Advancements in Wireless Communications, Networks and Signal Processing

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Computing and Artificial Intelligence".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 13826

Special Issue Editors

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Interests: structured light; optical communications; optical sensing
School of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Interests: optical communications and interconnects; on-chip intelligent sensing; imaging and light manipulation; integrated nonlinear optics and broadband sources; micro- and nano-photonics
Research Scientist, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, USA
Interests: dynamic network orchestration; edge computing networks; in-network computing; named data networking
System Development Engineer, Amazon Lab126, Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Interests: wireless system/architecture design; data-driven optimization for wireless networks; system performance analysis; link and system level simulation
Research Scientist, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, USA
Interests: wireless communication; MIMO

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are inviting submissions to the Special Issue “Advancements in Wireless Communications, Networks, and Signal Processing”.

Due to dramatic increase in data traffic over the last decade, there has been growing interest in enhancing the system performance of data communications and networking. As the data capacity continues to increase, it imposes demanding multi-fold requirements on the system architecture, metrics, and data processing capability. The desired system characteristics include but are not limited to lower power consumption, minimized latency, higher spectral efficiency/throughput, system security, and advanced digital signal processing algorithms, among others.

In this Special Issue, we invite submissions involving recent advancements and cutting-edge original research in wireless communications, networks, and signal processing techniques. Such advancements in data communication systems and/or applied techniques can include wireless/optical/digital communications, mobile/optical/data-center networking, advanced signal processing techniques, application of machine learning in data infrastructures, and other emerging fields in communications. Theoretical, simulation, and experimental studies are all welcome.

Dr. Runzhou Zhang
Prof. Dr. Lin Zhang
Prof. Dr. Yang Yue
Dr. Hao Feng
Dr. Zheda Li
Dr. Dawei Ying
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 5268 KiB  
Article
Predictive Modeling of Delay in an LTE Network by Optimizing the Number of Predictors Using Dimensionality Reduction Techniques
by Mirko Stojčić, Milorad K. Banjanin, Milan Vasiljević, Dragana Nedić, Aleksandar Stjepanović, Dejan Danilović and Goran Puzić
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(14), 8511; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13148511 - 23 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 783
Abstract
Delay in data transmission is one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) of a network. The planning and design value of delay in network management is of crucial importance for the optimal allocation of network resources and their performance focuses. To create optimal [...] Read more.
Delay in data transmission is one of the key performance indicators (KPIs) of a network. The planning and design value of delay in network management is of crucial importance for the optimal allocation of network resources and their performance focuses. To create optimal solutions, predictive models, which are currently most often based on machine learning (ML), are used. This paper aims to investigate the training, testing and selection of the best predictive delay model for a VoIP service in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network using three ML techniques: Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Support Vector Machines (SVM) and k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN). The space of model input variables is optimized by dimensionality reduction techniques: RReliefF algorithm, Backward selection via the recursive feature elimination algorithm and the Pareto 80/20 rule. A three-segment road in the geo-space between the cities of Banja Luka (BL) and Doboj (Db) in the Republic of Srpska (RS), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), covered by the cellular network (LTE) of the M:tel BL operator was chosen for the case study. The results show that the k-NN model has been selected as the best solution in all three optimization approaches. For the RReliefF optimization algorithm, the best model has six inputs and the minimum relative error (RE) RE = 0.109. For the Backward selection via the recursive feature elimination algorithm, the best model has four inputs and RE = 0.041. Finally, for the Pareto 80/20 rule, the best model has 11 inputs and RE = 0.049. The comparative analysis of the results concludes that, according to observed criteria for the selection of the final model, the best solution is an approach to optimizing the number of predictors based on the Backward selection via the recursive feature elimination algorithm. Full article
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13 pages, 2883 KiB  
Article
Intelligent TCP Congestion Control Policy Optimization
by Hanbing Shi and Juan Wang
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(11), 6644; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13116644 - 30 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1532
Abstract
Network congestion control is an important means to improve network throughput and reduce data transmission delay. To further optimize the network data transmission capability, this research suggests a proximal policy optimization-based intelligent TCP congestion management method, creates a proxy that can communicate with [...] Read more.
Network congestion control is an important means to improve network throughput and reduce data transmission delay. To further optimize the network data transmission capability, this research suggests a proximal policy optimization-based intelligent TCP congestion management method, creates a proxy that can communicate with the real-time network environment, and abstracts the TCP congestion control mechanism into a partially observable Markov decision process. Changes in the real-time state of the network are fed back to the agent, and the agent makes action commands to control the size of the congestion window, which will produce a new network state, and the agent will immediately receive a feedback reward value. To guarantee that the actions taken are optimum, the agent’s goal is to obtain the highest feedback reward value. The state space of network characteristics should be designed so that agents can observe enough information to make appropriate decisions. The reward function is designed through a weighted algorithm that enables the agent to balance and optimize throughput and latency. The model parameters of the agent are updated by the proximal policy optimization algorithm, and the truncation function keeps the parameters within a certain range, reducing the possibility of oscillation during gradient descent and ensuring that the training process can converge quickly. Compared to the traditional CUBIC control method, the results show that the TCP-PPO2 policy reduces latency by 11.7–87.5%. Full article
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19 pages, 2329 KiB  
Article
A Novel Opportunistic Network Routing Method on Campus Based on the Improved Markov Model
by Yumei Cao, Peng Li, Tianmian Liang, Xiaojun Wu, Xiaoming Wang and Yuanru Cui
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(8), 5217; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13085217 - 21 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1081
Abstract
Opportunities networks’ message transmission is significantly impacted by routing prediction, which has been a focus of opportunity network research. The network of student nodes with smart devices is a particular type of opportunity network in the campus setting, and the predictability of campus [...] Read more.
Opportunities networks’ message transmission is significantly impacted by routing prediction, which has been a focus of opportunity network research. The network of student nodes with smart devices is a particular type of opportunity network in the campus setting, and the predictability of campus node movement trajectories is also influenced by the regularity of students’ social mobility. In this research, a novel Markov route prediction method is proposed under the campus background. When two nodes meet, they share the movement track data of other nodes stored in each other’s cache in order to predict the probability of two nodes meeting in the future. The impact of the node within the group is indicated by the node centrality. The utility value of the message is defined to describe the spread degree of the message and the energy consumption of the current node, then the cache is managed according to the utility value. By creating a concurrent hash mapping table of delivered messages, the remaining nodes are notified to delete the delivered messages and release the cache space in time after the messages are delivered to their destinations. The method suggested in this research can successfully lower the packet loss rate, minimize transmission latency and network overhead, and further increase the success rate of message delivery, according to experimental analysis and algorithm comparison. Full article
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6 pages, 1595 KiB  
Communication
High-Performance Microwave Photonic Transmission Enabled by an Adapter for Fundamental Mode in MMFs
by Yilan Wang, Linbo Yang, Zhiqun Yang, Yaping Liu, Zhanhua Huang and Lin Zhang
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(3), 1794; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13031794 - 30 Jan 2023
Viewed by 940
Abstract
Microwave photonic links (MPLs) have long been considered as an excellent way for radio frequency (RF) transmission due to their advantages such as light weight, high bandwidth, low cost and large spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR). However, the effective mode-field area (Aeff) [...] Read more.
Microwave photonic links (MPLs) have long been considered as an excellent way for radio frequency (RF) transmission due to their advantages such as light weight, high bandwidth, low cost and large spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR). However, the effective mode-field area (Aeff) of the single-mode fiber (SMF) used in the traditional MPL is not large, so the MPL based on SMF have relatively strong nonlinearity, which limits the processing power of SMFs to a level of few milliwatts. Few-mode fibers (FMFs) have been applied in MPL as an alternative due to the larger Aeff, and photonic lanterns are used simultaneously to excite the high-order mode of FMFs for RF signal transmission. However, the photonic lantern could bring additional insertion loss, and the production cost of FMFs is high, so we propose an MPL based on multimode fibers (MMFs) with mode field adapters (MFAs). Since MMFs have larger Aeff, the nonlinearity of the link can be greatly reduced. And matched MFAs realized by reverse tapering, to excite only the fundamental mode in MMFs to reduce the crosstalk, which are very stable. As a result, the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold and SFDR are improved by 5 dB and 14.5 dB, respectively. Full article
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10 pages, 2900 KiB  
Article
Heterogeneously Integrated Multicore Fibers for Smart Oilfield Applications
by Xutao Wang, Honglin Sun, Huihui Wang, Zhiqun Yang, Yaping Liu, Zhanhua Huang and Lin Zhang
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(3), 1579; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13031579 - 26 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1307
Abstract
In the context of Industry 4.0, the smart oilfield is introduced, which relies on large-scale information exchange among various parts, and there is an urgent need for special fiber links for both increased data transmission capacity and high-sensitivity distributed sensing. Multicore fibers can [...] Read more.
In the context of Industry 4.0, the smart oilfield is introduced, which relies on large-scale information exchange among various parts, and there is an urgent need for special fiber links for both increased data transmission capacity and high-sensitivity distributed sensing. Multicore fibers can be expected to play a critical role, in the parts of cores that are responsible for data transmission, while others are used for sensing. In this paper, we propose a heterogeneously integrated seven-core fiber for interconnection and awareness applications in smart oilfields, which could not only support digital and analog signal transmission but could also measure temperature and vibration. The core for digital signal transmission has a low differential mode group delay of 10 ps/km over the C-band, and the crosstalk between adjacent cores is lower than −55 dB/km at the pitch of 50 μm. A 25-Gbaud transmission over 50 km is simulated. Each core for analog signal transmission has a large effective area of 172 μm2 to suppress the nonlinear effect due to the watt-scale input power. The proposed heterogeneously multicore fiber exhibits great potential to be applied in smart oilfields, meeting the demand for efficient and cost-effective oil production. Full article
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20 pages, 3334 KiB  
Article
Reliability Study for Communication System: A Case Study of an Underground Mine
by Batzorig Bazargur, Otgonbayar Bataa and Uuganbayar Budjav
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(2), 821; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13020821 - 06 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2060
Abstract
After summarizing and evaluating works on system reliability, various models and results for predicting and evaluating system reliability have been introduced. However, we have not seen a study conducted to assess the reliability of communication systems in an underground mine. Underground mining operations [...] Read more.
After summarizing and evaluating works on system reliability, various models and results for predicting and evaluating system reliability have been introduced. However, we have not seen a study conducted to assess the reliability of communication systems in an underground mine. Underground mining operations are normally dependent on communication system reliability. The main purpose of this work is to study the failure of a theoretical underground mine communication system, propose a method to improve its reliability, and predict the results of the suggested method using system dynamic modeling. This study contributes to improving the reliability of communication systems in underground mines. In the case of a single nonredundant system, three options were implemented: doubling corrective maintenance, increasing preventative maintenance by 50%, and combining both measures. These three options were modeled by combining Markov modelling with system dynamic modelling methodology and were confirmed by experiments and simulation results. This combination of modelling constitutes the novelty of this study. In this paper, actual system component failure data was used for simulation for the single nonredundant system, after doubling corrective maintenance, increasing preventative maintenance by 50%, and combining in the case of implementing simultaneously both maintenance changes, but not for developing single and dual standby system models. Therefore, these models should be suitable for practical use, as they are based on actual working systems. Modelling confirmed that placing a communication system in each shaft of the theoretical underground mine increases the reliability of the communication system. The degree of availability of the communication system with single standby device shows the result of 62.38% while the communication system with two standby devices and three parallel communication systems’ availability rating shows a result of 85.18%. Full article
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36 pages, 2322 KiB  
Article
A Controller-Driven Approach for Opportunistic Networking
by MariaCarmen de Toro, Carlos Borrego and Sergi Robles
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(23), 12479; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app122312479 - 06 Dec 2022
Viewed by 986
Abstract
Opportunistic networks (OppNets) leverage opportunistic contacts to flow data across an infrastructure-free network. As of yet, OppNets’ performance depends on applying the most suitable forwarding strategy based on the OppNet typology. On the other hand, software-defined networking (SDN) is a paradigm for wired [...] Read more.
Opportunistic networks (OppNets) leverage opportunistic contacts to flow data across an infrastructure-free network. As of yet, OppNets’ performance depends on applying the most suitable forwarding strategy based on the OppNet typology. On the other hand, software-defined networking (SDN) is a paradigm for wired networks that decouples the control and data planes. The control plane oversees the network to configure the data plane optimally. Our proposal uses SDN-like controllers to build a partial overview of the opportunistic network. The forwarding strategy uses this context information to achieve better network performance. As a use case of our proposal, in the context of an OppNet quota-based forwarding algorithm, we present a controller-driven architecture to tackle the congestion problem. Particularly, the controller-driven architecture uses the context information on the congestion of the network to dynamically determine the message replication limit used by the forwarding algorithm. A simulation based on real and synthetic mobility traces shows that using context information provided by the controller to configure the forwarding protocol increments the delivery ratio and keeps a good latency average and a low overhead compared with the baseline forwarding protocols based on message replication. These results strengthen the benefits of using supervised context information in the forwarding strategy in OppNets. Full article
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19 pages, 1114 KiB  
Article
Corpus for Development of Routing Algorithms in Opportunistic Networks
by Diego Freire, Carlos Borrego and Sergi Robles
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(18), 9240; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12189240 - 15 Sep 2022
Viewed by 1396
Abstract
We have designed a collection of scenarios, a corpus, for its use in the study and development of routing algorithms for opportunistic networks. To obtain these scenarios, we have followed a methodology based on characterizing the space and choosing the best exemplary items [...] Read more.
We have designed a collection of scenarios, a corpus, for its use in the study and development of routing algorithms for opportunistic networks. To obtain these scenarios, we have followed a methodology based on characterizing the space and choosing the best exemplary items in such a way that the corpus as a whole was representative of all possible scenarios. Until now, research in this area was using some sets of non-standard network traces that made it difficult to evaluate algorithms and perform fair comparisons between them. These developments were hard to assess in an objective way, and were prone to introduce unintentional biases that directly affected the quality of the research. Our contribution is more than a collection of scenarios; our corpus provides a fine collection of network behaviors that suit the development of routing algorithms, specifically in evaluating and comparing them. If the scientific community embraces this corpus, the community will have a global-agreed methodology where the validity of results would not be limited to specific scenarios or network conditions, thus avoiding self-produced evaluation setups, availability problems and selection bias, and saving time. New research in the area will be able to validate the routing algorithms already published. It will also be possible to identify the scenarios better suit specific purposes, and results will be easily verified. The corpus is available free to download and use. Full article
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19 pages, 808 KiB  
Article
User-BS Selection Strategy Optimization with RSSI-Based Reliability in 5G Wireless Networks
by Jie Shen, Yijun Hao, Yuqian Yang and Cong Zhao
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(12), 6082; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12126082 - 15 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1083
Abstract
Although fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication can ] support well a high data rate of transmission, issues such as base station (BS) failure and poor BS signals may cause serious interruption problems. This paper studies the user-BS selection strategy with received signal strength indication [...] Read more.
Although fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication can ] support well a high data rate of transmission, issues such as base station (BS) failure and poor BS signals may cause serious interruption problems. This paper studies the user-BS selection strategy with received signal strength indication (RSSI)-based reliability in 5G wireless networks. First, reliability is defined on the basis of the RSSI and failure probability of the BS. The problem is modeled as a selection strategy optimization problem with BS capacity and receiving sensitivity as constraints. Second, the original problem can be transformed into a resource allocation problem with probabilistic constraints. For the situation where user distribution is known, we used dynamic programming to obtain the optimal BS selection strategy. For the situation where user distribution is unknown, starting from user trajectory data, we used the space–time density estimation method based on the Epanechnikov kernel to estimate user density and bring it into dynamic programming to obtain the optimal selection strategy. Simulation results show that our density estimation algorithm is more accurate than the commonly used density estimation algorithm. Compared with the distance-based optimization method, our RSSI-based optimization method also improved the communication signal quality under different scenarios. Full article
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Review

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28 pages, 10911 KiB  
Review
Optical Beamforming Networks for Millimeter-Wave Wireless Communications
by Fei Duan, Yuhao Guo, Zenghui Gu, Yanlong Yin, Yixin Wu and Teyan Chen
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(14), 8346; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13148346 - 19 Jul 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1531
Abstract
With the rapid data growth driven by smart phone, high-definition television and virtual reality/augmented reality devices and so on, the launched 5G and upcoming 6G wireless communications tend to utilize millimeter wave (mmWave) to achieve broad bandwidth. In order to compensate for the [...] Read more.
With the rapid data growth driven by smart phone, high-definition television and virtual reality/augmented reality devices and so on, the launched 5G and upcoming 6G wireless communications tend to utilize millimeter wave (mmWave) to achieve broad bandwidth. In order to compensate for the high propagation loss in mmWave wireless communications and track the moving users, beamforming and beamsteering are indispensable enabling technologies. These have promising potential to be realized through the use of optical beamforming networks (OBFNs) that have a wider bandwidth and smaller size, lower power consumption, and lower loss compared to those of their electric counterparts. In this paper, we systematically review various OBFN architectures using true time delays and optical phase shifters, as well as discuss performances of different architectures, scalable technologies that promote the advancement of OBFNs, and the application potentials of OBFNs. Two-dimensional OBFNs with discrete components or integrated optical devices have been elaborated, in addition to one-dimensional architectures. Moreover, the state-of-the-art technologies relative to reducing the size, loss and nonlinearity of OBFNs have also been discussed here. Full article
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