Search

Uplink configured Grant allocation has been introduced in 3rd Generation Partnership Project New Radio Release 15. This is beneficial in supporting Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communication for industrial communication, a key Fifth Generation mobile communication usage scenario. This scheduling mechanism enables a user with periodic traffic to transmits its data readily and bypasses the control signaling entailed to scheduling requests and scheduling grants and provides low latency access. To facilitate ultra-reliable communication, the scheduling mechanism can allow users to transmit consecutive redundant transmissions in a pre-defined period. However, if the traffic is semi-deterministic, the current standardized configured grant allocation is not equipped to emulate the traffic as the configured grant's period is pre-configured and fixed. This article describes the recent advancements in the standardization process in Release 15 and 16 for configured grant allocation and the prospective solutions to accommodate semi-deterministic traffic behavior for configured grant allocations., Accepted in IEEE Communications Standard Magazine 2021, 5 figures

Configured Grant-based allocation has been adopted in New Radio 3rd Generation Partnership Project Release 16. This scheme is beneficial in supporting Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communication for industrial communication, a key Fifth Generation mobile communication usage scenario. This scheduling mechanism enables a user with a periodic traffic to transmit its data readily and bypasses the signaling entailed to scheduling requests and scheduling grants; and provides low latency access. To facilitate ultra-reliable communication, the scheduling mechanism can allow the user to transmit redundant transmissions at consecutive repetition occasions in a pre-defined period. However, for the user with semi-deterministic traffic, the reliability and latency performance with Configured Grant-based allocation deteriorates. This can be due to, e.g., late data arrival in the buffer, and the user unable to transmit its repetitions, which leads to reliability degradation. To improve the Configured Grant reliability performance with semi-deterministic traffic, we consider various allocation designs utilizing, e.g., additional unlicensed spectrum, or flexible transmission in a Configured Grant period, or allowing time-gaps between the repetitions, etc. These enhancements could be a stepping-stone for Sixth Generation Configured Grant models., Comment: 6G Wireless Summit 2020, poster paper, 2 pages

Purpose To analyze the effectiveness of biologically effective dose (BED) in two different regimens of HDR brachytherapy keeping the same total BED to point A and to compare the relationship of overall treatment time in terms of local control and bladder and rectal complications. Material and methods The study included two groups comprising a total of 90 cervical cancer patients who underwent external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) followed by HDR intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT). EBRT treatment was delivered by a Co-60 teletherapy unit to a prescribed dose of 45 Gy with 1.8 Gy per fraction in 25 fractions over a period of five weeks. Parallel opposed anterior–posterior (AP/PA) fields with no central shielding were used, followed by the HDR ICBT dose, to point A, of either two fractions of 9.5 Gy with a gap of 10 days, or three fractions of 7.5 Gy with a gap of 7 days between the fractions. Gemcitabine (dose of 150 mg/m2) was given weekly to all the patients as a radiosensitizer. The calculate BED3 to point A was almost the same in both groups to keep the same late complication rates. The doses, and BED10 and BED3, were calculated at different bladder and rectal point as well as at the lymphatic trapezoid points. During and after treatment patients were evaluated for local control and complications for 24 months. Results and Conclusions Doses and BEDs at different bladder, rectal and lymphatic trapezoid points, local control, and complications in both HDR ICBT groups did not have statistically significant differences (p > 0.05). Both HDR ICBT schedules are well tolerable and equally effective.

Background: Many therapeutic and diagnostic modalities such as intraarticular injections, arthrography and ankle arthroscopy require introduction of fluid into the ankle joint. Little data are currently available in the literature regarding the maximal volume of normal, nonpathologic, human ankle joints. The purpose of this study was to measure the volume of normal human ankle joints. Materials and Methods: A fluoroscopic guided needle was passed into nine cadaveric adult ankle joints. The needle was connected to an intracompartmental pressure measurement device. A radiopaque dye was introduced into the joint in 2 mL boluses, while pressure measurements were recorded. Fluid was injected into the joint until three consecutive pressure measurements were similar, signifying a maximal joint volume. Results: The mean maximum ankle joint volume was 20.9 ± 4.9 mL (range, 16-30 mL). The mean ankle joint pressure at maximum volume was 142.2 ± 13.8 mm Hg (range, 122-166 mm Hg). Two of the nine samples showed evidence of fluid tracking into the synovial sheath of the flexor hallucis longus tendon. Conclusion: Maximal normal ankle joint volume was found to vary between 16-30 mL. This study ascertains the communication between the ankle joint and the flexor hallucis longus tendon sheath. Exceeding maximal ankle joint volume suggested by this study during therapeutic injections, arthrography, or arthroscopy could potentially damage the joint.

Currently, mobile network operators are allocated spectrum bands on an exclusive basis. While this approach facilitates interference control, it may also result in low spectrum utilization efficiency. Inter-operator spectrum sharing is a potential method to enhance spectrum utilization. In order to realize it, a protocol to coordinate the actions of operators is needed. We propose a spectrum sharing protocol which is distributed in nature, it does not require operator-specific information exchange and it incurs minimal communication overhead between the operators. Operators are still free to decide whether they share spectrum or not as the protocol is based on the book keeping of spectrum usage favors, asked and received by the operators. We show that operators can enhance their QoS in comparison with traditional orthogonal spectrum allocation while also maintaining reciprocity i.e. no operator benefits over the other in the long run. We demonstrate the usability of the proposed protocol in an indoor deployment scenario with frequent network load variations as expected to have in small cell deployments., Published in proceedings of 23rd edition of European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC), Bologna, Jun. 2014

As wireless communication becomes an ever-more evolving and pervasive part of the existing world, system capacity and Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning are becoming more critically evident. In order to improve system capacity and QoS, it is mandatory that we pay closer attention to operational bandwidth efficiency issues. We address this issue for two operators' spectrum sharing in the same geographical area. We model and analyze interactions between the competitive operators coexisting in the same frequency band as a strategic noncooperative game, where the operators simultaneously share the spectrum dynamically as per their relative requirement. If resources are allocated in a conventional way (static orthogonal allocation), spectrum utilization becomes inefficient when there is load asymmetry between the operators and low inter-operator interference. Theoretically, operators can share resources in a cooperative manner, but pragmatically they are reluctant to reveal their network information to competitors. By using game theory, we design a distributed implementation, in which self-interested operators play strategies and contend for the spectrum resources in a noncooperative manner. We have proposed two game theoretic approaches in the thesis, one using a virtual carrier price; and the other based on a mutual history of favors. The former approach takes into account a penalty proportional to spectrum usage in its utility function, whereas in the latter, operators play strategies based on their history of interactions, i.e., how well the other behaved in the past. Finally, based on the simulations, we assess the performance of the proposed game theoretic approaches in comparison to existing conventional allocations., Comment: Master Thesis, Published on 25/8/2014, Aalto University (https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/13922)