Search

Proof of Work (PoW) based blockchains have limitations in throughput, time consumption, and energy efficiency. In these systems, a miner will consume significant time and resources to obtain a reward for contributing to the blockchain. To overcome these limitations, recent research on blockchains are focused on accelerating the speed, scalability, and enhancing the security level. By enhancing specific procedures of blockchain system, the level of data integrity supported by the blockchain can become more robust, and efficient. In this paper, a new blockchain consensus model based on the Bryllite Consensus Protocol (BCP) is proposed to support a hyper-connected massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) ecosystem. The BCP scheme enables users to participate directly in new consensus processes through a Proof of Participation (PoP) algorithm. In this model, the consensus algorithm has a simpler form while maintaining high security level. In addition, because the BCP scheme gives users an equal chance to make a contribution to the blockchain, rewards are distributed in an equal fashion, which motivates user participation. The analysis of the proposed scheme is applied to the Bryllite consortium blockchain system (homed in Hong Kong), which is a new blockchain network developed for international game industries, gamers, and game events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of augmented reality (AR) applications and games are in high demand. Currently, the best common platform to implement AR services is on a smartphone, as online games, navigators, personal assistants, travel guides are among the most popular applications of smartphones. However, the power consumption of an AR application is extremely high, and therefore, highly adaptable and dynamic low power control schemes must be used. Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) schemes are widely used in smartphones to minimize the energy consumption by controlling the device's operational frequency and voltage. DVFS schemes can sometimes lead to longer response times, which can result in a significant problem for AR applications. In this paper, an AR response time monitor is used to observe the time interval between the AR image input and device's reaction time, in order to enable improved operational frequency and AR application process priority control. Based on the proposed response time monitor and the characteristics of the Linux kernel's completely fair scheduler (CFS) (which is the default scheduler of Android based smartphones), a response time step control (RSC) scheme is proposed which adaptively adjusts the CPU frequency and interactive application's priority. The experimental results show that RSC can reduce the energy consumption up to 10.41% compared to the ondemand governor while reliably satisfying the response time performance limit of interactive applications on a smartphone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of high-speed railway technologies, train velocities can now reach speeds up to 350 km/h, and higher in the future. In high-speed railway systems (HSRs), loss of communication can result in serious accidents, especially when the train is controlled through wireless communications. For to this reason, operators of Long Term Evolution for Railway (LTE-R) communication systems install eNodeBs (eNBs) with high density to achieve highly reliable communications. However, densely located eNBs can result in unnecessary frequent handovers (HOs) resulting in instability because, during every HO process, there is a period of time in which the communication link is disconnected. To solve this problem, in this paper, an HO scheme based on the maximum cell residence time (CRT) and adaptive time to trigger (aTTT), which are collectively called CaT, is proposed to reduce unnecessary HOs (using CRT estimations) and decrease HO failures by improving the handover command transmission point (HCTP) in LTE-R HSR communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectrum sharing in centrally controlled cognitive radio (CR) networks has been widely studied, however, research on channel access for distributively controlled individual cognitive users has not been fully characterized. This paper conducts an analysis of random channel access of cognitive users controlled in a distributed manner in a CR network. Based on the proposed estimation method, each cognitive user can estimate the current channel condition by using its own Markov-chain model and can compute its own blocking probability, collision probability, and forced termination probability. Using the proposed scheme, CR with distributed control (CR-DC), CR devices can make self-controlled decisions based on the status estimations to adaptively control its system parameters to communicate better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accuracy of an augmented reality (AR) application is highly dependent on the resolution of the object's image and the device's computational processing capability. Naturally, a mobile smart device equipped with a high-resolution camera becomes the best platform for portable AR services. AR applications require significant energy consumption and very fast response time, which are big burdens to the smart device. However, there are very few ways to overcome these burdens. Computation offloading via mobile cloud computing has the potential to provide energy savings and enhance the performance of applications executed on smart devices. Therefore, in this paper, adaptive mobile computation offloading of mobile AR applications is considered in order to determine optimal offloading points that satisfy the required quality of experience (QoE) while consuming minimum energy of the smart device. AR feature extraction based on SURF algorithm is partitioned into sub-stages in order to determine the optimal AR cloud computational offloading point based on conditions of the smart device, wireless and wired networks, and AR service cloud servers. Tradeoffs in energy savings and processing time are explored also taking network congestion and server load conditions into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image projectors can turn any surface into a display. Integrating a surface projection with a user interface transforms it into an interactive display with many possible applications. Hand gesture interfaces are often used with projector-camera systems. Hand detection through color image processing is affected by the surrounding environment. The lack of illumination and color details greatly influences the detection process and drops the recognition success rate. In addition, there can be interference from the projection system itself due to image projection. In order to overcome these problems, a gesture interface based on depth images is proposed for projected surfaces. In this paper, a depth camera is used for hand recognition and for effectively extracting the area of the hand from the scene. A hand detection and finger tracking method based on depth images is proposed. Based on the proposed method, a touch interface for the projected surface is implemented and evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of IEEE 802.11e enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) is influenced by several interactive parameters that make quality of service (QoS) control complex and difficult. In EDCA, the most critical performance influencing parameters are the arbitration interframe space (AIFS) and contention window size (CW) of each access category (AC). The objective of this paper is to provide a scheme for parameter control such that the throughput per station as well as the overall system throughput of the network is maximized and controllable. For this purpose, a simple and accurate analytical model describing the throughput behavior of EDCA networks is presented in this paper. Based on this model, the paper further provides a scheme in which a Pareto optimal system configuration is obtained via an appropriate CW control for a given AIFS value, which is a different approach compared to relevant papers in the literature that deal with CW control only. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method which shows significant performance improvements compared to other existing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relay technology is becoming more important for mobile communications and wireless internet of things (IoT) networking because of the extended access network coverage range and reliable quality of service (QoS) it can provide at low power consumption levels. Existing mobile multihop relay (MMR) technology uses fixed-point stationary relay stations (RSs) and a divided time-frame (or frequency-band) to support the relay operation. This approach has limitations when a local fixed-point stationary RS does not exist. In addition, since the time-frame (or frequency-band) channel resources are pre-divided for the relay operation, there is no way to achieve high channel utilization using intelligent opportunistic techniques. In this paper, a different approach is considered, where the use of mobile/IoT devices as RSs is considered. In applications that use mobile/IoT devices as relay systems, due to the very limited battery energy of a mobile/IoT device and unequal channel conditions to and from the RS, both minimum energy consumption and QoS support must be considered simultaneously in the selection and configuration of RSs. Therefore, in this paper, a mobile RS is selected and configured with the objective of minimizing power consumption while satisfying end-to-end data rate and bit error rate (BER) requirements. For the RS, both downlink (DL) to the destination system (DS) (i.e., IoT device or user equipment (UE)) and uplink (UL) to the base station (BS) need to be adaptively configured (using adaptive modulation and power control) to minimize power consumption while satisfying the end-to-end QoS constraints. This paper proposes a minimum transmission power consuming RS selection and configuration (MPRSC) scheme, where the RS uses cognitive radio (CR) sub-channels when communicating with the DS, and therefore the scheme is named MPRSC-CR. The proposed MPRSC-CR scheme is activated when a DS moves out of the BS's QoS supportive coverage range. In this case, data transmissions between the RS and BS use the assigned primary channel that the DS had been using, and data transmissions between the RS and DS use CR sub-channels. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed MPRSC-CR scheme extends the coverage range of the BS and minimizes the power consumption of the RS through optimal selection and configuration of a RS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]