Multiobjective RF Communication Networks: Theory and Hardware Implementation

Communication networks play a central role in many fields of modern technology, from industry to agriculture, to defense, to development of urban or rural areas. Regardless of the medium this dissertation is found on, either paper or a digital copy, it was brought to your hands thanks to an exchange of information between my computer and some server closer to your location. Even more with the evolution of cell phones and the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), reliable, resilient and high speed networks are the backbone of modern society. By virtue of the pivotal role of networks, great focus is placed on the optimization of their cost. The cost of a network can be expressed in terms of several different factors: the cost of adding a node, the cost of transmitting a signal from a node to the other, the cost of reorganizing the network if a node fails, to name a few. If nodes have to perform additional tasks, possibly unrelated to communication, additional costs may need to be considered, and the resources of the underlying system may need to be shared between conflicting activities. Conflict, in this case, is defined as the tendency of two or more cost functions to have the same trend (decreasing or increasing) when the same system resource is consumed. Optimization of multiple concurrent costs, also known as Multi-objective optimization, is a branch of mathematics that generalizes single cost optimization, and to do so it introduces specific definitions and tools. This manuscript contributes to research on optimization of communication networks in two ways: on one side, by focusing on general algorithms that provide a quantitative guidance for network designers, to build a network that simultaneously optimizes some selected concurrent costs. On the other side, by developing a hardware solution that realizes a very specific transmission scheme for an individual network node: beamforming. Instead of a single antenna broadcasting information in the spatial directions dictated by its design, beamforming entails a system of antennas that collectively enhance broadcasting only in selected directions, exploiting constructive and destructive interference of the electromagnetic field. Beamforming has the advantage of focusing transmission power, limiting both energy waste and eavesdropping of information. Beamforming is widely used in radars and satellites, and in smaller scale, also in cellphones.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Electrical Engineering

Grantor

University of Houston

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Bernardini, Francesco 1983-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Becker, Aaron T

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Onofrei, Daniel
• Jackson, David R
• Leclerc, Julien
• Chen, Jinghong
• Chen, Yuhua
• Ordonez, Carlos R.

• Electrical engineering
• Computer engineering

Language dc:language.iso

English

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10657/20707

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uh-ir.tdl.org:10657/20707