A technological innovation to safely aid in the spatial orientation of blind people in a complex urban environment

In the broader context of smart cities, to ensure mobility of people regardless of their physical or sensory condition becomes a complex and difficult challenge to be treated. All papers referenced in this work are presented as a solution to equip the blind people with devices and sensors (controlled by a computational system) with the ability to capture environmental structure data and somehow describe it to the understanding of the blind people. Our work explores another side of this problem: how the environment can transmit data about itself to safely-help guide blind orientation in this environment? In other words, from our view, the environment must report data on its structure as opposed to make the blind person try to extract these data from this environment. So, here we propose to use an intelligent semaphore system (traffic lights) to communicate with a mobile system carried by the blind person and by the coherent processing of the signals sent and received between the mobile device and the intelligent semaphore, to conduct the blind in the streets crossing the crosswalk safely

Programación lineal binaria para la planificación de sistemas inalámbricos

Locating access points for Wi-Fi networks in a post-pandemic scenario proposes an application in the planning and restructuring of existing wireless systems. Education strategies such as the flipped classroom, among others, demand the overall performance of the system. In this work, we propose a methodology using binary linear programming as a strategy to achieve the planning of a Wi-Fi system that can have the objectives of coverage, user capacity and channel interference. The results show a better coverage, higher speed per user and optimized the amount of equipment per sector in the laboratories of the University of Magdalena.La localización de puntos de acceso para redes Wi-Fi en un escenario postpandemia propone una aplicación en la planificación y reestructuración de los sistemas inalámbricos existentes. Las estrategias educativas como el aula invertida, entre otras, exigen el desempeño integral del sistema. En este trabajo se propone una metodología utilizando programación lineal binaria como estrategia para lograr la planificación de un sistema Wi-Fi que pueda tener los objetivos de cobertura, capacidad de usuarios e interferencia de canales. Los resultados muestran una mejor cobertura, mayor velocidad por usuario y una cantidad optimizada de equipos por sector en los laboratorios de la Universidad del Magdalena

Coexistence and interference mitigation for WPANs and WLANs from traditional approaches to deep learning: a review

More and more devices, such as Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 devices forming Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) and IEEE 802.11 devices constituting Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs), share the 2.4 GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band in the realm of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities. However, the coexistence of these devices could pose a real challenge—co-channel interference that would severely compromise network performances. Although the coexistence issues has been partially discussed elsewhere in some articles, there is no single review that fully summarises and compares recent research outcomes and challenges of IEEE 802.15.4 networks, Bluetooth and WLANs together. In this work, we revisit and provide a comprehensive review on the coexistence and interference mitigation for those three types of networks. We summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the current methodologies, analysis and simulation models in terms of numerous important metrics such as the packet reception ratio, latency, scalability and energy efficiency. We discover that although Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 networks are both WPANs, they show quite different performances in the presence of WLANs. IEEE 802.15.4 networks are adversely impacted by WLANs, whereas WLANs are interfered by Bluetooth. When IEEE 802.15.4 networks and Bluetooth co-locate, they are unlikely to harm each other. Finally, we also discuss the future research trends and challenges especially Deep-Learning and Reinforcement-Learning-based approaches to detecting and mitigating the co-channel interference caused by WPANs and WLANs

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