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Home Care Applications and Ambient Assisted Living become increasingly attractive. This is caused as well by market pull, as the number of elderly people grows monotonously, as well as by technology push, as technological advances and attractive products pave the way to economically advantageous offerings. However, in real-life applications, a significant number of challenges remain. Those include seamless communication between products from different supplier, due to the lack of sufficiently standardized solutions, energy budgets, and scalability of solutions. This paper presents the experience from the InCASA project (Integrated Network for Completely Assisted Senior Citizen's Autonomy), where architectures for heterogeneous physical and logical communication flows are examined.
Die immer weitreichenderen Anwendungen des Smart Metering und des Smart Grid stellen immer höhere Anforderungen an Kommunikationstechnologien, die die Zielkonflikte aus Echtzeitfähige, Stabilität, Kosten und Energieeffizienz möglichst anwendungsoptimiert und auf einem immer höheren Niveau lösen. Insbesondere im Bereich der so genannten Primärkommunikation zwischen einem Sensor- oder Aktorknoten und einem Datensammler mit Gatewayfunktionalität konnten in den vergangenen Jahren wesentliche Fortschritte erzielt werden. Zu nennen sind hierbei insbesondere die Aktivitäten der ZigBee Alliance rund um den offenen Spezifikationsprozess des ZigBee Smart Energy Profiles (SEP) und der OMS-Gruppe beim ZVEI, die auf dem Wireless M-Bus nach EN13757-4 aufbauen, der sich seinerseits lebhaft und zielgerichtet weiter entwickelt. Der Beitrag diskutiert die vorhandenen Einschränkungen und die verfügbaren Lösungsansätze. Er illustriert diese anhand einiger öffentlich geförderter Projekte, an denen das Team des Autors beteiligt ist.
Die Vielfalt der Protokolle, die praktisch auf allen Ebenen der Netzwerkkommunikation zu berücksichtigen ist, stellt eine der großen Herausforderungen bei der fortschreitenden Automatisierung des intelligenten Hauses dar. Unter dem Überbegriff Internet der Dinge (Internet of Things) entstehen gegenwärtig zahlreiche neue Entwicklungen, Standards, Allianzen und so genannte Ökosysteme. Diese haben die Absicht einer horizontalen Integration gewerkeübergreifender Anwendungen und verfolgen fast alle das Ziel, die Situation zu vereinfachen, die Entwicklungen zu beschleunigen und Markterfolge zu erreichen. Leider macht diese Vielfalt momentan die Welt aber eher noch komplexer und bringt damit das Risiko mit sich, genau das Gegenteil der ursprünglichen Absichten zu erreichen. Dieser Beitrag versucht, die Entwicklungen möglichst systematisch zu kategorisieren und mögliche Lösungsansätze zu beschreiben.
A novel approach of a test environment for embedded networking nodes has been conceptualized and implemented. Its basis is the use of virtual nodes in a PC environment, where each node executes the original embedded code. Different nodes run in parallel, connected via so-called virtual channels. The environment allows to modifying the behavior of the virtual channels as well as the overall topology during runtime to virtualize real-life networking scenarios. The presented approach is very efficient and allows a simple description of test cases without the need of a network simulator. Furthermore, it speeds up the process of developing new features as well as it supports the identification of bugs in wireless communication stacks. In combination with powerful test execution systems, it is possible to create a continuous development and integration flow.
The application of leaky feeder (radiating) cables is a common solution for the implementation of reliable radio communication in huge industrial buildings, tunnels and mining environment. This paper explores the possibilities of leaky feeders for 1D and 2D localization in wireless systems based on time of flight chirp spread spectrum technologies. The main focus of this paper is to present and analyse the results of time of flight and received signal strength measurements with leaky feeders in indoor and outdoor conditions. The authors carried out experiments to compare ranging accuracy and radio coverage area for a point-like monopole antenna and for a leaky feeder acting as a distributed antenna. In all experiments RealTrac equipment based on nanoLOC radio standard was used. The estimation of the most probable path of a chirp signal going through a leaky feeder was calculated using the ray tracing approach. The typical non-line-of-sight errors profiles are presented. The results show the possibility to use radiating cables in real time location technologies based on time-of-flight method.
In this work, we consider a duty-cycled wireless sensor network with the assumption that the on/off schedules are uncoordinated. In such networks, as all nodes may not be awake during the transmission of time synchronization messages, nodes will require to re-transmit the synchronization messages. Ideally a node should re-transmit for the maximum sleep duration to ensure that all nodes are synchronized. However, such a proposition will immensely increase the energy consumption of the nodes. Such a situation demands that there is an upper bound of the number of retransmissions. We refer to the time a node spends in re-transmission of the control message as broadcast duration. We ask the question, what should be the broadcast duration to ensure that a certain percentage of the available nodes are synchronized. The problem to estimate the broadcast duration is formulated so as to capture the probability threshold of the nodes being synchronized. Results show the proposed analytical model can predict the broadcast duration with a given lower error margin under real world conditions, thus demonstrating the efficiency of our solution.
As industrial networks continue to expand and connect more devices and users, they face growing security challenges such as unauthorized access and data breaches. This paper delves into the crucial role of security and trust in industrial networks and how trust management systems (TMS) can mitigate malicious access to these networks.The TMS presented in this paper leverages distributed ledger technology (blockchain) to evaluate the trustworthiness of blockchain nodes, including devices and users, and make access decisions accordingly. While this approach is applicable to blockchain, it can also be extended to other areas. This approach can help prevent malicious actors from penetrating industrial networks and causing harm. The paper also presents the results of a simulation to demonstrate the behavior of the TMS and provide insights into its effectiveness.
Towards a Formal Verification of Seamless Cryptographic Rekeying in Real-Time Communication Systems
(2022)
This paper makes two contributions to the verification of communication protocols by transition systems. Firstly, the paper presents a modeling of a cyclic communication protocol using a synchronized network of transition systems. This protocol enables seamless cryptographic rekeying embedded into cyclic messages. Secondly, we test the protocol using the model checking verification technique.
The CAN bus still is an important fieldbus in various domains, e.g. for in-car communication or automation applications. To counter security threats and concerns in such scenarios we design, implement, and evaluate the use of an end-to-end security concept based on the Transport Layer Security protocol. It is used to establish authenticated, integrity-checked, and confidential communication channels between field devices connected via CAN. Our performance measurements show that it is possible to use TLS at least for non time-critical applications, as well as for generic embedded networks.
Wireless communication systems more and more become part of our daily live. Especially with the Internet of Things (IoT) the overall connectivity increases rapidly since everyday objects become part of the global network. For this purpose several new wireless protocols have arisen, whereas 6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks) can be seen as one of the most important protocols within this sector. Originally designed on top of the IEEE802.15.4 standard it is a subject to various adaptions that will allow to use 6LoWPAN over different technologies; e.g. DECT Ultra Low Energy (ULE). Although this high connectivity offers a lot of new possibilities, there are several requirements and pitfalls coming along with such new systems. With an increasing number of connected devices the interoperability between different providers is one of the biggest challenges, which makes it necessary to verify the functionality and stability of the devices and the network. Therefore testing becomes one of the key components that decides on success or failure of such a system. Although there are several protocol implementations commonly available; e.g., for IoT based systems, there is still a lack of according tools and environments as well as for functional and conformance testing. This article describes the architecture and functioning of the proposed test framework based on Testing and Test Control Notation Version 3 (TTCN-3) for 6LoWPAN over ULE networks.
Training deep neural networks using backpropagation is very memory and computationally intensive. This makes it difficult to run on-device learning or fine-tune neural networks on tiny, embedded devices such as low-power micro-controller units (MCUs). Sparse backpropagation algorithms try to reduce the computational load of on-device learning by training only a subset of the weights and biases. Existing approaches use a static number of weights to train. A poor choice of this so-called backpropagation ratio limits either the computational gain or can lead to severe accuracy losses. In this paper we present TinyProp, the first sparse backpropagation method that dynamically adapts the back-propagation ratio during on-device training for each training step. TinyProp induces a small calculation overhead to sort the elements of the gradient, which does not significantly impact the computational gains. TinyProp works particularly well on fine-tuning trained networks on MCUs, which is a typical use case for embedded applications. For typical datasets from three datasets MNIST, DCASE2020 and CIFAR10, we are 5 times faster compared to non-sparse training with an accuracy loss of on average 1%. On average, TinyProp is 2.9 times faster than existing, static sparse backpropagation algorithms and the accuracy loss is reduced on average by 6 % compared to a typical static setting of the back-propagation ratio.
Die zunehmende Anzahl von Transistoren mit immer kleineren Strukturgrößen führt zu einer zunehmenden Leistungsaufnahme in modernen Prozessoren. Das gilt insbesondere für High-End Prozessoren, die mit einer hohen Taktfrequenz betrieben werden. Die aufgenommene Leistung wird in Wärme umgewandelt, die in einer Temperaturerhöhung der Prozessoren resultiert. Hohe Betriebstemperaturen verursachen u.a. eine verringerte Rechenleistung, eine kürzere Lebensdauer des Prozessors und höhere Leckströme. Aus diesen Gründen wird aktives, dynamisches thermisches Management immer wichtiger. Dieser Beitrag stellt eine Erweiterung zu dem Standard- Linux-Scheduler in der Kernel-Version 3.0 für eingebettete Systeme vor: einen PID-Regler, der unter Angabe einer Solltemperatur eine dynamische Frequenz- und Spannungsskalierung durchführt. Die Experimente auf dem Freescale LMX6 Quadcore-Prozessor zeigen, dass der PID-Regler die Betriebstemperatur des Prozessors an die Solltemperatur regeln kann. Er ist die Grundlage für eine in Zukunft zu entwickelnde prädiktive Regelung.
Temperature regulation is an important component for modern high performance single -core and multi-core processors. Especially high operating frequencies and architectures with an increasing number of monolithically integrated transistors result in a high power dissipation and - since processor chips convert the consumed electrical energy into thermal energy - in high operating temperatures. High operating temperatures of processors can have drastic consequences regarding chip reliability, processor performance, and leakage currents. External components like fans or heat spreaders can help to reduce the processor temperature - with the disadvantage of additional costs and reduced reliability. Therefore, software based algorithms for dynamic temperature management are an attractive alternative and well known as Dynamic Thermal Management (DTM). However, the existing approaches for DTM are not taking into account the requirements of real-time embedded computing, which is the objective in the given project. The first steps are the profiling and the thermal modeling of the system, which is reported in this paper for a Freescale i. MX6Q quad-core microprocessor. An analytical model is developed and verified by an extensive set of measurement runs.
The overview of public key infrastructure based security approaches for vehicular communications
(2015)
Modern transport infrastructure becomes a full member of globally connected network. Leading vehicle manufacturers have already triggered development process, output of which will open a new horizon of possibilities for consumers and developers by providing a new communication entity - a car, thus enabling Car2X communications. Nevertheless some of available systems already provide certain possibilities for vehicles to communicate, most of them are considered not sufficiently secured. During last 15 years a number of big research projects funded by European Union and USA governments were started and concluded after which a set of standards were published prescribing a common architecture for Car2X and vehicles onboard communications. This work concentrates on combining inner and outer vehicular communications together with a use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
The Internet of Things (IoT), ubiquitous computing and ubiquitous connectivity, Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), ambient intelligence, Machine-to-Machine communication (M2M) or Car-to-Car (C2C)-communication, smart metering, smart grid, telematics, telecare, telehealth – there are many buzzwords around current developments related to the Internet.
This contribution gives an overview on such IoT-applications, as they are already used today to improve the availability of information, increase efficiency, push system limits and extend the value chain. At a closer look, the economic and technical development can be separated into different phases. It is interesting that we are currently at the threshold to a new phase, with decentralized and cooperative communication and control nodes as cornerstones. Thus, embedded systems and their connectivity are in the middle of the scene.
This recent development is described along with some example projects from the author’s team which are used in industrial automation, energy supply and distribution (home automation and smart metering), traffic engineering (cooperative driver assistance systems), and in telehealth and telecare.
Ranging errors are inevitable in all local positioning systems, including those based on Time-of-Flight (ToF) technique. Results of experiments show that the major cause for these errors is a signal degradation from multipath propagation. This effect is especially critical in case of Non-Light-of-Sight (NLOS) conditions. This paper describes causes that affects ranging errors for nanoLOC™-TOF-technology and presents estimations for the probability density functions of such errors under different NLOS conditions. The provided estimations allow the improvement of the accuracy of the localization through the subsequent mitigation of the ranging errors from the measurements. Additionally, it is proposed to increase the number of cases of NLOS-conditions for the improvement of the accuracy.
Security in IT systems, particularly in embedded devices like Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs), has become an important matter of concern as it is the prerequisite for ensuring privacy and safety. Among a multitude of existing security measures, the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol family offers mature and standardized means for establishing secure communication channels over insecure transport media. In the context of classical IT infrastructure, its security with regard to protocol and implementation attacks has been subject to extensive research. As TLS protocols find their way into embedded environments, we consider the security and robustness of implementations of these protocols specifically in the light of the peculiarities of embedded systems. We present an approach for systematically checking the security and robustness of such implementations using fuzzing techniques and differential testing. In spite of its origin in testing TLS implementations we expect our approach to likewise be applicable to implementations of other cryptographic protocols with moderate efforts.
One of the main requirements of spatially distributed Internet of Things (IoT) solutions is to have networks with wider coverage to connect many low-power devices. Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN) and Cellular IoT(cIOT) networks are promising candidates in this space. LPWAN approaches are based on enhanced physical layer (PHY) implementations to achieve long range such as LoRaWAN, SigFox, MIOTY. Narrowband versions of cellular network offer reduced bandwidth and, simplified node and network management mechanisms, such as Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) and Long-Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M). Since the underlying use cases come with various requirements it is essential to perform a comparative analysis of competing technologies. This article provides systematic performance measurement and comparison of LPWAN and NB-IoT technologies in a unified testbed, also discusses the necessity of future fifth generation (5G) LPWAN solutions.
Spatially Distributed Wireless Networks (SDWN) are one of the basic technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT) and (Industrial) Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. These SDWN for many of these applications has strict requirements such as low cost, simple installation and operations, and high potential flexibility and mobility. Among the different Narrowband Wireless Wide Area Networking (NBWWAN) technologies, which are introduced to address these categories of wireless networking requirements, Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is getting more traction due to attractive system parameters, energy-saving mode of operation with low data rates and bandwidth, and its applicability in 5G use cases. Since several technologies are available and because the underlying use cases come with various requirements, it is essential to perform a systematic comparative analysis of competing technologies to choose the right technology. It is also important to perform testing during different phases of the system development life cycle. This paper describes the systematic test environment for automated testing of radio communication and systematic measurements of the performance of NB-IoT.
This paper presents the elements and the results from the European research project inCASA (Integrated Network for Completely Assisted Senior Citizen’s Autonomy), which designed and implemented a seamless integration of heterogeneous systems and network protocols for regionally distributed telecare and telehealth applications. The integration includes a multitude of physical interface, the transcoding of data models using embedded middleware, and a backend system with open interfaces. The implementation was verified in field tests in five European countries.
WirelessHART protocol was specifically designed for real-time communication in the wireless sensor networks domain for industrial process automation requirements. Whereas the major purpose of WirelessHART is the read-out of sensors with moderate real-time requirements, an increasing demand for integration of actuator applications can be observed. Therefore, it must be verified that the WirelessHART protocol gives sufficient support to real-time industry requirements. As a result, the delay of especially burst and command messages from actuator and sensor nodes to the gateway and vice versa must be analyzed. In this paper, we implemented a WirelessHART network scenario in WirelessHART simulator in NS-2 [8], simulated and analyzed its time characteristics under ideal and noisy conditions. We evaluated the performance of the implementation in order to verify whether the requirements of industrial process and control can be met. This implementation offers an early alternative to expensive test beds for WirelessHART in real-time actuator applications.
Immer mehr Anwendungen der Heim- und der Gebäudeautomatisierung werden vernetzt, weil damit erweiterte Funktionen ermöglicht oder Kosten gespart werden können. Dabei führt eine Reihe von Aspekten zu einem erhöhten Risiko für diese vernetzten Systeme. Gegenwärtig arbeiten verschiedene Gruppen an Sicherheitslösungen für die vernetzte Heim- und Gebäudeautomatisierung. Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über diese Aktivitäten und zeigt die wesentlichen Entwicklungsrichtungen auf.
The provisioning of security for highly dynamic wireless networks, as for Car2X applications is still a major topic, as very specific requirements have to be solved. Those include a perfect privacy level and advanced real-time behavior, and the necessity to work with a public infrastructure (PKI) to support secure authentication.
This contribution analyzes these requirements, discusses the existing approaches, performs a gap analysis and elaborates on proposals to fill these gaps. It describes work in progress within the KoFAS-initiative for the development of a cooperative pedestrian protection system (CPPS).
Printed electronics can add value to existing products by providing new smart functionalities, such as sensing elements over large-areas on flexible or non-conformal surfaces. Here we present a hardware concept and prototype for a thinned ASIC integrated with an inkjet-printed temperature sensor alongside in-built additional security and unique identification features. The hybrid system exploits the advantages of inkjet-printable platinum-based sensors, physically unclonable function circuits and a fluorescent particle-based coating as a tamper protection layer.
The number of use cases for autonomous vehicles is increasing day by day especially in commercial applications. One important application of autonomous vehicles can be found within the parcel delivery section. Here, autonomous cars can massively help to reduce delivery efforts and time by supporting the courier actively. One important component of course is the autonomous vehicle itself. Nevertheless, beside the autonomous vehicle, a flexible and secure communication architecture also is a crucial key component impacting the overall performance of such system since it is required to allow continuous interactions between the vehicle and the other components of the system. The communication system must provide a reliable and secure architecture that is still flexible enough to remain practical and to address several use cases. In this paper, a robust communication architecture for such autonomous fleet-based systems is proposed. The architecture provides a reliable communication between different system entities while keeping those communications secure. The architecture uses different technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), cellular networks and Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) to achieve its goals.
RETIS – Real-Time Sensitive Wireless Communication Solution for Industrial Control Applications
(2020)
Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) has been always a vital component of many industrial applications. The paper proposes a new wireless URLLC solution called RETIS, which is suitable for factory automation and fast process control applications, where low latency, low jitter, and high data exchange rates are mandatory. In the paper, we describe the communication protocol as well as the hardware structure of the network nodes for implementing the required functionality. Many techniques enabling fast, reliable wireless transmissions are used – short Transmission Time Interval (TTI), Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA), MIMO, optional duplicated data transfer, Forward Error Correction (FEC), ACK mechanism. Preliminary tests show that reliable end-to-end latency down to 350 μs and packet exchange rate up to 4 kHz can be reached (using quadruple MIMO and standard IEEE 802.15.4 PHY at 250 kbit/s).
With the increasing degree of interconnectivity in industrial factories, security becomes more and more the most important stepping-stone towards wide adoption of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). This paper summarizes the most important aspects of one keynote of DESSERT2020 conference. It highlights the ongoing and open research activities on the different levels, from novel cryptographic algorithms over security protocol integration and testing to security architectures for the full lifetime of devices and systems. It includes an overview of the research activities at the authors' institute.
Environmental Monitoring is an attractive application field for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Water Level Monitoring helps to increase the efficiency of water distribution and management. In Pakistan, the world’s largest irrigation system covers 90.000 km of channels which needs to be monitored and managed on different levels. Especially the sensor systems for the small distribution channels need to be low energy and low cost. The distribution presents a technical solution for a communication system which is developed in a research project being co-funded by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The communication module is based on IEEE-802.15.4 transceivers which are enhanced through Wake-On-Radio (WOR) to combine low-energy and real-time behavior. On higher layers, IPv6 (6LoWPAN) and corresponding routing protocols like Routing Protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks (RPL) can extend range of the network. The data are stored in a database and can be viewed online via a web interface. Of course, also automatic data analysis can be performed.
PROFINET Security: A Look on Selected Concepts for Secure Communication in the Automation Domain
(2023)
We provide a brief overview of the cryptographic security extensions for PROFINET, as defined and specified by PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI). These come in three hierarchically defined Security Classes, called Security Class 1,2 and 3. Security Class 1 provides basic security improvements with moderate implementation impact on PROFINET components. Security Classes 2 and 3, in contrast, introduce an integrated cryptographic protection of PROFINET communication. We first highlight and discuss the security features that the PROFINET specification offers for future PROFINET products. Then, as our main focus, we take a closer look at some of the technical challenges that were faced during the conceptualization and design of Security Class 2 and 3 features. In particular, we elaborate on how secure application relations between PROFINET components are established and how a disruption-free availability of a secure communication channel is guaranteed despite the need to refresh cryptographic keys regularly. The authors are members of the PI Working Group CB/PG10 Security.
Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are hardware-based security primitives, which allow for inherent device fingerprinting. Therefore, intrinsic variation of imperfect manufactured systems is exploited to generate device-specific, unique identifiers. With printed electronics (PE) joining the internet of things (IoT), hardware-based security for novel PE-based systems is of increasing importance. Furthermore, PE offers the possibility for split-manufacturing, which mitigates the risk of PUF response readout by third parties, before commissioning. In this paper, we investigate a printed PUF core as intrinsic variation source for the generation of unique identifiers from a crossbar architecture. The printed crossbar PUF is verified by simulation of a 8×8-cells crossbar, which can be utilized to generate 32-bit wide identifiers. Further focus is on limiting factors regarding printed devices, such as increased parasitics, due to novel materials and required control logic specifications. The simulation results highlight, that the printed crossbar PUF is capable to generate close-to-ideal unique identifiers at the investigated feature size. As proof of concept a 2×2-cells printed crossbar PUF core is fabricated and electrically characterized.
Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) as a radio access technology for the cellular Internet of Things (cIoT) is getting more traction due to attractive system parameters, new proposals in the 3 rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 14 for reduced power consumption and ongoing world-wide deployment. As per 3GPP, the low-power and wide-area use cases in 5G specification will be addressed by the early NB-IoT and Long-Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M) based technologies. Since these cIoT networks will operate in a spatially distributed environment, there are various challenges to be addressed for tests and measurements of these networks. To meet these requirements, unified emulated and field testbeds for NB-IoT-networks were developed and used for extensive performance measurements. This paper analyses the results of these measurements with regard to RF coverage, signal quality, latency, and protocol consistency.
Due to its numerous application fields and benefits, virtualization has become an interesting and attractive topic in computer and mobile systems, as it promises advantages for security and cost efficiency. However, it may bring additional performance overhead. Recently, CPU virtualization has become more popular for embedded platforms, where the performance overhead is especially critical. In this article, we present the measurements of the performance overhead of the two hypervisors Xen and Jailhouse on ARM processors in the context of the heavy load “Cpuburn-a8” application and compare it to a native Linux system running on ARM processors.
The Transport Layer Security protocol is a widespread cryptographic protocol designed to provide secure communication over insecure networks by providing authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality. As a first step, in the TLS Handshake Protocol a common master secret is negotiated. In many configurations, this step makes considerable use of asymmetric cryptographic algorithms. It seems to be a prevalent assumption that the use of such asymmetric cryptographic algorithms is unsuitable for resource-constrained devices. Therefore, the work at hand analyzes the runtime performance of the TLS vl.2 session establishments on an embedded ARM Cortex-M4 platform. We measure the execution time to generate and parse session establishment messages for the client and server sides. In particular, we study the impact of different elliptic curves used for the ephemeral Diffie-Hellman key exchange and the impact of different lengths and subject public key algorithms of certification paths. Our analysis shows that the use of asymmetric cryptographic algorithms is well possible on resource-constrained devices, if carefully chosen and well implemented. This allows the use of the well-proven TLS protocol also for applications from the (Industrial) Internet of Things, including Fieldbus communication.
Low latency communication is essential to enable mission-critical machine-type communication (mMTC) use cases in cellular networks. Factory and process automation are major areas that require such low latency communication. In this paper, we investigate the potential of adopting the semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) latency reduction technique in narrowband LTE (NB-LTE) networks and provide a comprehensive performance evaluation. First, we investigate and implement SPS in an open-source network simulator (NS3). We perform simulations with a focus on LTE-M and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) systems and evaluate the impact of the SPS technique on the uplink latency of these narrowband systems in real industrial automation scenarios. The performance gain of adopting SPS is analyzed and the results is compared with the legacy dynamic scheduling. Our results show that SPS has the potential to reduce the latency of cellular Internet of Things (cIoT) networks. We believe that SPS can be integrated into LTE-M and NB-IoT systems to support low-latency industrial applications.
Climate change and resultant scarcity of water are becoming major challenges for countries around the world. With the advent of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in the last decade and a relatively new concept of Internet of Things (IoT), embedded systems developers are now working on designing control and automation systems that are lower in cost and more sustainable than the existing telemetry systems for monitoring. The Indus river basin in Pakistan has one of the world's largest irrigation systems and it is extremely challenging to design a low-cost embedded system for monitoring and control of waterways that can last for decades. In this paper, we present a hardware design and performance evaluation of a smart water metering solution that is IEEE 802.15.4-compliant. The results show that our hardware design is as powerful as the reference design, but allows for additional flexibility both in hardware and in firmware. The indigenously designed solution has a power added efficiency (PAE) of 24.7% that is expected to last for 351 and 814 days for nodes with and without a power amplifier (PA). Similarly, the results show that a broadband communication (434 MHz) over more than 3km can be supported, which is an important stepping stone for designing a complete coverage solution of large-scale waterways.
Recently, the demand for scalable, efficient and accurate Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) has seen a rising trend due to their utility in providing Location Based Services (LBS). Visible Light Communication (VLC) based IPS designs, VLC-IPS, leverage Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) in indoor environments for localization. Among VLC-based designs, Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) based techniques are shown to provide very low errors in the relative position of receivers. Our considered system consists of five LEDs that act as transmitters and a single receiver (photodiode or image sensor in smart phone) whose position coordinates in an indoor environment are to be determined. As a performance criterion, Cramer Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) is derived for range estimations and the impact of various factors, such as, LED transmission frequency, position of reference LED light, and the number of LED lights, on localization accuracy has been studied. Simulation results show that depending on the optimal values of these factors, location estimation on the order of few centimeters can be realistically achieved.
In the last decade, IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (IEEE802.15.4), also known as 6LoWPAN, has well evolved as a primary contender for short range wireless communications and holds the promise of an Internet of Things, which is completely based on the Internet Protocol. The authors' team has developed a 6LoWPAN protocol stack in C language, the stack without the necessity to use a specific design environment or operating system. It is highly flexible, modular, and portable and can be enhanced by several interesting modules, like a Wake-On-Radio-(WOR) MAC layer or a TLS1.2 based security sublayer. The stack is made available as open source at https://github.com/hso-esk/emb6. It was extensively tested on the Automated Physical Testbed (APTB) for Wireless Systems, which is available in the authors' lab and allows a flexible setup and full control of arbitrary topologies. The results of the measurements demonstrate a very good stability and short-term with long-term performance also under dynamic conditions.
On the possibility to use leaky feeders for positioning in chirp spread spectrum technologies
(2014)
Real Time Localization Systems using electromagnetic waves have significantly evolved during the last years. They also might be used in industrial and in mining environments. Here, topologies might include tunnels, where it might be difficult to ensure the field coverage. Leaky feeder cables are a common solution in case of normal radio communication. In this paper, we study the possibilities to use leaky feeders also for Time-of-Flight based real time localization in such linear topologies, like tunnels, but possibly also for 2D-localization. Theoretical analysis is verified with real-life measurements, which were performed using Chirp Spread Spectrum Technologies.
With the surge in global data consumption with proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT), remote monitoring and control is increasingly becoming popular with a wide range of applications from emergency response in remote regions to monitoring of environmental parameters. Mesh networks are being employed to alleviate a number of issues associated with single-hop communication such as low area coverage, reliability, range and high energy consumption. Low-power Wireless Personal Area Networks (LoWPANs) are being used to help realize and permeate the applicability of IoT. In this paper, we present the design and test of IEEE 802.15.4-compliant smart IoT nodes with multi-hop routing. We first discuss the features of the software stack and design choices in hardware that resulted in high RF output power and then present field test results of different baseline network topologies in both rural and urban settings to demonstrate the deployability and scalability of our solution.