Marco Zennaro | International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste) (original) (raw)

Papers by Marco Zennaro

Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computing for Development - DEV '15, 2015

Despite successful pilots in developing countries, TVWS (Television White Spaces, unused portions... more Despite successful pilots in developing countries, TVWS (Television White Spaces, unused portions of television broadcasting spectrum) has not gained the amount of attention that it deserves. One of the reasons is the lack of spectrum measurements that would convince the regulators about the abundance of idle spectrum. Spectrum measurements traditionally require expensive instruments and considerable operator's expertise. This has changed with the emergence of low cost spectrum analyzers and smartphones. In this paper we present RFTrack, a software suite that consists of an Android application and a TVWS analysis server. Together, they measure spectrum using a low-cost spectrum analyzer and geotag the data using the phone's internal GPS. The Android application is very easy to use and campaigns can be carried out by non-technical users. Once an Internet connection is available, the program sends data to the server that performs the required processes to present the results in an easy-to-understand way, also allowing for some user customization. The system has been used in eleven countries. We present the results from a measurement campaign in Costa Rica. We believe that this is a useful tool to demonstrate the existence of underutilized spectrum, especially in rural areas of developing countries.

Proceedings of the Fifth ACM Symposium on Computing for Development - ACM DEV-5 '14, 2014

Procedia Engineering, 2014

Recently, the use of TV White Spaces for broadband communication has raised interest. White Space... more Recently, the use of TV White Spaces for broadband communication has raised interest. White Spaces refer to regions of radio spectrum that are not used all the time in a specific geographical location. This paper presents the preliminary performance assessment of a TV White Spaces deployment in Malawi. The method used involved coverage simulations at the TV White Spaces frequencies, deployment of the network, monitoring and performance analysis. The preliminary results report usable coverage distance up to 7.5 km which has allowed that remote students access the content of the university library and interact with the university faculty. The results thus show that the TV White Spaces technology can be used for broadband connectivity in rural and undeserved areas even when the WiFi and broadcasting spectrum is already utilized. A typical application that supports remote access of e-library resources from a rural Secondary School was developed using DSpace architecture over the White Spaces infrastructure is discussed.

We discuss our experiences and successes with the new "Book Sprint" methodology for use in rapid ... more We discuss our experiences and successes with the new "Book Sprint" methodology for use in rapid authoring and content development for technical books and documentation, using a distributed team and appropriate on-line collaborative technologies. A sprint begins by assembling a group of domain experts for a short period of time-intensive content creation. The outline, scope, and approximate length of the book are established, and key contributors are identified. This is followed by remote and distributed work over a period of a few months, focussing on the bulk of the book. The Sprint Book methodology has already been used in the "Wireless Networking in the Developing World" and "Bandwidth Optimization and Management" books. Both of these are freely available under a Creative Commons License.

In order to reduce the knowledge divide, more Open Access Journals (OAJ) are needed in all langua... more In order to reduce the knowledge divide, more Open Access Journals (OAJ) are needed in all languages and scholarly subject areas that exercise peer-review or editorial quality control. To finance needed costs, it is discussed why and how to sell target specific advertisement by associating ads to given scientific keywords.

International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET), 2014

International Journal of the Book, 2007

Feedback, Oct 10, 2011

Also relevant to mention is to automate as much as possible the production of the presentations a... more Also relevant to mention is to automate as much as possible the production of the presentations and to reduce the costs of any post-processing and editing (in terms of human resources and financial costs). The final result should be similar (or as much as closer) to a high quality learning experience for the remote audience. This is still an open technological challenge for research, in particular, in the case of the recording of traditional chalkboard lectures. ... Typical Mathematical and Physics presentations, including seminars, talks, lectures, etc, are ...

Mérida: Universidad de los Andes. Retrieved December, 2009

A Practical Guide to Bandwidth Management and Optimization Using Open Source Software. INASP/ICTP, Seattle, 2006

This paper presents a seismic signal analysis framework on data sensed by a wireless sensor netwo... more This paper presents a seismic signal analysis framework on data sensed by a wireless sensor network deployed on Cotopaxi volcano. The results obtained by measuring environmental signals in the volcano and applying wavelet analysis, it is possible to find a signal classification to interpret the behaviour of the volcano. Sixteen sensors have been used and deployed in a strategy area, the information was obtained during three days of continuous monitoring. This information was sent to a surveillance laboratory located 45 km away from the station placed in the volcano, a WiFi-based long distance technology was used to this purpose. Volcanic information was processed using wavelet transform, a spectral pattern of seismic events determined four kinds of events, corresponding to a volcanic tremor, hybrid seisms, long period seisms and tectonic seisms.

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking

Broadband Internet in rural Malawi is close to zero due to non-profitability of the existing depl... more Broadband Internet in rural Malawi is close to zero due to non-profitability of the existing deployed technologies. However, broadband connectivity is key to the sustainable development of any country. This paper discusses the deployment of TV White Spaces Technology in Malawi and details the successes, challenges and opportunities for low cost broadband communications in disconnected areas. White Spaces refer to portions of radio spectrum that are not used at a given time in a particular geographical location. The method for the deployment of TV White Spaces Technology consisted of the identification of idle channels in the TV band, discussions with the regulator for permission to use the technology, lobbying of the potential users and installation of the equipment. The willingness by the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) and other partners in Europe to study the technology was instrumental to the success of the deployment. The deployment’s uniqueness is in its col...

The growing demand for wireless data transmission imposes the search for alternatives to the curr... more The growing demand for wireless data transmission imposes the search for alternatives to the current spectrum exploration schemes. In the long term, dynamic spectrum access seems to be the only viable solution,once the technical details for its implementation are solved. In the near term, the use of currently vacant spectrum allocated to TV broadcast is poised to alleviate the spectrum crunch while opening the path for dynamic spectrum access. We strongly believe that presenting some of the aspects involved in the exploitation of White Spaces (WS) by a group of international experts can be useful to practitioners and regulators interested in the topic. The present work is comprised of independent pieces in which each of the authors express their own viewpoint on the matter (and not necessarily that of the organisation to which they belong). Authors from Africa, Europe, North and South America, delve into both advocacy and regulatory issues, as well as in the technical details of som...

AWGN Receiver + Sender 1 Sender n ...

This paper describes recent work on the development of a wireless based remote monitoring system ... more This paper describes recent work on the development of a wireless based remote monitoring system for renewable energy plants in Malawi. The main goal was to develop a cost effective data acquisition system that continuously presents remote energy yields and performance measures. A test bed comprising of a solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant has been set up at Malavi Primary School and a central management system at Malawi Polytechnic. The project output gives direct access to generated electric power at the rural site through the use of wireless sensor boards and text message (SMS) transmission over cellular network. The SMS recipient at the central site houses an intelligent management system based on FrontlineSMS for hosting SMSs and publishing remote measurement trends over the Internet. Preliminary experimental results reveal that the performance of renewable energy systems in remote rural sites can be evaluated efficiently at low cost.

Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2015

Unused spectrum in the television band (so-called TV white space) has the potential to provide ne... more Unused spectrum in the television band (so-called TV white space) has the potential to provide new spectrum for access to information and communication services in developing countries. This claim has been subject to a variety of measurement studies. The purpose of this paper is to survey these studies to better characterize the spectrum that is provided by TV white space. We discuss some of the challenges to such studies and characterize the available TV white space spectrum in terms of the total volume that is available.