Jan Kral

Proportional counters filled with hydrogen are suitable for fast neutron detection and spectrometry. As their sensitivity is not limited only to this type of ionizing radiation as desired, an approach suitable for event discrimination was investigated. Several counters of the given construction were subjected to various radiation fields and the effort was directed to the examination of pulse-shape discrimination method intended to distinguish neutrons from gamma rays and parasitic events (microdischarges) if these also occurred. Rising edge duration of the output pulses and their amplitudes were mapped into diagrams enabling visual discrimination while the criteria for further computational processes are to be determined. Pulse waveforms from charge-sensitive preamplifier with the proportional counters connected were recorded using an FPGA-based custom-build acquisition unit and then post-processed. Moreover, the possibility of operation verification and energy calibration based on the introduction of helium-3 admixture into the gas filling was studied, as well as the energy resolution abilities. Also, the theoretical basis for particle discrimination is presented in the form of description of events and principles involved.

In the past decade, Long-Range Wire-Area Network (LoRaWAN) has emerged as one of the most widely adopted Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) standards. Significant efforts have been devoted to optimizing the operation of this network. However, research in this domain heavily relies on simulations and demands high-quality real-world traffic data. To address this need, we monitored and analyzed LoRaWAN traffic in four European cities, making the obtained data and post-processing scripts publicly available. For monitoring purposes, we developed an open-source sniffer capable of capturing all LoRaWAN communication within the EU868 band. Our analysis discovered significant issues in current LoRaWAN deployments, including violations of fundamental security principles, such as the use of default and exposed encryption keys, potential breaches of spectrum regulations including duty cycle violations, SyncWord issues, and misaligned Class-B beacons. This misalignment can render Class-B unusable, as the beacons cannot be validated. Furthermore, we enhanced Wireshark’s LoRaWAN protocol dissector to accurately decode recorded traffic. Additionally, we proposed the passive reception of Class-B beacons as an alternative timebase source for devices operating within LoRaWAN coverage under the assumption that the issue of misaligned beacons can be addressed or mitigated in the future. The identified issues and the published dataset can serve as valuable resources for researchers simulating real-world traffic and for the LoRaWAN Alliance to enhance the standard to facilitate more reliable Class-B communication.

Interference between users in adjacent channels negatively affects throughput of mobile networks. In this paper we aim at cancellation of interference caused by a nonlinear power amplifier in a generalized orthogonal frequency division system. We propose an interference cancellation method to subtract these out-of-band emissions from the received signal. In contrast to state-of-the-art methods, our proposed method employs over-the-air estimation of power amplifier model parameters together with a particular frequency domain filtering method that allows to generate the required training data. The proposed interference cancellation method is also verified by an experiment on a software defined radio test bench.

In modern communication systems advanced techniques such as digital predistortion (DPD) are required to satisfy stringent demands on transmitter linearity and efficiency. DPD, however, increases the hardware and computational complexity of transmitters. In this article we show that the computational complexity of DPD adaptation can be drastically reduced if a low number of samples is properly selected for DPD adaptation. For this purpose we propose methods of sample selection for DPD adaptation. Among the proposed methods, the highest computational complexity reduction is achieved by a method based on the histogram of signal magnitudes, optimised with respect to characteristics of the radio frequency power amplifier and of the transmitted signal. Simulations indicate that this proposed method can reduce the computational complexity of DPD adaptation by a factor of up to 400 while the linearisation performance of conventional methods is preserved. Besides simulations for three models of distinct power amplifiers, measurements on a real power amplifier further verify the linearisation capabilities of the proposed methods.