Internet of Things and Sensors Networks in 5G Wireless Communications

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Internet of Things and Sensors Networks in 5G Wireless Communications that was published in Sensors

Internet of Things and Sensors Networks in 5G Wireless Communications

The Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted much attention from society, industry and academia as a promising technology that can enhance day to day activities, and the creation of new business models, products and services, and serve as a broad source of research topics and ideas. A future digital society is envisioned, composed of numerous wireless connected sensors and devices. Driven by huge demand, the massive IoT (mIoT) or massive machine type communication (mMTC) has been identified as one of the three main communication scenarios for 5G. In addition to connectivity, computing and storage and data management are also long-standing issues for low-cost devices and sensors. The book is a collection of outstanding technical research and industrial papers covering new research results, with a wide range of features within the 5G-and-beyond framework. It provides a range of discussions of the major research challenges and achievements within this topic

Internet of Things and Sensors Networks in 5G Wireless Communications

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Internet of Things and Sensors Networks in 5G Wireless Communications that was published in Sensors

Goodbye, ALOHA!

©2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) to interconnect and Internet-connect everyday people, objects, and machines poses new challenges in the design of wireless communication networks. The design of medium access control (MAC) protocols has been traditionally an intense area of research due to their high impact on the overall performance of wireless communications. The majority of research activities in this field deal with different variations of protocols somehow based on ALOHA, either with or without listen before talk, i.e., carrier sensing multiple access. These protocols operate well under low traffic loads and low number of simultaneous devices. However, they suffer from congestion as the traffic load and the number of devices increase. For this reason, unless revisited, the MAC layer can become a bottleneck for the success of the IoT. In this paper, we provide an overview of the existing MAC solutions for the IoT, describing current limitations and envisioned challenges for the near future. Motivated by those, we identify a family of simple algorithms based on distributed queueing (DQ), which can operate for an infinite number of devices generating any traffic load and pattern. A description of the DQ mechanism is provided and most relevant existing studies of DQ applied in different scenarios are described in this paper. In addition, we provide a novel performance evaluation of DQ when applied for the IoT. Finally, a description of the very first demo of DQ for its use in the IoT is also included in this paper.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Designing Intelligent Energy Efficient Scheduling Algorithm To Support Massive IoT Communication In LoRa Networks

We are about to enter a new world with sixth sense ability – “Network as a sensor -6G”. The driving force behind digital sensing abilities is IoT. Due to their capacity to work in high frequency, 6G devices have voracious energy demand. Hence there is a growing need to work on green solutions to support the underlying 6G network by making it more energy efficient. Low cost, low energy, and long-range communication capability make LoRa the most adopted and promising network for IoT devices. Since LoRaWAN uses ALOHA for multi-access of channels, collision management is an important task. Moreover, in massive IoT, due to the increased number of devices and their Adhoc transmissions, collision becomes and concern. Furthermore, in long-range communication, such as in forests, agriculture, and remote locations, the IoT devices need to be powered using a battery and cannot be attached to an energy grid. LoRaWAN originally has a star network wherein IoT devices communicated to a single gateway. Massive IoT causes increased traffic at a single gateway. To address Massive IoT issues of collision and gateway load handling, we have designed a reinforcement learning-based scheduling algorithm, a Deep Deterministic policy gradient algorithm with channel activity detection (CAD) to optimize the energy efficiency of LoRaWAN in cross-layer architecture in massive IoT with star topology. We also design a CAD-based simulator for evaluating any algorithms with channel sensing. We compare energy efficiency, packet delivery ratio, latency, and signal strength with existing state of art algorithms and prove that our proposed solution is efficient for massive IoT LoRaWAN with star topology

Cellular, Wide-Area, and Non-Terrestrial IoT: A Survey on 5G Advances and the Road Towards 6G

The next wave of wireless technologies is proliferating in connecting things among themselves as well as to humans. In the era of the Internet of things (IoT), billions of sensors, machines, vehicles, drones, and robots will be connected, making the world around us smarter. The IoT will encompass devices that must wirelessly communicate a diverse set of data gathered from the environment for myriad new applications. The ultimate goal is to extract insights from this data and develop solutions that improve quality of life and generate new revenue. Providing large-scale, long-lasting, reliable, and near real-time connectivity is the major challenge in enabling a smart connected world. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on existing and emerging communication solutions for serving IoT applications in the context of cellular, wide-area, as well as non-terrestrial networks. Specifically, wireless technology enhancements for providing IoT access in fifth-generation (5G) and beyond cellular networks, and communication networks over the unlicensed spectrum are presented. Aligned with the main key performance indicators of 5G and beyond 5G networks, we investigate solutions and standards that enable energy efficiency, reliability, low latency, and scalability (connection density) of current and future IoT networks. The solutions include grant-free access and channel coding for short-packet communications, non-orthogonal multiple access, and on-device intelligence. Further, a vision of new paradigm shifts in communication networks in the 2030s is provided, and the integration of the associated new technologies like artificial intelligence, non-terrestrial networks, and new spectra is elaborated. Finally, future research directions toward beyond 5G IoT networks are pointed out.Comment: Submitted for review to IEEE CS&

Compressive Sensing-Based Grant-Free Massive Access for 6G Massive Communication

The advent of the sixth-generation (6G) of wireless communications has given rise to the necessity to connect vast quantities of heterogeneous wireless devices, which requires advanced system capabilities far beyond existing network architectures. In particular, such massive communication has been recognized as a prime driver that can empower the 6G vision of future ubiquitous connectivity, supporting Internet of Human-Machine-Things for which massive access is critical. This paper surveys the most recent advances toward massive access in both academic and industry communities, focusing primarily on the promising compressive sensing-based grant-free massive access paradigm. We first specify the limitations of existing random access schemes and reveal that the practical implementation of massive communication relies on a dramatically different random access paradigm from the current ones mainly designed for human-centric communications. Then, a compressive sensing-based grant-free massive access roadmap is presented, where the evolutions from single-antenna to large-scale antenna array-based base stations, from single-station to cooperative massive multiple-input multiple-output systems, and from unsourced to sourced random access scenarios are detailed. Finally, we discuss the key challenges and open issues to shed light on the potential future research directions of grant-free massive access.Comment: Accepted by IEEE IoT Journa

A Survey on Long-Range Wide-Area Network Technology Optimizations

Long-Range Wide-Area Network (LoRaWAN) enables flexible long-range service communications with low power consumption which is suitable for many IoT applications. The densification of LoRaWAN, which is needed to meet a wide range of IoT networking requirements, poses further challenges. For instance, the deployment of gateways and IoT devices are widely deployed in urban areas, which leads to interference caused by concurrent transmissions on the same channel. In this context, it is crucial to understand aspects such as the coexistence of IoT devices and applications, resource allocation, Media Access Control (MAC) layer, network planning, and mobility support, that directly affect LoRaWAN’s performance.We present a systematic review of state-of-the-art works for LoRaWAN optimization solutions for IoT networking operations. We focus on five aspects that directly affect the performance of LoRaWAN. These specific aspects are directly associated with the challenges of densification of LoRaWAN. Based on the literature analysis, we present a taxonomy covering five aspects related to LoRaWAN optimizations for efficient IoT networks. Finally, we identify key research challenges and open issues in LoRaWAN optimizations for IoT networking operations that must be further studied in the future

A use case of low power wide area networks in future 5G healthcare applications

Abstract. The trend in all cellular evolution to the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) has always been to offer users continuously increasing data rates. However, the next leap forwards towards the 5th Generation Mobile Networks (5G) will be mainly addressing the needs of devices. Machines communicating with each other, sensors reporting to a server, or even machines communicating with humans, these are all different aspects of the same technology; the Internet of Things (IoT). The key differentiator between Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and IoT will be the added -feature of connecting devices and sensors not only to themselves, but also to the internet. The appropriate communications network is the key to allow this connectivity. Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs) have been thought of as enablers for IoT, but since they both suffered from limitations in IoT aspects, the need for a new enabling technology was evident. LPWANs are networks dedicated to catering for the needs of IoT such as providing low energy consumption for wireless devices. LPWANs can be categorized into proprietary LPWANs and cellular LPWANs. Proprietary LPWANs are created by an alliance of companies working together on creating a communications standard operating in unlicensed frequency bands. An example of proprietary LPWANs is LoRa. Whereas cellular LPWANs are standardized by the 3rd Partnership Project (3GPP) and they are basically versions of the LTE standard especially designed for machine communications. An example of cellular LPWANs is Narrowband IoT (NB IoT). This diploma thesis documents the usage of LoRa and NB IoT in a healthcare use case of IoT. It describes the steps and challenges of deploying an LTE network at a target site, which will be used by the LoRa and NB IoT sensors to transmit data through the 5G test network (5GTN) to a desired server location for storing and later analysis.Matalan tehonkulutuksen ja pitkänkantaman teknologian käyttötapaus tulevaisuuden 5G:tä hyödyntävissä terveydenhoidon sovelluksissa. Tiivistelmä. Pitemmän aikavälin tarkastelussa matkaviestintäteknologian kehittyminen nykyisin käytössä olevaan Long-Term Evolution (LTE) teknologiaan on tarkoittanut käyttäjille yhä suurempia datanopeuksia. Seuraavassa askeleessa kohti 5. sukupolven matkaviestintäverkkoja (5G) lähestytään kehitystä myös laitteiden tarpeiden lähtökohdista. Toistensa kanssa kommunikoivat koneet, palvelimille dataa lähettävät anturit tai jopa ihmisten kanssa kommunikoivat koneet ovat kaikki eri puolia samasta teknologisesta käsitteestä; esineiden internetistä (IoT). Oleellisin ero koneiden välisessä kommunikoinnissa (M2M) ja IoT:ssä on, että erinäiset laitteet tulevat olemaan yhdistettyinä paitsi toisiinsa myös internettiin. Tätä kytkentäisyyttä varten tarvitaan tarkoitukseen kehitetty matkaviestinverkko. Sekä lähiverkkoja (LAN) että suuralueverkkoja (WAN) on pidetty mahdollisina IoT mahdollistajina, mutta näiden molempien käsitteiden alle kuuluvissa teknologioissa on rajoitteita IoT:n vaatimusten lähtökohdista, joten uuden teknologian kehittäminen oli tarpeellista. Matalan tehonkulutuksen suuralueverkko (LP-WAN) on käsite, johon luokitellaan eri teknologioita, joita on kehitetty erityisesti IoT:n tarpeista lähtien. LP-WAN voidaan jaotella ainakin itse kehitettyihin ja matkaviestinverkkoihin perustuviin teknologisiin ratkaisuihin. Itse kehitetyt ratkaisut on luotu lukuisten yritysten yhteenliittymissä eli alliansseissa ja nämä ratkaisut keskittyvät lisensoimattomilla taajuuksilla toimiviin langattomiin ratkaisuihin, joista esimerkkinä laajasti käytössä oleva LoRa. Matkaviestinverkkoihin perustuvat lisensoiduilla taajuuksilla toimivat ratkaisut on puolestaan erikseen standardoitu 3GPP-nimisessä yhteenliittymässä, joka nykyisellään vastaa 2G, 3G ja LTE:n standardoiduista päätöksistä. Esimerkki 3GPP:n alaisesta LPWAN-luokkaan kuuluvasta teknologiasta on kapea kaistainen IoT-teknologia, NB-IoT. Tässä diplomityössä keskitytään terveydenhoidon käyttötapaukseen, missä antureiden mittaamaa tietoa siirretään langattomasti käyttäen sekä LoRa että NB-IoT teknologioita. Työssä kuvataan eri vaiheet ja haasteet, joita liittyi kun rakennetaan erikseen tiettyyn kohteeseen LTE-verkon radiopeitto, jotta LoRa:a ja NB-IoT:a käyttävät anturit saadaan välittämään mitattua dataa halutulle palvelimelle säilytykseen ja myöhempää analysointia varten. LTE-radiopeiton rakensi Oulun yliopiston omistama 5G testiverkko, jonka tarkoitus on tukea sekä tutkimusta että ympäröivää ekosysteemiä tulevaisuuden 5G:n kehityksessä