arXiv subjects

Benjamin Rainer

Publications and source records attributed to Benjamin Rainer.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Multi parameter identification in the nonlinear periodic Westervelt equation

Nonlinear ultrasound imaging leverages harmonic wave generation to enhance contrast and spatial resolution beyond the capabilities of conventional linear techniques. This behavior is commonly modeled by the Westervelt equation, which captures finite-amplitude acoustic wave propagation in heterogeneous media. In this work, we investigate an inverse problem for a periodic nonlinear Westervelt equation in $\mathbb{R}^d$, where $d\in\{2,3\}$ with spatially varying coefficients and Robin-type boundary conditions. The objective is to simultaneously reconstruct the sound speed, diffusivity, and nonlinearity parameters from (partial) boundary measurements. We first establish the Fr\'echet differentiability of the forward solution operator with respect to the unknown parameters, providing a rigorous analytical foundation for parameter identification. To address uniqueness, we introduce a reference-state framework and prove linearized uniqueness of an all-at-once forward operator without requiring the reference states to satisfy the governing equation. Building on these results, we develop an iterative reconstruction scheme based on a frozen Newton-type method, supported by an exact range invariance property. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the feasibility and performance of the proposed approach.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

Existence, uniqueness, and numerical solutions of the nonlinear periodic Westervelt equation

In this paper, we study the nonlinear periodic Westervelt equation with excitations located within a bounded domain in $\mathbb{R}^d$, where $d \in \{2,3\}$, subject to Robin boundary conditions. This problem is of particular interest for advancing imaging techniques that exploit nonlinearity of the acoustic propagation. We establish the existence and uniqueness of solutions in both the linear and the nonlinear setting, thereby allowing for spatially varying coefficients as relevant in quantitative imaging. Derivation of a multiharmonic formulation enables us to show the generation of higher harmonics (that is, responses at multiples of the fundamental frequency) due nonlinear wave propagation. An iterative scheme for solving the resulting system is proposed that relies on successive resolution of these higher harmonics, and its convergence under smallness conditions on the excitation is proven. Furthermore, we investigate the numerical solution of the resulting system of Helmholtz equations, employing a conforming finite element method for its discretization. Through an implementation of the proposed methodology, we illustrate how acoustic waves propagate in nonlinear media. This study aims to enhance our understanding of ultrasound propagation dynamics, which is essential for obtaining high-quality images from limited in vivo and boundary measurements.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

Ray Tracing Algorithm for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

Ray tracing accelerated with graphics processing units (GPUs) is an accurate and efficient simulation technique of wireless communication channels. In this paper, we extend a GPU-accelerated ray tracer (RT) to support the effects of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). To evaluate the electric field, we derived a RIS path loss model that can be integrated into a RT and enables further extensions for the implementation of additional features and incorporation into complex reflective scenarios. We verify the derivation and implementation of our model by comparison with empirical measurements in a lab environment. We demonstrate the capabilities of our model to support higher-order reflections from the RIS to the receiver. We find that such components have a significant effect on the received signal strength, concluding that the extensions of advanced functionality enabled by our model play an important role in the accurate modeling of radio wave propagation in an environment including RISs.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2023

Frame Error Rate Prediction for Non-Stationary Wireless Vehicular Communication Links

Wireless vehicular communication will increase the safety of road users. The reliability of vehicular communication links is of high importance as links with low reliability may diminish the advantage of having situational traffic information. The goal of our investigation is to obtain a reliable coverage area for non-stationary vehicular scenarios. Therefore we propose a deep neural network (DNN) for predicting the expected frame error rate (FER). The DNN is trained in a supervised fashion, where a time-limited sequence of channel frequency responses has been labeled with its corresponding FER values assuming an underlying wireless communication system, i.e. IEEE 802.11p. For generating the training dataset we use a geometry-based stochastic channel model (GSCM). We obtain the ground truth FER by emulating the time-varying frequency responses using a hardware-in-the-loop setup. Our GSCM provides the propagation path parameters which we use to fix the statistics of the fading process at one point in space for an arbitrary amount of time, enabling accurate FER estimation. Using this dataset we achieve an accuracy of 85% of the DNN. We use the trained model to predict the FER for measured time-varying channel transfer functions obtained during a measurement campaign. We compare the predicted output of the DNN to the measured FER on the road and obtain a prediction accuracy of 78%.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2021

Multi-Node Vehicular Wireless Channels: Measurements, Large Vehicle Modelling, and Hardware-in-the-Loop Evaluation

Understanding multi-node vehicular wireless communication channels is crucial for future time-sensitive safety applications for human-piloted as well as partly autonomous vehicles on roads, railways and in the air. These highly dynamic wireless communication channels are characterized by rapidly changing channel statistics. In this paper we present the first fully mobile multi-node vehicular wireless channel sounding system, which is capable of simultaneously capturing multiple channel frequency responses, ensuring that measurement conditions are identical for all observed links. We use it to analyze road scenarios with multiple vehicles and a large obstructing double-decker bus. The empirical measurement data is used to parametrize a model for the large obstructing vehicle within a geometry-based stochastic channel model. We compare the time-variant channel statistics obtained from our channel model with the ones from the measurement campaign. By means of a channel emulator we obtain the packet error rates of commercial modems for the measured and the simulated wireless communication channels and compare them, in order to validate the model at the link level. We find that the path loss, the root mean square (RMS) delay spread, and the RMS Doppler spread deviate by less than $3.6\,\mathrm{dB}$, $78\,\mathrm{ns}$, and $52\,\mathrm{Hz}$, respectively, for $80\%$ of the total simulation duration. The PER obtained from measured data is within the maximum and minimum bounds of our model for $86\%$ of the simulation duration.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2021

Towards a Performance Model for Byzantine Fault Tolerant (Storage) Services

Byzantine fault-tolerant systems have been researched for more than four decades, and although shown possible early, the solutions were impractical for a long time. With PBFT the first practical solution was proposed in 1999 and spawned new research which culminated in novel applications using it today. Although the safety and liveness properties of PBFT-type protocols have been rigorously analyzed, when it comes to practical performance only empirical results - often in artificial settings - are known and imperfections on the communication channels are not specifically considered. In this work we present the first performance model for PBFT specifically considering the impact of unreliable channels and the use of different transport protocols over them. We also did extensive simulations to verify the model and to gain more insight on the impact of deployment parameters on the overall transaction time. We show that the usage of UDP can lead to significant speedup for PBFT protocols compared to TCP when tuned accordingly even over lossy channels. Finally, we compared the simulation to a real implementation and measure the benefits of a developed improvement directly. We found that the impact on the design of the network layer has been overlooked in the past but offers some additional room for improvement when it comes to practical performance. In this work we are focusing on the optimistic case with no node failures, as this is hopefully the most relevant situation.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2020

Real-Time Vehicular Wireless System-Level Simulation

Future automation and control units for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) will exchange sensor and kinematic data with nearby vehicles using wireless communication links to improve traffic safety. In this paper we present an accurate real-time system-level simulation for multi-vehicle communication scenarios to support the development and test of connected ADAS systems. The physical and data-link layer are abstracted and provide the frame error rate (FER) to a network simulator. The FER is strongly affected by the non-stationary doubly dispersive fading process of the vehicular radio communication channel. We use a geometry-based stochastic channel model (GSCM) to enable a simplified but still accurate representation of the non-stationary vehicular fading process. The propagation path parameters of the GSCM are used to efficiently compute the time-variant condensed radio channel parameters per stationarity region of each communication link during run-time. Five condensed radio channel parameters mainly determine the FER forming a parameter vector: path loss, root mean square delay spread, Doppler bandwidth, $K$-factor, and line-of-sight Doppler shift. We measure the FER for a pre-defined set of discrete grid points of the parameter vector using a channel emulator and a given transmitter-receiver modem pair. The FER data is stored in a table and looked up during run-time of the real-time system-level simulation. We validate our methodology using empirical measurement data from a street crossing scenarios demonstrating a close match in terms of FER between simulation and measurement.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2018

On the Resilience of a QKD Key Synchronization Protocol for IPsec

This paper presents a practical solution to the problem of limited bandwidth in Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)- secured communication through using rapidly rekeyed Internet Protocol security (IPsec) links. QKD is a cutting-edge security technology that provides mathematically proven security by using quantum physical effects and information theoretical axioms to generate a guaranteed non-disclosed stream of encryption keys. Although it has been a field of theoretical research for some time, it has only been producing market-ready solutions for a short period of time. The downside of this technology is that its key generation rate is only around 52,000 key bits per second over a distance of 50 km. As this rate limits the data throughput to the same rate, it is substandard for normal modern communications, especially for securely interconnecting networks. IPsec, on the other hand, is a well-known security protocol that uses classical encryption and is capable of exactly creating site-to-site virtual private networks. This paper presents a solution that combines the performance advantages of IPsec with QKD. The combination sacrifices only a small portion of QKD security by using the generated keys a limited number of times instead of just once. As a part of this, the solution answers the question of how many data bits per key bit make sensible upper and lower boundaries to yield high performance while maintaining high security. While previous approaches complement the Internet Key Exchange protocol (IKE), this approach simplifies the implementation with a new key synchronization concept, proposing a lightweight protocol that uses relatively few, slim control messages and sparse acknowledgement. Furthermore, it provides a Linux-based module for the AIT QKD software using the Netlink XFRM Application Programmers Interface to feed the quantum key to the IP***ABSTRACT TRUNCATED TO 1920 CHARS***

cs.CR↗

arXiv2016

Which Adaptation Logic? An Objective and Subjective Performance Evaluation of HTTP-based Adaptive Media Streaming Systems

Multimedia content delivery over the Internet is predominantly using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) as its primary protocol and multiple proprietary solutions exits. The MPEG standard Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) provides an interoperable solution and in recent years various adaptation logics/algorithms have been proposed. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive evaluation of the various logics/algorithms. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of ten different adaptation logics/algorithms, which have been proposed in the past years. The evaluation is done both objectively and subjectively. The former is using a predefined bandwidth trajectory within a controlled environment and the latter is done in a real-world environment adopting crowdsourcing. The results shall provide insights about which strategy can be adopted in actual deployment scenarios. Additionally, the evaluation methodology described in this paper can be used to evaluate any other/new adaptation logic and to compare it directly with the results reported here.

cs.MM↗

arXiv2015

SAF: Stochastic Adaptive Forwarding in Named Data Networking

Forwarding decisions in classical IP-based networks are predetermined by routing. This is necessary to avoid loops, inhibiting opportunities to implement an adaptive and intelligent forwarding plane. Consequently, content distribution efficiency is reduced due to a lack of inherent multi-path transmission. In Named Data Networking (NDN) instead, routing shall hold a supporting role to forwarding, providing sufficient potential to enhance content dissemination at the forwarding plane. In this paper we design, implement, and evaluate a novel probability-based forwarding strategy, called Stochastic Adaptive Forwarding (SAF) for NDN. SAF imitates a self-adjusting water pipe system, intelligently guiding and distributing Interests through network crossings circumventing link failures and bottlenecks. Just as real pipe systems, SAF employs overpressure valves enabling congested nodes to lower pressure autonomously. Through an implicit feedback mechanism it is ensured that the fraction of the traffic forwarded via congested nodes decreases. By conducting simulations we show that our approach outperforms existing forwarding strategies in terms of the Interest satisfaction ratio in the majority of the evaluated scenarios. This is achieved by extensive utilization of NDN's multipath and content-lookup capabilities without relying on the routing plane. SAF explores the local environment by redirecting requests that are likely to be dropped anyway. This enables SAF to identify new paths to the content origin or to cached replicas, circumventing link failures and resource shortages without relying on routing updates.

cs.NI↗