@article {11515935620160506, title = {Achieving QoS in Virtual MIMO systems: a satisfaction equilibrium analysis.}, journal = {EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications \& Networking}, volume = {2016}, number = {1}, year = {2016}, pages = {1 - 13}, abstract = {This paper presents a game theoretic framework to analyze a cellular-WLAN heterogeneous network from a virtual multiple-input multiple-output (VMIMO) perspective. Namely, we restrict to the uplink case and consider a non-cooperative game where each user seeks to meet some quality of service (QoS). Moreover, mobile users are allowed to re-inject, through their WLAN interfaces, a part of their throughput in the induced game. Thus, the interaction among users defines a distributed VMIMO with a possibly throughput exchange. This mechanism will help all users to meet their respective QoS expressed by the perceived average throughput. The average throughput is considered to be the utility function used in this framework. Now, each mobile user experiences a certain throughput composed of two parts: (1) the throughput received from cellular subsystem and (2) the throughput received from WLAN subsystem. Naturally, we use the concept of satisfaction equilibrium to predict the behavior of the ne}, keywords = {Cellular/WLAN heterogeneous network, Equilibrium {\textendash} Research, Game theory, Game theory {\textendash} Research, MIMO systems {\textendash} Research, Quality of service, Quality of service {\textendash} Research, Satisfaction equilibrium, Virtual multiple input multiple output, Wireless LANs {\textendash} Research}, issn = {16871472}, url = {http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true\&db=iih\&AN=115159356\&site=ehost-live}, author = {Bennani, Hassan and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Ben-Othman, Jalel and El-Koutbi, Mohamed} } @article { ISI:000375569000001, title = {Achieving QoS in Virtual MIMO systems: a satisfaction equilibrium analysis}, journal = {EURASIP JOURNAL ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING}, year = {2016}, month = {MAY 6}, abstract = {This paper presents a game theoretic framework to analyze a cellular-WLAN heterogeneous network from a virtual multiple-input multiple-output (VMIMO) perspective. Namely, we restrict to the uplink case and consider a non-cooperative game where each user seeks to meet some quality of service (QoS). Moreover, mobile users are allowed to re-inject, through their WLAN interfaces, a part of their throughput in the induced game. Thus, the interaction among users defines a distributed VMIMO with a possibly throughput exchange. This mechanism will help all users to meet their respective QoS expressed by the perceived average throughput. The average throughput is considered to be the utility function used in this framework. Now, each mobile user experiences a certain throughput composed of two parts: (1) the throughput received from cellular subsystem and (2) the throughput received from WLAN subsystem. Naturally, we use the concept of satisfaction equilibrium to predict the behavior of the network. Indeed, we provided a sufficient condition for the existence of such an equilibrium. Next, we prove the uniqueness of the equilibrium and compute it explicitly. Afterward, we propose a fully distributed algorithm inspired from the well-known Banach-Picard learning algorithm. Our scheme has many good features facilitating its implementation and usability. Indeed, it accurately converges to the equilibrium (if exists), it is very fast, and it requires no external information. Simulation results validate the algorithm and show its robustness and illustrate numerically the proposed learning scheme for quality-of-service management in such a heterogeneous network.}, issn = {1687-1499}, doi = {10.1186/s13638-016-0612-6}, author = {Bennani, Hassan and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Ben-Othman, Jalel and El-Koutbi, Mohamed} } @conference { ISI:000381755100008, title = {A Bargaining Nash Game Based Adaptive Negotiation of Context Level Agreements for Pervasive Systems}, booktitle = {ADVANCES IN UBIQUITOUS NETWORKING}, series = {Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering}, volume = {366}, year = {2016}, note = {International Symposium on Ubiquitous Networking (UNet), Casablanca, MOROCCO, SEP 08-10, 2015}, pages = {91-104}, abstract = {With the growing popularity of Internet-enabled devices, the impressive progress in sensing technology, and the adoption of cloud computing for provisioning services, users increasingly demand services that can adapt to their recent context. In this paper, we propose, a multi-attributes and adaptive approach for Context Level Agreements (CLAs) negotiation between a context provider and a context consumer using a context broker. The approach employs a Nash bargaining model and evaluates the global utility of each party as a linear function of normalized Quality of Context (QoC) attributes during the rounds of negotiation. The ultimate goal is to improve context-based adaptation of context-aware applications and services. One of the advantages of this approach is that it permits to resolve conflicts of interests between the context provider and the context consumer when the global utility of each party reaches a Pareto optimum.}, isbn = {978-981-287-990-5; 978-981-287-989-9}, issn = {1876-1100}, doi = {10.1007/978-981-287-990-5\_8}, author = {Routaib, Hayat and Badidi, Elarbi and Sabir, Essaid and Elkoutbi, Mohammed}, editor = {Sabir, E and Medromi, H and Sadik, M} } @conference { ISI:000386851600006, title = {A College Admissions Game for Content Caching in Heterogeneous Delay Tolerant Networks}, booktitle = {2016 23RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS (ICT)}, year = {2016}, note = {23rd International Conference on Telecommunications (ICT), Thessaloniki, GREECE, MAY 16-18, 2016}, abstract = {In recent years, Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) have been successfully presented as a possible extension of the Internet architecture in order to provide communication support to existing networks. However, these networks have a major issue which is the coordination among relays. In this paper, we propose a novel mechanism source-relay association approach for heterogeneous DTNs that exploits the information about the history and predictability of the relay nodes while also we focus on the source packet dissemination to a destination using tow-hop relaying scheme, considering network resource constraints: the relay buffer, the packet life time, and the energy consumption according to the mobile technologies. We formulate the problem as a college admissions game in which a number of colleges, i.e., data source seek to recruit a number of students, i.e., relays nodes. In this game, the data source and relays nodes rank one another based on preference functions that capture the data sources need to optimize their utilities which are functions of packet success rate and delay. We propose a novel distributed algorithm that leads to a stable matching among data sources and relays nodes. We show that the proposed approach can yields the better performance improvement of the traffic among the source and destination node.}, isbn = {978-1-5090-1990-8}, author = {Oualhaj, Omar Ait and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Ben-Othman, Jalel and El Koutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000388603102099, title = {Exploiting Multi-homing in Hyper Dense LTE Small-Cells Deployments}, booktitle = {2016 IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING CONFERENCE}, series = {IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference}, year = {2016}, note = {IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), Doha, QATAR, APR 03-07, 2016}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Commun Soc}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Commun Soc}, abstract = {It is expected that in two-tier LTE heterogeneous networks, an extensive deployment of small cell networks (SCNs) will take place in the near future, especially in dense urban zones; hence a hyper density of SCNs randomly distributed within macro cell networks (MCNs) will emerge with many overlapping zones of neighboring SCNs. Therefore, the problems of interferences in co-channel deployment will be more complicated and then the overall throughput of downlink will substantially decrease. In order to mitigate the effect of interferences in a hyper density of SCNs scenarios, a solution based on a fully distributed algorithm for sharing time access to SCNs and multi-homing capabilities of macro cellular users is proposed to improve the overall data rate of downlink and at the same time to satisfy QoS throughput requirements of macro and home cellular users. Our tentative scheme will also reduce the signaling overhead due to the absence of coordination among small base stations (SBSs) and macro base station (MBS). Results validate our solution and show the improvement attained in a hyper density of SCNs within MCNs compared to open, closed and shared time access mechanisms based on single network selection.}, isbn = {978-1-4673-9814-5}, issn = {1525-3511}, author = {Walid, Abdellaziz and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Taleb, Tarik and El Koutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000390993202059, title = {A Game Theoretic Approach for an Hybrid Overlay-Underlay Spectrum Access Mode}, booktitle = {2016 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATIONS (ICC)}, series = {IEEE International Conference on Communications}, year = {2016}, note = {IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA, MAY 22-27, 2016}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, abstract = {Cognitive radio is emerging as a promising technique to improve the utilization of the radio frequency spectrum in wireless networks. In this paper, we propose a hybrid CR (cognitive radio) system where underlay and overlay CR approaches are combined under SINR (Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio) constraints. This new access type allows to optimize the spectrum sensing time with throughput improvement. The goal of this paper is to provide a new access mode in order to enhance the cognitive system performance while reducing the power spent for detecting the presence of the primary user and the spectrum holes. We consider the problem of spectrum sharing among primary (or {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}licensed{{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright}}) users (PUs) and secondary (or {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}unlicensed{{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright}}) users (SUs). In this scheme, the spectrum allocation problem is modeled as a non cooperative game, with each CR user acting as a player. Nash equilibrium is considered as the solution of this game.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-6664-6}, issn = {1550-3607}, author = {Gmira, Sara and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Sabir, Essaid and Ben-Othman, Jalel} } @article { ISI:000379694400006, title = {Group vertical handoff management in heterogeneous networks}, journal = {WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS \& MOBILE COMPUTING}, volume = {16}, number = {10}, year = {2016}, month = {JUL}, pages = {1256-1270}, abstract = {Traditional vertical handover schemes postulate that vertical handovers (VHOs) of users come on an individual basis. This enables users to know previously the decision already made by other users, and then the choice will be accordingly made. However, in case of group mobility, almost all VHO decisions of all users, in a given group (e.g., passengers on board a bus or a train equipped with smart phones or laptops), will be made at the same time. This concept is called group vertical handover (GVHO). When all VHO decisions of a large number of users are made at the same time, the system performance may degrade and network congestion may occur. In this paper, we propose two fully decentralized algorithms for network access selection, and that is based on the concept of congestion game to resolve the problem of network congestion in group mobility scenarios. Two learning algorithms, dubbed Sastry Algorithm and Q-Learning Algorithm, are envisioned. Each one of these algorithms helps mobile users in a group to reach the nash equilibrium in a stochastic environment. The nash equilibrium represents a fair and efficient solution according to which each mobile user is connected to a single network and has no intention to change his decision to improve his throughput. This shall help resolve the problem of network congestion caused by GVHO. Simulation results validate the proposed algorithms and show their efficiency in achieving convergence, even at a slower pace. To achieve fast convergence, we also propose a heuristic method inspired from simulated annealing and incorporated in a hybrid learning algorithm to speed up convergence time and maintain efficient solutions. The simulation results also show the adaptability of our hybrid algorithm with decreasing step size-simulated annealing (DSS-SA) for high mobility group scenario. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd.}, issn = {1530-8669}, doi = {10.1002/wcm.2599}, author = {Walid, Abdellaziz and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Mabrouk, Abdelfettah and Sabir, Essaid and Taleb, Tarik and El Koutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000381477900169, title = {A Coalitional-Game-Based Incentive Mechanism for Content Caching in Heterogeneous Delay Tolerant Networks}, booktitle = {2015 INTERNATIONAL WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS \& MOBILE COMPUTING CONFERENCE (IWCMC)}, series = {International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference}, year = {2015}, note = {11th IEEE International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IEEE IWCMC), Dubrovnik, CROATIA, AUG 24-25, 2015}, pages = {987-992}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Croatia Sect; Univ Dubrovnik}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Croatia Sect; Univ Dubrovnik}, abstract = {In recent years, Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) have successfully presented as a possible extension of the Internet architecture in order to provide communication support to existing networks. However, these networks have a major issue which is the coordination among relays. In this work, we study the cooperative transmission for DTNs using coalitional game theory. We design a new incentive mechanism for heterogeneous system to induce coordination among DTN relays. In particular, we focus on the source packet dissemination to a destination using tow-hop relaying scheme, considering networks resource constraints: the relay buffer, the packet life time, and the energy consumption according to the mobile technologies. Rational mobiles are organized into separate coalition structures to meet a trade off between the source reward and the energy conservation. We discus the Nash equilibria for our game and the stable strategy state in which no mobile can get a higher payoff through changing unilaterally its coalition. Then, we use the distributed imitative Boltzmann-Gibbs learning algorithm enabling relays to learn the Nash equilibrium strategy; grand coalition. The improvement of the global system performance is examined, and a comparison between different inter-node collaboration states is presented.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-5344-8}, issn = {2376-6492}, author = {Oualhaj, Omar Ait and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Elmachkour, Mouna and Sabir, Essaid and Ben-Othman, Jalel} } @article { ISI:000351605500008, title = {Data traffic-based analysis of delay and energy consumption in cognitive radio networks with and without resource reservation}, journal = {INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS}, volume = {28}, number = {7}, year = {2015}, month = {MAY 10}, pages = {1316-1328}, abstract = {A new opportunistic cross-layer MAC protocol involving channel allocation and packet scheduling for cognitive radio networks is proposed. Cognitive radio allows secondary users (SUs) to exploit the available portions of the licensed spectrum bands without interfering with primary users. In particular, we consider a cognitive radio system, where SUs are equipped with two transceivers: a control transceiver and a software-defined radio transceiver. Data traffic characteristics of SUs are considered to ameliorate system performance. So, we propose a mechanism of resource reservation to improve QoS requirements that favors successful SUs to transmit data during x time slots without interfering with primary users. The key novelty of this paper is giving priority for SUs with important data traffic and which frequently solicits data channels to transmit for the remaining time of the ongoing time slot and for the next time slots directly after checking the channel availability. We develop a new analytical model to evaluate delay parameter for two scenarios with and without resource reservation and we then investigate the impact of those scenarios on the energy consumption. We show through simulations that cognitive radio performances increase noticeably with the proposed scheme. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd.}, issn = {1074-5351}, doi = {10.1002/dac.2764}, author = {Elmachkour, Mouna and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Sabir, Essaid and Ben-Othman, Jalel and El Koutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000381477900056, title = {A Distributed Open-Close Access for Small-Cell Networks: A Random Matrix Game Analysis}, booktitle = {2015 INTERNATIONAL WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS \& MOBILE COMPUTING CONFERENCE (IWCMC)}, series = {International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference}, year = {2015}, note = {11th IEEE International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IEEE IWCMC), Dubrovnik, CROATIA, AUG 24-25, 2015}, pages = {320-325}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Croatia Sect; Univ Dubrovnik}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Croatia Sect; Univ Dubrovnik}, abstract = {Nowadays, Small-Cells are widely being deployed to assist and improve performance of mobile networks. Indeed, they are a promising solution to improve coverage and to offload data traffic in mobile networks. In this paper, we propose a signaling-less architecture of the heterogeneous network composed of one single Macro Base Station and a Single Small-Cell. First, we construct a game theoretic framework for channel-state independent interaction. We present many conditions for the existence of Pure Nash equilibrium. Next, and in order to capture the continuous change of the channel state, we build a random matrix game where the channel state is considered to be random (potentially ruled by some given distribution). A characterization of Nash equilibrium is provided in terms of pure strategies and mixed strategies. Convergence to Nash equilibrium is furthermore guaranteed using a variant of the well-known Combined fully distributed payoff and strategy learning. Our algorithm converges faster (only 10-20 iterations are required to converge to Nash equilibrium) and only need a limited amount of local information. This is quite promising since it says that our scheme is almost applicable for all environments (fast fading included).}, isbn = {978-1-4799-5344-8}, issn = {2376-6492}, author = {Ben Chekroun, Samia and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Tembine, Hamidou and Bouyakhf, El-Houssine and Ibrahimi, Khalil} } @article { ISI:000360910900010, title = {A ferry-assisted solution for forwarding function in Wireless Sensor Networks}, journal = {PERVASIVE AND MOBILE COMPUTING}, volume = {22}, number = {SI}, year = {2015}, month = {SEP}, pages = {126-135}, abstract = {For sure, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are becoming an ultimate part of next generation mobile networks. They are a master piece for Ubiquitous computing. Indeed, they sustain development of numerous paradigms/ technologies such as distributed ambient intelligence, context-awareness and future mobile networking (e.g., B4G and 5G). Battery life remains one of the crucial problems to handle. In this article we propose an infrastructure-based topology using mobile ferries (mobile micro-base stations). In real life, a ferry could be robot, bus, tram, train or any other engine scrutinizing periodically a given area. Yet, message ferries are moving along concentric annulus and may collect data generated by the static sensors (could be classic sensors, smart meters, wearable devices, etc.) randomly distributed on given area. Next, transmissions are performed in a ferry-to-ferry forwarding scheme till arriving at the sink. Considered ferries could sense themselves data and therefore behave as mobile sensors allowing better awareness on the area state {[}1-3]. Our scheme could also assist Machine-to-Machine communications to increase the network lifetime, with potentially some cognitive-radio capabilities and opportunistic detection and access. Our proposal can easily be integrated in a smart-city for better interaction and green communications. Next, we present a queueing model (queues with finite capacity) to handle the generated traffic and to analyze the behavior of mobile ferries. We provided a close-form expression for both end-to-end throughput and end-to-end delay. The main objective of this work is to improve the energy efficiency of the cognitive sensors by asking cognitive sensors to not care about forwarding data of each other except for urgent data, this latter point is out of the scope of the paper. These static sensors will only care about data sensing, which will reduce their individual energy consumption. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, issn = {1574-1192}, doi = {10.1016/j.pmcj.2015.05.003}, author = {Oualhaj, Omar Ait and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Sabir, Essaid and Ben-Othman, Jalel and Erradi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000381477900200, title = {On Improving Network Capacity for Downlink and Uplink of Two-Tier LTE-FDD Networks}, booktitle = {2015 INTERNATIONAL WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS \& MOBILE COMPUTING CONFERENCE (IWCMC)}, series = {International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference}, year = {2015}, note = {11th IEEE International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IEEE IWCMC), Dubrovnik, CROATIA, AUG 24-25, 2015}, pages = {1168-1173}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Croatia Sect; Univ Dubrovnik}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Croatia Sect; Univ Dubrovnik}, abstract = {A Long Term Evolution-Frequency Division Duplexing (LTE-FDD) small cell is one of the promising solutions for improving service quality and data rate in both the uplink and downlink of home users. Small cell (e.g., femtocell, picocell, microcell) is short range, low cost and low power base station installed by the indoor consumers. However, the avoidance of interferences is still an issue that needs to be addressed for successful deployment of small base stations (SBS) within existing macro cell networks mainly in co-channel deployment. Moreover, interferences are strongly dependent on the type of access control of small cells. Closed and open access are in conflict interests for macro users and home users in the uplink and downlink. To mitigate this conflict, we propose a fully distributed algorithm based on the shared time access and executed by LTE-FDD small cells, in order to reduce the effect of interferences, improve QoS of users, and maximize the overall capacity of downlink and uplink in two-tier LTE networks when small cells are deployed randomly. Simulation results validate our algorithm and show the improvement attained in offloading macro cell and satisfying QoS requirements of home users compared to the closed and open access mechanisms in both the uplink and downlink.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-5344-8}, issn = {2376-6492}, author = {Walid, Abdellaziz and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Taleb, Tarik and El Koutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000380509200017, title = {A New Optimal Hybrid Spectrum Access in Cognitive Radio: Overlay-Underlay Mode}, booktitle = {2015 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WIRELESS NETWORKS AND MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS (WINCOM)}, year = {2015}, note = {International conference on wireless networks and mobile communications, Marrakech, MOROCCO, OCT 20-23, 2015}, pages = {92-98}, abstract = {In this paper, we propose a hybrid cognitive radio (CR) system where underlay and overlay CR approaches are combined under SIRN constraints. This new access type allows to optimize the spectrum sensing time with throughput improvement. Our proposed access type is based on a merger of these two modes depending on the number of secondary users (SU) in the Underlay Mode and on the access probabilities for these two modes. The number of all users in the Underlay access mode should not exceed a certain number of users. When a new SU arrives and if the number of SUs in Underlay mode is already equal to the predifined max number, the SU decides to switch to the Overlay mode to access the canal using this method. The SU states will be modeled with a Markov chain, the aim of this work is attempting to show that this new method allows to increase the throughput of the SU with energy optimization. The exact outage probability of secondary system is also derived for this model. Simulation results show that the performance, especiallay the throughput can be significantly increased by the proposed hybrid system.}, isbn = {978-1-4673-8224-3}, author = {Gmira, Sara and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Sabir, Essaid} } @conference { ISI:000382389300061, title = {A Signaling Game-based Mechanism to Meet Always Best Connected Service in VANETs}, booktitle = {2015 IEEE GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE (GLOBECOM)}, series = {IEEE Global Communications Conference}, year = {2015}, note = {IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), San Diego, CA, DEC 06-10, 2015}, publisher = {IEEE; QUALCOMM; Keysight Technologies; Huawei; Natl Instruments; Intel; InterDigital; LG Elect; IEEE Big Data; IEEE Stand Assoc; ViaSat; IEEE Commun Soc}, organization = {IEEE; QUALCOMM; Keysight Technologies; Huawei; Natl Instruments; Intel; InterDigital; LG Elect; IEEE Big Data; IEEE Stand Assoc; ViaSat; IEEE Commun Soc}, abstract = {In heterogeneous network environments, users need to have mechanisms in place to decide which network is the most suitable at each moment in time for every application that the user requires. Always Best Connected is considered as a special concept to allow users to get connected to Internet using the access technology that best suits their needs or profile at any point in time. Clearly, this concept provides multiple access simultaneously for mobile users moving in heterogeneous access network environment. In this paper, we introduce a signaling game approach to achieve an always best connected service in vehicular networks. Under the considered scenario, we consider two smart vehicles named player 1 and player 2 moving in a road network area equipped with heterogeneous access networks. We assume that player 1 (super player) only has complete information on the road network, whilst player 2 has not any information. Player 1 plays first and sends a signal to player 2 which can be accurate or distorted. Based on the received signal and his belief about that signal, player 2 chooses its own action: it computes its suitable path which provides it an always best connected service.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-5952-5}, issn = {2334-0983}, author = {Mabrouk, Abdelfettah and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Sabir, Essaid and Ben-Othman, Jalel and El Koutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000361140000114, title = {A Congestion Game-based Routing Algorithm for Communicating VANETs}, booktitle = {2014 INTERNATIONAL WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS AND MOBILE COMPUTING CONFERENCE (IWCMC)}, series = {International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference}, year = {2014}, note = {10th International Wireless Communications \& Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), Nicosia, CYPRUS, AUG 04-08, 2014}, pages = {672-677}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Cyprus Sect; Frederick Univ}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Cyprus Sect; Frederick Univ}, abstract = {Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) is considered as a special application of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) in road traffic, which can autonomously organize networks without infrastructure. VANETs enable vehicles on the road to communicate with each other and with road infrastructure using wireless capabilities. In the last few years, extensive research has been performed to extend Internet connectivity to VANETs. Indeed, several routing protocols have been proposed to determine routes between vehicles and gateways. In this paper, we propose a routing algorithm which is based on the Congestion Game to resolve the problem of network congestion in VANET and to provide the optimal Internet access paths. The simulation results show that the proposed routing algorithm has better feasibility and effectiveness for communicating VANETs.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-0959-9}, issn = {2376-6492}, author = {Mabrouk, Abdelfettah and Senhadji, Mohamed and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Walid, Abdellaziz and Sabir, Essaid and Koutbi, Mohammed E. L.} } @conference { ISI:000361140000144, title = {Ferry-based Architecture for Participatory sensing}, booktitle = {2014 INTERNATIONAL WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS AND MOBILE COMPUTING CONFERENCE (IWCMC)}, series = {International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference}, year = {2014}, note = {10th International Wireless Communications \& Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), Nicosia, CYPRUS, AUG 04-08, 2014}, pages = {845-849}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Cyprus Sect; Frederick Univ}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Cyprus Sect; Frederick Univ}, abstract = {The concept of Participatory Sensing is centered on individuals that collect data using their smart phones (or other dedicated devices) to track the evolution of their work/living places. The main objective is to use the gathered data in order to enhance the offered quality of life. To maximize people involvement in this process we propose a ferry based architecture to leverage the contributors from charges associated with accessing service providers infrastructure to forward collected data. Opportunistic contact with message ferries will be exploited to gather data that will be carried from ferry-to-ferry till it reaches a centralized processing and decision-taking authority. We provide a closed formula for the End-to-End throughput of the proposed gathering network architecture.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-0959-9}, issn = {2376-6492}, author = {Koulali, Sara and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Azizi, Mostafa} } @conference { ISI:000366666805090, title = {Green Opportunistic Access for Cognitive Radio Networks: A Minority Game Approach}, booktitle = {2014 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATIONS (ICC)}, series = {IEEE International Conference on Communications}, year = {2014}, note = {IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Sydney, AUSTRALIA, JUN 10-14, 2014}, pages = {5372-5377}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, abstract = {We investigate energy conservation and system performance of decentralized resource allocation scheme in cognitive radio networks thoroughly based on secondary users competitive behavior. Indeed, the contention on data channel unoccupied by licensed user leads to a single winner, but also involves a loss of energy of all nodes. In this paper, we apply minority game (MG) to the most important phase from the opportunistic spectrum access (OSA) process: the sensing phase. We attempt to carry out a cooperation in a non-cooperative environment with no information exchange. We study the Nash equilibrium solution for pure and fully mixed strategies, and we use distributed learning algorithms enabling cognitive users to learn the Nash equilibrium. Finally, we provide numerical results to validate the proposed approach. The resource allocation based on minority game approach improves secondary users battery life and the performance of the network.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-2003-7}, issn = {1550-3607}, author = {Elmachkour, Mouna and Daha, Imane and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Ben-Othman, Jalel}, editor = {Jamalipour, A and Deng, DJ} } @article { ISI:000348218400023, title = {The Greening of Spectrum Sensing: A Minority Game-Based Mechanism Design}, journal = {IEEE COMMUNICATIONS MAGAZINE}, volume = {52}, number = {12}, year = {2014}, month = {DEC}, pages = {150-156}, abstract = {Cognitive radio technology allows the reuse of the underutilized frequency spectrum on an opportunistic and non-interfering basis by means of introducing, besides the legitimate primary users of the spectrum, a new kind of users called cognitive or secondary users. Thus, reliable spectrum sensing is critical to dynamically detect available licensed frequency bands and mitigate the primary signals, but it remains realistically difficult to carry out. In fact, although distributed collaborative sensing has turned out to be fruitful for the cognitive radio environment, its accuracy is often affected by the selfish and autonomous behavior of users. In this article, we model distributed spectrum sensing and channel allocation as a non-cooperative game, and apply the minority game to bring forth and study the cooperative behavior of users. The novelty brought by our study consists of alleviating the number of users contending for primary channels by giving them the opportunity to choose between the two, either sensing the channel or being inactive during the time slot. To address the trade-off faced by the SUs, we evaluate the performance of two secondary systems in a green communications context: energy consumption and transmission delay.}, issn = {0163-6804}, author = {Elmachkour, Mouna and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Ben-Othman, Jalel and El Koutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000346142800015, title = {Modeling and Evaluating a Cloudlet-based Architecture for Mobile Cloud Computing}, booktitle = {2014 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS: THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS (SITA{\textquoteright}14)}, year = {2014}, note = {9th International Conference on Intelligent Systems - Theories and Applications (SITA), Inst Natl Postes \& Telecommunicat, Rabat, MOROCCO, MAY 07-08, 2014}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Morocco}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Morocco}, abstract = {With the rising popularity of Internet-enabled mobile devices, users are increasingly demanding better quality of service (QoS). However, the resources of these devices and their connectivity levels remain insufficient, even though they are improving, for offering acceptable levels of QoS to users. Cloud computing infrastructures offer large and scalable resources that allow shifting the physical location of computation and storage to the cloud. Nevertheless, the integration of mobile computing with cloud computing would not guarantee adequate levels of service for mobile users. It rather delivers scalability at the cost of higher delay and higher power consumption on the mobile device. Instead, using local resources based on users geographical locations has the potential to improve the performance and QoS for mobile users. In this paper, we present and study a centralized architecture that relies on the concept of local clouds, cloudlets, to leverage the geographical proximity of resources to mobile users and offer them a better user experience. We use a continuous time Markov-chain (CTMC) to model the different nodes of the architecture: user nodes, cloudlets, and the main cloud. We estimate the delay incurred in the proposed architecture by simulating search engine queries generated by mobile users using the CTMC state models. Initial simulation results show that the usage of a cloudlet-based architecture especially centralized architecture has an efficient gains in terms of latency delay and synchronisation mechanisms.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-3566-6}, author = {Routaib, Hayat and Elmachkour, Mouna and Sabir, Essaid and Badidi, Elarbi and Elkoutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000380438500019, title = {Providing Always Best Connected Service in VANET with Complete and Partial Information}, booktitle = {3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCED COMPUTER SCIENCE APPLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES ACSAT 2014}, series = {International Conference on Advanced Computer Science Applications and Technologies}, year = {2014}, note = {3rd International Conference on Advanced Computer Science Applications and Technologies (ACSAT), Amman, JORDAN, DEC 29-30, 2014}, pages = {108-112}, publisher = {Design Sci Renaissance; Unitech; Philadelphia Univ; Patrons Peoamp; Ittihad Univ; Univ Siswa Bangsa Int}, organization = {Design Sci Renaissance; Unitech; Philadelphia Univ; Patrons Peoamp; Ittihad Univ; Univ Siswa Bangsa Int}, abstract = {Mobile communication has become the preferred choice of personal communication today. With the rapid proliferation of wireless network technologies, heterogeneous wireless network environments increase more and more. Such environments provide multiple access networks simultaneously for mobile users. Each mobile user wishes to get connected to Internet using the access technology that best suits his needs at any point in time. Always Best Connected is considered as a special concept for mobile users to select their suitable access networks. In this paper, we have presented two scenarios which are based on Always Best Connected concept to provide, for a smart vehicle moving in a road network installed with multiple access technologies, an always best connected service at any point in time. In the first scenario, we assume that the mobile user (vehicle) has complete information on the road network (all access technologies installed in the road network). Whilst the second scenario is the same as the first one except that the mobile user periodically receives a partial information on the road network (only the access technologies installed in the edges which are immediately accessible by mobile user). For both scenarios, we have proposed a graph model to characterize the observed mobility pattern. Also, two algorithms are proposed to find the optimal path that provides always best connected service for vehicles in both scenarios.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-1845-4}, issn = {2379-7738}, doi = {10.1109/ACSAT.2014.26}, author = {Mabrouk, Abdelfettah and Kobbane, Abdellatif and El Koutbi, Mohammed and Sabir, Essaid} } @conference { ISI:000361140000010, title = {A Tax-inspired Mechanism Design to Achieve QoS in VMIMO Systems : Give to Receive !}, booktitle = {2014 INTERNATIONAL WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS AND MOBILE COMPUTING CONFERENCE (IWCMC)}, series = {International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference}, year = {2014}, note = {10th International Wireless Communications \& Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), Nicosia, CYPRUS, AUG 04-08, 2014}, pages = {56-62}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Cyprus Sect; Frederick Univ}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Cyprus Sect; Frederick Univ}, abstract = {In this paper, we model a Virtual MIMO system using a game-theoretic approach. We are interested in the uplink, considering a non-coopertive game, where each user try to satisfy a quality of service. The uplink of a direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) data network is considered and a non-cooperative game is proposed in which users are allowed to choose their uplink receivers as well as to satisfy their quality of service. The utility function used in this framework is defined so that the throughput used by the user is divided into two components : the throughput received from cellular Network, and throughput received from Virtual MIMO System. In addition, this framework is used to study a constrained Nash equilibrium for the proposed game, and the impact of the interaction among users.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-0959-9}, issn = {2376-6492}, author = {Bennani, Hassan and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Walid, Abdellaziz and Ben-Othman, Jalel} } @conference { ISI:000351846000018, title = {A new Cross layer Architecture for Service Differentiation in Wireless Sensor Networks}, booktitle = {2013 IEEE MALAYSIA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATIONS (MICC)}, year = {2013}, note = {IEEE 11th Malaysia International Conference on Communications (MICC), Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA, NOV 26-28, 2013}, pages = {92-97}, publisher = {IEEE}, organization = {IEEE}, abstract = {This paper describes a new cross-layer architecture that supports service differentiation in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). In WSNs, sensor nodes are supposed to communicate using a random access method. We propose a mathematical model that combines parameters form network and MAC layers. We aim to estimate and to enhance the throughput of multi-hop WSNs and the stability of the forwarding queues used for real-time and best-effort traffic. We suppose in this paper that we have one single sink in the WSN and we study the impact of the probability of transmitting (real-time and best-effort traffic), density of sensor and hop count on the end-to-end throughput.}, isbn = {978-1-4799-1532-3}, author = {Loutfi, Ahmed and Mohamed, Senhadji and Sabir, Essaid and Kobbane, Abdellatif and El Koutbi, Mohammed} } @conference { ISI:000312146500012, title = {New Insights from a Delay Analysis for Cognitive Radio Networks with and without Reservation}, booktitle = {2012 8TH INTERNATIONAL WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS AND MOBILE COMPUTING CONFERENCE (IWCMC)}, series = {International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference}, year = {2012}, note = {8th IEEE International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), Limassol, CYPRUS, AUG 27-31, 2012}, pages = {65-70}, publisher = {IEEE; IEEE Cyprus Sect; Frederick Univ}, organization = {IEEE; IEEE Cyprus Sect; Frederick Univ}, abstract = {In wireless communication systems, the delay remains a crucial factor. In this work, we focus on the design of a new opportunistic cross-layer MAC protocol involving channels allocation and packet scheduling for cognitive networks in order to optimize system performance. Cognitive radio provides the opportunity for secondary users (unlicensed users) to use available portions of the licensed spectrum bands without interfering with primary users (licensed users). We consider that each secondary user is equipped with two transceivers. The role of the first transceiver is to obtain and exchange channels information on the control channel. The second transceiver is devoted to periodically detect and dynamically use the available data channels. The paper deals with channel allocation considering traffic characteristics of secondary users. So, we propose a mechanism of resource reservation to improve Quality of Service (QoS) requirements that favors successful secondary users to transmit data during x time slots without interfering with primary users. We develop a new analytical model, while taking into account the backoff mechanism. We analyze delay parameter for two scenarios with and without resource reservation. We show through simulations that our approach guarantees an optimal response delay.}, isbn = {978-1-4577-1379-8}, issn = {2376-6492}, author = {Elmachkour, Mouna and Kobbane, Abdellatif and Sabir, Essaid and El Koutbi, Mohammed} }