Systems and Communications Commons^™

Whiteboard Drawing Device, Stefan Ilic, Andrew Adams, Vaughn Richards, James Medved

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Whiteboards have become a staple in many classrooms, especially in the context of STEM courses. However, when it comes to teaching complex topics, it can be difficult or impractical to provide accurate drawings and visualizations by hand, and in extreme cases may lead to misinterpretation of a particular topic. To fix this issue, the Whiteboard Drawing Device allows users to draw preset shapes to a whiteboard automatically, both quickly and accurately. Using either a smartphone application or a set of onboard controls, the device allows users to automatically draw straight lines, rectangles, triangles, sinusoidal waves, and circles on the whiteboard. …

Detecting The Presence Of Electronic Devices In Smart Homes Using Harmonic Radar, Beatrice Perez, Gregory Mazzaro, Timothy J. Pierson, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

Data about users is collected constantly by phones, cameras, Internet websites, and others. The advent of so-called ‘Smart Things' now enable ever-more sensitive data to be collected inside that most private of spaces: the home. The first step in helping users regain control of their information (inside their home) is to alert them to the presence of potentially unwanted electronics. In this paper, we present a system that could help homeowners (or home dwellers) find electronic devices in their living space. Specifically, we demonstrate the use of harmonic radars (sometimes called nonlinear junction detectors), which have also been used in …

Development Of A Wireless Telemetry Load And Displacement Sensor For Orthopaedic Applications, William Anderson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Due to sensor size and supporting circuitry, in vivo load and deformation measurements are currently restricted to applications within larger orthopaedic implants. The objective of this thesis is to repurpose a commercially available low-power, miniature, wireless, telemetric, tire-pressure sensor (FXTH87) to measure load and deformation for future use in biomechanical applications. The capacitive transducer membrane of the FXTH87 was modified, and a relationship was reported between applied compressive deformation and sensor signal value. The sensor package was embedded within a deformable enclosure to illustrate potential applications of the sensor for monitoring load. Finite element analysis was an effective tool to …

Virtual Satcom, Long Range Broadband Digital Communications, Dennis George Watson

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The current naval strategy is based on a distributed force, networked together with high-speed communications that enable operations as an intelligent, fast maneuvering force. Satellites, the existing network connector, are weak and vulnerable to attack. HF is an alternative, but it does not have the information throughput to meet the distributed warfighting need. The US Navy does not have a solution to reduce dependency on space-based communication systems while providing the warfighter with the required information speed.

Virtual SATCOM is a solution that can match satellite communications (SATCOM) data speed without the vulnerable satellite. It is wireless communication on a …

Software Defined Radio For Hybrid Beamforming Applications, Jianyet Lee

Dissertations and Theses

Beamforming techniques have been deployed in both licensed networks such as LTE network and unlicensed network such as IEEE802.11ac WiFi. The scope of work for this thesis is to leverage the benefits of beamforming techniques and software defined radio platform in developing a fully functioning LTE testbed. The testbed can be further developed to specific application for drone-to-drone or D2D communication independent of intervention from base stations. Applying beamforming techniques to devices such as drones can solve poor quality signal detection at the receivers due to the interference signals generated by other devices in the attempt to communicate with the …

Rocket Telemetry System, Monica Lacek, Clark Bryant Iii, David Dalvin, Nicholas Wolgamott

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this research project is to design a system for the Akronauts Rocket Design Team which will transmit flight data in real-time to a ground station. The data will be collected from various sensors (altitude, acceleration, GPS, etc). This data will be transmitted wirelessly and in real-time to a receiving station. Calculations and visualizations will be taken from the data, which will help the team improve their rocket designs. Additionally, GPS data will be useful to locate the rocket post-flight. Challenges will include the need for the system to transmit over the range of the rocket’s flight and …

Optical Wireless Data Center Networks, Abdelbaset S. Hamza

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

Bandwidth and computation-intensive Big Data applications in disciplines like social media, bio- and nano-informatics, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and real-time analytics, are pushing existing access and core (backbone) networks as well as Data Center Networks (DCNs) to their limits. Next generation DCNs must support continuously increasing network traffic while satisfying minimum performance requirements of latency, reliability, flexibility and scalability. Therefore, a larger number of cables (i.e., copper-cables and fiber optics) may be required in conventional wired DCNs. In addition to limiting the possible topologies, large number of cables may result into design and development problems related to wire ducting and maintenance, heat …

Covert Wireless Communications In A Dynamic Environment, Tamara V. Sobers

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates covert communication in dynamic wireless communication environments. A key goal is to provide insight about the capabilities of a transmitter desiring to remain covert and analogously, the capabilities of the party attempting to detect covert communications. The first chapter provides background on covert communications prior to this work. The second chapter studies the theoretical limits of covert communication and proves that positive rate is achievable when a jammer is added to the classical Alice/Bob/Warden Willie model. The third chapter expands on the second chapter by considering more generally the impact of the dynamics of the environment on …

Wireless Positioning And Tracking For Internet Of Things In Gps-Denied Environments, Bekir Sait Ciftler

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wireless positioning and tracking have long been a critical technology for various applications such as indoor/outdoor navigation, surveillance, tracking of assets and employees, and guided tours, among others. Proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the evolution of smart cities, and vulnerabilities of traditional localization technologies to cyber-attacks such as jamming and spoofing of GPS necessitate development of novel radio frequency (RF) localization and tracking technologies that are accurate, energy-efficient, robust, scalable, non-invasive and secure. The main challenges that are considered in this research work are obtaining fundamental limits of localization accuracy using received signal strength (RSS) information with directional …

Wireless Communication For Greenhouse Environment, Chris J. Lambert, Dean T. Lockman, Ian A. Nielsen

Electrical Engineering

Modern day population growth and global climate change requires high-yield agricultural systems that can function in harsh environments. Greenhouses can maintain temperature and humidity, while serving as a protective, nurturing alternative to vulnerable farm environments. With weather effects eliminated, greenhouses provide productive environments for experimental agriculture techniques such as hydroponics and aquaculture. These methods of agriculture, specifically aquaculture, require constant monitoring. The failure of electronic devices such as an air pump prove fatal to a fish population in a short time frame. In developing countries, agricultural locations may be a significant distance from a farmer’s home, with no internet or …

Optimal Capacity And Energy Efficiency Of Massive Mimo Systems, Ahmed Alshammari

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A lot of effort has been made during the last two decades to study and apply the concepts of MIMO technology in most of the wireless standards. Therefore, a huge improvement in the performance of wireless communications has been made. However, Demand for wireless services has exponentially increased during the past ten years. Hence, high throughput is very important for all users to get the best experience with the offered services. This creates many technical challenges that are difficult to handle with the existing technology. Therefore, massive multiple input multiple output (massive MIMO) is a new technology that has been …

A System For Monitoring And Managing Indoor Air Quality And Environmental Conditions, Ali Ibrahim

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The quality of indoor air depends on different types of pollutant sources existing in a semi-enclosed environment. The sources can be biological, chemical, or toxic pollutants. These sources can cause health issues and discomfort for occupants. One of the indicators of poor indoor air quality is Carbon Dioxide (CO₂). CO₂ can be used to indicate the indoor air exchange rate. The lack of air exchange means higher levels of CO₂. High levels of indoor particulates can also be an indication of poor air quality. Due to the lack of fresh air, air circulation, and air …

Pinpoint: Location Beacon And Tracking, Ezequiel Lopez Iii

Computer Engineering

The purpose of Pinpoint was to create a device that can collect and transmit location information for multiple users on a wireless network. The device would be used to keep track of and communicate with other users nearby. The final design includes a touchscreen display as a graphical user interface (GUI), an XBee RF module for wireless networking, a GPS receiver for location tracking, and a Programmable System on a Chip (PSoC) to control the modules.

On Enhancements Of Physical Layer Secret Key Generation And Its Application In Wireless Communication Systems, Kang Liu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As an alternative and appealing approach to providing information security in wireless communication systems, secret key generation at physical layer has demonstrated its potential in terms of efficiency and reliability over traditional cryptographic methods. Without the necessity of a management centre for key distribution or reliance on computational complexity, physical layer key generation protocols enable two wireless entities to extract identical and dynamic keys from the randomness of the wireless channels associated with them.

In this thesis, the reliability of secret key generation at the physical layer is examined in practical wireless channels with imperfect channel state information (CSI). Theoretical …

Reducing Multiple Access Interference In Broadband Multi-User Wireless Networks, Ali Nayef Alqatawneh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is devoted to developing multiple access interference (MAI) reduction techniques for multi-carrier multi-user wireless communication networks.

In multi-carrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) systems, a full multipath diversity can be achieved by transmitting one symbol over multiple orthogonal subcarriers by means of spreading codes. However, in frequency selective fading channels, orthogonality among users can be destroyed leading to MAI. MAI represents the main obstacle to support large number of users in multi-user wireless systems. Consequently, MAI reduction becomes a main challenge when designing multi-carrier multi-user wireless networks. In this dissertation, first, we study MC-CDMA systems with different existing …

A Compact, Reconfigurable Uhf Communication System Design For Use With Polysat's Embedded Linux Platform, Austin Williams

Master's Theses

The beginning of this thesis provides an overview of the heritage UHF Communication System design flown on CP2, CP3, CP4, CP5, and CP6, summarizing previous analysis of its performance, and providing the justification for a complete system re-design. High level requirements for the new UHF System are defined, and a trade study is performed on state-of-the-art single chip transceivers, low noise amplifiers, and transmit power amplifiers. These components are then designed into a functional communication system, with key components analyzed for proper impedance matching and performance characterization compared to expected datasheet values. Next, the system as a whole is characterized …

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 …

Wirelessly Operated Pa Loudspeaker System For Rmax Search-And-Rescue Uav: A Preliminary Design, Travis Luke, Nolan Uchizono

Electrical Engineering

This paper discusses the approach used to implement a wireless PA loudspeaker system on a search-and-rescue RMAX UAV.

The purpose of this project is to allow the continuation of communication between search-and-rescue workers as well as potential rescuees in an environment that won't always allow it. Since rugged terrain tends to cause interference between two radio communications, there needs to be a way to bypass this problem. In addition, people in need of rescue are unlikely to be using a radio on an emergency frequency, so there needs to be a way to efficiently issue orders or evacuation notices without …

Wireless Physical-Layer Security Performance Of Uwb Systems, Miyong Ko

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Traditionally, spread-spectrum systems have been employed to provide low probability-of-intercept (LPI) and low probability-of-detection (LPD) performances at the physical layer, but the messages transmitted over such a system are still encrypted with a powerful cipher to protect their secrecy. Our challenge is to find a solution to provide an additional level of security at the physical layer so that simple systems such as RFID tags with limited resources can be secure without using standard encryption. It has recently been suggested that the cryptographic security of the system can be enhanced by exploiting physical properties of UWB signals. With an eavesdropper …

Analysis And Design Of Low Power Cmos Ultra Wideband Receiver, Abdul Bhuiyan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research concentrates on the design and analysis of low power ultra wideband receivers for Multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing systems. Low power design entails different performance tradeoffs, which are analyzed. Relationship among power consumption, achievable noise figure and linearity performance including distortion products (cross-modulation, inter-modulation and harmonic distortion) are derived. From these relationships, circuit design proceeds with allocation of gain among different sub circuit blocks for power optimum system.

A power optimum RF receiver front-end for MB-OFDM based UWB systems is designed that covers all the MB-OFDM spectrum between 3.1 GHZ to 9.6 GHZ. The receiver consists of a …

0.5w High Linearity Power Amplifier For Broadband Wireless (3.3 ~ 3.9 Ghz), Chin-Leong Lim

Chin-Leong Lim

This paper presents a 0.5 Watt amplifier that operates over the 3.3 ~ 3.9 GHz range. The target applications are pre-driver in base-stations and power amplifier in subscriber units. The design marries good Third Order Output Intercept Point (OIP3) and exceptional Power Added Efficiency (PAE) at IdB gain compression point (PldB). The performances are: -G = 11.8 dB, IRL & ORL < -8 dB, PldB = 28.5 dBm and OIP3 = 42.6 dBm. The superior performance is achieved through the use of Avago Technologies' proprietary 0.25um GaAs Enhancement mode pHEMT process. The device requires simple matching components to achieve wide bandwidth because of the built-in input pre-match. From the reliability standpoint, pHEMT devices are eminently suited to PA use -the drain to source resistance (RDSon) will inherently rise to counteract the thermal runaway that blights bipolar and HBT PAs. The internal bias circuit is temperature compensated and can be adjusted for either class A or class AB operation. The device is housed inside a standard 16 pin LPCC 3X3 package.