Gabriel A. Wainer

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Full) at Carleton University

The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a transformative technology with a variety of applications across various industries. However, the development of IoT systems is hindered by challenges such as interoperability, system complexity, and the need for streamlined development and maintenance processes. In this study, we introduce a robust arch...

The growth of real-time embedded applications has surged in recent years, marked by both an increase in the number and complexity of tasks performed across various industries. Modeling and simulation (M&S) has been used for enhancing product quality while reducing lifecycle costs, primarily through improved testability and maintainability of real-t...

In this paper, we explore the integration of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) with a multi-antenna base station (BS) for downlink multiuser multiple-input-single-output (MU-MISO) systems. We aim to enhance energy efficiency (EE) by jointly optimizing beamforming and phase shifts at the BS and RIS, respectively, while ensuring each mobile...

Large scale geospatial simulation projects require multidisciplinary efforts by actors with highly variable skills and domains of expertise. Subject matter experts, modelers, developers, analysts, and decision makers must collaborate closely to model a real‐world system, simulate it, analyze its results and disseminate them. Simulation environments...

Simulation has become, in many application areas, a sine-qua-non. Most recently, COVID-19 has underlined the importance of simulation studies and limitations in current practices and methods. We identify four goals of methodological work for addressing these limitations. The first is to provide better support for capturing, representing, and evalua...

Carbon dioxide concentration in enclosed spaces is an air quality indicator that affects occupants’ well-being. To maintain healthy carbon dioxide levels indoors, enclosed space settings must be adjusted to maximize air quality while minimizing energy consumption. Studying the effect of these settings on carbon dioxide concentration levels is not f...

We investigate the use of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) in wireless networks to maximize the sum secrecy rate (i.e., the sum maximum rate that can be communicated under perfect secrecy). Specifically, we focus on a network that utilizes RIS-assisted unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) under imperfect channel state information (CSI). Our ob...

Massive machine type communication (mMTC) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks provide global connectivity for massive number of end devices anytime-anywhere. The most challenging part in implementing such networks is the development of spectrum access strategies to provide ultra-reliable low-latency (URLL) transmissions for a large number of node...

The fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication technology has revolutionized the way we connect with each other; enabling faster data transfer rates, lower latency, and higher reliability. However, the demand for even more efficient and ubiquitous connectivity is ever-growing. As such, researchers have already been exploring the potential of t...

The fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication technology has revolutionized the way we connect with each other; enabling faster data transfer rates, lower latency, and higher reliability. However, the demand for even more efficient and ubiquitous connectivity is ever-growing. As such, researchers have already been exploring the potential of t...

The study of infectious disease models has become increasingly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. The forecasting of disease spread using mathematical models has become a common practice by public health authorities, assisting in creating policies to combat the spread of the virus. Common approaches to the modeling of infectious diseases inclu...

6G networks can support global, ubiquitous and seamless connectivity through the convergence of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). Unlike terrestrial scenarios, NTNs pose unique challenges including propagation characteristics, latency and mobility, owing to the operations in spaceborne and airborne platforms. To overcome all these te...

Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks provide massive connectivity for many application scenarios. Recently, much work has been dedicated to develop spectrum access strategies for IoT networks with a massive number of nodes and sporadic data traffic behavior. The case becomes more challenging in critical applications when Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency (UR...

Cellular models provide a natural approach for describing the behavior, dynamics, and structure of natural systems with spatial features. The classic Cell-DEVS formalism allows us to define discrete-event cellular models as a lattice of cells in which cell states are updated asynchronously over a continuous time base with explicit timing delays. Ho...

Campus master plans are released every few years for developing and implementing its physical infrastructure. Open spaces, compactness, connectivity, greenness, and environmental impact have often been the focus on its framework. In particular, the effect of new building development on existing buildings’ occupant comfort and design intent is mostl...

The design of embedded real-time systems (RTS) is challenging due to the criticality of the timing constraints of these systems. Various informal and formal methods for RTS design have been proposed, both in the design space and the real-time execution at the hardware level, but many of these methods are not effective when the complexity of the sys...

We define interrelated models to simulate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Catalonia, which can be used to effectively build simulation applications and analyze the effects of nonpharmaceutical interventions. Due to the constant evolution of this pandemic, and the need to take a multidisciplinary approach, we use a formal specification to represent the...

Mobile applications need to know the location of the running devices to operate correctly. This has increased the interest in indoor localization. Furthermore, the ability to sense mobile devices in indoor environments opens the door for building occupancy-count estimation. Studies have shown that occupant's detection and building occupancy-count e...

Recent disasters and rapid changes in the environment have shown various open issues in organizational resilience, in particular the use of communications. We explore the use of Network Theory to study the robustness of communications in organizations regardless their structure and the communication mechanisms used. We focus on how a collapse in th...

Occupants' health and well-being are becoming the focus in the building and construction industry. Indoor factors like thermal, visual, acoustic, and chemical exposure all impact occupants' wellbeing. One of the main approaches to improve wellbeing is to have continuous monitoring of the building. Similarly, building design issues or technical flaw...

The System Biology Markup Language (SBML) has been used to build numerous models of biological processes. Here we introduce a new method to translate SBML specifications of cellular models into formal specifications for analysis and simulation. To do so we define a generic biological model architecture that can be instantiated with different parame...

Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) models have been used to study the spread of COVID-19. In previous works, the standard SIR model has been expanded to include new states as well as geographical level transmission dynamics. We present an extended model using the Cell-DEVS formalism that simulates the effect asymptomatic COVID-19 cases have on a...

Recently, we have seen an increase of the use of Cloud computing to provide Modelling & Simulation services. In general, mobility support is lacking since clients normally contact the same centralised clouds regardless of their locations. In this research, we propose a method and algorithms to build Fogs as private services in which different middl...

Measuring Carbon Dioxide and studying its diffusion indoors has many applications, which include, but not limited to, maintaining air quality, conserving energy, and minimizing viral infections. On the one hand, many of the experiments needed to conduct studies, like the indoor diffusion of Carbon Dioxide, are complex to implement. On the other han...

Modeling and Simulation (M&S) techniques have been proven to be effective to understand how diseases spread and assess the effectiveness of decisions aimed to control them (e.g., mobility restrictions). Recently, governments used this approach to determine the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, M&S tools that consider geographical...

Next generation wireless communication systems use massive Multi Input Multi Output (m-MIMO) antenna arrays for their enhanced beamforming capabilities. Providing accurate Channel State Information (CSI) is vital for optimizing m-MIMO communication systems. The complexity of channel reconstruction grows exponentially with the number of antennas, ca...

Development of Embedded Real-Time Systems is prone to error, and developing bug-free applications is expensive and no guarantees can be provided. We introduce the concept of Digital Quadruplet which includes: a 3D virtual representation of the physical world (a Digital Twin), a Discrete-Event formal model of the system of interest (called the “Digi...

Crowd simulation demands careful consideration in regard to the classic trade-off between accuracy and efficiency. Particle-based methods have seen success in various applications in architecture, military, urban planning, and entertainment. This method focuses on local dynamics of individuals in large crowds, with a focus on serious games and ente...

The classic susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) models provide a good approach for modeling the spread of communicable diseases. However, this model is not suitable to understand the spatial implications on the spreading of the disease or the impact of individual interactions. Our open-source platform uses an extension of the classic SIR models fo...

In this work, we constructed a computational model by Cellular Automatas (Cell-DEVS) that can describe the dynamics of how sexually transmitted diseases (STD) spread considering a subclassification for the Infected population (curable STD and non-curable STD). Furthermore, we consider the mathematical epidemiology mathematical the model SIS of W.O....

Computer simulation of dense crowds is finding increased use in event planning, congestion prediction, and threat assessment. State-of-the-art particle-based crowd methods assume and aim for collision-free trajectories. That is an idealistic yet not overly realistic expectation, as near-collisions increase in dense and rushed settings compared with...

The spread of viral particles as a primary cause of infection indoors is an open problem under investigation. Physical experimentation for studying infection spread in variable indoor configurations are very complex; instead, modeling and simulation provide a way to conduct the required studies in a safe environment. We present a method for modelin...

Improved Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) models have been used to study the COVID-19 pandemic. Although they can predict epidemiology curves, spatial models cannot be easily built, and cannot model individual interactions. In this research, we show a definition of SIR-based models using the Cell-DEVS formalism (a combination of Cellular Automa...

Carbon dioxide concentration in closed spaces is an indication of air quality and a means of measuring the number of occupants for controlling energy consumption. However, the dispersion of the gas and the accuracy of the concentration measurements as logged by carbon dioxide sensors are highly sensitive to the configuration of the closed space. Co...

The growing interest on Sustainable Development has led to an increase in the number of standards, benchmarking tools and guidelines to assess and improve sustainability. However, the diversity of standards makes it difficult to choose the right one according to the different areas of sustainability one wants to address. It is also difficult to dec...

The articles in this special issue address the role of computing in battling with the COVID-19 pandemic.

A variety of phenomena (such as the spread of diseases, pollution in rivers, etc.) can be studied as diffusion processes over networks (i.e., the diffusion of the phenomenon over a set of interconnected entities). This research introduces a method to study such diffusion processes in multiplex dynamic networks. We use a formal Modeling and Simulati...

The technological advancement in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has evolved into sophisticated hardware, leading to systems that are complex and interconnected. This trend has made modern CPS susceptible to faults. Traditional methods for fault detection and diagnosis are unable to adequately scale up to manage the faults that occur in CPS because of...

http://cell-devs.sce.carleton.ca/publications/2020/KWD20/CELL-DEVS%20MODELS%20FOR%20CO2%20SENSORS%20LOCATIONS%20IN%20CLOSED%20SPACES.pdf

With the rise of Internet of Things devices, there is an increasing demand for embedded control systems. Discrete-Event Modeling of Embedded Systems (DEMES) is a Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) based model driven development methodology that increases reliability and improves time to market by simplifying the development and testing of e...

We present Simulated Autonomous Vehicle Infrastructure (SAVI), an open source architecture for integrating Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) agents with a simulation platform. This allows for separation of concerns between the development of complex multi-agent behaviours and simulated environments to test them in.

Indoor localization has received attention due to the emergence of location-based mobile applications. In addition to mobile application, indoor localization can be used for other purposes, such as optimization of building operations. We present new models to study the performance of a localization method based on the Received Signal Strength Indic...

We discuss the use of formal discrete-event modelling and simulation for networking applications, in particular, for mobile networks and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). We show how one can develop discrete-event model libraries based on the DEVS formalism for mobile networks, allowing tracking the users’ upload status in a given area of coverage, w...

Real‐time (RT) systems include hardware and software components interacting in a tight fashion. Although formal methods for RT systems development have advanced, they are sometimes difficult to apply in practical applications, and scalability is compromised as the complexity of the system scales up. Instead, using modeling and simulation (M&S) meth...

Motivated by the need for formal methods as well as supporting tools to model and simulate social systems, we propose cellular discrete-event system specification as a formalism for modeling social systems. We also propose the use of a toolkit that implements the formalism of cellular discrete-event system specifications to implement and visualize...

In this paper, we present an architecture to improve video streaming quality of experience (QoE) in cellular networks with high user equipment (UE) density. In the proposed architecture, video segments are progressively cached, as requested, in selected UEs called storage members (SMs). Video segments are strategically cached to be available to req...

This article proposes a comparison between mathematical modeling and experimental results of the electric interactions of a synchronous and an induction generator. The electric system is composed by a synchronous generator operating in parallel with the induction generator, both through a common bus, connected to nonlinear loads. Measurements are m...

Fog Computing can enhance users’ quality of service, particularly when countless users spread around the globe to access the same Cloud resources. We present a set of collaboration mechanisms between Fog and Cloud computing resources to conduct simulation experiments. A user creates an experiment on a Fog server (with a model attached to it) withou...

A method and apparatus for electing a coordination node in a Coordinated Multipoint ( COMP ) set of cooperating nodes for receiving channel information from wireless devices operating in a wireless network . In one aspect , a method is provided for a node which includes determining a channel quality parameter for the node indicative of a channel qu...

Buildings occupy about 40% of the world's energy consumption, accounting for 30% of total CO2 emissions. The motivation to reduce energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions from buildings has led to increased interest in building automation. Real-Time Discrete Event Modelling and simulation presents an efficient way to design contro...

The Cell-DEVS WebViewer is a lightweight, web-based software that allows users to visualize, interact with and analyze results of cellular automata based simulators such as CD++. A first version of this platform was presented at SpringSim 2018, since then, many improvements have been added. Notably, it has been refactored to follow a more object-or...

This work presents modeling, driving and classical speed control techniques for the switched reluctance motor. The aim is to improve the computational model, the control response and the machine efficiency. A parametric regression model was used to find the inductance profile of the switched reluctance motor and from the new inductance profile mode...

Embedded systems are increasingly used to control different devices ranging from toys, up to vehicles and spaceships. Each machine has special hardware designed to perform its tasks optimally, and there are constrains that emerge from the relation between hardware, embedded software and the environment. Discrete-Event Modeling of Embedded Systems (...

Fire spreading is a phenomenon that has received much interest over the years. Because the analysis of fire spreading using mathematical models can be extremely challenging due to the various factors involved, researchers use modeling and simulation to study this problem. There are many fire spread models. However, many of them require long executi...

We discuss a number of methods for converting high level modeling formalisms and languages into lower level discrete-event systems specifications using the DEVS formalism. We present the implementation of such methods in the CD++ open source toolkit, and discuss different case studies. We focus on a variety of methods, ranging from Petri Nets and F...