PR_30 Towards Programmable Optical Network Front-end Devices Using Silicon Photonics (1525090-PO)

We study how the performance and utility of high-bandwidth, energy-efficient communication networks can be improved by enabling programmability and user-defined tunability in the optical front-ends using silicon photonics. Summary of a Project Outcomes report of research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Project Number 1525090 (Year 1).

LoRaWAN Base Station Improvement for Better Coverage and Capacity

Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies provide long-range and low power consumption for many battery-powered devices used in Internet of Things (IoT). One of the most utilized LPWAN technologies is LoRaWAN (Long Range WAN) with over 700 million connections expected by the year 2023. LoraWAN base stations need to ensure stable and energy-efficient communication without unnecessary repetitions with sufficient range coverage and good capacity. To meet these requirements, a simple and efficient upgrade in the design of LoRaWAN base station is proposed, based on using two or more concentrators. The development steps are outlined in this paper and the evaluation of the enhanced base station is done with a series of measurements conducted in Zagreb, Croatia. Through these measurements we compared received messages and communication parameters on novel and standard base stations. The results showed a significant increase in the probability of successful reception of messages on the novel base station which corresponds to the increase of base station capacity and can be very beneficial for the energy consumption of most LoRaWAN end devices.

Fundamental limits of high-efficiency silicon and compound semiconductor power amplifiers in 100-300 GHz bands

This paper reviews the requirements for future digital arrays in terms of power amplifier requirements for output power and efficiency and the device technologies that will realize future energy-efficient communication and sensing electronics for the upper millimeter-wave bands (100-300 GHz). Fundamental device technologies are reviewed to compare the needs for compound semiconductors and silicon processes. Power amplifier circuit design above 100 GHz is reviewed based on load line and matching element losses. We present recently presented class-A and class-B PAs based on a InP HBT process that have demonstrated record efficiency and power around 140 GHz while discussing circuit techniques that can be applied in a variety of integrated circuits.

A Provably Secure ID-Based Signcryption Protocol for Secure and Authentic Energy Efficient Communication

Singcryption was first proposed by Yuliang Zheng [1] in 1997, based on the construction of a shortened ElGamal-based signature scheme in parallel to authenticated encryption in a symmetric environment. Signcryption is a cryptographic primitive that enables the conventional two-step method of secure and authenticated message transmission or storage (sign-then-encrypt or encrypt-then-sign) to be done in a single step at a much lower computational cost than the traditional two-step approach. This article concentrates on designing a provably secure identity-based signcryption (IBSC) scheme. The user performs pairing-free computation during encryption in the proposed scheme, making it user-side effective. In addition, the IBSC structure is shown to be secure when dealing with modified bilinear Diffie-Hellman inversion (MBDHI) and modified bilinear strong Diffie-Hellman (MBSDH) problems. The proposed framework supports efficient communication, protection against chosen cipher attack, and existential unforgeability against chosen message attack, according to the performance review of IBSC with related schemes.