Next Generation Internet of Things – Distributed Intelligence at the Edge and Human-Machine Interactions

This book provides an overview of the next generation Internet of Things (IoT), ranging from research, innovation, development priorities, to enabling technologies in a global context. It is intended as a standalone in a series covering the activities of the Internet of Things European Research Cluster (IERC), including research, technological innovation, validation, and deployment.The following chapters build on the ideas put forward by the European Research Cluster, the IoT European Platform Initiative (IoT–EPI), the IoT European Large-Scale Pilots Programme and the IoT European Security and Privacy Projects, presenting global views and state-of-the-art results regarding the next generation of IoT research, innovation, development, and deployment.The IoT and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) are evolving towards the next generation of Tactile IoT/IIoT, bringing together hyperconnectivity (5G and beyond), edge computing, Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs), virtual/ andaugmented reality (VR/AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) transformation.Following the wider adoption of consumer IoT, the next generation of IoT/IIoT innovation for business is driven by industries, addressing interoperability issues and providing new end-to-end security solutions to face continuous treats.The advances of AI technology in vision, speech recognition, natural language processing and dialog are enabling the development of end-to-end intelligent systems encapsulating multiple technologies, delivering services in real-time using limited resources. These developments are focusing on designing and delivering embedded and hierarchical AI solutions in IoT/IIoT, edge computing, using distributed architectures, DLTs platforms and distributed end-to-end security, which provide real-time decisions using less data and computational resources, while accessing each type of resource in a way that enhances the accuracy and performance of models in the various IoT/IIoT applications.The convergence and combination of IoT, AI and other related technologies to derive insights, decisions and revenue from sensor data provide new business models and sources of monetization. Meanwhile, scalable, IoT-enabled applications have become part of larger business objectives, enabling digital transformation with a focus on new services and applications.Serving the next generation of Tactile IoT/IIoT real-time use cases over 5G and Network Slicing technology is essential for consumer and industrial applications and support reducing operational costs, increasing efficiency and leveraging additional capabilities for real-time autonomous systems.New IoT distributed architectures, combined with system-level architectures for edge/fog computing, are evolving IoT platforms, including AI and DLTs, with embedded intelligence into the hyperconnectivity infrastructure.The next generation of IoT/IIoT technologies are highly transformational, enabling innovation at scale, and autonomous decision-making in various application domains such as healthcare, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, energy, agriculture, transportation and autonomous vehicles, the military, logistics and supply chain, retail and wholesale, manufacturing, mining and oil and gas

Reaaliaikainen sis¨atilapaikannus rakennusty¨omaalla k¨aytt¨aen BLE-majakoiden trilateraatiota

A real-time indoor location tracking system prototype for construction site resource tracking was developed in this Master's Thesis. The positioning technology used was Bluetooth Low Energy Beacons and the method was trilateration. The prototype developed in this work is built upon a simpler version of a location tracking system prototype developed in iCONS research project in Aalto University. The contextual purpose of this work was to investigate in which ways a coordinate level indoor positioning system could enhance production control in construction. The lean construction philosophy is the theoretical background of this research topic. The Design Science research method was followed. The process of implementation was documented in detail. The prototype was tested in a construction site to determine the location of a person carrying a BLE beacon. The accuracy turned out to be around 10 meters at best when there was least movement. Various aspects other than accuracy have also been evaluated, and ideas for improvement are presented. The value and the applications of an ideally working coordinate level real-time location tracking system for construction production control was assessed in light of the research literature and the experience gained from creating and testing the prototype. Such a system would have a significantly positive impact on the productivity, transparency, and safety in construction.Tässä diplomityössä kehitettiin reaaliaikainen sisätilapaikannusjärjestelmä rakennustyömaan resurssien seurantaan. Paikannustekniikkana toimi Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) -majakat ja niiden paikantaminen trilateraation avulla. Työssä kehitetty prototyyppi rakentui Aalto-yliopiston iCONS-tutkimusprojektissa kehitetyn yksinkertaisemman paikannusjärjestelmän päälle. Tässä työssä tutkittiin, millä tavoin koordinaattitason sisätilapaikannusjärjestelmä voisi parantaa tuotannonohjausta rakentamisessa. Lean-rakentaminen on tämän tutkimusaiheen teoreettinen tausta. Design Science -tutkimusmenetelmää sovellettiin tässä työssä. Menetelmän mukaisen artifaktin toteutusprosessi dokumentoitiin yksityiskohtaisesti. Prototyyppiä testattiin oikealla rakennustyömaalla BLE-majakkaa kantavan henkilön sijainnin määrittämiseksi. Tarkkuus ylsi parhaimmillaan noin 10 metriin, kun liikettä oli vähiten. Tarkkuuden lisäksi järjestelmän muita aspekteja on myös arvioitu ja parannusideoita esitetty. Ideaalin reaaliaikaisen paikannusjärjestelmän arvoa ja sovelluksia rakennusalan tuotannonohjauksessa arvioitiin sekä tutkimuskirjallisuuden että prototyypistä saadun tiedon valossa. Tällaisella järjestelmällä olisi merkittävä vaikutus rakentamisen tuottavuuteen, läpinäkyvyyteen ja turvallisuuteen

6G Wireless Systems: Vision, Requirements, Challenges, Insights, and Opportunities

Mobile communications have been undergoing a generational change every ten years or so. However, the time difference between the so-called "G's" is also decreasing. While fifth-generation (5G) systems are becoming a commercial reality, there is already significant interest in systems beyond 5G, which we refer to as the sixth-generation (6G) of wireless systems. In contrast to the already published papers on the topic, we take a top-down approach to 6G. We present a holistic discussion of 6G systems beginning with lifestyle and societal changes driving the need for next generation networks. This is followed by a discussion into the technical requirements needed to enable 6G applications, based on which we dissect key challenges, as well as possibilities for practically realizable system solutions across all layers of the Open Systems Interconnection stack. Since many of the 6G applications will need access to an order-of-magnitude more spectrum, utilization of frequencies between 100 GHz and 1 THz becomes of paramount importance. As such, the 6G eco-system will feature a diverse range of frequency bands, ranging from below 6 GHz up to 1 THz. We comprehensively characterize the limitations that must be overcome to realize working systems in these bands; and provide a unique perspective on the physical, as well as higher layer challenges relating to the design of next generation core networks, new modulation and coding methods, novel multiple access techniques, antenna arrays, wave propagation, radio-frequency transceiver design, as well as real-time signal processing. We rigorously discuss the fundamental changes required in the core networks of the future that serves as a major source of latency for time-sensitive applications. While evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of key 6G technologies, we differentiate what may be achievable over the next decade, relative to what is possible.Comment: Accepted for Publication into the Proceedings of the IEEE; 32 pages, 10 figures, 5 table

Roadmap on signal processing for next generation measurement systems

Signal processing is a fundamental component of almost any sensor-enabled system, with a wide range of applications across different scientific disciplines. Time series data, images, and video sequences comprise representative forms of signals that can be enhanced and analysed for information extraction and quantification. The recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning are shifting the research attention towards intelligent, data-driven, signal processing. This roadmap presents a critical overview of the state-of-the-art methods and applications aiming to highlight future challenges and research opportunities towards next generation measurement systems. It covers a broad spectrum of topics ranging from basic to industrial research, organized in concise thematic sections that reflect the trends and the impacts of current and future developments per research field. Furthermore, it offers guidance to researchers and funding agencies in identifying new prospects.AerodynamicsMicrowave Sensing, Signals & System