A comprehensive survey of wireless body area networks on PHY, MAC, and network layers solutions

Recent advances in microelectronics and integrated circuits, system-on-chip design, wireless communication and intelligent low-power sensors have allowed the realization of a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). A WBAN is a collection of low-power, miniaturized, invasive/non-invasive lightweight wireless sensor nodes that monitor the human body functions and the surrounding environment. In addition, it supports a number of innovative and interesting applications such as ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, interactive gaming, and military applications. In this paper, the fundamental mechanisms of WBAN including architecture and topology, wireless implant communication, low-power Medium Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols are reviewed. A comprehensive study of the proposed technologies for WBAN at Physical (PHY), MAC, and Network layers is presented and many useful solutions are discussed for each layer. Finally, numerous WBAN applications are highlighted

A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks

In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs

Wireless communication technologies for the Internet of Things

Internet of Things (IoT) is the inter-networking paradigm based on many processes such as identifying, sensing, networking and computation. An IoT technology stack provides seamless connectivity between various physical and virtual objects. The increasing number of IoT applications leads to the issue of transmitting, storing, and processing a large amount of data. Therefore, it is necessary to enable a system capable to handle the growing traffic requirements with the required level of QoS (Quality of Service). IoT devices become more complex due to the various components such as sensors and network interfaces. The IoT environment is often demanding for mobile power source, QoS, mobility, reliability, security, and other requirements. Therefore, new IoT technologies are required to overcome some of these issues. In recent years new wireless communication technologies are being developed to support the development of new IoT applications. This paper provides an overview of some of the most widely used wireless communication technologies used for IoT applications

An end-to-end LwM2M-based communication architecture for multimodal NB-IoT/BLE devices

The wireless Internet of Things (IoT) landscape is quite diverse. For instance, Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) technologies offer low data rate communication over long distance, whereas Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) technologies can reach higher data rates, but with a reduced range. For simple IoT applications, communication requirements can be fulfilled by a single technology. However, the requirements of more demanding IoT use cases can vary over time and with the type of data being exchanged. This is pushing the design towards multimodal approaches, where different wireless IoT technologies are combined and the most appropriate one is used as per the need. This paper considers the combination of Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as communication options for an IoT device that is running a Lightweight Machine to Machine/Constrained Application Protocol (LwM2M/CoAP) protocol stack. It analyses the challenges incurred by different protocol stack options, such as different transfer modes (IP versus non-IP), the use of Static Context Header Compression (SCHC) techniques, and Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) security modes, and discusses the impact of handover between both communication technologies. A suitable end-to-end architecture for the targeted multimodal communication is presented. Using a prototype implementation of this architecture, an in-depth assessment of handover and its resulting latency is performed

A Study of IEEE 802.15.4 Security Framework for Wireless Body Area Network

A Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is a collection of low-power and lightweight wireless sensor nodes that are used to monitor the human body functions and the surrounding environment. It supports a number of innovative and interesting applications, including ubiquitous healthcare and Consumer Electronics (CE) applications. Since WBAN nodes are used to collect sensitive (life-critical) information and may operate in hostile environments, they require strict security mechanisms to prevent malicious interaction with the system. In this paper, we first highlight major security requirements and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks in WBAN at Physical, Medium Access Control (MAC), Network, and Transport layers. Then we discuss the IEEE 802.15.4 security framework and identify the security vulnerabilities and major attacks in the context of WBAN. Different types of attacks on the Contention Access Period (CAP) and Contention Free Period (CFP) parts of the superframe are analyzed and discussed. It is observed that a smart attacker can successfully corrupt an increasing number of GTS slots in the CFP period and can considerably affect the Quality of Service (QoS) in WBAN (since most of the data is carried in CFP period). As we increase the number of smart attackers the corrupted GTS slots are eventually increased, which prevents the legitimate nodes to utilize the bandwidth efficiently. This means that the direct adaptation of IEEE 802.15.4 security framework for WBAN is not totally secure for certain WBAN applications. New solutions are required to integrate high level security in WBAN.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 2 table

End-to-End Simulation of 5G mmWave Networks

Due to its potential for multi-gigabit and low latency wireless links, millimeter wave (mmWave) technology is expected to play a central role in 5th generation cellular systems. While there has been considerable progress in understanding the mmWave physical layer, innovations will be required at all layers of the protocol stack, in both the access and the core network. Discrete-event network simulation is essential for end-to-end, cross-layer research and development. This paper provides a tutorial on a recently developed full-stack mmWave module integrated into the widely used open-source ns--3 simulator. The module includes a number of detailed statistical channel models as well as the ability to incorporate real measurements or ray-tracing data. The Physical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers are modular and highly customizable, making it easy to integrate algorithms or compare Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) numerologies, for example. The module is interfaced with the core network of the ns--3 Long Term Evolution (LTE) module for full-stack simulations of end-to-end connectivity, and advanced architectural features, such as dual-connectivity, are also available. To facilitate the understanding of the module, and verify its correct functioning, we provide several examples that show the performance of the custom mmWave stack as well as custom congestion control algorithms designed specifically for efficient utilization of the mmWave channel.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures, submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (revised Jan. 2018

A real-time packet scheduling system for a 6LoWPAN industrial application

Nowadays, the industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are crucial for the monitoring and control of the modern smart factory floor that is relying on them for critical applications and tasks that were performed by wired systems in the past. For this reason, it is required that the transmission mechanisms of wireless sensor networks are efficient and robust and that they guarantee realtime responses with low data losses. Furthermore, it is required that they utilize common networking standards, such as the Internet Protocol (IP), that provides interoperability with already existing infrastructures and offers widely tested security and transmission control protocols. The theoretical part of this document focuses on the description of the current panorama of the industrial WSN, its applications, design challenges and standardizations. It describes the 6LoWPAN standard and the wireless transmission technology that it uses for its lower layers, the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. Later, it describes the principles behind the wireless scheduling, a state-of-the-art in the IEEE 802.15.4 scheduled channel access and the features of the most used operating systems for WSN. The practical part presents the real-time packet scheduling system for a 6LoWPAN industrial application proposed by this thesis work that adapts the HSDPA scheduling mechanisms to the IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enabled mode. The system implemented manages the channel access by allocating Guaranteed Time Slots to sensor nodes according to the priority given by three scheduling algorithms that can be selected according to the traffic condition of the network. The system proposed was programmed using Contiki OS. It is based on the eSONIA 6LoWPAN firmware developed for the European Research Project and it was deployed on the FAST WSN for testing. The results, discussion and conclusions are documented at the final sections of this part

Politecast - a new communication primitive for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks have the potential for becoming a huge market. Ericsson predicts 50 billion devices interconnected to the Internet by the year 2020. Before that, the devices must be made to be able to withstand years of usage without having to change power source as that would be too costly. These devices are typically small, inexpensive and severally resource constrained. Communication is mainly wireless, and the wireless transceiver on the node is typically the most power hungry component. Therefore, reducing the usage of radio is key to long lifetime. In this thesis I identify four problems with the conventional broadcast primitive. Based on those problems, I implement a new communication primitive. This primitive is called Politecast. I evaluate politecast in three case studies: the Steal the Light toy example, a Neighbor Discovery simulation and a full two-month deployment of the Lega system in the art gallery Liljevalchs. With the evaluations, Politecast is shown to be able to massively reduce the amount of traffic being transmitted and thus reducing congestion and increasing application performance. It also prolongs node lifetime by reducing the overhearing by waking up neighbors