Internet of Underground Things ESP8266 WiFi Coverage Study

[EN] The Internet of Underground Things (IoUT) is a novel concept regarding Internet of Things (IoT). It could have countless applications, particularly in agriculture as buried devices do not interfere with the machinery. Furthermore, wireless communication among buried and above ground devices would allow a significant cost reduction as wires would not need to be deployed and wires would not be destroyed by machinery or impede the correct performance of the activities performed by the workers of the field. In this paper, we perform a WiFi coverage study of ESP8266 nodes placed both underground and above ground so as to assess the current lack of knowledge in IoUT and the performance of low-cost controller boards for IoUT applications. Tests were performed with ESP8266 nodes buried at depths of 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm and 40 cm in a field located in an area of citrus fields. A node programmed as an AP (Access Point) was placed at several distances at a height of 50 cm. Results showed that the coverage was better for the node buried at a depth of 20 cm.This work has been partially supported by the European Union through the ERANETMED (Euromediterranean Cooperation through ERANET joint activities and beyond) project ERANETMED3-227 SMARTWATIR and by the European Union with the Fondo Europeo Agrícola de Desarrollo Rural (FEADER) Europa invierte en zonas rurales¿, the MAPAMA, and Comunidad de Madrid with the IMIDRA, under the mark of the PDR-CM 2014-2020 project number PDR18-XEROCESPED.García, L.; Parra-Boronat, L.; Jimenez, JM.; Lloret, J.; Abouaissa, A.; Lorenz, P. (2019). Internet of Underground Things ESP8266 WiFi Coverage Study. IARIA XPS Press. 1-6. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/180617S1

Internet of Things-aided Smart Grid: Technologies, Architectures, Applications, Prototypes, and Future Research Directions

Traditional power grids are being transformed into Smart Grids (SGs) to address the issues in existing power system due to uni-directional information flow, energy wastage, growing energy demand, reliability and security. SGs offer bi-directional energy flow between service providers and consumers, involving power generation, transmission, distribution and utilization systems. SGs employ various devices for the monitoring, analysis and control of the grid, deployed at power plants, distribution centers and in consumers' premises in a very large number. Hence, an SG requires connectivity, automation and the tracking of such devices. This is achieved with the help of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT helps SG systems to support various network functions throughout the generation, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy by incorporating IoT devices (such as sensors, actuators and smart meters), as well as by providing the connectivity, automation and tracking for such devices. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on IoT-aided SG systems, which includes the existing architectures, applications and prototypes of IoT-aided SG systems. This survey also highlights the open issues, challenges and future research directions for IoT-aided SG systems

Smart Computing and Sensing Technologies for Animal Welfare: A Systematic Review

Animals play a profoundly important and intricate role in our lives today. Dogs have been human companions for thousands of years, but they now work closely with us to assist the disabled, and in combat and search and rescue situations. Farm animals are a critical part of the global food supply chain, and there is increasing consumer interest in organically fed and humanely raised livestock, and how it impacts our health and environmental footprint. Wild animals are threatened with extinction by human induced factors, and shrinking and compromised habitat. This review sets the goal to systematically survey the existing literature in smart computing and sensing technologies for domestic, farm and wild animal welfare. We use the notion of \emph{animal welfare} in broad terms, to review the technologies for assessing whether animals are healthy, free of pain and suffering, and also positively stimulated in their environment. Also the notion of \emph{smart computing and sensing} is used in broad terms, to refer to computing and sensing systems that are not isolated but interconnected with communication networks, and capable of remote data collection, processing, exchange and analysis. We review smart technologies for domestic animals, indoor and outdoor animal farming, as well as animals in the wild and zoos. The findings of this review are expected to motivate future research and contribute to data, information and communication management as well as policy for animal welfare

Wireless Sensor Networks::Toward Smarter Railway Stations

Railway industry plays a critical role in transportation and transit systems attributed to the ever-growing demand for catering to both freight and passengers. However, owing to many challenges faced by railway stations such as harsh environments, traffic flow, safety and security risks, new and adaptive systems employing new technology are recommended. In this review, several wireless sensor networks (WSNs) applications are proposed for use in railway station systems, including advanced WSNs, which will enhance security, safety, and decision-making processes to achieve more cost-effective management in railway stations, as well as the development of integrated systems. The size, efficiency, and cost of WSNs are influential factors that attract the railway industry to adopt these devices. This paper presents a review of WSNs that have been designed for uses in monitoring and securing railway stations. This article will first briefly focus on the presence of different WSN applications in diverse applications. In addition, it is important to note that exploitation of the state-of-the-art tools and techniques such as WSNs to gain an enormous amount of data from a railway station is a new and novel concept requiring the development of artificial intelligence methods, such machine learning, which will be vital for the future of the railway industry

LoRa mesh-5G integrated network for trackside smart weather monitoring

Monitoring of trackside weather is a critical aspect of railway operations, mainly for safety and efficiency reasons. Unfortunately, current cellular networks, including the fourth-generation and fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks, do not provide ubiquitous coverage for rail lines mainly due to an unfavorable cost-benefit realization. In this paper, we propose a Long Range (LoRa) mesh-5G integrated network that tackles this problem by utilizing a 5G network for backhaul, computing and storage, and LoRa mesh to extend coverage. We design a LoRa mesh server that runs on a private cloud of the 5G network to manage the LoRa mesh network. We integrate edge computing into the network and design a cloud-edge-terminal collaborative architecture with three algorithms for timely significant-change updates, packet loss detection, and adaptive thresholds to reduce the packet rate and data volume of the network. We validate the design by implementing a proof-of-concept on the 5G testbed at the University of Glasgow. The experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of the network and the cloud-edge-terminal collaborative architecture

A Comprehensive Survey on Moving Networks

The unprecedented increase in the demand for mobile data, fuelled by new emerging applications such as HD video streaming and heightened online activities has caused massive strain on the existing cellular networks. As a solution, the 5G technology has been introduced to improve network performance through various innovative features such as mmWave spectrum and HetNets. In essence, HetNets include several small cells underlaid within macro-cell to serve densely populated regions. Recently, a mobile layer of HetNet has been under consideration by the researchers and is often referred to as moving networks. Moving networks comprise of mobile cells that are primarily introduced to improve QoS for commuting users inside public transport because the QoS is deteriorated due to vehicular penetration losses. Furthermore, the users inside fast moving public transport also exert excessive load on the core network due to large group handovers. To this end, mobile cells will play a crucial role in reducing overall handover count and will help in alleviating these problems by decoupling in-vehicle users from the core network. To date, remarkable research results have been achieved by the research community in addressing challenges linked to moving networks. However, to the best of our knowledge, a discussion on moving networks in a holistic way is missing in the current literature. To fill the gap, in this paper, we comprehensively survey moving networks. We cover the technological aspects and their applications in the futuristic applications. We also discuss the use-cases and value additions that moving networks may bring to future cellular architecture and identify the challenges associated with them. Based on the identified challenges we discuss the future research directions.Comment: This survey has been submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorial

Impact of EU duty cycle and transmission power limitations for sub-GHz LPWAN SRDs : an overview and future challenges

Long-range sub-GHz technologies such as LoRaWAN, SigFox, IEEE 802.15.4, and DASH7 are increasingly popular for academic research and daily life applications. However, especially in the European Union (EU), the use of their corresponding frequency bands are tightly regulated, since they must confirm to the short-range device (SRD) regulations. Regulations and standards for SRDs exist on various levels, from global to national, but are often a source of confusion. Not only are multiple institutes responsible for drafting legislation and regulations, depending on the type of document can these rules be informational or mandatory. Regulations also vary from region to region; for example, regulations in the United States of America (USA) rely on electrical field strength and harmonic strength, while EU regulations are based on duty cycle and maximum transmission power. A common misconception is the presence of a common 1% duty cycle, while in fact the duty cycle is frequency band-specific and can be loosened under certain circumstances. This paper clarifies the various regulations for the European region, the parties involved in drafting and enforcing regulation, and the impact on recent technologies such as SigFox, LoRaWAN, and DASH7. Furthermore, an overview is given of potential mitigation approaches to cope with the duty cycle constraints, as well as future research directions