Recent Advances in Design and Implementation of Satellite Gateways for Massive Uncoordinated Access Networks

This paper provides an overview of recent results of a design, development and performance evaluation study of satellite gateways to receive and manage the traffic from a large population of uncoordinated user terminals. In particular, direct satellite access scenarios for machine-to-machine communications and the Internet of Things have been targeted. Tests were carried out in a representative laboratory environment emulating realistic system scenarios. Performance results, as presented in this paper indicate that the proposed gateway architecture, based on an efficient access protocol, is capable of managing a very high number of uncoordinated terminals transmitting short messages with a low duty cycle. The applicability of the proposed solution to both geostationary and non-geostationary satellite systems has also been examined. The key concept of the gateway is based on a novel receiver architecture that implements the linear minimum mean square error (MMSE) spread spectrum signal detection and successive interference cancellation techniques. The receiver uses features such as a multi-stage detector together with a robust preamble detection. The end-to-end solution includes also the use of a new waveform with a quasi-constant envelope at the terminal to modulate and transmit data packets to be received and detected by the gateway via a satellite link.

Design and Performance Evaluation of a Step-Up DC–DC Converter with Dual Loop Controllers for Two Stages Grid Connected PV Inverter

In this work, a non-isolated DC–DC converter is presented that combines a voltage doubler circuit and switch inductor cell with the single ended primary inductor converter to achieve a high voltage gain at a low duty cycle and with reduced component count. The converter utilizes a single switch that makes its control very simple. The voltage stress across the semiconductor components is less than the output voltage, which makes it possible to use the diodes with reduced voltage rating and a switch with low turn-on resistance. In particular, performance principle of the proposed converter along with the steady state analysis such as voltage gain, voltage stress on semiconductor components, and design of inductors and capacitors, etc., are carried out and discussed in detail. Moreover, to regulate a constant voltage at a DC-link capacitor, back propagation algorithm-based adaptive control schemes are designed. These adaptive schemes enhance the system performance by dynamically updating the control law parameters in case of PV intermittency. Furthermore, a proportional resonant controller based on Naslin polynomial method is designed for the current control loop. The method describes a systematic procedure to calculate proportional gain, resonant gain, and all the coefficients for the resonant path. Finally, the proposed system is simulated in MATLAB and Simulink software to validate the analytical and theoretical concepts along with the efficacy of the proposed model.

A Low-latency Strategy with dynamic Duty-Cycle in Opportunistic Mobile Crowdsensing Scenario

In Mobile Crowdsensing Scenario (MCS), most of the mobile devices transfer data to each other relay on encounter opportunities. MCS energy consumption and latency are the key indicators of networks under the application scenarios. On one hand, the neighbor idle scanning and listening mechanism of mobile devices usually consumes the energy that could be saved. Therefore, keeping devices to work in a low duty cycle can avoid this part of energy waste effectively, but it will bring serious network latency. Aim to this, the duty cycle strategy with a lower latency strategy is focused to discuss in this paper. A method, named Low latency Duty Cycle (DC) with MSFO, is proposed to reduce network latency which mainly compares the size of data packets to be transmitted by the device. Besides, small data packets have priority in the transmission queue for enhanced network performances. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed method can significantly reduce network latency in terms of MCS with a duty cycle strategy.

Selective neural stimulation methods improve cycling exercise performance after spinal cord injury: a case series

Background Exercise after paralysis can help prevent secondary health complications, but achieving adequate exercise volumes and intensities is difficult with loss of motor control. Existing electrical stimulation-driven cycling systems involve the paralyzed musculature but result in rapid force decline and muscle fatigue, limiting their effectiveness. This study explores the effects of selective stimulation patterns delivered through multi-contact nerve cuff electrodes on functional exercise output, with the goal of increasing work performed and power maintained within each bout of exercise. Methods Three people with spinal cord injury and implanted stimulation systems performed cycling trials using conventional (S-Max), low overlap (S-Low), low duty cycle (C-Max), and/or combined low overlap and low duty cycle (C-Low) stimulation patterns. Outcome measures include total work (W), end power (Pend), power fluctuation indices (PFI), charge accumulation (Q), and efficiency (η). Mann–Whitney tests were used for statistical comparisons of W and Pend between a selective pattern and S-Max. Welch’s ANOVAs were used to evaluate differences in PFIs among all patterns tested within a participant (n ≥ 90 per stimulation condition). Results At least one selective pattern significantly (p < 0.05) increased W and Pend over S-Max in each participant. All selective patterns also reduced Q and increased η compared with S-Max for all participants. C-Max significantly (p < 0.01) increased PFI, indicating a decrease in ride smoothness with low duty cycle patterns. Conclusions Selective stimulation patterns can increase work performed and power sustained by paralyzed muscles prior to fatigue with increased stimulation efficiency. While still effective, low duty cycle patterns can cause inconsistent power outputs each pedal stroke, but this can be managed by utilizing optimized stimulation levels. Increasing work and sustained power each exercise session has the potential to ultimately improve the physiological benefits of stimulation-driven exercise.

PRIB-CDS: An Energy Efficient Low Duty Cycle Broadcasting Scheme for Wireless Sensor Network

Low duty cycling is a widely adapted technique to conserve energy in the most used Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). But such low duty cycle-based MAC protocols perform poorly under broadcast traffic as they suffer from redundant retransmission and maximization of relay nodes problems. Addressing these issues is critical, as the advent of IoT and ubiquitous computing applications has increased the demand for broadcast support. Our previous work, Preamble based Receiver Initiated Broadcasting MAC (PRIB-MAC) performed well in most parameters under broadcast traffic, but it had scope for improvement in reducing the number of transmissions. In this paper, we propose the PRIB-Connected Dominating Set (PRIB-CDS), built on top of PRIB-MAC with the addition of dynamic forwarding technique by forming a forwarding set with the help of Greedy algorithm. The simulation results of our proposed PRIB-CDS algorithm shows that it has reduced the number of transmissions significantly as it reduces forwarding nodes and balances the energy between the nodes to avoid re-broadcasting the data.

Analysis and Experimental Investigation of the Light Dimming Effect on Automotive Visible Light Communications Performances

The use of Visible Light Communications (VLC) in vehicular applications has become a major research area due to its simplicity, high performance to cost ratio, and great deployment potential. In this context, this article provides one of the very few analyses and experimental evaluations concerning the integration of a light dimming function in vehicular VLC systems. For this purpose, a vehicle-to-vehicle VLC prototype has been implemented and used to evaluate the systems’ communication performances in light dimming conditions, while decreasing the duty cycle from 40% to 1%, and increasing the communication range from 1 to 40–50 m. The experimental results showed that in normal lighting conditions, the VLC technology can easily support low duty cycle light dimming for ranges up to 40 m, while maintaining a 10−6 BER. Nevertheless, in strong optical noise conditions, when the system reaches its SNR limit, the communication range can decrease by half, whereas the BER can increase by 2–4 orders of magnitude. This article provides consistent evidence concerning the high potential of the VLC technology to support inter-vehicle communication links, even in light dimming conditions.

Link-Correlation-Aware Opportunistic Routing in Low-Duty-Cycle Wireless Networks

In low-duty-cycle wireless networks with unreliable and correlated links, Opportunistic Routing (OR) is extremely costly because of the unaligned working schedules of nodes within a common candidate forwarder set. In this work, we propose a novel polynomial-time node scheduling scheme considering link correlation for OR in low-duty-cycle wireless networks (LDC-COR), which significantly improves the performance by assigning nodes with low correlation to a common group and scheduling the nodes within this group to wake up simultaneously for forwarding packets in a common cycle. By taking account of both link correlation and link quality, the performance of the expected transmission count (ETX) is improved by adopting the LDC-COR protocol. As a result, the energy consumption of low-duty-cycle OR is significantly reduced. LDC-COR only requires the information of one-hop neighboring nodes which introduces minimal communication overhead. The proposed LDC-COR bridges the gap between the nodes’ limited energy resource and the application lifetime requirements. We evaluate the performance of LDC-COR with extensive simulations and a physical wireless testbed consisting of 20 TelosB nodes. The evaluation results show that both transmission efficiency and energy consumption of low-duty-cycle OR are significantly improved with only a slight increase of end-to-end delay.