This paper provides an overview of the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), more commonly known as drones, in wildfire management, particularly in wildfire detection, prevention and quick and efficient response. UAVs are one of the user products of the SILVANUS project, a Horizon 2020 project which proposes the implementation of an environmentally sustainable, integrated technological and information platform for wildfire management. One of the integral parts of the SILVANUS platform is the Mesh in the Sky, which is a communication system that allows drones to collect and transfer up-to-date information on wildfire threats in areas with no cellular or long-range network coverage. On the basis of this technical example, the paper shows how new technologies can provide reliable input in order to detect, prevent or efficiently respond to cases of dangerous wildfire.

The problem of multiple group object tracking is a challenging one and has been extensively researched during the last two decades. The problem solution, proposed in this article, is an extension of the well known multi-Bernoulli filter. The model is first formulated generally, then the linear Gaussian-Wishart implementation is proposed. Contrary to many known methods, which track either individual targets or groups, the proposed filter tracks individual objects and combines them into group tracks. The experiments on simulated data have shown a sustainable ability of the method to track group objects.

In our work we used the capability of one-class support vector machine (SVM) method to develop a novel one-class classification approach. Algorithm is designed and tested within the project SVETLANA aimed for fault detection in complex technological systems, such as aircraft. The main objective of this project was to create an algorithm responsible for collecting and analyzing the data since the launch of an aircraft engine. Data can be transferred from a variety of sensors that are responsible for the speed, oxygen level etc. In order to apply real time (in flight) application a recursive learning algorithm is proposed. The proposed method analyzes both “positive”/”normal” and “negative”/ “abnormal” examples The overall model structure is the same as an outlier-detection approach. The most important benefits of the new algorithm based on our algorithm are verified in comparison with several classifiers, including the traditional one-class SVM. This algorithm has been tested on real flight data from the USA, Western European as well as Russia. The test results are presented in the final part of the article.

In this paper, we propose a novel approach for video distribution over IEEE 802.16 networks for mobile Healthcare (m-Health) applications. The technique incorporates resource distribution, scheduling, and content-aware video streaming taking advantage of a flexible quality of service functionality offered by IEEE 802.16/WiMAX technology. The proposed technique is thoroughly investigated using network simulator software under various real-life m-Health scenarios, which include streaming video over medium access control layer service connections. It is shown that the technique is fully compatible with the WiMAX standard specification and allows a 9-16% increase in the overall network throughput, which is dependent upon the initial system configuration and the selection of WiMAX user parameters.

RF amplifier in a wireless communication system is usually non-linear in nature. If such an amplifier is used in OFDMA based systems, it will cause serious degradation. This degradation will be both in terms of the reduction in BER and the generation of out of band noise. In this paper we have worked on the linearization method of the amplifier. This work is on a hybrid methodology, in which estimation of the model is performed in frequency domain and compensation is performed in time domain. The downlink preamble of the IEEE802.16e system is used here for the estimation purpose. The results for the suppression of spectra are shown at the end.

In this article we investigate the application of IEEE 802.11 wireless standard to QoS (quality of service) support within wireless e-health/telemedicine services. The stringent requirements and real-time nature of medical application introduce the need for QoS provisioning in wireless medical networks. The quick delivery of a patient's measurements is an extremely important as well as reliability in terms of data delivery in the emergency care. Another important issue for wireless e-health applications is the mobility support. An ambulance, which is moving through different e-health domains, supporting different e-health applications the connectivity between the monitoring applications with the medical data source may be assured by the different wireless technologies. An overview of the e-health technologies and wireless telemedicine systems are presented and some open research problems are identified. A survey on QoS provisioning in wireless e-health, handoff schemes for QoS support in wireless networks, the scheme of priority for telemedicine/e-health services and techniques/methods for IEEE 802.11 to guarantee QoS is also provided. The simple e-health scenario is when the user has the possibility to have 'communication anywhere' within the mobile network. The technology which is in use has to provide services that would reduce patient journeys, hospital visits and hospital admissions, and would save the time of healthcare professionals, as well as would support individuals living at home and improve the quality or effectiveness of the care or treatment that is delivered. The basic requirements for the different types of application are presented spatially for the e-health/telemedicine services. To this end, we present emergency situation scenarios, designed as a possible e-health emergency scenario. Resource allocation for e-health application is inherited in many aspects including the offered services, traffic requirements, propagation's characteristics and network structure. Within medical networks delay is a critical factor, since there are many cases in which a communication should be timely in order to save the life of critical patient. This paper presents architecture and novel scenarios for QoS provisioning in emergency telemedicine. Some performance evaluation results are obtained by simulations.

The traditional layered-protocol architecture seems to be inefficient in wireless network environment as the wireless channel is time-varying in nature. The IEEE 802.16 standard which the WiMAX system is based upon is also designed according to such layered-protocol stacks. To obtain overall performance gain however, cross-layer optimization is essential. In this paper, we propose a cross-layer optimization architecture for WiMAX system. It consists of a cross-layer optimizer which acts as an interface between MAC and PHY layers. It gathers and optimized the parameters from both layers to achieve optimum performance gain. Preliminary simulations were conducted to justify the need for cross-layer optimization.

A novel coding scheme for collaborative coding multiple access is introduced for practical application, which permits improving performance with the use of turbo decoding.

A modification of Blahut algorithm is proposed for decoding of Reed-Solomon codes beyond half the minimum distance. An effective method is offered for the searching of unknown discrepancies needed for analytical continuation of the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm through two additional iterations. This reduces the search time compared to Blahut algorithm considerably. An architecture of a searcher for unknown discrepancies is given. The coding gain and implementation complexity of the proposed algorithm is shown for some practical codes.

A modification of the Blahut algorithm is proposed for decoding of Reed-Solomon codes beyond half the minimum distance. An effective method is offered for the searching of unknown discrepancies needed for analytical continuation of the Berlekamp-Massey algorithm through two additional iterations. This reduces the search time by 2(q-1)n/((n+t+1)(n-t)) times, compared with the Blahut algorithm. An architecture of a searcher for unknown discrepancies is given. The coding gain of the proposed algorithm is shown for some practical codes.

Turbo product codes (TPCs) provide an attractive alternative to recursive systematic convolutional (RSC)-based turbo systems. Rather than employ trellis-based decoders, an algebraic decoder may be repeatedly employed in a low-complexity, soft-input/soft-output errors-and-erasures decoder such as the Chase algorithm. Taking motivation from efficient forced erasure decoders, this implementation re-orders the Chase algorithm's repeated decodings such that the inherent computational redundancy is greatly reduced without degrading performance. The result is a highly efficient fast Chase implementation. The algorithm presented here is principally applicable to single error-correcting codes although consideration is also given to the more general case. The new decoder's value in practical turbo schemes is demonstrated via application to decoding of the (64,57,4) extended Hamming TPC.

A novel trellis design technique for both block and convolutional codes based on the Shannon (1956) product of component block codes is introduced. Using the proposed technique, structured trellises for block and convolutional codes have been designed. It is shown that the designed trellises are minimal and allow reduced complexity Viterbi decoding.