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Flexible time division duplex (TDD) is expected to be one of the key technologies for 5G flexible air interface. The main benefit of flexible TDD is to allow for better radio resource utilization based on instantaneous user traffic demands. To boost network capacity, one could thus, utilize flexible TDD along with a dense deployment of small cells. Flexible TDD systems can be designed to benefit from strong-interference cancellation of the cross-link interference along with advanced inter-cell coordination. In this paper, we propose a centralized coordination scheme with joint uplink/downlink (UL/DL) user scheduling, rate, and MIMO rank adaptation. To reduce the complexity of coordinated scheduling, we propose a cluster-based scheduling scheme where joint UL/DL selection and joint user scheduling are performed within a cluster. MIMO rank and rate adaptation are performed across the clusters using inter-cluster rate and rank adaptation. Simulation based results are evaluated in an outdoor urban micro scenario with bursty traffic and assuming realistic channel estimation. It is observed that the proposed flexible TDD scheme with joint UL/DL scheduling, interference cancellation, and coordination provides over 120% gain in the fifth percentile and over 29% gain in the average end-to-end UL throughput as compared to flexible TDD standalone scheduling without coordination. Our results show that successive interference cancellation receivers provide over 20% UL throughput gain for flexible TDD systems as compared to Interference Rejection Combining (IRC) receivers. We also find that fully flexible TDD with interference cancellation significantly outperforms fully synchronized TDD for different cell sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global positioning system (GPS) based indoor positioning techniques generally utilize repeaters to amplify and retransmit the original GPS signals to indoor receivers. In this paper, a GPS repeater based indoor positioning approach is proposed. Unlike most repeater-based indoor positioning techniques in current literature, repeaters are not required to connect to an outdoor antenna with fixed length cables. Neither do repeaters need to be synchronized. Each repeater retransmits the GPS signals continuously to the indoor receivers without sequential switching. Assume more than one satellite is visible to four or more repeaters. At a measuring time instance, the range from a repeater to the user receiver is identical for any travelling satellite signal, which is repeated by this repeater. Incorporating this feature and comparing the ranges measured by means of repeated signals of different satellites, the receiver is able to identify the repeater, which repeats a given satellite signal. With the known coordinates of the identified repeaters and the ranges from repeaters to the receiver, then the receiver position can be found. To compromise the impact of the repeater signal processing time difference on positioning accuracy, this work proposes two methods to calculate the receiver position and fuses the results by Kalman filter. Furthermore, considering the general indoor positioning environments, altitudes of floors of a building are utilized to assist in improving the positioning performance. Simulation results with true repeater coordinate data are provided to verify the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to use the dynamic low-voltage fuel cell stack in a fuel cell vehicle with a constant high voltage (400 V) dc bus, a capacitor-clamped H-type boost dc-dc converter with a wide voltage gain is proposed in this paper. In the input-voltage side, a capacitor clamped H-type structure is adopted to reduce input current ripple, avoid narrow-pulse of pulsewidth modulation voltage waveforms, and decrease the conduction loss of power switches; while in the output-voltage side, a switched-capacitor structure is adopted to achieve high voltage gain and decrease the voltage stress of all power semiconductors and capacitors. The operating principle, characteristic, control strategy, parameters design, and comparison with other converters are analyzed, and a 400 W prototype is developed. As a result, the converter can transform low-voltage from 25 V to 70 V in to 400 V with a wide voltage-gain range, which maximum efficiency is 94.72%. The experimental results also validate the aforementioned characteristics of the proposed converter and the correctness of theoretical analysis. This converter is suitable to serve as power interface for fuel cell vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a model predictive control scheme based remedial control for the single-phase open-circuit fault of an asymmetrical six-phase PMSM machine. The proposed strategy adopts the normal vector space decomposition transformation matrix without reconfiguring the controller topology. The key is to derive the perturbation term of the prediction vectors in α-β and x-y subspace, which is based on the difference of the faulty phase voltage under healthy and faulty condition. Through the compensation of the prediction vectors, the predictive model can be accurately described in the faulty condition. Thus, the current variables in the next instant is accurately predicted and the torque fluctuation is suppressed. Finally, the experimental results are provided to verify the validity of the proposed method on pre- and post-fault tolerant operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of an efficient medium access control (MAC) protocol for multichannel ad hoc cognitive radio networks is an important problem and has been the topic of extensive recent research. In this paper, we present the design and performance evaluation of a protocol, group MAC (GMAC), which is customized for a situation that commonly arises in ad hoc networks: The network consists of multiple groups of nodes such that a large fraction of the traffic of each node needs to be sent to other nodes of its own group. Some examples are 1) units (e.g., platoons) in a military ad hoc network; 2) divisions in an emergency or disaster relief network; and 3) departments in a corporate or university network. Our protocol requires each secondary node to have only one narrowband transceiver, does not rely on a control channel, and incorporates a novel technique for dynamically balancing the traffic load of secondary nodes across the set of free channels. We formulate the problem of partitioning the network nodes into groups based on the volumes of data traffic to be sent between different pairs of nodes, which we call the group formation problem (GFP). We show that the GFP is NP-complete and propose a greedy algorithm to solve it. We analyze the stability region of the GMAC protocol using a queuing theoretic framework. Our extensive simulations show that a large fraction of the bandwidth unoccupied by primary users is utilized by the GMAC protocol for data transmissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing popularization of Electric Vehicle (EVs), Electro-mobility (in terms of where to charge EV) has become an increasingly important research problem in smart cities. One of the major concerns is the anxiety of EVs, as drivers may suffer from discomfort due to long charging time. In this paper, we leverage the battery switch technology to provide an even faster charging than plug-in charging service, by cycling switchable (fully recharged) batteries at Charging Stations (CSs). Upon that, a cost-efficient Publish/Subscribe (P/S) system is provisioned, to facilitate the design of distributed charging manner for privacy guarantee. The proposed communication framework utilizes Mobile Edge Computing (MEC)-functioned Road Side Units (RSUs) to bridge, process, and aggregate the information flow between CSs and EVs. We further design an advanced reservation-based charging system, in which the knowledge of EVs' reservations is utilized to predict how likely a CS will be congested. This benefits to a smart transportation planning on where to charge, in order to improve charging comfort. Results show the advantage of our enabling technology comparing to other benchmark solutions, in terms of minimized waiting time for the battery switch (as the benefit for EV drivers), and a higher number of batteries switched (as the benefit for CSs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic-aware base station (BS) sleeping is a promising approach to increase the energy efficiency (EE) of cellular networks. Both deep sleep and discontinuous transmission (DTX) can be applied to improve network EE. This paper studies the optimal BS operation when both deep sleep and DTX are employed. Queuing theory and stochastic geometry theory are jointly applied to model network performance considering both traffic dynamics and stochastic channel quality. We firstly propose a scaling law of transmit power that assures network coverage. Then, we characterize the resource utilization of active BSs when various percentages of BSs are switched into deep sleep, and analyze the overload probability of the remaining active BSs. Finally, we investigate the impact of BS deep sleep and DTX micro sleep on network EE. Both analytical and simulation results show that there is a tradeoff between deep sleep and DTX micro sleep. Switching BSs into deep sleep would increase the load of the remaining active BSs and reduce their energy saving achieved with DTX. When the power consumption of BS in DTX micro-sleep mode is considerably low, switching BSs into deep sleep might increase the overall energy consumption, and it is not always the best practice to switch as many BSs into deep sleep as possible to maximize network EE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving condition adaptive control is an effective vehicle fuel-saving technique, and the key challenge lies in improving the recognition accuracy of current driving condition. The state-of-the-art approach is based on recognizing historical driving data with a fixed length sliding window to detect current driving condition. However, few research has been conducted to directly recognize the occurring micro-trip (a speed time series between two starts). That is because at the beginning stage of an occurring micro-trip, its known speed time series is too short to be correctly recognized. In this paper, we addressed this issue by proposing a hybrid method for the occurring micro-trip recognition, and two efforts are made to improve recognition accuracy. First, a hybrid recognition procedure is proposed, which combines the Markov chain prediction model and the fuzzy classification model. Second, a statistic approach is proposed to estimate the best time to switch between above-mentioned two models to achieve higher accuracy in detecting current driving condition. Our evaluation results on real-world driving data show that our proposed solution has better accuracy than the state-of-the-art approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is a promising technology to achieve high spectrum efficiency, low energy consumption, and enhanced system capacity. In D2D communications, the channel allocation plays a crucial role to avoid interference, which usually involves a centralized coordination. With the increasing number of devices or terminals as well as the dynamic network environment, the computation and information exchange during the centralized channel allocation would be a big burden for wireless networks. We tackle this problem by proposing a distributed channel allocation method with blind rendezvous to enable collision-free concurrent transmissions over multiple channels. Specifically, we first present a receiver-oriented channel allocation algorithm to reduce interference and then propose a sender-jump blind channel rendezvous algorithm based on channel hopping techniques. The proposed channel allocation method allows each sender–receiver pair to obtain an appropriate channel for collision-free transmissions requires no centralized coordination. Theoretical analysis, simulation results and test-bed experiments validate the proposed solution. Our findings reported in this paper may help network designers to contribute in the development of high-density Internet of Things. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we compare the performance of time-switching relaying (TSR) and power-splitting relaying (PSR) protocols in two-hop networks with a battery-assisted energy-harvesting (EH) amplify-and-forward relay. In this battery-assisted relay framework, the EH relay augments the harvested energy with energy drawn from a battery. Using expressions derived for throughput and average battery energy consumption, we investigate maximization of throughput for given battery energy availability per time slot and minimization of battery energy consumption for target throughput requirement. When only statistical channel knowledge is available, PSR results in better throughput performance at practical signal-to-noise ratios. However, in the typical low battery energy and low target throughput regime, it is TSR that is more battery energy efficient. When second-hop instantaneous channel knowledge is available, we observe dramatical energy savings that increases lifetime of nodes. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate accuracy of the derived expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the network average power consumption minimization problem in a two-tier heterogeneous network by optimally tuning the activation ratio of micro base stations (BSs) under the quality of service (QoS) constraints of the network mean queueing delay and the network signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) coverage. With the consideration of dynamic packets arrivals, each BS can either be busy or be idle depending on its queueing status. The network performance is thus critically determined by the traffic intensity of each BS. With the assumption of universal frequency reuse, the average traffic intensity of each tier is characterized by a set of fixed-point equations, which can be solved by a proposed iterative method. By using the approximation that BSs of the same tier have the same SIR coverage, the cumulative distribution function of the traffic intensity of each tier is further obtained. On that basis, the network average power consumption per area, the network mean queueing delay, and the network SIR coverage are characterized. Numerical results demonstrate that if the idle power coefficient is below a certain threshold, then the optimal activation ratio equals the one to minimize the network average power consumption per area; otherwise, the optimal activation ratio can be obtained according to the QoS constraints. It is further shown that universal frequency reuse outperforms spectrum partitioning in terms of both the network average power consumption and the network SIR coverage in the considered scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the optimal throughput performance for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer relaying network in the presence of direct link between the source and the destination. By considering the direct link, system performance can be improved when the channel condition is good from source to destination. The cooperative network consists of a source, an amplify-and-forward relay, and a destination, where the relay harvests energy from the source and then uses the harvested energy to forward information to the destination. At the destination node, the signals from the direct link and relay are combined by the maximum ratio combining (MRC) method. The time switching (TS) relaying protocol is applied to enable energy harvesting and information processing simultaneously. At the same time, we made progress on analyzing the throughput of information transmission on the basis of the MRC method with power switching (PS) relaying protocol. Additionally, adaptive-MRC protocol is proposed based on the TS and PS relaying protocols, which can choose better mode to achieve the communication. The numerical analyses provide practical insights into the effect of various system parameters, such as energy harvesting time splitting ratio, source transmission rate, distance between nodes, and noise power at the destination and the relay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a comprehensive sliding mode control (SMC) loop design for single-phase interleaved totem pole (ILTP) power factor correction (PFC) converters in electric vehicle onboard charger applications is proposed. The major objectives of the proposed SMC are to improve the converter dynamics, ensure a tight output voltage regulation under fast load fluctuations, and maintain a unity power factor. The sliding mode coefficients are selected to ensure both small signal and large signal stability for the robustness of the converter in wide operating conditions. As verification to the proof-of-concept, a hardware prototype of a single-phase ILTP PFC is developed and tested to validate the effectiveness of loop design by the load transient tests. The steady state results exhibit a power factor >0.995 and total harmonic distortion <3% at 800 W load power. At a 25% step-change in load power, SMC achieves 80 ms settling time, which is approximately 200 ms faster than the conventional PI control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this correspondence paper, a decode-forward relay system with a source, a relay, and a destination is considered. A new switching superposition-coded (NSSC) relay scheme is proposed to improve error performance by increasing the equivalent squared minimum distance. On the receiver side, a low-complexity linear-combining successive-interference-cancellation decoder is proposed for the NSSC scheme. The theoretical and simulation results show that the NSSC scheme achieves better performance compared to the existing superposition-coded relay schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controller area network with flexible data rate (CAN-FD) has been introduced to support higher data rates for intelligent automotive systems. To achieve a robustness in the electronic functions of electronic systems, CAN-FD transmitters should provide a good symmetry between the differential signaling on the CAN bus radiating a low electromagnetic emission (EME). This paper proposes a new CAN-FD transmitter which achieves good symmetry on the CAN-FD signals. Also, a so-called ``Ping-Pong” driving scheme is introduced. Without using complex circuits and after-calibration process, this method can match accurate turn-on/off timing of the transmitter signals. The proposed CAN-FD transmitter was fabricated using a $0.18\,\mu {\text{m}}$ automotive Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS process. The measurement results show that the proposed CAN-FD transmitter improves the voltage symmetry of the CAN bus at 5 Mbps, achieving a low EME. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an effective yet simple and practical solution to improve small-cell performance in heterogeneous networks (HetNets). The proposed solution is based on deploying a switched multielement antenna (MEA) system capable of generating a variety of antenna patterns at small-cell base stations (BSs). Then, antenna patterns are assigned to user equipment (UE) in a dynamic basis. The antenna pattern selection for each UE is considered to be a supervised machine learning classification problem, in which the small-cell BS seek to find the optimal antenna pattern to serve each UE according to its measurement reports (i.e., UE radio-frequency fingerprint). Simulation results confirm the feasibility of the proposed approach, despite potential inaccuracies in UE measurement reports. Compared with the existing solutions comprising a single omnidirectional antenna (ODA), the proposed approach results in a 68% additional network-wide capacity increase. In addition, a technoeconomic analysis is presented in this paper, indicating the economic advantages of deploying the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the rapidly growing field of electrified transportation technology, hybrid electric and electric vehicle (HEV/EV) manufacturers have been placing increasing demands on the designers to improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of vehicle components to sustain a niche in the EV market. To understand the significance and challenges in an efficient and economical drivetrain design, this paper presents a part of an ongoing project that aims at developing a comprehensive study on dc/ac drive motor technology in EV applications. In this paper, a new three-level three-phase matrix converter topology, along with two conventional frequently used three-level three-phase dc/ac converter topologies, namely, diode-clamped and H-bridge converters, are implemented. Furthermore, comprehensive analysis and comparative studies are conducted to examine the performance and efficiency of these converter topologies according to EV design criteria. In addition, experimental investigations are carried out on the aforementioned converter configurations to help EV designers choose the most suitable converter topology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A 12-V motor drive system using an onboard battery is promising in vehicle applications, e.g., to rotate an air pump to adjust its air delivery to the burner, thereby providing autonomous exhaust temperature control for the conventional diesel engine vehicle. The 12-V/1-kW motor drive system proposed in this paper consists of a series-resonant LLC MOSFET full-bridge converter, which provides high-efficiency power transfer by implementing zero voltage switching and boosts the dc bus to $\sim$300 V, and an insulated-gate bipolar transistor inverter, which provides the high-side phase currents to a 1-kW/6000-r/min brushless dc motor (BLDC). This design secures the high efficiency, low cost, and low volume. Meanwhile, with the variable output voltage of this dc/dc converter, this paper realizes a commutation torque-ripple reduction method, which will minimize the mechanical vibration. Experimental results on this prototype system demonstrate that: 1) the LLC dc/dc part efficiency is 97.6% with 92% of the inverter efficiency; and 2) the motor commutation torque ripple is reduced close to zero. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in the ad hoc network, where access points (APs) with multiple antennas can transfer energy as well as information using a common spectrum resource. The receiving nodes decode the incoming information data (information decoding, ID) and/or harvest the RF energy (energy harvesting, EH), where two different receiving node architectures—time switching (TS) and power splitting (PS)—are considered. By using a stochastic geometry approach, we aim to analyze the transmission capacity and the harvested energy per unit area as performance measures of the SWIPT in the ad hoc network. From the analytical results, we can derive the optimal node densities of ID nodes and EH nodes for TS architectures and, furthermore, optimize the power splitting ratio jointly with the node density for the PS architectures such that the harvested energy per unit area is maximized when the target transmission capacity is given. The proposed node density optimization gives us a useful insight into the design of SWIPT-based ad hoc network, where we can show how densely the APs/nodes can be deployed in a given area and furthermore, find that the ad hoc network with PS receiving nodes outperforms that with TS receiving nodes for a large target transmission capacity, and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To overcome the problem that the balancing performance of existing switched-capacitor (SC) cell balancing systems drops along with the increase in the number of series-connected battery cells, a novel SC cell balancing circuit is presented in this paper. The same as other SC balancing systems, only a pair of complementary square-wave signals is required to control the proposed circuit. With resonant SC design, all switches employed in the proposed balancing circuit operate under zero-current switching. The equivalent model is derived to reveal the balancing performance of the proposed balancing circuit. The system feasibility and theoretical analysis are verified by both of simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an innovative method to minimize the intermediate dc-link capacitance in a cascaded two-stage combination of a three-phase six-switch power factor correction (PFC) and phase-shifted full-bridge (PSFB) dc/dc stage is introduced and analyzed. The proposed strategy has a significant impact on the minimization of the overall system weight and volume. Fundamentally, the method is based on minimizing the switching fundamental component of the dc-link current and is established by imposing a separate constraint on the phase duty ratios without compromising the unity PFC action. Furthermore, the control loop takes care of regulating the intermediate dc-link voltage along with the final output voltage. A 6 kW laboratory prototype of the integrated three-phase PFC and PSFB dc/dc as a part of auxiliary power unit in more-electric airplanes is developed and designed to validate the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show a conversion efficiency of 95.4% at full load, input total harmonic distortion of 4.1%, power factor of 0.998, output voltage ripple of ±1%, and a reduction of dc-link capacitor by 60%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the emerging automated tasks in vehicle domain, the development of in-vehicle communications is increasingly important and subjected to new applications. The use of vehicular power lines has been a promising alternative to in-vehicle communications because of elimination of extra data cables. In this paper, we focus on the latest HomePlug Green PHY (HPGP) and explore its opportunity to support time-critical in-vehicle applications. Specifically, we apply network calculus to evaluate the worst access and queuing delay of various priority flows in vehicle bus networks. In order to maximize the bandwidth utility and satisfy the end-to-end hard delay requirements, we further propose a bandwidth efficient fair rate scheduling and delay sensitive traffic shaper. Performance evaluation supplemented by numerical and simulation results is also provided to show the advantage of HPGP and the proposed traffic shaper over the existing industry solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the inverter nonlinearities in a drive system based on silicon carbide metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (SiC-mosfets) and compares its performance with that of an equivalent silicon insulated-gate bipolar transistor (Si-IGBT) system. Initially, a novel comprehensive analytical model of the inverter voltage distortion is developed. Not only voltage drops, dead time, and output capacitance, but also switching delay times and voltage overshoot of the power devices are taken into account in the model. Such a model yields a more accurate prediction of the inverter's output voltage distortion, and is validated by experimentation. Due to inherent shortcomings of the commonly used double pulse test, the switching characteristics of both SiC-mosfets and Si-IGBTs in the pulse width modulation inverter are tested instead, such that the actual performances of the SiC and Si devices in the motor drive system are examined. Then, the switching performance is incorporated into the physical model to quantify the distorted voltages of both the SiC-based and Si-based systems. The results show that, despite its existing nonlinearities, the SiC-based drive has lower voltage distortion compared to the conventional Si-based drive as a result of its shorter switching times and smaller voltage drop, as well as a higher efficiency. Finally, the overriding operational advantages of the SiC-based drive over its Si-based counterpart is fully demonstrated by comprehensive performance comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Inductive power transfer (IPT) technology has been approved to be convenient and reliable interface for charging and discharging the electric vehicles (EVs). Precise model for such system can help designers and researchers to anticipate, optimize, and evaluate its behavior amid the development. Thus, this paper presents a physics-based co-simulation platform for the bidirectional IPT system (BIPTS) in EVs’ applications. The platform is established through the coupling between finite element and circuit analysis. The power electronic converters and controllers are developed in Simulink; and the power pads are modeled in Magnet environment. The two parts are lined together through the compatible Simulink plug-in tool. In addition, a state-space dynamic mathematical model for the same BIPTS is derived and implemented in MATLAB environment. A 1.2 kW BIPTS is analyzed under different dynamics by both models and the results are compared. The effect of the nonlinearities and the magnetic material characteristics on the BIPTS's performance is assessed, in terms of errors and harmonics analysis. The analysis considered both the full and light loading operating conditions in the system. Finally, a small-scale prototype for a BIPTS is built, tested, and compared with the co-simulation results for verification purposes. The proposed co-simulation could provide accurate prediction for the system's dynamics, during both charging and discharging operation. The scheme is generic and can be easily expanded to different pad structures, compensation networks, and converter topologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

DC-link voltage fluctuation, originated from the single-phase power supply, has a significant impact on the railway traction drive system. Instead of employing a large LC filter to suppress the fluctuation, software solutions are of more interests, since they do not add additional components to the system. A state-of-the-art feedforward strategy predicts the dc-link voltage pattern based on its repetitive nature and directly modifies the duty cycle fed to the inverter to eliminate the impact of the fluctuation. Yet this strategy requires a symmetrical and consistent pulse pattern. In this paper, a compensation approach for synchronous space vector modulation with multiple pulse patterns is proposed. It utilizes the prediction of the dc-link voltage pattern and, based on the volt–second balancing principle, modifies the switching instants corresponding to different pulse patterns. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly eliminate the impact of the fluctuation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes an interleaved equalization architecture for series-connected lithium-ion battery strings, which can deliver energy from a battery module to the cells in the next adjacent battery module, resulting in an enhancement of the equalization current and efficiency. Particularly, the global equalization is achieved without the need of additional stage circuits to balance among modules, leading to a small size and low cost. A two-module equalizer based on resonant LC converter and buck converter with soft switching is implemented to verify the validity of the proposed interleaved architecture. Furthermore, a self-learning fuzzy logic control (SLFLC) algorithm is employed to online regulate the equalization period based on the voltage difference among cells and the cell voltage, not only greatly abbreviating the balancing time but also effectively preventing overequalization. The SLFLC has the outstanding advantages of high balancing precision, easy implementation, and strong robustness. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed equalizer has good balancing performances with soft switching and high efficiency, and achieves zero-voltage gap among cells. Moreover, the proposed SLFLC algorithm abridges the total equalization time by about 27%, and reduces the equalization cycles by about 59% compared with the traditional control algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a novel physical layer strategy to improve the secrecy performance of multiuser multiple-input single-output networks. In this strategy, orthogonal space-time block code (OSTBC) is employed at an A\text{A}-antenna base station and artificial noise (AN) is employed at an A\text{J} -antenna cooperative relay to enhance the security level of the network. Moreover, two opportunistic scheduling schemes, namely selection combining (SC) and scan-and-wait combining (SWC), are leveraged to select one legitimate user for data transmission. To evaluate the secrecy performance of the proposed OSTBC-SC-AN and OSTBC-SWC-AN schemes, we derive new exact closed-form expressions for the secrecy outage probability and the effective secrecy throughput. Using numerical results, we show that the OSTBC-SWC-AN scheme outperforms the OSTBC-SC-AN scheme when the switching threshold is carefully chosen, while the OSTBC-SC-AN scheme is independent of the switching threshold. We also show that increasing A\text{A} at a low switching threshold or decreasing A\rm{A} at a high switching threshold achieves secrecy enhancement for the OSTBC-SWC-AN scheme, while increasing A\rm{A} brings better secrecy performance for the OSTBC-SC-AN scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the pursuit of fuel economy improvement and emission reduction, a trajectory optimization-based engine multioperating-point control strategy is proposed in this paper for the auxiliary power unit (APU) in an extended range electric vehicle. This strategy design deeply considers the transient process of the operating point switching that somehow influences the engine fuel economy and emission, and was often ignored. First, a combined cost MAP fully integrating several indices, including fuel consumption rate, CO, HC, and NOx emissions, is presented to synthetically evaluate the effect of the operation trajectory. Then an improved genetic algorithm, in terms of computational load reduction and convergence improvement, is employed to optimize the engine trajectory in the transient operating point switching process of the APU system, so that it is able to perform with the best fuel consumption and emissions. Finally, simulated and experimental results indicate that the proposed control strategy has obvious improvements in fuel economy and emissions, compared with conventional ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anticipated explosion in the total data traffic load will impose to mobile network operators (MNOs) the necessity to densify their networks to provide coverage. At the same time, since MNOs plan their networks according to their high-peak traffic load, base station (BS) underutilization during the low traffic hours raises the issue of unnecessary power consumption and excessive cost. In this paper, we plan to study the energy and cost efficiency of a heterogeneous network (HetNet) that is a cooperation result of many MNOs. Each MNO is owner of a HetNet, composed of eNodeBs and small cells and they cooperate by sharing their infrastructure and by switching off a part of it. BS type and traffic load constitute switching off criteria and a roaming-cost-based user association scheme is used to roam traffic to neighboring BSs. We assess the cost alterations created by the possible MNO coalitions and we propose a bankruptcy game to allocate the obtained cost to the cooperative MNOs and to motivate them thus to maintain their sharing agreement instead of following a non-cooperative tactic. The bankruptcy game uses Shapley Value to portray each MNO's contribution to cost savings. The MNOs’ satisfaction from their payoffs (i.e., the allocated cost) and the overall fairness of the method are evaluated. According to the extracted results, the proposed switching off scheme achieves significant improvement of energy efficiency for the studied network, while the proposed bankruptcy game achieves a balanced and satisfactory cost allocation for different MNO traffic loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In heterogeneous networks, a dense deployment of base stations (BSs) leads to increased total energy consumption, and, consequently, increased cochannel interference (CCI). In this paper, to deal with this problem, self-organizing mechanisms are proposed, for joint channel and power allocation procedures, which are performed in a fully distributed manner. A dynamic channel allocation mechanism is proposed, in which the problem is modeled as a noncooperative game, and a no-regret learning algorithm is applied for solving the game. In order to improve the accuracy and reduce the effect of shadowing, we propose another channel allocation algorithm executed at each user equipment (UE). In this algorithm, each UE reports the channel with minimum CCI to its associated BS. Then, the BS selects its channel based on these received reports. To combat the energy consumption problem, BSs choose their transmission power by employing an on–off switching scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism, which is based on the second proposed channel allocation algorithm and combined with the on–off switching scheme, balances load among BSs. Furthermore, it yields significant performance gains up to about $40.3\%$, $44.8\%$ , and $70.6\%$ in terms of average energy consumption, UE's rate, and BS's load, respectively, compared to a benchmark based on an interference-aware dynamic channel allocation algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We consider an energy-harvesting cognitive radio (CR) system coexisting with an unslotted primary user (PU) system. The secondary user (SU) either harvests energy from the PU transmissions or transmits when the PU is sensed to be idle. In this paper, we optimize the sensing intervals to balance between energy harvesting and spectrum access, considering the PU traffic statistics that affects both the energy arrival and consumption in addition to the opportunistic spectrum access. We propose to use different sensing intervals if the SU decides to transmit or harvest energy. The harvesting and transmission durations can be used to optimize the tradeoff between maximizing the utilization of PU spectrum opportunities and harvesting sufficient energy to transmit. We determine a closed-form expression for the probability of SU being active as a function of the PU traffic statistics and SU's access and harvest durations. Optimal transmission and harvesting durations have been found to maximize the CR throughput while protecting the PU. Furthermore, we enhance the system capability by considering that the SU can choose to purchase energy from the PU during the discovered PU idle periods in addition to the energy harvested opportunistically. It can further exploit the difference in the PU busy and idle durations as per its energy needs. The average energy cost spent in a time slot is minimized to achieve a given SU transmission rate while adhering to the PU collision constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nonisolated single-stage on-board charger for electric vehicles has been proposed to increase system efficiency and power density in previous works. However, its ability to achieve high efficiency is limited by variations in the electric utility and battery, especially during the step-down operation. This paper proposes an advanced control algorithm that improves system efficiency in the step-down mode by controlling each switch asymmetrically using a phase-shift control. The proposed algorithm consists of only one controller, which prevents transient states from causing variations in the controller. The algorithm decreases the magnitude and ripple of the inductor current, which improves the charging efficiency by approximately 4.1% over at the 3.7-kW full load that of the conventional algorithm in the step-down mode, and measured total harmonic distortion and power factor are 3.2% and 0.995, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate the outage performance of a decode-and-forward (DF) relay system with two low-complexity relay selection schemes and interference at the relays and the destination. The schemes are mainly based on the switch-and-examine diversity combining (SEC) and SEC postexamine selection (SECps) techniques in which a relay out of multiple relays is selected to forward the source message to the destination. The selection process is performed such that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the second hop of the selected relay satisfies a predetermined switching threshold. In this paper, we first derive the probability density function (pdf) of the SNR of the relay selection scheme and the conditional cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the end-to-end (e2e) signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), assuming Rayleigh fading channels. The derived statistics, along with the statistics of first-hop channels of the relays and the direct link, are then used to derive a closed-form expression of the e2e outage probability. Maximal-ratio combining (MRC) is used at the destination to combine the signals from the relay and the direct link. Furthermore, the outage performance is studied at the high-SNR regime where approximate expressions for the outage probability, diversity order, and coding gain are derived and analyzed. Monte Carlo simulations and some numerical examples are provided to illustrate the validity of the derived results and to show the effect of interference and other parameters on the system performance. Main results illustrate that when the interference power is fixed, the system can still achieve some performance gain when more relays are added, particularly at SNR values that are comparable with the switching threshold. Asymptotic results show that at a high SNR, the system with the SEC and SECps relaying schemes achieves a diversity order of 2 and approximately the same coding gain. Finally, findings illustrate that the interference at the destination is more severe on the system performance compared with that at the relays. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel integrated synchronous buck converter for the auxiliary power supply system of electric vehicles, which achieves multiple independently regulated outputs with reduced switching components in comparison with the conventional separate buck converters. In order to obtain a better understanding of the proposed converter, operational principle and performance characteristics of a simplified dual-output buck converter are introduced in detail, as an example. The analysis shows that zero-voltage-switching operation and lower conduction losses could be attained. In addition, its dynamic behavior is similar to the conventional buck converter and thus the controller design is simple. Finally, experimental results based on a prototype circuit in which two inductors are integrated into one magnetic core to achieve further reduced cost are demonstrated to verify the advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An optimal spectrum handoff scheme for cognitive radio networks (CRNs) is presented in this paper. This scheme has two novel features: 1) Hybrid rule-based priority queuing model: To overcome the limitations of preemptive resume priority and nonpreemptive resume priority (PRP/NPRP) queuing models, a hybrid queuing model with discretion rule is proposed to characterize the spectrum access priority among secondary users (SUs). This hybrid queuing model is then used to calculate the channel waiting time during spectrum handoff; and 2) Multiteacher apprentice learning: Unlike existing CRN cognition engine designs that focus on spectrum adaptation through SU self-learning (i.e., an SU learns how to adapt to the dynamic CRN environment by itself), we propose the concept of multiteacher knowledge transfer, wherein the multiple SUs that already have mature spectrum adaptation strategies share their knowledge with an inexperienced SU. Our simulation results show that the proposed new designs improve the spectrum handoff accuracy for the complex CRN environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a new mathematical approach for the analysis and optimization of cellular-enabled low-energy mobile devices with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer capabilities is introduced. The proposed methodology relies on modeling the locations of the base stations as points of a spatial Poisson point process, and it leverages stochastic geometry for system-level analysis. The tradeoffs emerging from simultaneous wireless information and power transfer transmission are characterized through the concept of “feasibility regions” and are quantified through the joint cumulative distribution function of harvested power and rate. To gain insight on the achievable performance, in addition, an upper bound is proposed, and its accuracy is discussed. The system model encompasses a realistic channel model that accounts for line-of-sight (LOS) and non-LOS (NLOS) links, different cell association criteria, practical receivers based on time switching and power splitting schemes, and directional beamforming. The analysis shows that optimal values for the time switching and power splitting ratios exist and that directional beamforming and network densification are capable of enhancing system performance. More specifically, high directional antennas lead cellular networks to operate in the noise-limited regime, which is proved to provide optimal performance, and because of the existence of LOS and NLOS links, an optimal deployment density for the base stations is proven to exist for typical system setups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we characterize the achievable (linear) degrees of freedom (DoFs) of the K-user single-input single-output (SISO) interference channel with blind interference alignment (BIA) using staggered antenna switching. In this scheme, each transmitter is equipped with one conventional antenna, and each receiver is equipped with one reconfigurable (multimode) antenna. Assuming that the channel is known to the receivers only, we show that by using linear BIA with staggered antenna switching at the receiver, a sum DoF of \text{2}K/(K+\text{2}) is achievable. This result implies that in using BIA, we can double the DoF achieved by orthogonal multiple-access schemes for a large number of users. Moreover, we propose a systematic algorithm to generate the transmit beamforming vectors and the reconfigurable antenna switching patterns, showing that it can achieve the \text{2}K/(K+\text{2})$ sum DoF for any K$. Finally, we apply this algorithm to the four-user SISO interference channel and demonstrate that \text{4}/\text{3} sum DoF is indeed achievable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to an increasing in-vehicle electric load demand, a new 48-V electric system architecture proposed by German premier car manufacturers has been gaining increasing attention recently for electrified vehicles. In this paper, a multiple-voltage bus converter for the 48-V and existing 12-V dual supply system, providing additional flexible dc bus voltages, is proposed. The proposed converter can provide a dual flexible dc voltage bus and an additional dependent voltage bus while simultaneously managing the 12-V supply net using only one single-leg switch pole and a diode. The additional dc voltage buses will provide more options to accommodate variable electric load components in a vehicle, improving their power density. Due to the multiple control objectives, the single-leg pole requires a multimode switching strategy to regulate the additional bus voltages. To improve the onboard vehicle system reliability and performance, an impedance network structure is implemented in the converter to obtain a dead-time-free pulsewidth modulation (PWM). Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed structure and control method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Efficient utilization of wireless communication resources and increases in the capacity of the communication networks have become very crucial claims for next-generation cellular networks. Full-duplex (FD) is a very promising technique that allows for the efficient use of wireless communication resources, given that the self-interference level can be suppressed to an acceptable level. In this paper, we consider a simple FD communication system, consisting of one FD access point (AP) and two half-duplex (HD) mobile users, and investigate when it is more advantageous for the communication network to operate in FD or HD multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) mode. Since FD transmission is degraded by self-interference while HD suffers from spatial correlation between MIMO antennas, which causes rate loss, we study the effect of both the self-interference cancelation parameter at the FD AP and the mutual distance between the HD users on FD performances and the effect of the spatial correlation coefficient on HD MIMO. Afterward, a switching criterion is proposed, which chooses the operation mode that maximizes the downlink channel capacity while maintaining the uplink channel capacity at a certain level. Subsequently, based on our study of the system's parameters that affect the performance of both FD and HD, theoretical thresholds for these parameters are derived. Finally, numerical analysis is presented, verifying the validity of the optimization problem solution and the derived thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a distributed energy-saving management strategy for green cellular networks. During off-peak periods, an energy-saving operation is activated. A subset of base stations (BSs) in the network enters an energy-saving state, i.e., switched-off mode, while satisfying traffic demands without discontinuity of user services. To this end, the remaining operating BSs should compensate for the coverage holes by taking over the responsibility of user service. Such a scenario can be formulated into a combinatorial optimization that maximizes the overall energy savings of the network. To address this computationally demanding task, we develop a distributed algorithm that provides an efficient solution by using a state-of-the-art technique based on a message-passing framework. The simulation results confirm considerable energy-saving gains over previously existing techniques and prove the viability for this strategy for self-organizing green cellular networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna as a solution for beam pattern switching to implement blind interference alignment (BIA). The ESPAR antenna uses a single radio-frequency (RF) chain, and its beamforming is achieved by simply tuning the reactance loads of parasitic elements. Furthermore, ESPAR's beam pattern can be designed to enhance the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), thereby improving the performance of BIA. The focus of this work is the design of the ESPAR beam pattern to realize and improve BIA. In the first approach, each receiver ESPAR antenna dynamically selects the proper beam patterns from among the sector beam patterns, which are pre-designed to access different angular sectors with constant optimal antenna efficiency. We also propose a singular value decomposition (SVD) beamforming method, by means of the available channel state information at the receiver and a dynamic matching network for a high antenna efficiency. The simulation results illustrate the improvement of BIA with proposed methods, especially in the low and moderate SNR region, due to ESPAR's beamforming capability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the optimization of power control for the two-user interference channel in which the terminals are time-switched between the communication and energy-harvesting phases. The objective is to maximize the sum rate, subject to the minimum data and harvested energy constraints at the receivers, assuming a fixed time-switching coefficient. Our key contribution is a geometric approach that analyzes the feasible region governed by the constraints, which gives rise to the optimal power control solution. We assume that perfect channel state information is available at both transmitters to determine the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The emerging data traffic demand has caused a massive deployment of network infrastructure, including Base Stations (BSs) and Small Cells (SCs), leading to increased energy consumption and expenditures. However, the network underutilization during low traffic periods enables the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to save energy by having their traffic served by third party SCs, thus being able to switch off their BSs. In this paper, we propose a novel market approach to foster the opportunistic utilization of the unexploited SCs capacity, where the MNOs, instead of requesting the maximum capacity to meet their highest traffic expectations, offer a set of bids requesting different resources from the third party SCs at lower costs. Motivated by the conflicting financial interests of the MNOs and the third party, the restricted capacity of the SCs that is not adequate to carry the whole traffic in multi-operator scenarios, and the necessity for energy efficient solutions, we introduce a combinatorial auction framework, which includes i) a bidding strategy, ii) a resource allocation scheme, and iii) a pricing rule. We propose a multiobjective framework as an energy and cost efficient solution for the resource allocation problem, and we provide extensive analytical and experimental results to estimate the potential energy and cost savings that can be achieved. In addition, we investigate the conditions under which the MNOs and the third party companies should take part in the proposed auction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose an adaptive medium access control (MAC) solution for a fully connected mobile ad hoc network (MANET), supporting homogeneous best-effort data traffic. The MAC scheme achieves consistently high network performance by adapting to the ever-varying network traffic load. Based on the detection of a current network load condition, nodes can make a switching decision between IEEE 802.11 distributed coordination function (DCF) and dynamic time-division multiple access (D-TDMA), when the network traffic load reaches a threshold, referred to as MAC switching point. The adaptive MAC solution determines the MAC switching point to maximize network performance. Approximate and closed-form performance analytical models for both MAC protocols are established, which facilitate the computation of MAC switching point in a tractable way. Extensive analytical and simulation results demonstrate that the adaptive MAC solution provides consistently maximal network performance in the presence of traffic load dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Channel rendezvous is a vital step to form a cognitive radio network (CRN). It is intractable to guarantee rendezvous for secondary users (SUs) within a short finite time in asynchronous, heterogeneous, and anonymous CRNs. However, most previous heterogeneous algorithms rely on explicit SUs' identifiers (IDs) to guide rendezvous, which is not fully distributed. In this paper, we exploit the mathematical construction of sunflower sets to develop a single-radio sunflower set (SSS)-based pairwise rendezvous algorithm. We propose an approximation algorithm to construct disjoint sunflower sets. Then, the SSS leverages the variant permutations of elements in sunflower sets to adjust the order of accessing channels instead of SUs' IDs, which is more favorable for anonymous SUs in distributed environments. We also propose a multiradio-sunflower-set-based pairwise rendezvous algorithm to bring additional rendezvous diversity and accelerate the rendezvous process. Moreover, for the case with more than two SUs, we propose a multiuser collaborative scheme in which SUs cooperatively exchange and update their channel-hopping sequences until rendezvous. We derive the theoretical upper and lower bounds of rendezvous latency of the proposed algorithms. Extensive simulation comparisons with the state-of-the-art blind-rendezvous algorithms are conducted, incorporating the metrics of maximum and expected time-to-rendezvous. The simulation results show that our algorithms can achieve rendezvous faster than previous works. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In pocket switched networks (PSNs), devices carried by humans form a network environment, which utilizes both human mobility and occasional connectivity to deliver messages among mobile devices. Mobile phones are widely used in our daily lives. Therefore, the PSN composed of human-carried mobile phones will soon become an ubiquitous network environment. In this paper, we propose a communication strategy that applies the WiFi hotspot mode of a mobile phone in the PSN to realize the device-to-device communications. However, due to the lack of energy supply, a phone in hotspot mode could rapidly consume energy and shorten its battery lifetime significantly. To maximize the message dissemination scope within the limited energy constraint of each phone in PSNs, an Energy-efficient Phone-to-phone Communication method based on WiFi Hotspot (EPCWH) is presented to schedule the phone's switching between hotspot mode and client mode. Simulations based on the synthetic random-waypoint mobility pattern and real traces are conducted in an opportunistic network environment; the results show that EPCWH achieves the best performance in terms of message dissemination and energy consumption among different switching strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To improve the energy efficiency of small-cell networks, in this paper, we analyze the operating procedure of home base stations, i.e., Home evolved Node B (HeNB), in femtocells, by introducing an MAP/PH/1/k queueing model. In this analytical model, the HeNB's power on/off is represented as the alternative service and vacation periods. In addition, the hybrid-access mode defined in Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 9 is considered, which involves both high-priority and low-priority users. Based on the analytical results, an adaptive service rate and vacation length (ASV) method is proposed to maximize the HeNB's energy efficiency while satisfying its quality-of-service (QoS) requirements, such as blocking probability and user waiting time. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed ASV method is more effective in improving energy efficiency compared with its counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To process the power in hybrid energy systems using a reduced part count, researchers have proposed several multiinput dc–dc power converter topologies to transfer power from different input voltage sources to the output. This paper proposes a novel bidirectional nonisolated multi-input converter (MIC) topology for hybrid systems to be used in electric vehicles composed of energy storage systems (ESSs) with different electrical characteristics. The proposed converter has the ability to control the power of ESSs by allowing active power sharing. The voltage levels of utilized ESSs can be higher or lower than the output voltage. The inductors of the converter are connected to a single switch; therefore, the converter requires only one extra active switch for each input, unlike its counterparts, hence resulting in reduced element count. The proposed MIC topology is compared with its counterparts concerning various parameters. It is analyzed in detail, and then, this analysis is validated by simulation and through a 1-kW prototype based on a battery/ultracapacitor hybrid ESS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a cognitive radio network (CRN), a necessary condition for nodes to communicate with each other is that they have a rendezvous (switching to the same channel at the same time). Most of the existing rendezvous-guaranteed schemes have some undesired requirements, such as demanding role preassignment, a common control channel (CCC), or a synchronous environment. In this paper, we first define the complete rendezvous problem and then propose a staggered channel hopping scheme (SCH) to solve the complete rendezvous problem. The SCH utilizes the Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) to enable a node to have a rendezvous with any of its neighbors. We have proved the correctness of SCH through the CRT. We have also analyzed the performance of the SCH under some sample scenarios. Simulation results verify the superiority of the SCH in terms of time-to-rendezvous (TTR), standard deviation of TTR, and maximum TTR (MTTR). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A heterogeneous wireless network (HetNet), which combines multiple cooperating radio access technologies in an overlapping structure, is a communication system that has been recognized as an efficient way to meet the increasing traffic demand in broadband wireless networks. In this paper, we exploit the network cooperation in HetNets to propose two joint radio resource management (JRRM) schemes that improve energy savings while satisfying the system quality-of-service (QoS) performance requirements. First, we present an optimal QoS-aware energy-efficient JRRM scheme, which is formulated as a semi-Markov decision process model, and provide the optimal control policy for the HetNet under analysis. Second, we present an implementation-friendly QoS-aware energy-efficient JRRM scheme that utilizes a threshold on the macrocell radio resource occupancy to trigger the switching-on/off procedure of the base transceiver station resources, as well as a load-balancing procedure to minimize the service disruptions that may occur because of radio resource shortage and to reduce power consumption during the HetNet operation. This JRRM scheme is analyzed by means of a multidimensional continuous-time Markov chain model. Third, we devise an algorithm to determine the threshold setting in the implementation-friendly JRRM scheme according to a desirable power saving level that is prespecified by the mobile network operator. Numerical results show that the proposed schemes achieve substantial energy savings while keeping satisfactory performance levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]