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At present, Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have been widely used in enormous applications, and simultaneously face many security threats. The trust management mechanism plays an important role in protecting network security. Many theories, e.g., subjective logic, Bayesian, cloud model, entropy theory, evidence theory, etc., have been adopted to evaluate the node trust of wireless sensor networks. However, due to the unique characteristics of the underwater dynamic environment, the existing trust mechanisms used in traditional networks (such as P2P networks, Ad-hoc networks, etc.) cannot be directly used in UWSNs. Therefore, this paper proposes a new trust evaluation and update mechanism for underwater wireless sensor networks based on the C4.5 decision tree algorithm (TEUC). In the TEUC, trust evidences are first collected including data-based, link-based and node-based trust evidences. Then, the collected trust evidences are used to train the C4.5 decision tree. In addition, the reward and penalty factors are defined to update trust based on the sliding time window. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the traditional ones in a dynamic network environment in terms of malicious node detection and energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a scheme for constructing an Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 over low-power wireless personal area networks (6LoWPAN) wireless sensor network based on a cluster tree. In the cluster generation algorithm, a cluster tree is always an isolated node with the maximum number of neighbor isolated nodes that launches the cluster generation process; therefore, the total number of cluster heads is minimized. In the cluster-tree construction algorithm, the cluster-tree architecture is proposed, and the cluster-tree construction algorithm minimizes the total number of nodes included in a cluster tree; therefore, the routing cost is reduced. In the cluster-tree repair algorithm, when a cluster head or a cluster associate node fails or moves, a new cluster head or cluster associate node is elected to maintain the cluster-tree topology. This paper compares the performance parameters of Least Cluster Change algorithm with Lowest-ID, Root-based Lowest-ID cluster constructing mechanism, and the proposed scheme, including the cluster-tree topology stability, the routing memory cost, and the routing update cost. The analytical data show that the performance of the proposed scheme is better. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a new approach to accurately and efficiently identifying a large number of wireless devices blindly installed to known three-dimensional installation/fitting points, based on received signal strengths (RSSs) between the devices. The approach is non-trivial because of the factorial, mapping nature of the considered problem, the multiplicative ranging errors of the RSS measurements (with standard deviation of 5–7 dB), and the requirement of high mapping accuracy in many internet-of-things (IoT) applications, e.g., industrial IoT and aircraft. The consideration of a structured environment where the set of candidate node positions is known beforehand shifts the problem of interest from a pure position estimation problem to a position assignment problem. The key idea of the proposed approach is that we interpret the position mapping problem with a probabilistic graphical model, where the factorial nature of mapping (more specifically, the mutual exclusiveness of devices at every installation point) is fully captured. A max-product belief propagation is designed against the probabilistic graph, to estimate the max-marginal position distribution of each device. The Kuhn-Munkres algorithm is applied to preserve the mutual exclusiveness of devices throughout the belief propagation and to decide device locations based on the estimated position distributions. Large-scale simulations and field tests are carried out, showing that the new approach achieves close-to-100% accuracy in simulations with hundreds of blindfolded devices under RSS measurement errors with standard deviation of 5–7 dB. Our approach also achieves 100% accuracy in all field trials with 76 devices inside the cabin of a Fokker 100 airplane, dramatically outperforming baseline techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers optimal joint time, frequency, and power allocation for energy-efficient device-to-device (D2D) communications in an overlay cellular network, where multiple D2D transmitters communicate with their corresponding D2D receivers while utilizing the energy harvested from a cellular base station (BS). Due to channel estimation error and feedback delays, the channel state information (CSI) available at the transmitters is usually imperfect, which can significantly deteriorate the energy efficiency (EE) of the considered system. To mitigate the impact of imperfect CSI, we formulate a non-convex robust optimization problem for the maximization of the EE (in bits/Joule) of the system while ensuring quality of service (QoS) requirements on the minimum data rata and the minimum amount of harvested energy for cellular and D2D users, respectively. We reveal that the optimal energy-efficient D2D transmission should exhaust all the harvested energy of each D2D transmitter. Exploiting this fact, we propose an efficient iterative algorithm for obtaining the optimal solution. To strike a balance between performance and computational complexity, we further propose a low-complexity suboptimal algorithm. Simulation results show that compared with several baseline schemes, both the proposed optimal and suboptimal algorithms can significantly improve the EE of wireless-powered D2D communications under imperfect CSI. Moreover, the proposed suboptimal algorithm is close-to-optimal when the number of cellular users are small or the channel estimation error is large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-hop device-to-device (D2D) communications play an important role in expanding D2D coverage. In this paper, we study a relay-based and network-coding-assisted (in particular, XOR coding) multi-hop D2D communication system. In the system, toward jointly considering the impact of interference and network traffic conditions on the quality of D2D communications, various channel fading models and traffic models are investigated, and the packet loss probability of D2D links is meticulously computed using these models. With the packet loss probability of D2D links, the general closed-form expressions of end-to-end packet loss probability (E2EPLP) of the system with the presence (or absence) of XOR coding are subsequently derived. Our experiments reveal that both the number of relays and the mechanism of XOR coding can affect the system performance. Specifically, the increase in the number of relays will lower the overall system performance (e.g., an increase in the E2EPLP and end-to-end completion time, and a decrease of the end-to-end rate may follow as a result). On the other hand, although the presence of XOR coding unfortunately raises the system E2EPLP, it can effectively improve the end-to-end completion time and end-to-end rate. It is our belief that the analytical approach proposed in this paper and the results found in our work can be useful to peer studies in the context of applying network coding in multi-hop D2D networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the network selection for heterogeneous networks. Although many network selection approaches have been developed for heterogeneous networks, few of them explore the network selection problem for integrated cellular and drone-cell networks. Furthermore, most of the existing designs may be unsuitable for the integrated cellular and drone-cell networks owing to the high dynamic drone-cell-user association and the relatively limited drone-cell network capacity. In this paper, we investigate a network selection problem for the integrated cellular and drone-cell networks with a goal of maximizing a proportional fairness function of time average utilities across users under coarse correlated equilibrium constraints and minimum time average utility constraints. To mitigate this challenging problem, we first convert it into a non-linear integer programming (NLIP) problem based on our derived theoretical results. Next, we propose a repeated-stochastic-game-based efficient and fair network selection (RSG-EF) algorithm to alleviate the NLIP problem by leveraging a linear approximation mechanism. Simulation results show that the RSG-EF algorithm can achieve the highest total utility and a high level of fairness across users compared with three benchmark algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies a novel design of user pairing and resource allocation in a simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT)-enabled cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system with coexisting power-splitting (PS) and time-switching (TS) users. In this system, near NOMA users (NUs) that are close to a source can assist the communications between the source and far NOMA users (FUs) using the energy harvested by either PS or TS strategy. The design aims to maximize the sum-rate of the system by optimizing user pairing and power allocation between NUs and FUs as well as performing PS and TS control at NUs, while guaranteeing the target data rates and the minimum harvested energy requirements of users. Since the joint design is formulated as a non-convex mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) problem that is challenging to tackle, we propose a two-step user pairing and resource allocation algorithm. Specifically, we decouple the original problem into an inner resource allocation problem and an outer user pairing problem. For the inner problem, we propose successive convex approximation (SCA) and block coordinate descent (BCD)-based algorithms to perform power allocation as well as PS and TS control iteratively, with the algorithms’ convergence being theoretically proved. By exploiting the characteristics of the outer problem of user pairing, this problem is well tackled by the Hungarian algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate the proposed joint design yields better performance gains than the existing schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deploying wireless sensor networks in the ocean poses many challenges due to the harsh conditions of the ocean and the nonnegligible node mobility. In this paper, we propose hybrid ocean sensor networks called drifting restricted floating ocean sensor networks (DR-OSNs) for long-term maritime surveillance monitoring tasks, which combines both the advantages of wireless sensor networks and underwater wireless acoustic sensor networks. We present a localization scheme termed localization for double-head maritime sensor networks (LDSN) for DR-OSNs, which leverages the unique characteristics of DR-OSNs to establish the whole localization system after the network is deployed from a plane or a ship, and it does not need the presence of designated anchor nodes deployed underwater. The whole localization process consists of three steps with algorithms self-moored node localization (SML), underwater sensor localization (USD), and floating-node localization algorithm (FLA). The first step is for the super group nodes to localize their underwater moored nodes via an SML algorithm by leveraging the free-drifting movement of their surface nodes. Once the moored nodes in the super group nodes have localized themselves, they turn into anchor nodes underwater. Thus, in the second step, with the help of these new anchor nodes, the unlocalized underwater moored nodes use the USD algorithm to localize their positions. In the last step, when the free-drifting floating nodes without a Global Positioning System (GPS) module need to know their instant position, they apply the FLA to figure out their position. We conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the scheme, with the results indicating that LDSN achieves high localization accuracy and is an effective localization scheme for DR-OSNs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses an information-theoretic lens to view the error bound of wireless local area network (WLAN) localization, which is recognized as one of the superior candidate localization techniques in the GPS-denied environment. Interestingly, we analogize the process of WLAN localization into one of information propagation in a parallel Gaussian noisy channel, and then derive the corresponding localization error bound from the channel capacity of the analogical information propagation system. Experimental results show that compared with the widely-known Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB), the proposed approach performs better in localization error bound estimation under most of the cases of different access point deployment and reference point calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to stimulate the devices to participate is a key problem in the device-to-device (D2D) communications, especially when there are multiple base stations in practice. On one hand, the base station needs to lower the price to compete with other base stations for attracting more devices. On the other hand, the base station needs to increase the price to obtain more benefit. In this paper, we propose an optimal multiprincipal multiagent contract design to tackle such a challenge. Specifically, we formulate the multiprincipal contract design problem as a game theoretic optimization problem, where the objective of each principle (base station) through contract design is to maximize its overall utility obtaining from the trade with agents (devices) subject to the individual rationality and incentive compatibility constraints. By solving the game theoretic optimization problems, we can obtain the equilibrium contract where the contracts of different principals reach an equilibrium and any deviation from a single principal will lead to the degradation of its own utility. Moreover, under the equilibrium, both the individual rationality and incentive compatibility constraints are satisfied, i.e., all agents will choose the corresponding contract according to their types to reach the optimal nonnegative utilities. Simulation results show that compared with the monoprincipal contract design, both the utilities of devices and the social welfare can be improved with the multiprincipal contract design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A coordinate system is essential for the positioning and navigation services of the ground-based positioning system. The coordinate establishment requires accurate and sufficient position information of base stations. In global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-denied environments, it is challenging to determine the locations of base stations using GNSS services with GNSS signals being interfered and blocked. In this case, manual surveying constraints rapid deployment of the ground-based positioning system. By receiving ranging signals from anchors whose absolute location is known in advance, the locations of all base stations can be determined using iterative trilateration, which however causes cascading error accumulation for large networks. In this paper, using ranging signals emitted by base stations to obtain mutual distance measurements, we propose a coordinate establishment algorithm to address this problem. Introducing the Euclidean distance matrix (EDM), the problem is formulated as an EDM least squares optimization problem with the anchor information incorporated. The optimal solution is obtained via the proposed algorithm based on the shortest path algorithm and the nonlinear conjugate gradient method. Simulations and experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing methods in the aspects of positioning accuracy and computational complexity in most cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Source location privacy is a major problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs are usually deployed in random areas with no protection. The source location reveals valuable information about targets. If an adversary locates the source node by analyzing the traffic mode, a target can be easily attacked. In this paper, a scheme based on the cloud using multi-sinks (CPSLP) is proposed to address the issue of source location privacy. The authors propose a scheme that changes packet destinations randomly in each transmission. In addition, multiple sinks are adopted to create many routing paths. The introduction of an intermediate node renders the routing path more random and flexible. Then, a cloud-shaped fake hotspot is created to add fake packets into the WSN to confuse the adversary and provide a comprehensive privacy location. Each valuable packet is routed through a path that is quite difficult for the hotspot-locating adversary to find directly. Simulation results illustrate that the CPSLP scheme can prevent adversarial capture and maintain a high level of privacy protection at the same time. The energy consumption in this scheme exerts limited influence on the network lifetime compared with a cloud-based scheme and an all-direction random routing algorithm scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose to develop wireless Sensor Networks with Mobile Sinks (MSSNs). The proposed MSSN is highly energy efficient, because the multihop transmissions of high-volume data over the network are converted into single-hop transmissions. We focus our investigation on sparsely deployed networks, where single node-to-sink transmission is considered. The transmission-scheduling algorithm (TSA-MSSN) is proposed, where a parameter λ is employed to control the tradeoff between the maximization of the probability of successful information retrieval and the minimization of the energy-consumption cost. It is shown that the proposed implementation of the TSA-MSSN has a complexity of O(1). This paper serves as the foundation for understanding fundamental laws behind the aforementioned tradeoff with useful implications for the design of more complex MSSNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Device-free wireless localization (DFL) is a technique that can locate a target by analyzing its shadowing effect on wireless links, which causes the variation of link measurements, while removing the requirement of equipping the target with a device. It can provide fundamental data for pervasive computing, smart environment, and traffic surveillance applications. The observation model, which represents the relationship between wireless link measurement and target location, is very important for DFL, since it characterizes the shadowing effect of the target on wireless links and, therefore, determines the performance of the DFL system. In this paper, inspired by measurement results, we propose a saddle surface (SaS) model to describe the shadowing effect. The SaS model characterizes the elaborate information within the spatial impact area and provides more useful observation information for the location estimation algorithm. We incorporate the SaS model into the particle filter framework for location estimation. Extensive experiments in indoor and outdoor scenarios are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed schemes. The tracking errors of 0.78 and 0.21 m in the given two scenarios demonstrate the better performance of the proposed SaS model compared with existing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a dynamic 3D trajectory design of multiple cache-enabled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in a wireless device-to-device (D2D) caching network with the goal of maximizing the long-term network throughput. By storing popular content at the nearby mobile user devices, D2D caching is an efficient method to improve network throughput and alleviate backhaul burden. With the attractive features of high mobility and flexible deployment, UAVs have recently attracted significant attention as cache-enabled flying base stations. The use of cache-enabled UAVs opens up the possibility of tracking the mobility pattern of the corresponding users and serving them under limited cache storage capacity. However, it is challenging to determine the optimal UAV trajectory due to the dynamic environment with frequently changing network topology and the coexistence of aerial and terrestrial caching nodes. In response, we propose a novel multi-agent reinforcement learning based framework to determine the optimal 3D trajectory of each UAV in a distributed manner without a central coordinator. In the proposed method, multiple UAVs can cooperatively make flight decisions by sharing the gained experiences within a certain proximity to each other. Simulation results reveal that our algorithm outperforms the traditional single- and multi-agent Q-learning algorithms. This work confirms the feasibility and effectiveness of cache-enabled UAVs which serve as an important complement to terrestrial D2D caching nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a wireless powered mobile edge computing (MEC) network where a hybrid access point (H-AP) serves energy-constrained devices. For such a wireless powered MEC network, the H-AP first transmits wireless information and energy simultaneously in the downlink. Then, by utilizing the harvested energy, the device processes both its local data and the received data from the H-AP. In this system, we minimize the latency by jointly optimizing the power splitting ratio of rectifiers, the data offloading power, the local computing frequency, and the data offloading ratio at the device. By applying a polyblock outer approximation procedure, we propose an algorithm which guarantees the optimal solution. Simulation results verify the efficiency of the proposed algorithm compared to conventional schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of received signal strength (RSS) and channel state information (CSI) has been widely used in the research of device-free localization (DFL). However, DFL systems based on these systems usually require labour-intensive training to understand the impact of the target on the surrounding wireless signals to build the target location-related model or image. In addition, the fact that the RSS is susceptible to multipath interference and is not directly accessible to CSI directly limits its actual deployment. In this paper, we explore the feasibility of DFL based on time-of-flight measurements of ultra-wideband signals, and propose a fusion method for simultaneous localization of multiple targets based on the evaluation results. Specifically, we mesh the feasible region of the target and utilize the geometric filtering method to re-evaluate the filtered wireless links in combination with the real-time adaptive relaxation target model. Consequently, we introduce the clustering method and combine the category matching strategy to ensure that the algorithm has robust real-time multi-target perception ability. Extensive experiments conducted in the lobby, laboratory and office scenarios demonstrate that the proposed method plays an active role in more than 82% and can control the mean error within 0.6 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In opportunistic mobile networks (OppNets), a large amount of energy is consumed by idle listening, instead of infrequent data exchange. This makes energy saving a challenging and fundamental problem in OppNets since nodes are typically battery powered. Asynchronous duty-cycle operation is a promising approach for energy saving in OppNets; however, if its working schedule is not effectively designed, it may also cause significant network performance degradation. Therefore, it is pressing to design an energy-efficient working schedule for duty-cycle OppNets. In this paper, we first analyze the contact process in duty-cycle OppNets and then propose an adaptive working schedule for duty-cycle OppNets. The proposed adaptive working schedule uses the past recorded contact histories to predict future contact information to adaptively configure the working schedule of each node in the network. Finally, extensive real trace-driven simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of our proposed adaptive working schedule. Extensive real trace-driven simulation results demonstrate that our proposed adaptive working schedule is superior to the random working schedule and the periodical working schedule algorithms in terms of the number of effect contacts, delivery ratio, and delivery delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cognitive radio is a smart software-defined radio that can adapt its transmission parameters, such as transmit power level and modulation type, based on the wireless channel conditions. In this paper, we introduce a joint power allocation and constellation design algorithm for cognitive radios assuming spectrum sensing imperfections. The proposed algorithm minimizes the symbol error rate of the secondary user by designing optimized 2-D constellation points and assigning transmit power levels. The constellation points are assumed to be equally probable with zero-mean and unit average symbol energy. The transmit power levels are assigned such that they do not exceed a predefined maximum transmit power threshold, and that the interference resulting from the secondary user to the primary user does not exceed a predefined value. The outcomes of the proposed algorithm, which are constellation points and transmit power levels, can be stored in a lookup table that the secondary user can access to adapt its transmission parameters to the environment based on sensing decisions, maximum transmit powers, and interference levels allowed by the primary user. Numerical results are provided to show the symbol error rate performance of the designed constellation points and compared to the performance of the conventional square grid M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation under the same operational parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents the posterior linearization belief propagation (PLBP) algorithm for cooperative localization in wireless sensor networks with nonlinear measurements. PLBP performs two steps iteratively: linearization and belief propagation. At the linearization step, the nonlinear functions are linearized using statistical linear regression with respect to the current beliefs. This SLR is performed in practice by using sigma-points drawn from the beliefs. In the second step, belief propagation is run on the linearized model. We show by numerical simulations how PLBP can outperform other algorithms in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Different from a traditional wireless sensor network (WSN) powered by nonrechargeable batteries, the energy management policy of a rechargeable WSN needs to take into account the process of energy harvesting. In this paper, we study the energy allocation for sensing and transmission in an energy harvesting sensor node with a rechargeable battery and a finite data buffer. The sensor aims to maximize the expected total amount of data transmitted until the sensor stops functioning subject to time-varying energy harvesting rate, energy availability in the battery, data availability in the data buffer, and channel fading. Since the lifetime of the sensor is a random variable, we formulate the energy allocation problem as an infinite-horizon Markov decision process (MDP), and propose an optimal energy allocation (OEA) algorithm using the value iteration. We then consider a special case with infinite data backlog and prove that the optimal transmission energy allocation (OTEA) policy is monotonic with respect to the amount of battery energy available. Finally, we conduct extensive simulations to compare the performance of our OEA algorithm, OTEA algorithm, the finite-horizon transmission energy allocation (FHTEA) algorithm extended from [2], and the finite-horizon OEA (FHOEA) algorithm from [1]. Simulation results show that the OEA algorithm transmits the largest amount of data, and the OTEA algorithm can achieve a near-optimal performance with low computational complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the performance of a wireless sensor network (WSN) in the context of binary detection of a deterministic signal. This paper aims to develop a numerical solution for the optimal power allocation scheme via a variation of the biogeography-based optimization (BBO) algorithm, which is called the constrained BBO-DE algorithm. This new stochastic optimization algorithm is a hybridization of a very recently proposed stochastic optimization algorithm, i.e., the BBO algorithm, with another popular stochastic optimization algorithm called the differential evolution (DE) algorithm. The objective is to minimize the total power spent by the whole sensor network under a desired performance criterion, which is specified as the detection error probability. The proposed algorithm has been tested for several case studies, and its performances are compared with those of two constrained versions of the BBO and DE algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The top-k query has long been an important topic in computer science. Efficient implementation of top-k queries is the key for information searching. In this paper, we develop the Efficient algorithm for the Continuous Historical Top-k (ECHT) extraction, which is a novel algorithm that can effectively process the continuous historical top-k query. A simple top-k extraction algorithm based on aggregation is used for user query processing, and two additional steps on the filter setting by which individual nodes do not have to report all their readings are proposed to further reduce communication cost. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work for continuous historical top-k query processing in sensor networks, and our simulation results show that our schemes can reduce the total communication cost by up to two orders of magnitude, as compared with the centralized scheme or a straightforward extension from the previous top-k algorithm on a continuous monitoring query. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an analysis framework for estimating spatio-temporal distortion associated with data-gathering algorithms in sensor networks. We assume that the underlying data field being sensed is spatially and temporally correlated and that the sink node performs real-time reconstruction of the field. Unlike existing work, the proposed analysis framework assumes realistic transmission schemes and network/routing parameters, such as congestion and limited transmission range. Our simulations show that, even for a simple collision-free transmission scheme and regular deployment patterns, the distortion analyses yield starkly different results, compared with the analyses performed in the absence of these assumptions. The analytical method presented in this paper could easily be extended to consider the real-time data-reconstruction problem under different transmission schemes, node distributions, and reconstruction methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to maximize the utilization rate of the Mobile Wireless Chargers (MWCs) and reduce the recharging delay in large-scale Rechargeable Wireless Sensor Networks (WRSNs), a type of Cost-Balanced Mobile Energy Replenishment Strategy (CBMERS) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, nodes are assigned into groups according to their remaining lifetime, which ensures that only the ones with lower residual energy are recharged in each time slot. Then, to balance energy consumption among multiple MWCs, the moving distance as well as the power cost of the MWC are taken as constraints to get the optimal trajectory allocation scheme. Moreover, by further adjusting the amount of energy being replenished to some sensor nodes, it ensures that the MWC have enough energy to fulfill the recharging task and return back to the base station. Experiment results show that, compared with the Periodic recharging strategy and the Cluster based Multiple Charges Coordination algorithm (C-MCC), the proposed method can improve the recharging efficiency of MWCs by about 48.22% and 43.35%, and the average waiting time of nodes is also reduced by about 55.72% and 30.7%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of correlated data gathering in sensor networks with multiple sink nodes. The problem has two objectives. First, we would like to find a rate allocation on the correlated sensor nodes such that the data gathered by the sink nodes can reproduce the field of observation. Second, we would like to find a transmission structure on the network graph such that the total transmission energy consumed by the network is minimized. The existing solutions to this problem are impractical for deployment because they have not considered all of the following factors: 1) distributed implementation; 2) capacity and interference associated with the shared medium; and 3) realistic data correlation model. In this paper, we propose a new distributed framework to achieve minimum energy data gathering while considering these three factors Based on a localized version of Slepian-Wolf coding, the problem is modeled as an optimization formulation with a distributed solution. The formulation is first relaxed with Lagrangian dualization and then solved with the sub-gradient algorithm. The algorithm is amenable to fully distributed implementations, which corresponds to the decentralized nature of sensor networks. To evaluate its effectiveness, we have conducted extensive simulations under a variety of network environments. The results indicate that the algorithm supports asynchronous network settings, sink mobility, and duty schedules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with Microwave Power Transfer (MPT) capability provide a practical means to deploy a large number of wireless powered sensing devices into areas with no access to persistent power supplies. The UAV can charge the sensing devices remotely and harvest their data. A key challenge is online MPT and data collection in the presence of on-board control of a UAV (e.g., patrolling velocity) for preventing battery drainage and data queue overflow of the devices, while up-to-date knowledge on battery level and data queue of the devices is not available at the UAV. In this paper, an on-board deep Q-network is developed to minimize the overall data packet loss of the sensing devices, by optimally deciding the device to be charged and interrogated for data collection, and the instantaneous patrolling velocity of the UAV. Specifically, we formulate a Markov Decision Process (MDP) with the states of battery level and data queue length of devices, channel conditions, and waypoints given the trajectory of the UAV; and solve it optimally with Q-learning. Furthermore, we propose the on-board deep Q-network that enlarges the state space of the MDP, and a deep reinforcement learning based scheduling algorithm that asymptotically derives the optimal solution online, even when the UAV has only outdated knowledge on the MDP states. Numerical results demonstrate that our deep reinforcement learning algorithm reduces the packet loss by at least 69.2%, as compared to existing non-learning greedy algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deployment of large-scale UAV clusters for cluster advantages will lead to high competition and excessive congestion of spectrum resources, which results in mutual interference. This paper investigates the interference-aware online spectrum access problem for multicluster Flying Ad-Hoc Network (FANET) under different network topologies, i.e., the locations of UAV clusters are varying. First, the problem is formulated as a data-assisted multistage channel access game with the goal of mitigating interference of all UAV clusters and decreasing channel switching cost during each slot. As we prove that the game is an exact potential game that guarantees at least one pure-strategy Nash equilibrium and interference-aware online channel preserving based concurrent best response (IOCPCBR) algorithm, an online distributed algorithm is proposed to achieve the desirable solution. Finally, the simulation results demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the multistage channel access game as well as IOCPCBR algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A $K$ -tier heterogeneous downlink millimeter wave (mmWave) cellular network with user-centric small cell deployments is studied in this paper. In particular, we consider a heterogeneous network model with user equipments (UEs) being distributed according to a Poisson cluster process (PCP). Distinguishing features of mmWave communications including directional beamforming and a sophisticated path loss model incorporating both line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight transmissions, are taken into account. Initially, we determine general expressions for the association probabilities of different tier BSs. Using tools from stochastic geometry, we then characterize the Laplace transform of the interference and derive a general expression for the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio coverage probability. While these expressions are applicable to any PCP, we later specialize the results to two popular PCPs, namely, first, Thomas cluster process, where the UEs are clustered around the base stations (BSs) according to a Gaussian distribution, and second, Matérn cluster process, where the UEs are scattered according to a uniform distribution. Subsequently, upper and lower bounds for the coverage probability are provided. Special cases are also addressed, providing the insight that when the cluster size grows without bound, our PCP-based model specializes to a Poisson point process-based model. Area spectral efficiency is investigated as well. Moreover, we have discussed extensions to cases in which more practical antenna gain patterns are taken into account and also the shadowing is considered. Via numerical and simulation results, we explore the effects of the beamwidth of the main lobe, the main lobe directivity gain, the biasing factor and the transmit power of the small-cell BSs to get insight on the performance in practical scenarios. Performance in dense networks is also analyzed numerically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As compared to the microwave communication networks, the theoretical analyses of system performances such as the cell coverage and the cell average data rate are more difficult due to the unique propagation path loss model for mmWave cellular communication networks. In this paper, based on the unique transmission states of the distance-dependent piecewise propagation probability functions, the analytical six-state analytical mixture distribution of the propagation loss including the distance-dependent path loss, shadowing and small-scale fading is obtained. For each state, a novel Kullback–Leibler divergence based Gaussian approximation method is proposed to model the distribution of the propagation loss. The distribution of the propagation loss including the large-scale fading and small-scale fading is approximated via a six-state Gaussian mixture model, then the closed-form expression for the signal-to-noise ratio can be easily obtained. The cell coverage is expressed as the weighted sum of the error functions, and the cell average data rate is expressed as the weighted sum of the moments of the propagation loss for the six different states. Numerical results show that the cell coverage mainly depends on the none line-of-sight transmission and the cell average data rate mainly depends on the line-of-sight transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic nature of vehicular networks imposes a lot of challenges in multihop data transmission as links are vulnerable in their existence due to associated mobility of vehicles. Thus, packets frequently find it difficult to get through to the destination due to the limited lifetimes of links. The conventional broadcasting based vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) routing protocols struggle to accurately analyze the link dynamicity due to the unavailability of global information and inefficiencies in their route discovering schemes. However, with the recently emerged software defined vehicular network (SDVN) paradigm, link stability can be better scrutinized pertaining to the availability of global network information. Thus, in this paper, we introduce an optimization based novel packet routing scheme with a source routing based flow instantiation (FI) operation for SDVN. The routing framework closely analyzes the stability of links in selecting the routes and the problem is formulated as a minimum cost capacitated flow problem. Furthermore, an incremental packet allocation scheme is proposed to solve the routing problem in a less time complexity. The objective is to find multiple shortest paths which are collectively stable enough to deliver a given number of packets. The FI scheme efficiently delivers and caches flow information in the required nodes with a reduced extent of communication with the control plane. With the help of realistic simulation, we show that the proposed routing framework excels in terms of the performance over the existing routing schemes of both SDVN and conventional VANET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deployment of cloud and edge computing forms a three-tier mobile computing network, where each task can be processed locally, by the edge nodes, or by the remote cloud server. In this paper, we consider a cooperative three-tier computing network by leveraging the vertical cooperation among devices, edge nodes and cloud servers, as well as the horizontal cooperation between edge nodes. In this network, we jointly optimize the offloading decision and the computation resource allocation to minimize the average task duration subject to the limited battery capacity of devices. However, the formulated problem is a large-scale mixed integer non-linear optimization problem with the growing number of base stations and devices, which is NP-hard in general. To develop an efficient offloading scheme with low complexity, we conduct a series of reformulation based on reformulation linearization technology and further propose a parallel optimization framework by utilizing alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) method and difference of convex functions (D.C.) programming. The proposed scheme decomposes the large-scale problem into some smaller subproblems, which are done across the multiple computation units in a parallel fashion to speed up the computation process. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can obtain a near-optimal performance with low complexity, and can reduce up to 24% of the task duration compared with other schemes. Simulation also shows how much the vertical and horizontal computation cooperations affect the system performance under different network parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in offloading the 3GPP LTE data by using device-to-device (D2D) communications between devices. However, the peer discovering is challenging, especially in the indoor environment, since traditional users use a cellular signal to find peers, leading to incurring interference to other cellular users. In this paper, we propose ROOMMATEs, a novel approach for indoor peer discovery process, which is the enabler for indoor D2D communications in long term evolution (LTE) networks. It is a centralized approach utilizing, but not limited to, the ubiquitous WiFi network/femtocell network, combining with eNodeB in order to deliver the best results. ROOMMATEs is an unsupervised, yet energy efficient algorithm that can find surrounding user equipments (UEs) while minimizing interference and consuming much less energy. Based on the results, ROOMMATEs proves to be highly energy efficient, saving on average 24% per UE and improving signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio in order of tens of decibels compared to other approaches. Moreover, ROOMMATEs provides indoor place identification for UEs with high accuracy using a small number of observations. ROOMMATEs is robust to missing and noisy data, works with various UEs’ brands/models, and requires no user interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wireless sensor-actor networks, sensors probe their surroundings and forward their data to actor nodes. Actors collaboratively respond to achieve predefined application mission. Since actors have to coordinate their operation, it is necessary to maintain a strongly connected network topology at all times. Moreover, the length of the inter-actor communication paths may be constrained to meet latency requirements. However, a failure of an actor may cause the network to partition into disjoint blocks and would, thus, violate such a connectivity goal. One of the effective recovery methodologies is to autonomously reposition a subset of the actor nodes to restore connectivity. Contemporary recovery schemes either impose high node relocation overhead or extend some of the inter-actor data paths. This paper overcomes these shortcomings and presents a Least-Disruptive topology Repair (LeDiR) algorithm. LeDiR relies on the local view of a node about the network to devise a recovery plan that relocates the least number of nodes and ensures that no path between any pair of nodes is extended. LeDiR is a localized and distributed algorithm that leverages existing route discovery activities in the network and imposes no additional prefailure communication overhead. The performance of LeDiR is analyzed mathematically and validated via extensive simulation experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In wireless sensor networks, transmission power has a significant impact on network throughput as wireless interference increases with transmission power, and interference negatively impacts the network throughput. In this paper, we try to improve the network throughput through cross-layer optimization. We first present two algorithms to compute the transmission power of each node with the objectives of minimizing the total transmission power and minimizing the total interference, respectively, from which we can obtain a network topology that ensures a connected path from each source to the sink; then, we compute the maximum achievable throughput from the obtained topology by using joint routing and link rate control. The power control algorithms can generate symmetric links or asymmetric links if so desired. Based on different link models, we use different algorithms to compute the maximum achievable throughput. Since computing the maximum throughput is an NP-hard problem, we use efficient heuristics that use a sufficient condition instead of the computationally expensive-to-get optimal condition to capture the mutual conflict relation in a collision domain. The formal proof for the sufficient condition is provided, and the proposed algorithms are compared with previous work. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms improve the network throughput and reduce the energy consumption, with significant improvement over previous work on both aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we study joint performance optimization on network lifetime and video distortion for an energy-constrained wireless video sensor network (WVSN). To seek an appropriate tradeoff between maximum network lifetime and minimum video distortion, a framework for joint source/channel rate adaptation is proposed, where the video encoding rate, link rate, and power consumption are jointly considered, formulating a weighted convex optimization problem. In the context of lossy wireless channels, an efficient error control scheme that couples network coding and multipath routing is explored. Moreover, an integrated power consumption model, including power dissipation on video compression, error control, and data communication, is specifically developed for the video sensor node. By primal decomposition, the original problem is decomposed into a two-level optimization procedure, with the high-level procedure for source adaptation (source rate optimization) and the low-level procedure for channel adaptation (network resource allocation). Finally, a fully decentralized iterative algorithm is developed to resolve the target optimization problem. Extensive simulation results evaluate the convergence performance of the proposed algorithm and demonstrate the best tradeoff performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the node-selection problem for target localization in wireless camera sensor networks. The goal of node selection is to optimize the tradeoff between the energy consumption of wireless camera sensor networks and the quality of target localization. We propose a cooperative target localization algorithm, which is implemented by two phases: 1) target detecting phase and 2) target locating phase. For the target detecting phase, we develop a probing environment and adaptive sleeping (PEAS)-based density control algorithm to select the proper subset of deployed camera sensors for maintaining the desired density of nodes in the detecting mode. For the locating phase, we map the node-selection problem into an optimization problem and then propose an optimal node-selection algorithm to select a subset of camera sensors for estimating the location of a target while minimizing the energy cost. We conduct extensive experiments and simulations to validate and evaluate our proposed schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Multihop connectivity-based algorithms have been receiving increased attention in recent times for localization in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This paper proposes the development of a Fletcher-Reeves update-based conjugate gradient (CG) multilayered feedforward neural network for multihop connectivity-based localization of a large number of sensor nodes in a 2-D sensor network on the basis of information gathered from beacon nodes. The neural-network-based system employs a classification scheme where the location of a sensor is simultaneously estimated in both the x- and y-directions. The usefulness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated by employing the scheme for three case studies, with varied environments, where it could consistently show better performance than two popular recently proposed schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many applications in wireless sensor networks re- quire sensor nodes to obtain their absolute or relative geographical positions. Although various localization algorithms have been recently proposed, most of them require nodes to be equipped with range-determining hardware to obtain distance information. In this paper, we propose a concentric anchor beacon (CAB) localization algorithm for wireless sensor networks. CAB is a range-free approach and uses a small number of anchor nodes. Each anchor emits beacons at different power levels. From the information received by each beacon heard, nodes can determine in which annular ring they are located within each anchor. Each node uses the approximated center of intersection of the rings as its position estimate. We also propose two heuristics, namely CAB with Equal Area and CAB with Equal Width, to determine the transmitting power levels of the beacons. Simulation results show that the estimation error is reduced by half when anchors transmit beacons at two different power levels instead of at a single power level. CAB also gives a lower estimation error than some other range-free localization schemes (e.g., Centroid and Approximated Point-In-Triangulation) when the anchor-to-node range ratio is less than 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy constraints have a significant impact on the design and operation of wireless sensor networks. This paper investigates the base station (BS) selection (or anycast) problem in wireless sensor networks. A wireless sensor network having multiple BSs (data sink nodes) is considered. Each source node must send all its locally generated data to only one of the BSs. To maximize network lifetime, it is essential to optimally match each source node to a particular BS and find an optimal routing solution. A polynomial time heuristic is proposed for optimal BS selection and anycast via a sequential fixing procedure. Through extensive simulation results, it is shown that this algorithm has excellent performance behavior and provides a near-optimal solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A network of sensors can be used to obtain state-based data from the area in which they are deployed. To reduce costs, the data, sent via intermediate sensors to a sink, are often aggregated (or compressed). This compression is done by a subset of the sensors called ‘aggregators.’ Inasmuch as sensors are usually equipped with small and unreplenishable energy reserves, a critical issue is to strategically deploy an appropriate number of aggregators so as to minimize the amount of energy consumed by transporting and aggregating the data. In this paper, the authors first study single-level aggregation and propose an Energy-Efficient Protocol for Aggregator Selection (EPAS) protocol. Then, they generalize it to an aggregation hierarchy and extend EPAS to Hierarchical EPAS. The optimal number of aggregators with generalized compression and power-consumption models was derived, and fully distributed algorithms for aggregator selection were presented. Simulation results show that the algorithms significantly reduce the energy consumption for data collection in wireless sensor networks. Moreover, the algorithms do not rely on particular routing protocols and are thus applicable to a broad spectrum of application environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the resource-allocation problem in multicell networks targeting the max-min throughput of all cells. A joint optimization over power control, channel allocation, and user association is considered, and the problem is then formulated as a nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear problem (MINLP). To solve this problem, we proposed an alternating-optimization-based algorithm, which applies branch-and-bound and simulated annealing in solving subproblems at each optimization step. We also demonstrate the convergence and efficiency of the proposed algorithms by thorough numerical experiments. The experimental results show that joint optimization over all resources outperforms the restricted optimization over individual resources significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mathematical model for characterizing the performance of wireless access networks based on a carrier-sense multiple-access (CSMA) mechanism is derived. The model is developed through a statistical description of the interference power coming from stochastic geometry and by taking into account the hidden node problem. As an example of a specific application of the model, the IEEE 802.15.4 standard is considered. Nodes are assumed to be uniformly distributed according to a Poisson point process (PPP) in a 2-D infinite plane. They have to communicate with the network coordinator through direct links (star topology), following a query-based application. The total interference power is modeled considering the actual density of nodes that are simultaneously transmitting. This takes into account the operation of the CSMA with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) algorithm used by nodes to access the channel, according to the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. Results show the impact of node density, packet length, and sensing range on the system performance, which is evaluated in terms of success probability in transmitting packets from nodes to the coordinator. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Graphical models have been widely applied in solving distributed inference problems in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this paper, the factor graph (FG) is employed to model a distributed inference problem. Using particle filtering methods, a sequential particle-based sum-product algorithm (SPSPA) is proposed for distributed inference in FGs with continuous variables and nonlinear local functions. Importance sampling methods are used to sample from message products, and the computational complexity of SPSPA is thus linear in the number of particles. The SPSPA is applied to a distributed tracking problem, and its performance is evaluated based on the number of particles and the measurement noise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The intravehicular wireless sensor network (IVWSN) is a promising new research area that can provide part cost, assembly, maintenance savings, and fuel efficiency through the elimination of the wires and enables new sensor technologies to be integrated into vehicles, which would otherwise be impossible using wired means such as Intelligent Tire. The close interaction of communication with control systems, strict reliability, energy efficiency, and delay requirements in such a harsh environment that contains a large number of reflectors that operate at extreme temperatures are distinguishing properties of this network. In this paper, we investigate optimal power control, rate adaptation, and scheduling for an ultrawideband-based IVWSN for one-electronic-control-unit (ECU) and multiple-ECU cases. For the one-ECU case, we show that the optimal rate and power allocation is independent of the optimal scheduling algorithm. We prove the NP-hardness of the scheduling problem and formulate the optimal solution as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problem. We then propose a 2-approximation algorithm, which is the smallest period into the shortest subframe first (SSF) algorithm. For the multiple-ECU case, where the concurrent transmission of links is possible, we formulate the optimal power control as a geometric-programming problem and optimal scheduling problem as an MILP problem where the number of variables is exponential in the number of links. We then propose a heuristic algorithm—the maximum-utility-based concurrency allowance algorithm—based on the idea of significantly improving the performance of the SSF algorithm in the existence of multiple ECUs by determining the sets of maximum utility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we consider a general cooperative wireless sensor network (WSN) with multiple hops and the problem of channel estimation. Two matrix-based set-membership (SM) algorithms are developed for the estimation of complex matrix channel parameters. The main goal is to significantly reduce the computational complexity, compared with existing channel estimators, and extend the lifetime of the WSN by reducing its power consumption. The first proposed algorithm is the SM normalized least mean squares (SM-NLMS) algorithm. The second is the SM recursive least squares (RLS) algorithm called BEACON. Then, we present and incorporate an error bound function into the two channel estimation methods, which can automatically adjust the error bound with the update of the channel estimates. Steady-state analysis in the output mean-square error (MSE) is presented, and closed-form formulas for the excess MSE and the probability of update in each recursion are provided. Computer simulations show good performance of our proposed algorithms in terms of convergence speed, steady-state mean square error, and bit error rate (BER) and demonstrate reduced complexity and robustness against time-varying environments and different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, three clock-synchronization algorithms for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) under unknown delay are derived. They include the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE), a generalization of the estimator of Noh et al., and a novel low-complexity estimator. Their corresponding performance bounds are derived and compared, and complexities are also analyzed. It is found that the MLE achieves the best performance with the price of high complexity. For the generalized version of the estimator of Noh et al., although it has low complexity, its performance is degraded with respect to the MLE. On the other hand, the newly proposed estimator achieves the same performance as the MLE, and the complexity is at the same level as that of the generalized version of the estimator of Noh et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Node deployment is an important issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Sensor nodes should be efficiently deployed in a predetermined region in a low-cost and high- coverage-quality manner. Random deployment is the simplest way to deploy sensor nodes but may cause unbalanced deployment and, therefore, increase hardware costs and create coverage holes. This paper presents the efficient obstacle-resistant robot deploy- ment (ORRD) algorithm, which involves the design of a node placement policy, a serpentine movement policy, obstacle-handling rules, and boundary rules. By applying the proposed ORRD, the robot rapidly deploys a near-minimal number of sensor nodes to achieve full sensing coverage, even though there exist unpredicted obstacles with regular or irregular shapes. Performance results reveal that ORRD outperforms the existing robot deployment mechanism in terms of power conservation and obstacle resistance and, therefore, achieves better deployment performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the scarcity of spectral resources in traditional wireless networks, it has become popular to construct visible light communication (VLC) systems. They exhibit high energy efficiency, wide unlicensed communication bandwidth as well as innate security; hence, they may become part of future wireless systems. However, considering the limited coverage and dense deployment of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps, traditional network association strategies are not readily applicable to VLC networks. Hence, by exploiting the power of online learning algorithms, we focus our attention on sophisticated multi-LED access point selection strategies conceived for hybrid indoor LiFi-WiFi communication systems. We formulate a multi-armed bandit model for supporting the decisions on beneficially selecting LED access points. Moreover, the ‘exponential weights for exploration and exploitation’ algorithm and the ‘exponentially weighted algorithm with linear programming’ algorithm are invoked for updating the decision probability distribution, followed by determining the upper bound of the associated accumulation reward function. Significant throughput gains can be achieved by the proposed network association strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Collaborative beamforming (CB), which forms a virtual antenna array from a number of distributed wireless nodes in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), can increase the transmission range, enhance energy efficiency, and prolong network lifetime. With perfect carrier phase synchronization, it has been revealed that CB guarantees a stable main lobe, regardless of the locations of the collaborative nodes. However, the sidelobe locations and the level of CB cannot be predicted due to random deployment of the nodes. A high-order sidelobe will cause severe interference to unintended receivers and degrade network capacity. Known sidelobe control methods suffer from exponential complexity with the number of unintended receivers. We tackle this by a novel algorithm that uses decentralized cross-entropy optimization (CEO) to search over different node combinations, which is proven to find the optimal solution with probability one. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme and illustrate that the proposed scheme can achieve greater interference rejection at much lower complexity compared with a conventional method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]