire aux transmissions du mobile (User Equipment ou UE) vers le réseau. Un premier mécanisme pour lequel un effort d'amélioration est fait, est l'adaptation du lien radio par variation du débit instantané transmis. On simule le cas d'une transmission multiservice (voix et données). L'UE doit partager un débit global qui lui est alloué entre les différents services activés. Ces derniers sont véhiculés dans des radio bearers (tuyaux supports). À chaque intervalle élémentaire de transmission (Transmission Time Interval, TTI), l'UE sélectionne un sous-débit pour chaque bearer; ceci se fait par la sélection d'un "format de transport" à appliquer pendant la durée TTI. Cette procédure s'effectue dans la couche MAC (Medium Access Control); le résultat de la sélection est une combinaison de formats de transport (Transport Format Combination, TFC) que la couche physique doit utiliser. La procédure, nommée sélection de TFC, permet d'adapter la transmission des différents services aux conditions variables de la propagation radio: elle détermine notablement la performance de transmission. L'algorithme de sélection de TFC est tracé dans ses grandes lignes dans la norme. Un de ses principes est de favoriser le trafic temps réel au détriment des services de données par paquet. Cependant, le trafic temps réel peut être perturbé par le trafic de données sous certaines conditions, en particulier pour les mobiles éloignés de la station de base (Node B). On propose un algorithme de sélection de TFC qui limite ces perturbations et qui offre une plus large zone de couverture aux services temps réels. En plus, il améliore la QoS du service de données et le débit effectif de l'UE sans augmenter sa puissance de transmission. Un autre type d'études concerne l'ordonnancement de paquets entre les différents utilisateurs ou UEs. C'est une procédure qui est contrôlée par la partie fixe du réseau. Nous l'étudions principalement par simulation en considérant divers mécanismes ou variations. Un premier mécanisme est nommé fast Variable Spreading Factor (fast VSF): les UEs distants changent rapidement leur facteur d'étalement (SF) afin de conserver une puissance de transmission constante, ce qui vise à stabiliser l'interférence inter-cellulaire. Un deuxième mécanisme étudié est un accès paquet décentralisé (decentralized mode) utilisant une information en retour sur le niveau global d'interférence dans la cellule. Un troisième mécanisme nommé "fast scheduling" (ordonnancement rapide) raccourcit le cycle d'ordonnancement. Les résultats ont montré que dans le cas de faible ou moyenne charge dans la cellule, le mode décentralisé réduit le délai par paquet jusqu'à 25 %. L'ordonnancement rapide augmente la capacité du système jusqu' à 10%. En plus, il améliore la QoS perçue par les utilisateurs en terme de débit par utilisateur et délai par paquet transmis.