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The Metering Bus, also known as M-Bus, is a European standard EN13757-3 for reading out metering devices, like electricity, water, gas, or heat meters. Although real-life M-Bus networks can reach a significant size and complexity, only very simple protocol analyzers are available to observe and maintain such networks. In order to provide developers and installers with the ability to analyze the real bus signals easily, a web-based monitoring tool for the M-Bus has been designed and implemented. Combined with a physical bus interface it allows for measuring and recording the bus signals. For this at first a circuit has been developed, which transforms the voltage and current-modulated M-Bus signals to a voltage signal that can be read by a standard ADC and processed by an MCU. The bus signals and packets are displayed using a web server, which analyzes and classifies the frame fragments. As an additional feature an oscilloscope functionality is included in order to visualize the physical signal on the bus. This paper describes the development of the read-out circuit for the Wired M-Bus and the data recovery.
Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is the most promising time-deterministic wired communication approach for industrial applications. To extend TSN to "IEEE 802.11" wireless networks two challenging problems must be solved: synchronization and scheduling. This paper is focused on the first one. Even though a few solutions already meet the required synchronization accuracies, they are built on expensive hardware that is not suited for mass market products. While next Wi-Fi generation might support the required functionalities, this paper proposes a novel method that makes possible high-precision wireless synchronization using commercial low-cost components. With the proposed solution, a standard deviation of synchronization error of less than 500 ns can be achieved for many use cases and system loads on both CPU and network. This performance is comparable to modern wired real-time field busses, which makes the developed method a significant contribution for the extension of the TSN protocol to the wireless domain.
This paper presents a novel low-jitter interface between a low-cost integrated IEEE802.11 chip and a FPGA. It is designed to be part of system hardware for ultra-precise synchronization between wireless stations. On physical level, it uses Wi-Fi chip coexistence signal lines and UART frame encoding. On its basis, we propose an efficient communication protocol providing precise timestamping of incoming frames and internal diagnostic mechanisms for detecting communication faults. Meanwhile it is simple enough to be implemented both in low-cost FPGA and commodity IEEE802.11 chip firmware. The results of computer simulation shows that developed FPGA implementation of the proposed protocol can precisely timestamp incoming frames as well as detect most of communication errors even in conditions of high interference. The probability of undetected errors was investigated. The results of this analysis are significant for the development of novel wireless synchronization hardware.
Hybrid low-voltage physical unclonable function based on inkjet-printed metal-oxide transistors
(2020)
Modern society is striving for digital connectivity that demands information security. As an emerging technology, printed electronics is a key enabler for novel device types with free form factors, customizability, and the potential for large-area fabrication while being seamlessly integrated into our everyday environment. At present, information security is mainly based on software algorithms that use pseudo random numbers. In this regard, hardware-intrinsic security primitives, such as physical unclonable functions, are very promising to provide inherent security features comparable to biometrical data. Device-specific, random intrinsic variations are exploited to generate unique secure identifiers. Here, we introduce a hybrid physical unclonable function, combining silicon and printed electronics technologies, based on metal oxide thin film devices. Our system exploits the inherent randomness of printed materials due to surface roughness, film morphology and the resulting electrical characteristics. The security primitive provides high intrinsic variation, is non-volatile, scalable and exhibits nearly ideal uniqueness.
The development of Internet of Things (IoT) embedded devices is proliferating, especially in the smart home automation system. However, the devices unfortunately are imposing overhead on the IoT network. Thus, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) have introduced the IPv6 Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) to provide a solution to this constraint. 6LoWPAN is an Internet Protocol (IP) based communication where it allows each device to connect to the Internet directly. As a result, the power consumption is reduced. However, the limitation of data transmission frame size of the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Network’s (RPL’s) had made it to be the running overhead, and thus consequently degrades the performance of the network in terms of Quality of Service (QoS), especially in a large network. Therefore, HRPL was developed to enhance the RPL protocol to minimize redundant retransmission that causes the routing overhead. We introduced the T-Cut Off Delay to set the limit of the delay and the H field to respond to actions taken within the T-Cut Off Delay. Thus, this paper presents the comparison performance assessment of HRPL between simulation and real-world scenarios (6LoWPAN Smart Home System (6LoSH) testbed) in validating the HRPL functionalities. Our results show that HRPL had successfully reduced the routing overhead when implemented in 6LoSH. The observed Control Traffic Overhead (CTO) packet difference between each experiment is 7.1%, and the convergence time is 9.3%. Further research is recommended to be conducted for these metrics: latency, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), and throughput.
The authentication method of electronic devices, based on individual forms of correlograms of their internal electric noises, is well-known. Specific physical differences in the components – for example, caused by variations in production quality – cause specific electrical signals, i.e. electric noise, in the electronic device. It is possible to obtain this information and to identify the specific differences of the individual devices using an embedded analog-to-digital converter (ADC). These investigations confirm the possibility to identify and authenticate electronic devices using bit templates, calculated from the sequence of values of the normalized autocorrelation function of noise. Experiments have been performed using personal computers. The probability of correct identification and authentication increases with increasing noise recording duration. As a result of these experiments, an accuracy of 98.1% was achieved for a 1 second-long registration of EM for a set of investigated computers.
Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) provides mechanisms to enable deterministic and real-time networking in industrial networks. Configuration of these mechanisms is key to fully deploy and integrate TSN in the networks. The IEEE 802.1 Qcc standard has proposed different configuration models to implement a TSN configuration. Up until now, TSN and its configuration have been explored mostly for Ethernet-based industrial networks. However, they are still considered “work-in-progress” for wireless networks. This work focuses on the fully centralized model and describes a generic concept to enable the configuration of TSN mechanisms in wireless industrial networks. To this end, a configuration entity is implemented to conFigure the wireless end stations to satisfy their requirements. The proposed solution is then validated with the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication ultra-low energy (DECT ULE) wireless communication protocol.
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.
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).
In recent years, predictive maintenance tasks, especially for bearings, have become increasingly important. Solutions for these use cases concentrate on the classification of faults and the estimation of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL). As of today, these solutions suffer from a lack of training samples. In addition, these solutions often require high-frequency accelerometers, incurring significant costs. To overcome these challenges, this research proposes a combined classification and RUL estimation solution based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network. This solution relies on a hybrid feature extraction approach, making it especially appropriate for low-cost accelerometers with low sampling frequencies. In addition, it uses transfer learning to be suitable for applications with only a few training samples.
TSN, or Time Sensitive Networking, is becoming an essential technology for integrated networks, enabling deterministic and best effort traffic to coexist on the same infrastructure. In order to properly configure, run and secure such TSN, monitoring functionality is a must. The TSN standard already has some preparations to provide such functionality and there are different methods to choose from. We implemented different methods to measure the time synchronisation accuracy between devices as a C library and compared the measurement results. Furthermore, the library has been integrated into the ControlTSN engineering framework.
Novel manufacturing technologies, such as printed electronics, may enable future applications for the Internet of Everything like large-area sensor devices, disposable security, and identification tags. Printed physically unclonable functions (PUFs) are promising candidates to be embedded as hardware security keys into lightweight identification devices. We investigate hybrid PUFs based on a printed PUF core. The statistics on the intra- and inter-hamming distance distributions indicate a performance suitable for identification purposes. Our evaluations are based on statistical simulations of the PUF core circuit and the thereof generated challenge-response pairs. The analysis shows that hardware-intrinsic security features can be realized with printed lightweight devices.
During the day-to-day exploitation of localization systems in mines, the technical staff tends to incorrectly rearrange radio equipment: positions of devices may not be accurately marked on a map or their positions may not correspond to the truth. This situation may lead to positioning inaccuracies and errors in the operation of the localization system.This paper presents two Bayesian algorithms for the automatic corrections of positions of the equipment on the map using trajectories restored by the inertial measurement units mounted to mobile objects, like pedestrians and vehicles. As a basis, a predefined map of the mine represented as undirected weighted graph was used as input. The algorithms were implemented using the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) approach.The results prove that both methods are capable to detect misplacement of access points and to provide corresponding corrections. The discrete Bayesian filter outperforms the unscented Kalman filter, which, however, requires more computational power.
In the last decade, IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks, also known as 6LoWPAN, has well evolved as a primary contender for short range wireless communication and holds the promise of an Internet of Things, which is completely based on the Internet Protocol. In the meantime, various 6LoWPAN implementations are available, be it open source or commercial. One of these implementations, which was developed by the authors' team, was tested on an Automated Physical Testbed for Wireless Systems at the Laboratory Embedded Systems and Communication Electronics of Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, which allows the flexible setup and full control of arbitrary topologies. It also supports time-varying topologies and thus helps to measure performance of the RPL implementation. The results of the measurements show a very good stability and short-term and long-term performance also under dynamic conditions. In addition, it can be proven that the performance predictions from other papers are consistent with real-life implementations.
Wireless sensor networks have found their way into a wide range of applications, among which environmental monitoring systems have attracted increasing interests of researchers. Main challenges for these applications are scalability of the network size and energy efficiency of the spatially distributed nodes. Nodes are mostly battery-powered and spend most of their energy budget on the radio transceiver module. In normal operation modes most energy is spent waiting for incoming frames. A so-called Wake-On-Radio (WOR) technology helps to optimize trade-offs between energy consumption, communication range, complexity of the implementation and response time. We already proposed a new protocol called SmartMAC that makes use of such WOR technology. Furthermore, it gives the possibility to balance the energy consumption between sender and receiver nodes depending on the use case. Based on several calculations and simulations, it was predicted that the SmartMAC protocol was significantly more efficient than other schemes being proposed in recent publications, while preserving a certain backward compatibility with standard IEEE802.15.4 transceivers. To verify this prediction, we implemented the SmartMAC protocol for a given hardware platform. This paper compares the realtime performance of the SmartMAC protocol against simulation results, and proves the measured values are very close to the estimated values. Thus we believe that the proposed MAC algorithms outperforms all other Wake-on-Radio MACs.
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.
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.
Efficient, secure and reliable communication is a major precondition for powerful applications in smart metering and smart grid. This especially holds true for the so called primary communication in the Local Metrological Network (LMN) between meter and data collector, as the LMN comes with the most stringent requirements with regard to cost, range, as well as bandwidth and energy efficiency. Until today, LMN field tests are operated all over the world. In these installations, however, energy autarkic systems play a marginal role. This contribution describes the results of the framework 7 (FP 7) WiMBex project (“Remote wireless water meter reading solution based on the EN 13757 standard, providing high autonomy, interoperability and range”). In this project an energy autarkic water meter was developed and tested, which follows the specification of the Wireless M-Bus protocol (EN 13757). The complete system development covers the PCB with the RF transceiver and the microcontroller, the energy converter and storage, and the software with the protocol. This contribution especially concentrates on the design, the development and the verification of the routing protocol. The routing protocol is based on the Q mode of EN13757-5 (Wireless M-Bus) and was extended by an additional energy state related parameter. This extension is orthogonal to the existing protocol and considers both the charge level and the charge characteristics (rate of occurrences, intensity). The software was implemented in NesC under the operating system TinyOS. The system was verified in an automated test bed and in field tests in UK and Ireland.
6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks) is gaining more and more attraction for the seamless connectivity of embedded devices for the Internet of Things (IoT). Whereas the lower layers (IEEE802.15.4 and 6LoWPAN) are already well defined and consolidated with regard to frame formats, header compression, routing protocols and commissioning procedures, there is still an abundant choice of possibilities on the application layer. Currently, various groups are working towards standardization of the application layer, i.e. the ETSI Technical Committee on M2M, the IP for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance, Lightweight M2M (LWM2M) protocol of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), and OneM2M. This multitude of approaches leaves the system developer with the agony of choice. This paper selects, presents and explains one of the promising solutions, discusses its strengths and weaknesses, and demonstrates its implementation.
6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks) is gaining more and more attraction for the seamless connectivity of embedded devices for the Internet of Things. It can be observed that most of the available solutions are following an open source approach, which significantly leads to a fast development of technologies and of markets. Although the currently available implementations are in a pretty good shape, all of them come with some significant drawbacks. It was therefore decided to start the development of an own implementation, which takes the advantages from the existing solutions, but tries to avoid the drawbacks. This paper discussed the reasoning behind this decision, describes the implementation and its characteristics, as well as the testing results. The given implementation is available as open-source project under [15].