Digital Communications and Networking Commons^™

An Ultra-Low Power Communication Protocol For A Self-Powered Wireless Sensor Based Animal Monitoring System, Tao Ma

Department of Computer Electronics and Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To prevent and control the outbreak of contagious animal disease, many countries have developed animal identification and tracking systems. However, the current animal identification and tracking system, which is based on passive RFID technology, has many limitations such as the short communication range and incapability of automatically monitoring the animal. To overcome these limitations, our Advanced Telecommunications Engineering Laboratory (TEL) in Department of Computer and Electronics Engineering (CEEN), University of Nebraska-Lincoln took the mission of developing a more advanced monitoring system for animal identification and tracking. This dissertation work as a part of this mission was focusing on developing an …

Is Tech M&A Value-Additive?, Ani Deshmukh

Undergraduate Economic Review

Given rising M&A deal volume across all high-tech subsectors, the ability to measure post-acquisition performance becomes critical. Despite this growth, the relevant academic literature is severely lacking (Kohers and Kohers 2000). Using an event-study approach, I find that acquirers and targets both realize statistically significant day-0 abnormal returns (1.23% [p<0.1] and 8.1% [p<0.01], respectively). As positive stock returns signal positive growth prospects in a semi-strong efficient market, AR regressions found that firms' technological relatedness, deal financing, purchase price premiums, and the relative book to market ratio, explained most variance. Overall, high-tech transactions are value-additive for both targets and acquirers.

Communications And Energy-Harvesting In Nanosensor Networks, Michele C. Weigle

Computer Science Presentations

PDF of a powerpoint presentation from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Workshop on Biological Computations and Communications in Boston, Massachusetts, November 9, 2012. Also available on Slideshare.

Wireless Networks-On-Chips: Architecture, Wireless Channel, And Devices, David W. Matolak, Avinash Kodi, Savas Kaya, Dominic Ditomaso, Soumyasanta Laha, William Rayess

Faculty Publications

Wireless networks-on-chips (WINoCs) hold substantial promise for enhancing multicore integrated circuit performance, by augmenting conventional wired interconnects. As the number of cores per IC grows, intercore communication requirements will also grow, and WINoCs can be used to both save power and reduce latency. In this article, we briefly describe some of the key challenges with WINoC implementation, and also describe our example design, iWISE, which is a scalable wireless interconnect design. We show that the integration of wireless interconnects with wired interconnects in NoCs can reduce overall network power by 34 percent while achieving a speedup of 2.54 on real …

A Probabilistic Graphical Model For Topic And Preference Discovery On Social Media, Lu Liu, Feida Zhu, Lei Zhang, Shiqiang Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Many web applications today thrive on offering services for large-scale multimedia data, e.g., Flickr for photos and YouTube for videos. However, these data, while rich in content, are usually sparse in textual descriptive information. For example, a video clip is often associated with only a few tags. Moreover, the textual descriptions are often overly specific to the video content. Such characteristics make it very challenging to discover topics at a satisfactory granularity on this kind of data. In this paper, we propose a generative probabilistic model named Preference-Topic Model (PTM) to introduce the dimension of user preferences to enhance the …

Passive Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Using Commercial Ofdm Communication Networks, Jose R. Gutierrez Del Arroyo

Theses and Dissertations

Modern communication systems provide myriad opportunities for passive radar applications. OFDM is a popular waveform used widely in wireless communication networks today. Understanding the structure of these networks becomes critical in future passive radar systems design and concept development. This research develops collection and signal processing models to produce passive SAR ground images using OFDM communication networks. The OFDM-based WiMAX network is selected as a relevant example and is evaluated as a viable source for radar ground imaging. The monostatic and bistatic phase history models for OFDM are derived and validated with experimental single dimensional data. An airborne passive collection …

On Heterogeneous User Demands In Peer-To-Peer Video Streaming Systems, Zhipeng Ouyang

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A Peer-to-Peer (P2P) video streaming system usually consists of a large number of peers, which have heterogeneous physical properties. Orthogonal to the physical heterogeneity, there is another type of heterogeneity called demand heterogeneity. Namely, peers have their own demands on the quality and type of the streaming service. The problem of demand heterogeneity has received little attention and as a result current P2P video streaming systems cannot achieve satisfactory performance due to demand heterogeneity. In this dissertation, we study how to design efficient P2P video streaming systems with heterogeneous user demands.

First, we study the problem of heterogeneous user demands …

Performance Optimization Over Wireless Links With Operating Constraints, Shiny Abraham

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wireless communication is one of the most active areas of technological innovations and groundbreaking research ranging from simple cellular phones to highly complex military monitoring devices. The emergence of radios with cognitive capabilities like software defined radios has revolutionized modern communication systems by providing transceivers which can vary their output waveforms as well as their demodulation methods. This adaptability plays a pivotal role in efficient utilization of radio spectrum in an intelligent way while simultaneously not interfering with other radio devices operating on the same frequency band. Thus, it is safe to say that current and future wireless systems and …

Meta-Heuristics Analysis For Technologically Complex Programs: Understanding The Impact Of Total Constraints For Schedule, Quality And Cost, Henry Darrel Webb

EMSE Doctoral Projects

Program management data associated with a technically complex radio frequency electronics base communication system has been collected and analyzed to identify heuristics which may be utilized in addition to existing processes and procedures to provide indicators that a program is trending to failure. Analysis of the collected data includes detailed schedule analysis, detailed earned value management analysis and defect analysis within the framework of a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) incentive fee contract.

This project develops heuristics and provides recommendations for analysis of complex project management efforts such as those discussed herein. The analysis of the effects of the constraints on …

Extended Pcr Rules For Dynamic Frames, Florentin Smarandache, Jean Dezert

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In most of classical fusion problems modeled from belief functions, the frame of discernment is considered as static. This means that the set of elements in the frame and the underlying integrity constraints of the frame are fixed forever and they do not change with time. In some applications, like in target tracking for example, the use of such invariant frame is not very appropriate because it can truly change with time. So it is necessary to adapt the Proportional Conflict Redistribution fusion rules (PCR5 and PCR6) for working with dynamical frames. In this paper, we propose an extension of …

Clearing Paths For Emergency Vehicles Using Shock Wave Theory And Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communication, Craig Austin Jordan

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A new strategy to enable an EV to navigate through congestion at signalized intersections more efficiently has been developed and is presented in this thesis. The proposed strategy involves communicating control messages to vehicles to change their driving behavior and to traffic signals to change their timing plans so that EV s can proceed through congested intersections as quickly as possible. To achieve this, specific vehicles are instructed to hold their positions to create a split in the vehicle queue at a critical location in one lane. The split allows the EV to change lanes and proceed unimpeded at its …

An Extensible Framework For Creating Personal Archives Of Web Resources Requiring Authentication, Matthew Ryan Kelly

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

The key factors for the success of the World Wide Web are its large size and the lack of a centralized control over its contents. In recent years, many advances have been made in preserving web content but much of this content (namely, social media content) was not archived, or still to this day is not being archived,for various reasons. Tools built to accomplish this frequently break because of the dynamic structure of social media websites. Because many social media websites exhibit a commonality in hierarchy of the content, it would be worthwhile to setup a means to reference this …

Visualizing Digital Collections At Archive-It, Kalpesh Padia

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Archive-It, a subscription service from the Internet Archive, allows users to create,maintain, and view digital collections of web resources. The current interface of Archive-It is largely text-based, supporting drill-down navigation using lists of URIs.While this interface provides good searching capabilities, it is not efficient for browsing. In the absence of keywords, a user has to spend large amount of time trying to locate a web page of interest. In order to provide a better visual experience to the user, we have studied the underlying characteristics of Archive-It collections and implemented six different visualizations (treemap, time cloud, bubble chart, image plot, …

A Wireless And Digital Electrode Bus Topology For Biopotential Measurement, Mark Nolan, Edward Burke, Eugene Coyle

Conference Papers

The conventional biopotential measurement configuration utilises long lead wires which connect measuring electrodes to signal conditioning circuitry. The majority of bioelectric signals that are measured from the human body have a tiny signal amplitude (5µV-5mV range) and thus any interference that is induced on the lead wires can have a detrimental effect on the original signal. In this paper, we present an alternative configuration, in which digitisation occurs on the electrode, potentially providing enhanced signal measurement as well as significant benefits in terms of the simplification of the physical interconnections between electrodes. Multiple electrodes are combined to form a digital …

Adaptive Routing Algorithm For Priority Flows In A Network, Timothy J. Carbino

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents the development of an Adaptive Routing Algorithm for Priority (ARAP) flows in a Network. Devices in today's battle space require information to function. Additional bandwidth requirements for such devices place an increased burden on the already congested networks in the battle space. Some devices require real time information (high priority) and other devices will not require real time information (low priority). Existing protocols treat the network like an opaque entity and have little knowledge of user requirements. User requirement information is available in tactical networks and we can take advantage of the known requirements to better optimize …

Wireless Ad Hoc Networks For Mobile Devices Via High Frequency Sound Waves, Yashar Bahman

Computer Engineering

The purpose of this research it to give mobile phones the ability to create a cross-platfor wireless ad-hoc network. To accomplish this the phone’s speaker/microphone will be treated as a modulator/demodulator (or modem for short). The idea is that the phone will generate sine waves at various frequencies to output them on the speaker on one end and also record audio with the microphone to analyze and decode it into data on the other.

Once complete, these functionalities will all be rolled up into one easy to use library named Wave, which can be used to send data back and …

Wireless Sensor Network For Wine Fermentation, Kerry Scharfglass, Andrew Lehmer

Computer Engineering

This project implements an automated temperature monitoring system for wine fermentation which is affordable, easy to use, and scalable to typical small winery setups. To realize these requirements, we implemented the system as a wireless sensor network utilizing commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Temperature and system diagnostic information is communicated wirelessly in a peer-to-peer network topology such that all information flows toward an aggregating server. The server makes the temperature information available over the Internet via a web application and alerts the winemaker by email when the temperature has left acceptable bounds that the winemaker may configure. This project also involved materials …

A Web-Based Approach To Music Library Management, Jason Young

Computer Engineering

This application utilizes modern standards developing in web browsers to create a desktop-like application for managing a music library online. The server side application is written in a model-view-controller style using Python backed by a MySQL database. The client side JavaScript was designed around a modular concept interfacing several third-party frameworks and libraries. By taking advantage of developing browser features such as persistent local storage, this web application was designed to handle a large library of music.

The Micro Check-In Framework For The Next Generation Of Location-Based Applications, Shraddha Kacha

Master's Theses

Today's mobile computing platforms provide new, convenient possibilities for location-based commercial activity. In particular, the global positioning system (GPS) provides location data for local advertising and retail activity. In this thesis, we take the next step and introduce the concept of micro check-in. Micro check-in is a simple framework that allows users to match their current location to specific objects or places at a resolution much finer than that allowed by GPS based check-in. We show that micro check-in enables customers to reveal their location at a fine level of granularity. By describing the concepts of points of service, service …

Frg Turbojet, Tyler Vitti

Computer Engineering

Members of the Cal Poly SLO campus club FRG work together with students of several different disciplines to build a functional turbojet engine. Engineering approaches include design, fabrication, testing, and computer sensing, control, and integration. The goal of the project is to produce a running turbojet engine monitored and controlled by embedded hardware and specialized PC software. This project is to be used by later groups for further research and development.

Lyfi, Kianoosh Salami, Justin Cotton, Elush Shirazpour

Electrical Engineering

This paper will cover the steps necessary to design, build, and manage networkable smart light switches over WiFi via a mobile application. It contains a microcontroller running a real time operating system, a WiFi module, a Java server with SQLite databasing, and a mobile phone application.

LyFi is designed to turn on/off and dim household lights while only requiring the same installation procedure as a less capable dimmer switch. Once installed and connected to a network, LyFi will self-discover and configure. The server automatically propogates a database of nodes where any mobile device running an application can receive an updated …

Energy-Efficient Continuous Activity Recognition On Mobile Phones: An Activity-Adaptive Approach, Zhixian Yan, Vigneshwaran Subbaraju, Dipanjan Chakraborty, Archan Misra, Karl Aberer

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Power consumption on mobile phones is a painful obstacle towards adoption of continuous sensing driven applications, e.g., continuously inferring individual’s locomotive activities (such as ‘sit’, ‘stand’ or ‘walk’) using the embedded accelerometer sensor. To reduce the energy overhead of such continuous activity sensing, we first investigate how the choice of accelerometer sampling frequency & classification features affects, separately for each activity, the “energy overhead” vs. “classification accuracy” tradeoff. We find that such tradeoff is activity specific. Based on this finding, we introduce an activity-sensitive strategy (dubbed “A3R” – Adaptive Accelerometer-based Activity Recognition) for continuous activity recognition, where the choice of …

Bluebeats, Aaron Martinez, Jake Muir, Mishal Shah, Richard Wissemann

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Our group’s senior project is called BlueBeats. The BlueBeats product was created in order to provide a wireless audio gateway between Bluetooth enabled devices. Users of BlueBeats can use an Android or computer application to interface with the BlueBeats device. The Android and computer applications allow the user to easily scan for devices, add/remove devices from their personal list, and pair/connect with a selected Bluetooth enabled device. Once the user is connected to the BlueBeats device, he/she has two options. The first option occurs when the user connects the BlueBeats device to a device with speakers (using 3.5mm audio jack …

Bluebeats, Jake Muir, Aaron Martinez, Mishal Shah, Richard Wissemann

Computer Engineering

Our group’s senior project is called BlueBeats. The BlueBeats product was created in order to provide a wireless audio gateway between Bluetooth enabled devices. Users of BlueBeats can use an Android or computer application to interface with the BlueBeats device. The Android and computer applications allow the user to easily scan for devices, add/remove devices from their personal list, and pair/connect with a selected Bluetooth enabled device. Once the user is connected to the BlueBeats device, he/she has two options. The first option occurs when the user connects the BlueBeats device to a device with speakers (using 3.5mm audio jack …

Extending The Hybridthread Smp Model For Distributed Memory Systems, Eugene Anthony Cartwright Iii

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Memory Hierarchy is of growing importance in system design today. As Moore's Law allows system designers to include more processors within their designs, data locality becomes a priority. Traditional multiprocessor systems on chip (MPSoC) experience difficulty scaling as the quantity of processors increases. This challenge is common behavior of memory accesses in a shared memory environment and causes a decrease in memory bandwidth as processor numbers increase. In order to provide the necessary levels of scalability, the computer architecture community has sought to decentralize memory accesses by distributing memory throughout the system. Distributed memory offers greater bandwidth due to decoupled …

Spatial Queries In Wireless Broadcast Environments [Keynote Speech], Kyriakos Mouratidis

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Wireless data broadcasting is a promising technique for information dissemination that exploits the computational capabilities of mobile devices, in order to enhance the scalability of the system. Under this environment, the data are continuously broadcast by the server, interleaved with some indexing information for query processing. Clients may tune in the broadcast channel and process their queries locally without contacting the server. In this paper we focus on spatial queries in particular. First, we review existing methods on this topic. Next, taking shortest path computation as an example, we showcase technical challenges arising in this processing model and describe techniques …

Node Filtering And Face Routing For Sensor Network, Umang Amatya

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Main Contributions

•Efficient Algorithms for identifying Redundant Sensor Nodes

•New Technique for Filtering Redundant Nodes in Sensor Network

•Reliable Algorithm for Message Routing - Forwarding

•User Friendly Prototype Implementation in Java

•Results of Experimental Investigation

Cognitive Congestion Control For Data Portal, Ershad Sharifahmadian, Shahram Latifi

College of Engineering: Graduate Celebration Programs

Network congestion is one of challenging tasks in communication networks and leads to queuing delay, packet loss or the blocking of new connections. Here, a data portal is considered as an application-based network, and a cognitive method is proposed to deal with congestion in this kind of network. The cognitive method is proposed to improve bandwidth sharing, and deal with congestion in a data portal. When the data portal is about climate change data, congestion control is more emphasized, because the scientific climate data is voluminous and there is a high traffic to/from data portal by the scientific community, research …

Technological Advancements Of Cell Phones From 2008-2012, Chris Wholey

Senior Seminars

Five years ago when the words cell phone were said, thoughts were that it wasn't going to be more than a device that can send text messages and call people. Today when the words cell phone are said people think of hand held devices that have evolved into mini-computers with features of email, video-chat, and the boundless amounts of wireless internet access that they possess. This paper will explain the difference between 2G, 3G, and 4G and will also explain the terms smart phone, SD card, and RAM. Then it will show graphically what Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Blackberry, and Apple …

Virtualization In High-Performance Computing: An Analysis Of Physical And Virtual Node Performance, Glendon M. Jungels

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

The process of virtualizing computing resources allows an organization to make more efficient use of it's resources. In addtion, this process enables flexibility that deployment on raw hardware does not. Virtualization, however, comes with a performance penalty. This study examines the performance of utilizing virtualization technology for use in high performance computing to determine the suitibility of using this technology. It makes use of a small (4 node) virtual cluster as well as a 4 node physical cluster. The impacts on input/output operation are examined as well as performance of each cluster using two widely utilized tools, NAS Parallel Benchmarks …