Two emerging technologies, cognitive radio (CR) and free-space optical (FSO) communication, have created much interest both in academia and industry recently as they can fully utilize the spectrum while providing cost-efficient secure communication. In this article, motivated by the mounting interest in CR and FSO systems and by their ability to be rapidly deployed for civil and military applications, particularly in emergency situations, we propose a CR enabled radio frequency (RF)/FSO communication model for an aerial relay network. In the proposed model, CR enabled RF communication is employed for a ground-to-air channel to exploit the advantages of CR, including spectrum efficiency, multi-user connectivity, and spatial diversity. For an air-to-air channel, FSO communication is used, since the air-to-air path can provide perfect line-of-sight connectivity, which is vital for FSO systems. Finally, for an air-to-ground channel, a hybrid RF/FSO communication system is employed, where the RF communication functions as a backup for the FSO communication in the presence of adverse weather conditions. The proposed communication model is shown to be capable of fully utilizing the frequency spectrum, while effectively dealing with RF network problems of spectrum mobility and underutilization, especially for emergency conditions when multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are deployed.
This letter presents a unified analytical framework for relay-assisted mixed FSO/RF transmission. In addition to accounting for different FSO detection techniques, the mathematical model offers a twofold unification of mixed FSO/RF systems by considering mixed Málaga-$\mathcal{M}$/$κ$-$μ$ shadowed fading, which includes as special cases nearly all linear turbulence/fading models adopted in the open literature.
Hybrid radio frequency (RF)/free space optical (FSO) systems are among the candidate enabling technologies for the next generation of wireless networks since they benefit from both the high data rates of the FSO subsystem and the high reliability of the RF subsystem. In this paper, we focus on the problem of throughput maximization in the parallel hybrid RF/FSO relay channel. In the parallel hybrid RF/FSO relay channel, a source node sends its data to a destination node with the help of multiple relay nodes. Thereby, for a given relay, the source-relay and the relay-destination FSO links are o…
In this paper, we consider a mixed RF and hybrid RF/FSO system where several mobile users transmit their data over an RF link to a relay node (e.g. a small cell base station) and the relay forwards the information to a destination (e.g. a macro cell base station) over a hybrid RF/FSO backhaul link. The relay and the destination employ multiple antennas for transmission and reception over the RF links while each mobile user has a single antenna. The RF links are full-duplex with respect to the FSO link and half-duplex with respect to each other, i.e., either the user-relay RF link or the relay-…
In this paper, we present the performance analysis of mixed RF/FSO system with multiple relays. To select the best relay, we adopt partial relay selection with outdated CSI wherein we investigate the effect of the temporal correlation of the channels. Unlike the vast majority of work, we introduce the impairments to the relays and the destination and we compare the performance against conventional RF relaying systems. We further derive the expressions of the outage probability and the ergodic capacity as well as the bounds to unpack engineering insights into the system robustness.
The performance analysis of free space optical communication (FSO) systems using relays and spatial diversity at the transmitter end is presented in this paper. The impact of atmospheric turbulence and attenuation caused by different weather conditions and geometric losses has also been taken into account. The effect of turbulence is modeled over a log-normal probability density function. We present the exact closed form expressions of bit-error rate (BER) for M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM). The FSO system link performance is compared for on-off keying, M-ary pulse amplitude mod…
In this paper, we consider an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) aided mobile relaying system under a buffer constraint. We propose a new relaying protocol employing mixed free-space optical/radio frequency (FSO/RF) communication, i.e., the source-relay and relay-destination links utilize FSO and RF links, respectively, under the buffer constraint at the UAV relay node. Taking the conditions of an imbalance in transmission rate between RF and FSO links into consideration, we study the trajectory optimization problem of buffer-constrained UAV relay node in order to maximize the end-to-end data throu…
This paper presents a unified analysis of the mixed radio-frequency (RF)/free-space optics (FSO) relaying system, with multiple variable-gain amplify-and-forward relays. The partial relay selection (PRS) is employed to select the active relay for further re-transmission. Due to fast fading statistics of the first RF hop, it is assumed that the channel state information of the RF link is outdated, which is used for both the relay gain adjustment and the PRS procedure. The RF hops are subject to the Rayleigh fading, while the FSO hop is affected by the atmospheric turbulence and the pointing err…
In this paper a novel multi-hop relay-assisted hybrid FSO / RF system is presented. It is assumed that direct RF connection between mobile users and source Base Station is impossible, therefore a relay connects RF users to the source Base Station via a FSO link. Source and destination Base Stations are connected via a multi-hop relay-assisted hybrid FSO / RF link. FSO link is investigated over moderate to saturate regimes of atmospheric turbulence. Also RF link is assumed to have Rayleigh fading. For the first time, new exact and asymptotic expressions are derived in closed-form for Bit Error …
We investigate transmission protocols for relay-assisted free-space optical (FSO) systems, when multiple parallel relays are employed and there is no direct link between the source and the destination. As alternatives to all-active FSO relaying, where all the available relays transmit concurrently, we propose schemes that select only a single relay to participate in the communication between the source and the destination in each transmission slot. This selection is based on the channel state information (CSI) obtained either from all or from some of the FSO links. Thus, the need for synchroni…
In this paper, we consider a relay-assisted uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system. In this system, two radio frequency (RF) users are grouped for simultaneous transmissions, over each resource block, to an intermediate relay. The relay then forwards the amplified version of the users' aggregated signals, in the presence of multiuser interference, to a relatively far destination. In order to cope with the users' ever-increasing desire for higher data rates, a high-throughput free-space optics (FSO) link is employed as the relay-destination backhaul link. It is assumed that the FSO…
This paper investigates the average symbol error rate (ASER) performance of a dual-hop hybrid relaying system relying on both radio frequency (RF) and free space optical (FSO) links. Specifically, the RF link is used for supporting mobile communication, while the FSO link is adopted as the backhaul of the cellular infrastructure. Considering non-line-of-sight (NLoS) RF transmissions and a generalized atmospheric turbulence (AT) channel, the associated statistical features constituted of both the exact and the asymptotic moment generating functions (MGF) are derived in closed form. They are the…
The performance of all-optical dual-hop relayed free-space optical communication systems is analytically studied and evaluated. We consider the case when the total received signal undergoes turbulence-induced channel fading, modeled by the versatile mixture-Gamma distribution. Also, the misalignment-induced fading due to the presence of pointing errors is jointly considered in the enclosed analysis. The performance of both amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward relaying transmission is studied, when heterodyne detection is applied. New closed-form expressions are derived regarding some key…
In this paper, the performance of two-way relaying in mixed RF/FSO communication system with a backup RF link is investigated. Uplink RF channels are used to send data of $K$ users to a two-way relay, $R$, whereas FSO link is mainly used to exchange data between a base station $S$ and $R$. We propose to have a backup RF link between the relay $R$ and the node $S$ to improve reliability under certain conditions. All uplink RF channels follow Rayleigh fading model while $α$-$μ$ is adopted to model both backup RF and FSO links. We approximate the widely used Gamma-Gamma fading model using the $α$…
In this paper, we consider a relay-assisted uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system where two radio frequency (RF) users are grouped for simultaneous transmission, over each resource block, to an intermediate relay which forwards the amplified version of the users' aggregated signals in the presence of multiuser interference to a relatively far destination. In order to cope with the users' ever-increasing desire for higher data rates, a high-throughput free-space optics (FSO) link is employed as the relay-destination backhaul link. Dynamic-order decoding is employed at the destinat…
The performance analysis of free space optical communication (FSO) system using relays and spatial diversity at the source is studied in this paper. The effect of atmospheric turbulence and attenuation, caused by different weather conditions and geometric losses, has also been considered for analysis. The exact closed-form expressions are presented for bit error rate (BER) of M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) technique for multi-hop multiple-input single-output (MISO) FSO system under log-normal fading channel. Furthermore, the link performance of multi-hop MISO and multi-hop singl…
In this work, we consider the performance analysis of the uplink cellular networks with free space optics (FSO) backhauling. The user equipment (UE) communicates with the nearest Base Station (BS) in first slot while in second slot, the BS converts the received radio frequency (RF) signal into FSO pulse and transmits to the data center. We adopt the Rayleigh fading for the uplink channels while the FSO backhaul encompasses the turbulence-induced fading which follows the Málaga distribution, the weather pathloss, and the pointing errors fading which is distributed following the generalized Beck…
This paper presents an analysis of a multiple dual-hop relaying system, which is composed of km-class radio frequency (RF)-free-space optical (FSO) links. Partial relay selection based on outdated channel state information (CSI) is employed in order to select active relay for further transmission. Amplify-and-forward relaying protocol is utilized. The RF links are assumed to be subject to Rayleigh fading, and the FSO links are influenced by both Gamma-Gamma atmospheric turbulence and pointing errors. On the basis of our previously derived expression for cumulative distribution function of the …
This paper presents an analysis of the asymmetric relaying system which provides communication between hybrid outdoor sub-system and indoor visible light communications (VLC) access points. The outdoor sub-system represents a hybrid radio-frequency (RF)/free-space optical (FSO) system, introduced to reduce the impact of weather conditions on transmission quality. Closed-form outage probability analytical expression is derived. Numerical results are presented and confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations. The effects of system and channel parameters on the outage probability performance are investig…
This work analyzes the performance of an underlay cognitive radio based decode-and-forward mixed multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio frequency/free space optical (RF/FSO) cooperative relay system with multiple mobile secondary and primary user nodes. The effect of imperfect channel state information (CSI) arising due to channel estimation error is also considered at the secondary user transmitters (SU-TXs) and relay on the power control and symbol detection processes respectively. A unique aspect of this work is that both fixed and proportional interference power constraints are employ…
Relay-assisted free-space optical (FSO) communication systems are exploited as a means to mitigate the limiting effects of the turbulence induced atmospheric scintillation. However, conventional ground relays are stationary, and their optimal placement is not always feasible. Due to their mobility and flexibility, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide new opportunities for FSO relaying systems. In this paper, a hovering UAV-based serial FSO decode-and-forward relaying system is investigated. In the channel modelling for such a system, four types of impairments (i.e., atmospheric loss, atmosp…
In this paper, we investigate a dual-hop relaying system, composed of radio frequency (RF) and free-space optical (FSO) link. Decode-and-forward (DF) relay is employed to integrate the first RF link and the second line-of-sight FSO links. The RF channel is assumed to be subject to recently proposed Fisher-Snedecor fading model, which was shown to be convenient for modeling in realistic wireless communication scenarios. The FSO channel is affected by Gamma-Gamma distributed atmospheric turbulence. Expression for the outage probability is derived and utilized to present numerical results. Based …
Decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative communication based on free space optical (FSO) links is studied in this letter. We analyze performance of the DF protocol in the FSO links following the Gamma-Gamma distribution. The cumulative distribution function (CDF) and probability density function (PDF) of a random variable containing mixture of the Gamma- Gamma and Gaussian random variables is derived. By using the derived CDF and PDF, average bit error rate of the DF relaying is obtained.
In this paper, we propose a comprehensive research over triple hop all-optical relaying free-space optical (FSO) systems in the presence of all main noise sources including background, thermal and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise and by considering the effect of the optical degree-of- freedom (DoF). Using full CSI relaying, we derive the exact expressions for the noise variance at the destination. Then, in order to simplify the analytical expressions of full CSI relaying, we also propose and investigate the validity of different approximations over noise variance at the destination. …
Free-space optic (FSO) is a promising solution to provide broadband Internet access for high-speed trains (HSTs). Besides, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) are considered as hardware technology to improve performance of optical wireless communication systems. In this paper, we propose a RIS-assisted FSO system to provide access connectivity for HTSs, as an upgrade for the existing direct and relay-assisted FSO access setups. Our motivation is mainly based on well-proven results indicating that a RIS-assisted optical wireless system, with a large enough number of RIS elements, outperfo…
With the completion of standardization of fifth-generation (5G) networks, the researchers have begun visioning sixth-generation (6G) networks that are predicted to be human-centric. Hence, similar to 5G networks, besides high data rate, providing secrecy and privacy will be the center of attention by the wireless research community. To support the visions beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G, in this paper we propose a secure radio frequency (RF)-free-space optical (FSO) mixed framework under the attempt of wiretapping by an eavesdropper at the RF hop. We assume the RF links undergo alpha-eta-mu fading wher…
In this letter, we investigate a generic model assessing the effect of in-phase/quadrature-phase imbalance (IQI) on an asymmetric dual hop radio frequency/free space optical (RF/FSO) two-way relay (TWR) system in the presence of multiple co-channel interferers (CCIs) at the relay. The fading on the RF and FSO links have been modeled using K-distribution and double generalized Gamma (D-GG) turbulence model, respectively. The impact of non-zero boresight pointing error and type of optical demodulation schemes have been considered on the FSO link. To this end, a closed-form probability density fu…
This work proposes a novel hybrid RF/FSO system based on a game theoretic spectrum trading process. It is assumed that no RF spectrum is preallocated to the FSO link and only when the link availability is severely impaired by the infrequent adverse weather conditions, i.e. fog, etc., the source can borrow a portion of licensed RF spectrum from one of the surrounding RF nodes. Using the leased spectrum, the source establishes a dual-hop RF/FSO hybrid link to maintain its throughout to the destination. The proposed system is considered to be both spectrum- and power-efficient. A market-equilibri…
This work proposes an optimal metric for opportunistic scheduling of secondary user transmitters (SU-TXs) in underlay cognitive radio based multiple-input multiple-output radio frequency/free space optical (MIMO-RF/FSO) decode-and-forward system with fixed and proportional interference power constraints. To analyze the performance of the proposed system, the closed-form expressions are derived for the exact and asymptotic outage probabilities considering orthogonal space-time block coded transmission over Nakagami-$m$ fading RF links. Further, the FSO link between the relay and destination eNo…
This work deals with the secrecy performance analysis of a dual-hop RF-FSO DF relaying network composed of a source, a relay, a destination, and an eavesdropper. We assume the eavesdropper is located close to the destination and overhears the relay's transmitted optical signal. The RF and FSO links undergo ($α$-$κ$-$μ$)-shadowed fading and unified Málaga turbulence with pointing error. The secrecy performance of the mixed system is studied by deriving closed-form analytical expressions of secure outage probability (SOP), strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC), and intercept probability (IP)…
The mixed radio frequency (RF)/free-space optical (FSO) relaying is a promising technology for coverage improvement, while there lacks unified expressions to describe its performance. In this paper, a unified performance analysis framework of a dual-hop relay system over asymmetric RF/FSO links is presented. More specifically, we consider the RF link follows generalized $κ$-$μ$ or $η$-$μ$ distributions, while the FSO link experiences the gamma-gamma distribution, respectively. Novel analytical expressions of the probability density function and cumulative distribution function are derived. We …
Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is a promising technology to avoid signal blockage by creating virtual line-of-sight (LOS) connectivity for free-space optical (FSO) and radio frequency (RF) wireless systems. This paper considers a mixed FSO-RF system by employing multiple RISs in both the links for multihop transmissions to extend the communication range. We develop probability density function (PDF) and cumulative density function (CDF) of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the cascaded channels by considering double generalized gamma (dGG) turbulence with pointing errors for the FS…
Free-space optical (FSO) links are considered as a cost-efficient way to fill the backhaul/fronthaul connectivity gap between millimeter wave (mmWave) access networks and optical fiber based central networks. In this paper, we investigate the end-to-end performance of dual-hop mixed FSO/mmWave systems to address this combined use. The FSO link is modeled as a Gamma-Gamma fading channel using both heterodyne detection and indirect modulation/direct detection with pointing error impairments, while the mmWave link experiences the fluctuating two-ray fading. Under the assumption of both amplify-an…
In this paper, we investigate the statistics of the free space optics (FSO) communication channel between a hovering unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a central unit. Two unique characteristics make UAV-based FSO systems significantly different from conventional FSO systems with static transceivers. First, for UAV-based FSO systems, the incident laser beam is not always orthogonal to the receiver lens plane. Second, both position and orientation of the UAV fluctuate over time due to dynamic wind load, inherent random air fluctuations in the atmosphere around the UAV, and internal vibrations of…
In this work, we analyze the secrecy outage performance of a dual-hop relay system composed of multiple-input-multiple-output radio-frequency (RF) links and a free-space optical (FSO) link while a multiple-antenna eavesdropper wiretaps the confidential information by decoding the received signals from the resource node. The channel state information (CSI) of the RF and FSO links is considered to be outdated. We propose three transmit antenna selection (TAS) schemes to enhance the secrecy performance of the considered systems. The secrecy outage performance with different TAS schemes is analyze…
We consider a fully-loaded ground wireless network supporting unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) transmission services. To enable the overload transmissions to a ground user (GU) and a UAV, two transmission schemes are employed, namely non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and relaying, depending on whether or not the GU and UAV are served simultaneously. Under the assumption of the system operating with infinite blocklength (IBL) codes, the IBL throughputs of both the GU and the UAV are derived under the two schemes. More importantly, we also consider the scenario in which data packets are transmi…
In this correspondence, we propose a diversity-achieving retroreflector-based fine tracking system for free-space optical (FSO) communications. We show that multiple retroreflectors deployed around the communication telescope at the aerial vehicle save the payload capacity and enhance the outage performance of the fine tracking system. Through the analysis of the joint-pointing loss of the multiple retroreflectors, we derive the ordered moments of the received power. Our analysis can be further utilized for studies on multiple input multiple output (MIMO)-FSO. After the moment-based estimation…
In this paper, we investigate the performance of the dual-hop free space optical (FSO) communication systems under the effect of strong atmospheric turbulence together with misalignment effects (pointing error). We consider a relay assisted link using decode and forward (DF) relaying protocol between source and destination with the assumption that Channel State Information is available at both transmitting and receiving terminals. The atmospheric turbulence channels are modeled by k-distribution with pointing error impairment. The exact closed form expression is derived for outage probability …
Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) are of interest to gather data from underwater sensor nodes (SNs) and deliver information to a terrestrial access point (AP) in the uplink transmission, and transfer data from the AP to the SNs in the downlink transmission. In this paper, we investigate a triple-hop UWSN in which autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relays enable end-to-end communications between the SNs and the AP. It is assumed that the SN--AUV, AUV--UAV, and UAV--AP links are deployed by underwater optical communication (UWOC), free-space optic (FSO), and r…
In this paper, we consider unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) assisted cellular communication system, where UAVs can be used as amplify-and-forward (AF) relays. The effective channel with UAV assisted communication can be modeled as a Rayleigh product-channel, and we derive a tight lower-bound of the ergodic capacity in closed-form. With the obtained lower-bound, trade-offs between the transmit power and the equipped number of antennas of the UAVs can be analyzed. Alternatively, for a giving setting of users and the base-transceiver station (BTS), the needed transmit power and number of antennas …
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks have grown rapidly in recent years and become attractive for various emergence communications scenarios. In this paper, we consider a UAV acting as a relay node to assist wireless transmissions from a base station (BS) to a ground user (GUs). A closed-form expression of outage probability for the BS-GUs transmission via UAV relaying is derived over Rician fading channels. We then formulate an optimization problem to minimize the outage probability of UAV relay communications with a constraint on the total transit power of the BS and GUs. It is proved that…
In this paper, we consider an imperfect hardware hybrid satellite-terrestrial network (HSTN) where the satellite communication with a ground user equipment (UE) is aided by the multiple amplify-and-forward (AF) three-dimensional ($3$D) mobile unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relays. Herein, we consider that all transceiver nodes are corrupted by the radio frequency hardware impairments (RFHI). Further, a stochastic mixed mobility (MM) model is employed to characterize the instantaneous location of $3$D mobile UAV relays in a cylindrical cell with UE lying at its center on ground plane. Taking int…
This paper defines the problem of optimizing the downlink multi-user multiple input, single output (MU-MISO) sum-rate for ground users served by an aerial reconfigurable intelligent surface (ARIS) that acts as a relay to the terrestrial base station. The deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) is proposed to calculate the optimal active beamforming matrix at the base station and the phase shifts of the reflecting elements at the ARIS to maximize the data rate. Simulation results show the superiority of the proposed scheme when compared to deep Q-learning (DQL) and baseline approaches.
To deal with the explosive growth of mobile traffic, millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications with abundant bandwidth resources have been applied to vehicular networks. As mmWave signal is sensitive to blockage, we introduce the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided two-way relaying system for vehicular connection enhancement and coverage expansion. How to improve transmission efficiency and to reduce latency time in such a dynamic scenario is a challenging problem. In this paper, we formulate the joint optimization problem of relay selection and transmission scheduling, aiming to reduce transmis…
We develop a comprehensive framework to characterize and optimize the performance of a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted D2D network, where D2D transmissions underlay cellular transmissions. Different from conventional non-line-of-sight (NLoS) terrestrial transmissions, aerial transmissions are highly likely to experience line-of-sight (LoS). As such, characterizing the performance of mixed aerial-terrestrial networks with accurate fading models is critical to precise network performance characterization and resource optimization. We first characterize closed-form expressions for a variet…
In this paper, we consider a single-cell multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) network with one unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which works as an amplify-and-forward relay to improve the quality-of-service (QoS) of the user equipments (UEs) in the cell edge. Aiming to improve the throughput while guaranteeing the user fairness, we jointly optimize the communication mode, subchannel allocation, power allocation, and UAV trajectory, which is an NP-hard problem. To design the UAV trajectory and resource allocation efficiently, we first decompose the problem into three su…
In this paper, we propose and investigate an aerial reconfigurable intelligent surface (aerial-RIS)-aided wireless communication system. Specifically, considering practical composite fading channels, we characterize the air-to-ground (A2G) links by Namkagami-m small-scale fading and inverse-Gamma large-scale shadowing. To investigate the delay-limited performance of the proposed system, we derive a tight approximate closed-form expression for the end-to-end outage probability (OP). Next, considering a mobile environment, where performance analysis is intractable, we rely on machine learning-ba…
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications have attracted significant attention from both academia and industry. To facilitate the large-scale usage of UAVs for various applications in practice, we provide a comprehensive survey on the prototype and experiment for UAV communications. To this end, we first provide an overview on the general architecture of the prototype and experiment for UAV communications, and then present experimental verification for air-to-ground channel models and UAV energy consumption models. Next, we discuss measurement experiments on two promising paradigms of UAV c…
The mobile relaying technique is a critical enhancing technology in wireless communications due to a higher chance of supporting the remote user from the base station (BS) with better quality of service. This paper investigates energy-efficient (EE) mobile relaying networks, mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), while the unknown adversaries try to intercept the legitimate link. We aim to optimize robust transmit power both UAV and BS along, relay hovering path, speed, and acceleration. The BS sends legitimate information, which is forwarded to the user by the relay. This procedure is d…
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are powerful Internet-of-Things components to provide sensing and communications in the air due to their advantages in mobility and flexibility. As aerial users, UAVs are envisioned to support various sensing applications in the next generation cellular systems, which have been studied by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). However, the Quality-of-Services (QoS) of the cellular link between the UAV and the base station may not be guaranteed when UAVs are at the cell edge or experiencing deep fading. In this article, we first introduce the non-cooper…
In this paper, we consider a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network (HSTN) where a multiantenna satellite communicates with a ground user equipment (UE) with the help of multiple cache-enabled amplify-and-forward (AF) three-dimensional ($3$D) mobile unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) relays. Herein, we employ the two fundamental most popular content (MPC) and uniform content (UC) caching schemes for two types of mobile UAV relays, namely fully $3$D and fixed height. Taking into account the multiantenna satellite links and the random $3$D distances between UAV relays and UE, we analyze the outage prob…