Efficient vertical handover in heterogeneous low-power wide-area networks

As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to expand, the need to combine communication technologies to cope with the limitations of one another and to support more diverse requirements will proceed to increase. Consequently, we started to see IoT devices being equipped with multiple radio technologies to connect to different networks over time. However, the detection of the available radio technologies in an energy-efficient way for devices with limited battery capacity and processing power has not yet been investigated. As this is not a straightforward task, a novel approach in such heterogeneous networks is required. This article analyzes different low-power wide-area network technologies and how they can be integrated in such a heterogeneous system. Our contributions are threefold. First, an optimal protocol stack for a constrained device with access to multiple communication technologies is put forward to hide the underlying complexity for the application layer. Next, the architecture to hide the complexity of a heterogeneous network is presented. Finally, it is demonstrated how devices with limited processing power and battery capacity can have access to higher bandwidth networks combined with longer range networks and on top are able to save energy compared to their homogeneous counterparts, by measuring the impact of the novel vertical handover algorithm

Survey on wireless technology trade-offs for the industrial internet of things

Aside from vast deployment cost reduction, Industrial Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (IWSAN) introduce a new level of industrial connectivity. Wireless connection of sensors and actuators in industrial environments not only enables wireless monitoring and actuation, it also enables coordination of production stages, connecting mobile robots and autonomous transport vehicles, as well as localization and tracking of assets. All these opportunities already inspired the development of many wireless technologies in an effort to fully enable Industry 4.0. However, different technologies significantly differ in performance and capabilities, none being capable of supporting all industrial use cases. When designing a network solution, one must be aware of the capabilities and the trade-offs that prospective technologies have. This paper evaluates the technologies potentially suitable for IWSAN solutions covering an entire industrial site with limited infrastructure cost and discusses their trade-offs in an effort to provide information for choosing the most suitable technology for the use case of interest. The comparative discussion presented in this paper aims to enable engineers to choose the most suitable wireless technology for their specific IWSAN deployment

Multi-Slot BLE Raw Database for Accurate Positioning in Mixed Indoor/Outdoor Environments

The technologies and sensors embedded in smartphones have contributed to the spread of disruptive applications built on top of Location Based Services (LBSs). Among them, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has been widely adopted for proximity and localization, as it is a simple but efficient positioning technology. This article presents a database of received signal strength measurements (RSSIs) on BLE signals in a real positioning system. The system was deployed on two buildings belonging to the campus of the University of Extremadura in Badajoz. the database is divided into three different deployments, changing in each of them the number of measurement points and the configuration of the BLE beacons. the beacons used in this work can broadcast up to six emission slots simultaneously. Fingerprinting positioning experiments are presented in this work using multiple slots, improving positioning accuracy when compared with the traditional single slot approach