28 research outputs found
On the synchronization of IEEE 802.15.5 wireless mesh sensor networks: Shortcomings and improvements
Use of Inferential Statistics to Design Effective Communication Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks
This thesis explores the issues and techniques associated with employing the principles of inferential statistics to design effective Medium Access Control (MAC), routing and duty cycle management strategies for multihop Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The main objective of these protocols are to maximise the throughput of the network, to prolong the lifetime of nodes and to reduce the end-to-end delay of packets over a general network scenario without particular considerations for specific topology configurations, traffic patterns or routing policies.
WSNs represent one of the leading-edge technologies that have received substantial research efforts due to their prominent roles in many applications. However, to design effective communication protocols for WSNs is particularly challenging due to the scarce resources of these networks and the requirement for large-scale deployment. The MAC, routing and duty cycle management protocols are amongst the important strategies that are required to ensure correct operations of WSNs. This thesis makes use of the inferential statistics field to design these protocols; inferential statistics was selected as it provides a rich design space with powerful approaches and methods.
The MAC protocol proposed in this thesis exploits the statistical characteristics of the Gamma distribution to enable each node to adjust its contention parameters dynamically based on its inference for the channel occupancy. This technique reduces the service time of packets and leverages the throughput by improving the channel utilisation. Reducing the service time minimises the energy consumed in contention to access the channel which in turn prolongs the lifetime of nodes. The proposed duty cycle management scheme uses non-parametric Bayesian inference to enable each node to determine the best times and durations for its sleeping durations without posing overheads on the network. Hence the lifetime of node is prolonged by mitigating the amount of energy wasted in overhearing and idle listening. Prolonging the lifetime of nodes increases the throughput of the network and reduces the end-to-end delay as it allows nodes to route their packets over optimal paths for longer periods. The proposed routing protocol uses one of the state-of-the-art inference techniques dubbed spatial reasoning that enables each node to figure out the spatial relationships between nodes without overwhelming the network with control packets. As a result, the end-to-end delay is reduced while the throughput and lifetime are increased.
Besides the proposed protocols, this thesis utilises the analytical aspects of statistics to develop rigorous analytical models that can accurately predict the queuing and medium access delay and energy consumption over multihop networks. Moreover, this thesis provides a broader perspective for design of communication protocols for WSNs by casting the operations of these networks in the domains of the artificial chemistry discipline and the harmony search optimisation algorithm
Routing and Mobility on IPv6 over LoWPAN
The IoT means a world-wide network of interconnected objects based on standard communication
protocols. An object in this context is a quotidian physical device augmented with
sensing/actuating, processing, storing and communication capabilities. These objects must be
able to interact with the surrounding environment where they are placed and to cooperate with
neighbouring objects in order to accomplish a common objective. The IoT objects have also the
capabilities of converting the sensed data into automated instructions and communicating them
to other objects through the communication networks, avoiding the human intervention in several
tasks. Most of IoT deployments are based on small devices with restricted computational
resources and energy constraints. For this reason, initially the scientific community did not
consider the use of IP protocol suite in this scenarios because there was the perception that it
was too heavy to the available resources on such devices. Meanwhile, the scientific community
and the industry started to rethink about the use of IP protocol suite in all IoT devices and now
it is considered as the solution to provide connectivity between the IoT devices, independently
of the Layer 2 protocol in use, and to connect them to the Internet. Despite the use of IP suite
protocol in all devices and the amount of solutions proposed, many open issues remain unsolved
in order to reach a seamless integration between the IoT and the Internet and to provide the
conditions to IoT service widespread. This thesis addressed the challenges associated with the
interconnectivity between the Internet and the IoT devices and with the security aspects of
the IoT. In the interconnectivity between the IoT devices and the Internet the problem is how
to provide valuable information to the Internet connected devices, independently of the supported
IP protocol version, without being necessary accessed directly to the IoT nodes. In order
to solve this problem, solutions based on Representational state transfer (REST) web services
and IPv4 to IPv6 dual stack transition mechanism were proposed and evaluated. The REST web
service and the transition mechanism runs only at the border router without penalizing the IoT
constrained devices. The mitigation of the effects of internal and external security attacks
minimizing the overhead imposed on the IoT devices is the security challenge addressed in this
thesis. Three different solutions were proposed. The first is a mechanism to prevent remotely
initiated transport level Denial of Service attacks that avoids the use of inefficient and hard to
manage traditional firewalls. It is based on filtering at the border router the traffic received
from the Internet and destined to the IoT network according to the conditions announced by
each IoT device. The second is a network access security framework that can be used to control
the nodes that have access to the network, based on administrative approval, and to enforce
security compliance to the authorized nodes. The third is a network admission control framework
that prevents IoT unauthorized nodes to communicate with IoT authorized nodes or with
the Internet, which drastically reduces the number of possible security attacks. The network
admission control was also exploited as a management mechanism as it can be used to manage
the network size in terms of number of nodes, making the network more manageable, increasing
its reliability and extending its lifetime.A IoT (Internet of Things) tem suscitado o interesse tanto da comunidade académica como
da indústria, uma vez que os campos de aplicação são inúmeros assim como os potenciais ganhos
que podem ser obtidos através do uso deste tipo de tecnologia. A IoT significa uma rede
global de objetos ligados entre si através de uma rede de comunicações baseada em protocolos
standard. Neste contexto, um objeto é um objeto físico do dia a dia ao qual foi adicionada a
capacidade de medir e de atuar sobre variáveis físicas, de processar e armazenar dados e de
comunicar. Estes objetos têm a capacidade de interagir com o meio ambiente envolvente e de
cooperar com outros objetos vizinhos de forma a atingirem um objetivo comum. Estes objetos
também têm a capacidade de converter os dados lidos em instruções e de as comunicar a outros
objetos através da rede de comunicações, evitando desta forma a intervenção humana em
diversas tarefas. A maior parte das concretizações de sistemas IoT são baseados em pequenos
dispositivos autónomos com restrições ao nível dos recursos computacionais e de retenção de
energia. Por esta razão, inicialmente a comunidade científica não considerou adequado o uso
da pilha protocolar IP neste tipo de dispositivos, uma vez que havia a perceção de que era muito
pesada para os recursos computacionais disponíveis. Entretanto, a comunidade científica e a
indústria retomaram a discussão acerca dos benefícios do uso da pilha protocolar em todos os
dispositivos da IoT e atualmente é considerada a solução para estabelecer a conetividade entre
os dispositivos IoT independentemente do protocolo da camada dois em uso e para os ligar à
Internet. Apesar do uso da pilha protocolar IP em todos os dispositivos e da quantidade de
soluções propostas, são vários os problemas por resolver no que concerne à integração contínua
e sem interrupções da IoT na Internet e de criar as condições para a adoção generalizada deste
tipo de tecnologias.
Esta tese versa sobre os desafios associados à integração da IoT na Internet e dos aspetos de
segurança da IoT. Relativamente à integração da IoT na Internet o problema é como fornecer
informação válida aos dispositivos ligados à Internet, independentemente da versão do protocolo
IP em uso, evitando o acesso direto aos dispositivos IoT. Para a resolução deste problema foram
propostas e avaliadas soluções baseadas em web services REST e em mecanismos de transição
IPv4 para IPv6 do tipo pilha dupla (dual stack). O web service e o mecanismo de transição são
suportados apenas no router de fronteira, sem penalizar os dispositivos IoT. No que concerne
à segurança, o problema é mitigar os efeitos dos ataques de segurança internos e externos
iniciados local e remotamente. Foram propostas três soluções diferentes, a primeira é um
mecanismo que minimiza os efeitos dos ataques de negação de serviço com origem na Internet e
que evita o uso de mecanismos de firewalls ineficientes e de gestão complexa. Este mecanismo
filtra no router de fronteira o tráfego com origem na Internet é destinado à IoT de acordo
com as condições anunciadas por cada um dos dispositivos IoT da rede. A segunda solução,
é uma framework de network admission control que controla quais os dispositivos que podem
aceder à rede com base na autorização administrativa e que aplica políticas de conformidade
relativas à segurança aos dispositivos autorizados. A terceira é um mecanismo de network
admission control para redes 6LoWPAN que evita que dispositivos não autorizados comuniquem
com outros dispositivos legítimos e com a Internet o que reduz drasticamente o número de
ataques à segurança. Este mecanismo também foi explorado como um mecanismo de gestão uma
vez que pode ser utilizado a dimensão da rede quanto ao número de dispositivos, tornando-a
mais fácil de gerir e aumentando a sua fiabilidade e o seu tempo de vida
Energy-Efficient Communication in Wireless Networks
This chapter describes the evolution of, and state of the art in, energy‐efficient techniques for wirelessly communicating networks of embedded computers, such as those found in wireless sensor network (WSN), Internet of Things (IoT) and cyberphysical systems (CPS) applications. Specifically, emphasis is placed on energy efficiency as critical to ensuring the feasibility of long lifetime, low‐maintenance and increasingly autonomous monitoring and control scenarios. A comprehensive summary of link layer and routing protocols for a variety of traffic patterns is discussed, in addition to their combination and evaluation as full protocol stacks
State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Spain 2015: Volume 1
This book provides a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art sensors technology in specific leading areas. Industrial researchers, engineers and professionals can find information on the most advanced technologies and developments, together with data processing. Further research covers specific devices and technologies that capture and distribute data to be processed by applying dedicated techniques or procedures, which is where sensors play the most important role. The book provides insights and solutions for different problems covering a broad spectrum of possibilities, thanks to a set of applications and solutions based on sensory technologies. Topics include: • Signal analysis for spectral power • 3D precise measurements • Electromagnetic propagation • Drugs detection • e-health environments based on social sensor networks • Robots in wireless environments, navigation, teleoperation, object grasping, demining • Wireless sensor networks • Industrial IoT • Insights in smart cities • Voice recognition • FPGA interfaces • Flight mill device for measurements on insects • Optical systems: UV, LEDs, lasers, fiber optics • Machine vision • Power dissipation • Liquid level in fuel tanks • Parabolic solar tracker • Force sensors • Control for a twin roto
The role of communication systems in smart grids: Architectures, technical solutions and research challenges
The purpose of this survey is to present a critical overview of smart grid concepts, with a special focus on the role that communication, networking and middleware technologies will have in the transformation of existing electric power systems into smart grids. First of all we elaborate on the key technological, economical and societal drivers for the development of smart grids. By adopting a data-centric perspective we present a conceptual model of communication systems for smart grids, and we identify functional components, technologies, network topologies and communication services that are needed to support smart grid communications. Then, we introduce the fundamental research challenges in this field including communication reliability and timeliness, QoS support, data management services, and autonomic behaviors. Finally, we discuss the main solutions proposed in the literature for each of them, and we identify possible future research directions
Wireless sensors networks
After studying in depth look at wireless sensor networks are quite clear improvement compared to traditional wireless networks due to several factors as are the durability of the lifetime of the batteries, allowing greater portability of sensor nodes and that can record more events to power stay longer in some places, the routing protocols networks sensors allow gain than in durability also gain in efficiency the avoidance of collisions between packets, which also ensures a lower number of unnecessary network traffic. Because of the great features of such networks are currently using sensor networks in many projects related to different fields such as: environment, health, military, construction and structures, automotive, home automation, agriculture, etc. This type of network currently is leading a technological revolution similar to that had appearance of internet, because the applications appear to be infinite, also speaks global surveillance network on the planet capable of recording and tracking people specific goods and research projects have generated great interest for application in practice
An ultra-low duty cycle sleep scheduling protocol stack for wireless sensor networks
A wireless sensor network is a distributed network system consisting of miniature spatially distributed autonomous devices designed for using sensors to sense the environment and cooperatively perform a specific goal. Each sensor node contains a limited power source, a sensor and a radio through which it can communicate with other sensor nodes within its communication radius. Since these sensor nodes may be deployed in inaccessible terrains, it might not be possible to replace their power sources. The radio transceiver is the hardware component that uses the most power in a sensor node and the optimisation of this element is necessary to reduce the overall energy consumption. In the data link layer there are several major sources of energy waste which should be minimised to achieve greater energy efficiency: idle listening, overhearing, over-emitting, network signalling overhead, and collisions. Sleep scheduling utilises the low-power sleep state of a transceiver and aims to reduce energy wastage caused by idle listening. Idle listening occurs when the radio is on, even though there is no data to transmit or receive. Collisions are reduced by using medium reservation and carrier sensing; collisions occur when there are simultaneous transmissions from several nodes that are within the interference range of the receiver node. The medium reservation packets include a network allocation vector field which is used for virtual carrier sensing which reduces overhearing. Overhearing occurs when a node receives and decodes packets that are not destined to it. Proper scheduling can avoid energy wastage due to over-emitting; over-emitting occurs when a transmitter node transmits a packet while the receiver node is not ready to receive packets. A protocol stack is proposed that achieves an ultra-low duty cycle sleep schedule. The protocol stack is aimed at large nodal populations, densely deployed, with periodic sampling applications. It uses the IEEE 802.15.4 Physical Layer (PHY) standard in the 2.4 GHz frequency band. A novel hybrid data-link/network cross-layer solution is proposed using the following features: a global sleep schedule, geographical data gathering tree, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) slotted architecture, Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) with a randomised contention window, adaptive listening using a conservative timeout activation mechanism, virtual carrier sensing, clock drift compensation, and error control. AFRIKAANS : 'n Draadlose sensor-netwerk is 'n verspreide netwerk stelsel wat bestaan uit miniatuur ruimtelik verspreide outonome toestelle wat ontwerp is om in harmonie saam die omgewing te meet. Elke sensor nodus besit 'n beperkte bron van energie, 'n sensor en 'n radio waardeur dit met ander sensor nodusse binne hulle kommunikasie radius kan kommunikeer. Aangesien hierdie sensor nodusse in ontoeganklike terreine kan ontplooi word, is dit nie moontlik om hulle kragbronne te vervang nie. Die radio is die hardeware komponent wat van die meeste krag gebruik in 'n sensor nodus en die optimalisering van hierdie element is noodsaaklik vir die verminder die totale energieverbruik. In die data-koppelvlak laag is daar verskeie bronne van energie vermorsing wat minimaliseer moet word: ydele luister, a uistering, oor-uitstraling, oorhoofse netwerk seine, en botsings. Slaap-skedulering maak gebruik van die lae-krag slaap toestand van 'n radio met die doel om energie vermorsing wat veroorsaak word deur ydele luister, te verminder. Ydele luister vind plaas wanneer die radio aan is selfs al is daar geen data om te stuur of ontvang nie. Botsings word verminder deur medium bespreking en draer deteksie; botsings vind plaas wanneer verskeie nodusse gelyktydig data stuur. Die medium bespreking pakkies sluit 'n netwerk aanwysing vektor veld in wat gebruik word vir virtuele draer deteksie om a uistering te verminder. Afluistering vind plaas wanneer 'n nodus 'n pakkie ontvang en dekodeer maar dit was vir 'n ander nodus bedoel. Behoorlike skedulering kan energie verkwisting as gevolg van oor-uistraling verminder; oor-uistraling gebeur wanneer 'n sender nodus 'n pakkie stuur terwyl die ontvang nog nie gereed is nie. 'n Protokol stapel is voorgestel wat 'n ultra-lae slaap-skedule dienssiklus het. Die protokol is gemik op draadlose sensor-netwerke wat dig ontplooi, groot hoeveelhede nodusse bevat, en met periodiese toetsing toepassings. Dit maak gebruik van die IEEE 802.15.4 Fisiese-Laag standaard in die 2.4 GHz frekwensie band. 'n Nuwe baster datakoppelvlak/netwerk laag oplossing is voorgestel met die volgende kenmerke: globale slaap-skedulering, geogra ese data rapportering, Tyd-Verdeling-Veelvuldige-Toegang (TVVT) gegleufde argitektuur, Draer-Deteksie-Veelvuldige-Toegang met Botsing-Vermyding (DDVT/BV), Skoon-Kanaal-Assessering (SKA) met 'n wisselvallige twis-tydperk, aanpasbare slaap-skedulering met 'n konserwatiewe aktiverings meganisme, virtuele draer-deteksie, klok-wegdrywing kompensasie, en fout beheer. CopyrightDissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineeringunrestricte