Improving Facilities Lifecycle Management Using RFID Localization And BIM-Based Visual Analytics

Indoor localization has gained importance as it has the potential to improve various processes related to the lifecycle management of facilities, such as the manual search to find assets. In the operation and maintenance phase, the lack of standards for interoperability and the difficulties related to the processing of large amount of accumulated data from different sources cause several process inefficiencies. For example, identifying failure cause-effect patterns in order to prepare maintenance plans is difficult due to the complex interactions and interdependencies between different building components and the existence of the related data in multiple, fragmented sources. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is emerging as a method for creating, sharing, exchanging and managing the information throughout the lifecycle of buildings. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), on the other hand, has emerged as an automatic data collection technology, and has been used in different applications for the lifecycle management of facilities. The previous research of the author proposed permanently attaching RFID tags to assets where the memory of the tags is populated with their accumulated lifecycle information taken from a standard BIM database to enhance various lifecycle processes. This thesis builds on this framework and investigates several methods for supporting lifecycle management processes of assets by using BIM, RFID and visual analytics. It investigates the usage of location-related data that can be retrieved from a BIM and are stored on RFID tags. It also investigates the usage of RFID technology for indoor localization of RFID-equipped assets using handheld readers. The research proposes using the location data saved on the tags attached to fixed assets to locate them on the floor plan. These tags also act as reference tags to locate moveable assets using received signal pattern matching and clustering algorithms. Additionally, the research investigates extending BIM to incorporate RFID information. It provides the opportunity to interrelate BIM and RFID data using predefined relationships. For this purpose, a requirements’ gathering is performed to add new entities, data types, relationships, and property sets to the BIM. Moreover, the research investigates the potential of BIM visualization to help facilities managers make better decisions in the operation and maintenance phase of the lifecycle. It proposes a knowledge-assisted BIM-based visual analytics approach for failure root-cause detection in facilities management where various sources of lifecycle data are integrated with a BIM and used for interactive visualization exploiting the heuristic problem solving ability of field experts

Enabling technologies and cyber-physical systems for mission-critical scenarios

Programa Oficial de Doutoramento en Tecnoloxías da Información e Comunicacións en Redes Móbiles . 5029P01[Abstract] Reliable transport systems, defense, public safety and quality assurance in the Industry 4.0 are essential in a modern society. In a mission-critical scenario, a mission failure would jeopardize human lives and put at risk some other assets whose impairment or loss would significantly harm society or business results. Even small degradations of the communications supporting the mission could have large and possibly dire consequences. On the one hand, mission-critical organizations wish to utilize the most modern, disruptive and innovative communication systems and technologies, and yet, on the other hand, need to comply with strict requirements, which are very different to those of non critical scenarios. The aim of this thesis is to assess the feasibility of applying emerging technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and 4G broadband communications in mission-critical scenarios along three key critical infrastructure sectors: transportation, defense and public safety, and shipbuilding. Regarding the transport sector, this thesis provides an understanding of the progress of communications technologies used for railways since the implantation of Global System for Mobile communications-Railways (GSM-R). The aim of this work is to envision the potential contribution of Long Term Evolution (LTE) to provide additional features that GSM-R would never support. Furthermore, the ability of Industrial IoT for revolutionizing the railway industry and confront today's challenges is presented. Moreover, a detailed review of the most common flaws found in Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) based IoT systems is presented, including the latest attacks described in the literature. As a result, a novel methodology for auditing security and reverse engineering RFID communications in transport applications is introduced. The second sector selected is driven by new operational needs and the challenges that arise from modern military deployments. The strategic advantages of 4G broadband technologies massively deployed in civil scenarios are examined. Furthermore, this thesis analyzes the great potential for applying IoT technologies to revolutionize modern warfare and provide benefits similar to those in industry. It identifies scenarios where defense and public safety could leverage better commercial IoT capabilities to deliver greater survivability to the warfighter or first responders, while reducing costs and increasing operation efficiency and effectiveness. The last part is devoted to the shipbuilding industry. After defining the novel concept of Shipyard 4.0, how a shipyard pipe workshop works and what are the requirements for building a smart pipe system are described in detail. Furthermore, the foundations for enabling an affordable CPS for Shipyards 4.0 are presented. The CPS proposed consists of a network of beacons that continuously collect information about the location of the pipes. Its design allows shipyards to obtain more information on the pipes and to make better use of it. Moreover, it is indicated how to build a positioning system from scratch in an environment as harsh in terms of communications as a shipyard, showing an example of its architecture and implementation.[Resumen] En la sociedad moderna, los sistemas de transporte fiables, la defensa, la seguridad pública y el control de la calidad en la Industria 4.0 son esenciales. En un escenario de misión crítica, el fracaso de una misión pone en peligro vidas humanas y en riesgo otros activos cuyo deterioro o pérdida perjudicaría significativamente a la sociedad o a los resultados de una empresa. Incluso pequeñas degradaciones en las comunicaciones que apoyan la misión podrían tener importantes y posiblemente terribles consecuencias. Por un lado, las organizaciones de misión crítica desean utilizar los sistemas y tecnologías de comunicación más modernos, disruptivos e innovadores y, sin embargo, deben cumplir requisitos estrictos que son muy diferentes a los relativos a escenarios no críticos. El objetivo principal de esta tesis es evaluar la viabilidad de aplicar tecnologías emergentes como Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) y comunicaciones de banda ancha 4G en escenarios de misión crítica en tres sectores clave de infraestructura crítica: transporte, defensa y seguridad pública, y construcción naval. Respecto al sector del transporte, esta tesis permite comprender el progreso de las tecnologías de comunicación en el ámbito ferroviario desde la implantación de Global System for Mobile communications-Railway (GSM-R). El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la contribución potencial de Long Term Evolution (LTE) para proporcionar características adicionales que GSM-R nunca podría soportar. Además, se presenta la capacidad de la IoT industrial para revolucionar la industria ferroviaria y afrontar los retos actuales. Asimismo, se estudian con detalle las vulnerabilidades más comunes de los sistemas IoT basados en Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID), incluyendo los últimos ataques descritos en la literatura. Como resultado, se presenta una metodología innovadora para realizar auditorías de seguridad e ingeniería inversa de las comunicaciones RFID en aplicaciones de transporte. El segundo sector elegido viene impulsado por las nuevas necesidades operacionales y los desafíos que surgen de los despliegues militares modernos. Para afrontarlos, se analizan las ventajas estratégicas de las tecnologías de banda ancha 4G masivamente desplegadas en escenarios civiles. Asimismo, esta tesis analiza el gran potencial de aplicación de las tecnologías IoT para revolucionar la guerra moderna y proporcionar beneficios similares a los alcanzados por la industria. Se identifican escenarios en los que la defensa y la seguridad pública podrían aprovechar mejor las capacidades comerciales de IoT para ofrecer una mayor capacidad de supervivencia al combatiente o a los servicios de emergencias, a la vez que reduce los costes y aumenta la eficiencia y efectividad de las operaciones. La última parte se dedica a la industria de construcción naval. Después de definir el novedoso concepto de Astillero 4.0, se describe en detalle cómo funciona el taller de tubería de astillero y cuáles son los requisitos para construir un sistema de tuberías inteligentes. Además, se presentan los fundamentos para posibilitar un CPS asequible para Astilleros 4.0. El CPS propuesto consiste en una red de balizas que continuamente recogen información sobre la ubicación de las tuberías. Su diseño permite a los astilleros obtener más información sobre las tuberías y hacer un mejor uso de las mismas. Asimismo, se indica cómo construir un sistema de posicionamiento desde cero en un entorno tan hostil en términos de comunicaciones, mostrando un ejemplo de su arquitectura e implementación

UTILIZING AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION TRACKING SYSTEMS TO COMPILE OPERATIONAL FIELD AND STRUCTURE DATA

The Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) and its Office of Materials Technology (OMT) is responsible for ensuring the materials used on its roadway system are properly designed, produced, and built to the approved standards. Each technology subdivision is responsible for the quality assurance of the materials used in transportation facility construction. The management of these materials relies on a series of intensive human processes involving sample collection and delivery. As the materials travel throughout the OMT, associated material information is manually recorded into a localized network database and the Material Management System (MMS) separately. The current large amount of human involvement necessary in the material clearance process can be streamlined with the integration of automatic identification technology (AIT). This study utilizes past implementations of AIT into civil engineering and construction applications to provide the SHA with AIT system hardware recommendations, software development considerations, estimated investment costs, and return on investment

Applications of wireless sensor technologies in construction

The construction industry is characterised by a number of problems in crucial fields such as health, safety and logistics. Since these problems affect the progress of construction projects, the construction industry has attempted to introduce the use of innovative information and communication technologies on the construction site. Specific technologies which find applicability on the construction site are wireless sensors, and especially radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology. RFID tagging is a technology capable of tracking items. The technology has been applied on the construction site for various applications, such as asset tracking. There are many problems related to health, safety and logistics on the construction site which could be resolved using RFID technology. In the health and safety field, the problems which exist are the monitoring of dangerous areas on the construction site, such as large excavation areas, the collisions between workers and vehicles, between vehicles and equipment and between vehicles, the detection of hazardous substances on the construction site when the construction work has been completed and the collection of hazard notifications from specific areas of the construction site as feedback for the prevention of future accidents. In the logistics field, the tracking of a material during its delivery on the construction site, its transportation to specific subcontractors and its future utilisation as well as the monitoring of the rate of use of materials on the construction site, the checking of the sequence of steel members and the monitoring of the temperature of porous materials are issues which can be realised using RFID technology. In order to facilitate the use of RFID technology for the specific health, safety and logistics problems, a system has been developed. The operation of this system is based on the combined use of hardware and software elements. The hardware elements of the developed system are a wireless local area network, RFID readers and tags. Its software elements are a software development kit based on which, a number of graphical user interfaces have been created for the interaction of the users with the REID tags, and Notepad files which store data collected from REID tags through the graphical user interfaces. Each of the graphical user interfaces is designed in such a way so that it corresponds to the requirements of the health, safety or logistics situation in which it is used. The proposed system has been tested on a simulated construction site by a group of experts and a number of findings have been produced. Specifically, the testing of the proposed system showed that RFID technology can connect the different stages which characterise the construction supply chain. In addition, it showed the capability of the technology to be integrated with construction processes. The testing of the system also revealed the barriers and the enablers to the use of RFID technology in the construction industry. An example of such a barrier is the unwillingness of the people of the construction industry to quit traditional techniques in favour of a new technology. Enablers which enhance the use of RFID technology in the construction industry are the lack of complexity which characterises the operation of RFID tagging and the relatively low cost of RFID tags. In general, RFID technology is an innovative sensor technology which can help the construction industry through its asset tracking ability. However, further research should be done on the improvement of RFID technology on specific characteristics, such as its inability to provide location coordinates and the resilience of the electromagnetic signal emitted by the RFID reader when there are metallic objects around the reader

Intelligent Sensor Networks

In the last decade, wireless or wired sensor networks have attracted much attention. However, most designs target general sensor network issues including protocol stack (routing, MAC, etc.) and security issues. This book focuses on the close integration of sensing, networking, and smart signal processing via machine learning. Based on their world-class research, the authors present the fundamentals of intelligent sensor networks. They cover sensing and sampling, distributed signal processing, and intelligent signal learning. In addition, they present cutting-edge research results from leading experts

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

A business process reengineering framework using the analytic hierarchy process to select a traceability technology for spare parts management in capital-intensive industries

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2016.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: demand forecasting for spare parts; and inventory warehousing management. Various aspects (including 29 best practices) of BPR are described in order to support the proposed framework. These include criteria for selecting processes to redesign, the role of Information Technology in BPR and typical barriers to eff ective implementation of BPR. The AHP (a multi-criteria decision-making method) is explained in detail, as it facilitates the selection of asset traceability technology. An overview of asset traceability technologies (speci fically barcode technology, Radio Frequency Identi cation (RFID) technology and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology) is also provided, including the description of certain characteristics of each technology. The proposed framework, based on the literature review, serves as a structured guide and consists of two primary parallel elements (referred to as streams), namely the BPR stream and the Change Management stream. The BPR stream encompasses six phases of BPR (Contextualise SPM, Business Process Redesign, Asset Traceability Technology, Decision-Making, Implement, and Monitor and Evaluate) while the Change Management stream consists of three stages (Unfreeze State, Change State and Refreeze State). The framework is validated through face validation via semi-structured interviews with participants forming a panel of experts involved in and familiar with SPM and asset traceability technology. According to the expert panel, the proposed framework satisfies achievement of the desired framework attributes, namely (i) Generic and adaptable, (ii) Holistic and comprehensive, (iii) Structured and objective- or outcome-oriented and (iv) Practical. In addition, the expert panel perceived the framework to be useful, easy to use and understandable. However, recommendations were proposed to further improve the framework, including the addition of a scoping and objectives section and the expansion of the Change Management element.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Onderdele is noodsaaklik vir die e ektiewe bedryf van 'n kapitaal-intensiewe organisasie en maak, tesame met materiaalverbruik, ongeveer 50% uit van 'n tipiese instandhoudingsbegroting. Ten spyte van die relatief groot hoeveelheid literatuur beskikbaar oor onderdele, pas min maatskappye egter ordentlike strukturele, feitlike en kwantitatiewe Onderdelebestuur toe. Geïntegreerde benaderings om onderdele te bestuur, sowel as om teoretiese modelle te ondersteun met praktiese riglyne, word benodig ten einde die gaping tussen navorsing en praktyk te oorbrug. Die studie het voortgevloei uit 'n geleentheid geïdenti seer om prosesse binne Onderdelebestuur te verbeter, spesi ek deur die gebruik van bate opspoorbaarheidstegnologie. 'n Raamwerk word voorgestel wat (i) die Besigheidsproses Hersiening lei deur prosesse binne Onderdelebestuur, met die inagneming van elemente van Veranderingsbestuur, en (ii) die keuse van opspoorbaarheidstegnologie lei vir integrasie binne Onderdelebestuur by kapitaal-intensiewe organisasies (deur die gebruik van die Analitiese Hiërargie Proses). Die navorsing bestaan uit 'n bespreking van Batebestuur, insluitend PAS 55 en ISO 55000 (twee belangrike Batebestuur dokumentreekse) en Veranderings-bestuur, wat 'n noodsaaklike aspek vir implementering is. Vervolgens word Onderdelebestuur, 'n onderafdeling van Batebestuur wat verband hou met onderdele en die fokuspunt van die studie is, aangespreek. Die volgende Onderdelebestuur aspekte word onder andere aangespreek: eienskappe van onderdele en hoe onderdele van ander algemene voorraad verskil; klassi seringskriteria en klassi seringstegnieke; vooruitskatting van die vraag na onderdele; en die bestuur van voorraadvlakke. Verskeie aspekte (insluitend 29 beste praktyke) van Besigheidsproses Hersiening word beskryf ten einde die voorgestelde raamwerk te ondersteun. Dit sluit kriteria in vir die keuse van herontwerpsprosesse, die rol van Inligtingstegnologie in Besigheidsproses Hersiening en tipiese struikelblokke vir die e ektiewe implementering van Besigheidsproses Hersiening. Die Analitiese Hiërargie Proses ('n multi-kriteria besluitnemingsmetode) word in detail verduidelik, aangesien dit die keuse van 'n bate opspoorbaarheidstegnolgie moet fasiliteer. 'n Oorsig van bate pspoorbaarheidstegnolgieë (spesi ek strepieskode tegnologie, Radiofrekwensie Identi kasie (RFID) tegnologie en Globale Posisioneringstelsel (GPS) tegnologie) word ook verskaf, insluitend die beskrywing van sekere eienskappe van elke tegnolgie. Die voorgestelde raamwerk, gebasseer op die literatuurstudie, dien as 'n gestruktureerde gids en bestaan uit twee primêre parallele elemente (wat na verwys word as strome), naamlik die Besigheidsproses Hersiening stroom en die Veranderingsbestuur stroom. Die Besigheidsproses Hersiening stroom vervat ses fases van Besigheidsproses Hersiening (Kontekstualiseer Onderdelebestuur, Besigheidsproses Hersiening, Bate Opspoorbaarheidstegnolgie, Besluitneming, Implementeer, en Monitor en Evalueer) terwyl die Veranderingsbestuur stroom bestaan uit drie stadiums (Ontvries Stadium, Verander Stadium en Hervries Stadium). Die voorgestelde raamwerk word bekragtig deur sigwaarde bekragtiging via semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met deelnemers wat 'n paneel van deskundiges vorm wat betrokke en vertroud is met Onderdelebestuur en Bate Opspoorbaarheidstegnolgie. Volgens die paneel van deskundiges slaag die voorgestelde raamwerk daarin om die vereiste raamwerk kenmerke te bereik, naamlik (i) Generies en aanpasbaar, (ii) Holisties en omvattend, (iii) Gestruktureerd en doelof uitkomsgeöriënteerd en (iv) Prakties. Boonop het die paneel van deskundiges die raamwerk gesien as nuttig, maklik om te gebruik en verstaanbaar. Aanbevelings was egter voorgestel om die raamwerk verder te verbeter, insluitend die byvoeging van 'n bestek en doelwitte afdeling en die uitbreiding van die Veranderingsbestuur element

Ubiquitous Computing

The aim of this book is to give a treatment of the actively developed domain of Ubiquitous computing. Originally proposed by Mark D. Weiser, the concept of Ubiquitous computing enables a real-time global sensing, context-aware informational retrieval, multi-modal interaction with the user and enhanced visualization capabilities. In effect, Ubiquitous computing environments give extremely new and futuristic abilities to look at and interact with our habitat at any time and from anywhere. In that domain, researchers are confronted with many foundational, technological and engineering issues which were not known before. Detailed cross-disciplinary coverage of these issues is really needed today for further progress and widening of application range. This book collects twelve original works of researchers from eleven countries, which are clustered into four sections: Foundations, Security and Privacy, Integration and Middleware, Practical Applications

Reliable Communication in Wireless Networks

Wireless communication systems are increasingly being used in industries and infrastructures since they offer significant advantages such as cost effectiveness and scalability with respect to wired communication system. However, the broadcast feature and the unreliable links in the wireless communication system may cause more communication collisions and redundant transmissions. Consequently, guaranteeing reliable and efficient transmission in wireless communication systems has become a big challenging issue. In particular, analysis and evaluation of reliable transmission protocols in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and radio frequency identification system (RFID) are strongly required. This thesis proposes to model, analyze and evaluate self-configuration algorithms in wireless communication systems. The objective is to propose innovative solutions for communication protocols in WSNs and RFID systems, aiming at optimizing the performance of the algorithms in terms of throughput, reliability and power consumption. The first activity focuses on communication protocols in WSNs, which have been investigated, evaluated and optimized, in order to ensure fast and reliable data transmission between sensor nodes. The second research topic addresses the interference problem in RFID systems. The target is to evaluate and develop precise models for accurately describing the interference among readers. Based on these models, new solutions for reducing collision in RFID systems have been investigated

Localisation en intérieur et gestion de la mobilité dans les réseaux sans fils hétérogènes émergents

Au cours des dernières décennies, nous avons été témoins d'une évolution considérable dans l'informatique mobile, réseau sans fil et des appareils portatifs. Dans les réseaux de communication à venir, les utilisateurs devraient être encore plus mobiles exigeant une connectivité omniprésente à différentes applications qui seront de préférence au courant de leur contexte. Certes, les informations de localisation dans le cadre de leur contexte est d'une importance primordiale à la fois la demande et les perspectives du réseau. Depuis l'application ou de point de vue utilisateur, la fourniture de services peut mettre à jour si l'adaptation au contexte de l'utilisateur est activée. Du point de vue du réseau, des fonctionnalités telles que le routage, la gestion de transfert, l'allocation des ressources et d'autres peuvent également bénéficier si l'emplacement de l'utilisateur peuvent être suivis ou même prédit. Dans ce contexte, nous nous concentrons notre attention sur la localisation à l'intérieur et de la prévision transfert qui sont des composants indispensables à la réussite ultime de l'ère de la communication omniprésente envisagé. Alors que les systèmes de positionnement en plein air ont déjà prouvé leur potentiel dans un large éventail d'applications commerciales, le chemin vers un système de localisation à l'intérieur de succès est reconnu pour être beaucoup plus difficile, principalement en raison des caractéristiques difficiles à l'intérieur et l'exigence d'une plus grande précision. De même, la gestion de transfert dans le futur des réseaux hétérogènes sans fil est beaucoup plus difficile que dans les réseaux traditionnels homogènes. Régimes de procédure de transfert doit être sans faille pour la réunion strictes de qualité de service (QoS) des applications futures et fonctionnel malgré la diversité des caractéristiques de fonctionnement des différentes technologies. En outre, les décisions transfert devraient être suffisamment souples pour tenir compte des préférences utilisateur d'un large éventail de critères proposés par toutes les technologies. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est de mettre au point précis, l'heure et l'emplacement de puissance et de systèmes efficaces de gestion de transfert afin de mieux satisfaire applications sensibles au contexte et mobiles. Pour obtenir une localisation à l'intérieur, le potentiel de réseau local sans fil (WLAN) et Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) que l'emplacement autonome technologies de détection sont d'abord étudiés par des essais plusieurs algorithmes et paramètres dans un banc d'essai expérimental réel ou par de nombreuses simulations, alors que leurs lacunes sont également été identifiés. Leur intégration dans une architecture commune est alors proposée afin de combiner leurs principaux avantages et surmonter leurs limitations. La supériorité des performances du système de synergie sur le stand alone homologues est validée par une analyse approfondie. En ce qui concerne la tâche de gestion transfert, nous repérer que la sensibilité au contexte peut aussi améliorer la fonctionnalité du réseau. En conséquence, deux de tels systèmes qui utilisent l'information obtenue à partir des systèmes de localisation sont proposées. Le premier schéma repose sur un déploiement tag RFID, comme notre architecture de positionnement RFID, et en suivant la scène WLAN analyse du concept de positionnement, prédit l'emplacement réseau de la prochaine couche, c'est à dire le prochain point de fixation sur le réseau. Le second régime repose sur une approche intégrée RFID et sans fil de capteur / actionneur Network (WSAN) de déploiement pour la localisation des utilisateurs physiques et par la suite pour prédire la prochaine leur point de transfert à deux couches de liaison et le réseau. Etre indépendant de la technologie d'accès sans fil principe sous-jacent, les deux régimes peuvent être facilement mises en œuvre dans des réseaux hétérogènes [...]Over the last few decades, we have been witnessing a tremendous evolution in mobile computing, wireless networking and hand-held devices. In the future communication networks, users are anticipated to become even more mobile demanding for ubiquitous connectivity to different applications which will be preferably aware of their context. Admittedly, location information as part of their context is of paramount importance from both application and network perspectives. From application or user point of view, service provision can upgrade if adaptation to the user's context is enabled. From network point of view, functionalities such as routing, handoff management, resource allocation and others can also benefit if user's location can be tracked or even predicted. Within this context, we focus our attention on indoor localization and handoff prediction which are indispensable components towards the ultimate success of the envisioned pervasive communication era. While outdoor positioning systems have already proven their potential in a wide range of commercial applications, the path towards a successful indoor location system is recognized to be much more difficult, mainly due to the harsh indoor characteristics and requirement for higher accuracy. Similarly, handoff management in the future heterogeneous wireless networks is much more challenging than in traditional homogeneous networks. Handoff schemes must be seamless for meeting strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of the future applications and functional despite the diversity of operation features of the different technologies. In addition, handoff decisions should be flexible enough to accommodate user preferences from a wide range of criteria offered by all technologies. The main objective of this thesis is to devise accurate, time and power efficient location and handoff management systems in order to satisfy better context-aware and mobile applications. For indoor localization, the potential of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies as standalone location sensing technologies are first studied by testing several algorithms and metrics in a real experimental testbed or by extensive simulations, while their shortcomings are also identified. Their integration in a common architecture is then proposed in order to combine their key benefits and overcome their limitations. The performance superiority of the synergetic system over the stand alone counterparts is validated via extensive analysis. Regarding the handoff management task, we pinpoint that context awareness can also enhance the network functionality. Consequently, two such schemes which utilize information obtained from localization systems are proposed. The first scheme relies on a RFID tag deployment, alike our RFID positioning architecture, and by following the WLAN scene analysis positioning concept, predicts the next network layer location, i.e. the next point of attachment to the network. The second scheme relies on an integrated RFID and Wireless Sensor/Actuator Network (WSAN) deployment for tracking the users' physical location and subsequently for predicting next their handoff point at both link and network layers. Being independent of the underlying principle wireless access technology, both schemes can be easily implemented in heterogeneous networks. Performance evaluation results demonstrate the advantages of the proposed schemes over the standard protocols regarding prediction accuracy, time latency and energy savingsEVRY-INT (912282302) / SudocSudocFranceF