Wireless Technologies for IoT in Smart Cities

[EN] As cities continue to grow, numerous initiatives for Smart Cities are being conducted. The concept of Smart City encompasses several concepts being governance, economy, management, infrastructure, technology and people. This means that a Smart City can have different communication needs. Wireless technologies such as WiFi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, WiMax, 4G or LTE (Long Term Evolution) have presented themselves as solutions to the communication needs of Smart City initiatives. However, as most of them employ unlicensed bands, interference and coexistence problems are increasing. In this paper, the wireless technologies available nowadays for IoT (Internet of Things) in Smart Cities are presented. Our contribution is a review of wireless technologies, their comparison and the problems that difficult coexistence among them. In order to do so, the characteristics and adequacy of wireless technologies to each domain are considered. The problems derived of over-crowded unlicensed spectrum and coexistence difficulties among each technology are discussed as well. Finally, power consumption concerns are addressed.García-García, L.; Jimenez, JM.; Abdullah, MTA.; Lloret, J. (2018). Wireless Technologies for IoT in Smart Cities. Network Protocols and Algorithms. 10(1):23-64. doi:10.5296/npa.v10i1.12798S236410

Survey of Spectrum Sharing for Inter-Technology Coexistence

Increasing capacity demands in emerging wireless technologies are expected to be met by network densification and spectrum bands open to multiple technologies. These will, in turn, increase the level of interference and also result in more complex inter-technology interactions, which will need to be managed through spectrum sharing mechanisms. Consequently, novel spectrum sharing mechanisms should be designed to allow spectrum access for multiple technologies, while efficiently utilizing the spectrum resources overall. Importantly, it is not trivial to design such efficient mechanisms, not only due to technical aspects, but also due to regulatory and business model constraints. In this survey we address spectrum sharing mechanisms for wireless inter-technology coexistence by means of a technology circle that incorporates in a unified, system-level view the technical and non-technical aspects. We thus systematically explore the spectrum sharing design space consisting of parameters at different layers. Using this framework, we present a literature review on inter-technology coexistence with a focus on wireless technologies with equal spectrum access rights, i.e. (i) primary/primary, (ii) secondary/secondary, and (iii) technologies operating in a spectrum commons. Moreover, we reflect on our literature review to identify possible spectrum sharing design solutions and performance evaluation approaches useful for future coexistence cases. Finally, we discuss spectrum sharing design challenges and suggest future research directions

Implementing a wireless base station for a sensor network

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-69).Using wireless sensor networks for monitoring infrastructure is a new trend in civil engineering. Compared with traditional ways to monitor infrastructure, wireless sensor networks are cheap, safe, and compact. However, there are many available wireless communication techniques and hardware for a wireless sensor network. Therefore, it is an important step to choose the best communication method and hardware to construct a wireless sensor network for a particular infrastructure. The London Underground project, which is described in this thesis as a reference case study, demands real-time data transmission, low-power network, and wireless network communication, and also a hardware/software system to collect, archive and display data from the monitoring activity. We consider the trade-offs in choosing 802.1 lb as a communication method. A web service architecture for data visualization is then described. Finally we discuss the appropriate selection of a computer device to serve as the base station.by Heewon Song.M.Eng

WLAN CSMA/CA Performance in a Bluetooth Interference Environment

IEEE 802.11 WLANs and Bluetooth piconets both operate in the 2.4 GHz Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio band. When operating in close proximity, these two technologies interfere with each other. Current literature suggests that IEEE 802.11 (employing direct sequence spread spectrum technology) is more susceptible to this interference than Bluetooth, which uses frequency hopping spread spectrum technology, resulting in reduced throughput. Current research tends to focus on the issue of packet collisions, and not the fact that IEEE 802.11 may also delay its transmissions while the radio channel is occupied by a Bluetooth signal. This research characterizes previously neglected transmission delay effects. Through analytic modeling and simulation, the impact of this interference is determined to identify all facets of the interference issues. Results show that Bluetooth-induced transmission delays improve network performance in many scenarios. When isolating delay effects, the likelihood that WLAN STA signals collide with each other decreases, causing an overall increase in normalized throughput and decrease in expected delay for many network configurations. As wireless communication technologies become an integral part of national defense, it is imperative to understand every performance characteristic. For instance, if the Air Force uses IEEE 802.11 and wants to incorporate a Bluetooth piconet as well, the impact of concurrent operation should be known beforehand. Since IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth technologies could become vital for the Air Force to maintain its position of air superiority, all the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of these systems should be understood

Co-existence of wireless communication systems in ISM bands: An analytical study

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Interference mitigation strategy design and applications for wireless sensor networks

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 standard presents a very useful technology for implementing low-cost, low-power, wireless sensor networks. Its main focus, which is to applications requiring simple wireless connectivity with relaxed throughout and latency requirements, makes it suitable for connecting devices that have not been networked, such as industrial and control instrumentation equipments, agricultural equipments, vehicular equipments, and home appliances. Its usage of the license-free 2.4 GHz frequency band makes the technique successful for fast and worldwide market deployments. However, concerns about interference have arisen due to the presence of other wireless technologies using the same spectrum. Although the IEEE 802.15.4 standard has provided some mechanisms, to enhance capability to coexist with other wireless devices operating on the same frequency band, including Carrier Sensor Multiple Access (CSMA), Clear Channel Assessment (CCA), channel alignment, and low duty cycle, it is essential to design and implement adjustable mechanisms for an IEEE 802.15.4 based system integrated into a practical application to deal with interference which changes randomly over time. Among the potential interfering systems (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cordless phones, microwave ovens, wireless headsets, etc) which work on the same Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) frequency band, Wi-Fi systems (IEEE 802.11 technique) have attracted most concerns because of their high transmission power and large deployment in both residential and office environments. This thesis aims to propose a methodology for IEEE 802.15.4 wireless systems to adopt proper adjustment in order to mitigate the effect of interference caused by IEEE 802.11 systems through energy detection, channel agility and data recovery. The contribution of this thesis consists of five parts. Firstly, a strategy is proposed to enable IEEE 802.15.4 systems to maintain normal communications using the means of consecutive transmissions, when the system s default mechanism of retransmission is insufficient to ensure successful rate due to the occurrence of Wi-Fi interference. Secondly, a novel strategy is proposed to use a feasible way for IEEE 802.15.4 systems to estimate the interference pattern, and accordingly adjust system parameters for the purpose of achieving optimized communication effectiveness during time of interference without relying on hardware changes and IEEE 802.15.4 protocol modifications. Thirdly, a data recovery mechanism is proposed for transport control to be applied for recovering lost data by associating with the proposed strategies to ensure the data integrity when IEEE 802.15.4 systems are suffering from interference. Fourthly, a practical case is studied to discuss how to design a sustainable system for home automation application constructed on the basis of IEEE 802.15.4 technique. Finally, a comprehensive design is proposed to enable the implementation of an interference mitigation strategy for IEEE 802.15.4 based ad hoc WSNs within a structure of building fire safety monitoring system. The proposed strategies and system designs are demonstrated mainly through theoretical analysis and experimental tests. The results obtained from the experimental tests have verified that the interference caused by an IEEE 802.11 system on an IEEE 802.15.4 system can be effectively mitigated through adjusting IEEE 802.15.4 system s parameters cooperating with interference pattern estimation. The proposed methods are suitable to be integrated into a system-level solution for an IEEE 802.15.4 system to deal with interference, which is also applicable to those wireless systems facing similar interference issues to enable the development of efficient mitigation strategies