Journal of Communications and Information Networks
Print ISSN 2096-1081 CN 10-1375/TN
Editor-in-Chief: Wei Zhang
It is mainly deals with models of wireless communication channels, and in particular with the difficulty of finding an exact model which is both mathematically easy to deal with and physically accurate. It is argued that a certain amount of uncertainty necessarily following the use of inaccurate channel models should be accepted, and suitable tools used to evaluate its effects on analysis and design. With our approach, lower and upper bounds on required performance parameters are derived under no assumption of exact knowledge of the underlying probability distributions, and model uncertainty effects are propagated throughout calculations. Sepcial attention is given to the derivation of upper and lower bounds on system performance when this is determined by random variables whose dependence is not exactly known.
IoV (Internet of Vehicles) is a promising paradigm to the future of automobiles, which will undoubtedly boost the automobile market as well as accelerate innovation in Internet services and applications. The concept of SD-IoV (Software Defined IoV) is presented, which is capable of improving resource utilization, service quality, and network optimization in the harsh vehicular network environments. First, A generalized SD-IoV architecture as an intuitive big picture is presented. Then, the major functions realized by SD-IoV are elabrated on to illustrate how the current challenges are resolved. As the key enablers of SD-IoV, three possible implementation methods of the wireless control path are described and compared. Finally, the challenges and existing solutions of SD-IoV are disuessed and open issues are pointed out so as to shed light on future research.
Cloud-based video communication and networking has emerged as a promising new research paradigm to significantly improve the quality of experience for video consumers. An architectural overview of this promising research area was presented. This overview with an end-to-end partition of the cloud-based video system into major blocks with respect to their locations from the center of the cloud to the edge of the cloud was started. Following this partition, existing research efforts on how the principles of cloud computing can provide unprecedented support to 1) video servers, 2) content delivery networks, and 3) edge networks within the global cloud video ecosystems were examined. Moreover, a case study was exemplfied on an edge cloud assisted HTTP adaptive video streaming to demonstrate the effectiveness of cloud computing support. Finally, by envisioning a list of future research topics in cloud-based video communication and networking a coclusion is made.
The 5G (fifth generation) mobile communications aim to support a large versatile type of services with different and often diverging requirements, which has posed significant challenges on the design of 5G systems. Modulation and waveforms are one of the key physical layer componentsthat determine the system throughput, reliability, and complexity, therefore their design is critical in meeting the variety requirements of 5G services. A comprehensive overview was presented on the modulation and waveforms that have been considered for their potential application to 5G in the literature, identifying their design requirements, and discussing their advantages to meet such requirements. Additional considerations that extend our view to higher layer aspects and air interface harmonization are provided as the final remarks. As a result of this article, it is hopeful to draw greater attentions from the readers on this important topic, and trigger further studies on the promising modulation and waveform candidates.
Free-space optical communication and space optical information network offer many more superiorities over optical fiber, RF, or microwaves communication techniques, with higher data transfer rate, smaller platforms to launch and lower costs. A comprehensive overview on the architectures of the space high-speed optical information network was provided. In fundamental system, networking approach and operation mechanisms of the space optical information network were fully emphasized to be discussed a lot. The interactions of light waves and microwave network have been outlined. A blueprint for space optical information network technology is presented to be used in various communication fields in the future.
SIN (Space Information Network) is expected to play an increasing role in providing real-time, flexible, and integrated communication and data transmission services in an efficient manner. Nowadays, SIN has been widely developed for position navigation, environment monitor, traffic management, counter-terrorism, etc. However, security is a major concern in SIN, since the satellites, spacecrafts, and aircrafts are susceptible to a variety of traditional/specific network-based attacks, including eavesdropping, session hijacking, and illegal accessing. The network architecture and security issues of SIN were reviewed. Various security requirements were discussed that should be considered when designing SIN. And existing solutions proposed to meet these requirements were surveyed. The key challenges and key technologies that still require extensive research and development for securing SIN were indentifed.
Given the emerging problems of today’s Internet, many new Internet architectures have been proposed by the networking community. In general, the new approaches can be categorized into two types: evolutionary approaches and clean-slate approaches. The representative evolutionary solution is IPv6, while representative clean-slate approaches are NDN (Named Data Networking), MobilityFirst, NEBULA, XIA (Expressive Internet Architecture), and SDN (Software-Defined Networking). A comprehensive survey of these approaches are presented. Additionally, a novel network architecture that we recently proposed: ADN (Address-Driven Networking) is described, which intends to address the challenges faced by today’s Internet via the flexible and innovative utilization of IP addresses.
The rapid development of the IoT (Internet of Things) is bringing about a functional change of communication networks from “information transmission” to “information service”. First, the conception and characteristics of the IoT are introduced, i. e. , an Internet of humans, machines, and things meant to achieve smart information services. Then, the technology requirements for realizing ubiquitous and smart information services are described. The corresponding key technologies are also discussed, including the integration of communications, computing and control technology (3C), heterogeneous network fusion theory and technology, intelligent sensor technology and short-distance networking theory, large-scale network transmission theory and technology, the network virtualization and intelligent computing technology geared toward information service, and the collaborative network system and service model geared to the application of the IoT. Finally, the development trends of information technologies and information networks in the next five to ten years are analyzed, and give some suggestions for main research areas to be explored and key issues to be resolved.
It is not difficult to predict that wireless data traffic will continue to grow and new cellular systems are to be built to provide higher data rates. Thus, for 5G (fifth generation) cellular systems, various approaches are studied including millimeterwave (mm-wave) communications and HetNets (Heterogeneous Networks) with small cells. In mm-wave bands, since a much wider bandwidth is available, higher data rates can be achieved. However, mm-wave transmissions suffer from blockage. In order to take advantage of a wide bandwidth in mm-wave bands with mitigating the blockage problem, A HetNet consisting of micro-wave Base Stations (BSs) for macro cells and mm-wave BSs for small cells were consider and its energy efficiency in terms of the communication range of mm-wave BSs were studied . It is shown that the optimal communication range of mmwave BSs can improve the energy efficiency.
Near space airships have gained widespread attention owing to the unique characteristics of long endurance at high altitudes; because of this characteristic, such airships have great potential for use in the fields of communication relay, early warning, earth observation etc. Near space airships can substitute near-earth geostationary satellites owing to the advantages of high load and long endurance at altitude exceeding 20 km. Buoyancy against gravity is generated by the airship hull, which is completely filled with helium, while the near space airship is equipped with an electrical propulsion system powered by solar energy. Unlike conventional aircraft, nearspace airships are a new type of vehicles with less design experience; coupled multidisciplinary problems related to aerodynamics, structure, energy, control, etc. exist. With the aim of finding a solution for optimal near -space airship design, this study proposed a design using a multidisciplinary design optimization method.
The attenuation of microwave signals due to rainfall, known as rain attenuation, can be used to measure rain. Similar to using X-ray to carry out human-body CT scans, the microwave signals of low earth and/or medium earth orbit satellites are proposed for carrying out 3D (Three Dimensional) rainfall tomography in this paper. The proposed method will not only complement the three major rain measurement methods in use today (i. e. rain gauge, weather radar, and weather satellite) but also potentially achieve 3D rainfall measurements with precision and coverage unachievable before. Along with the deployment of low earth orbit satellite constellations (e. g. the OneWeb constellation) for global broadband Internet services, small satellite receivers of the size of a pizza box may be used to achieve 3D rainfall tomography anywhere on the Earth, thereby paving the way for many practical applications and atmospheric research that are associated with rainfall.
