Proposal of an architecture for sensor networks monitoring in Open Access Metropolitan Area Networks

Sensor networks have been used in a wide range of applications. In Digital Cities they play an important role in gathering real-time data in urban scale. However, the heterogeneous and complex technologies applied in such applications make it difficult to monitor and manage different sensor networks, and also prevents the interoperation between systems. Thus, this paper presents a proposal of a novel architecture based on service orientation for homogeneous interoperation among sensor networks used in a Digital City scenario. Based on the outlined architectural model, a case study took place in a Brazilian operational Digital City in the state of São Paulo. The objective of the study is to demonstrate that architecture can be used for monitoring heterogeneous environments in a unified way, promoting datasharing and interoperability.Keywords: Service-oriented architectures, Open Access Metropolitan Area Networks, ZigBee, sensor networks

ENABLING SMART CITY SERVICES FOR HETEROGENEOUS WIRELESS NETWORKS

A city can be transformed into a smart city if there is a resource-rich and reliable communication infrastructure available. A smart city in effect improves the quality of life of citizens by providing the means to convert the existing solutions to smart ones. Thus, there is a need for finding a suitable network structure that is capable of providing sufficient capacity and satisfactory quality-of-service in terms of latency and reliability. In this thesis, we propose a wireless network structure for smart cities. Our proposed network provides two wireless interfaces for each smart city node. One is supposed to connect to a public WiFi network, while the other is connected to a cellular network (such as LTE). Indeed, Multi-homing helps different applications to use the two interfaces simultaneously as well as providing the necessary redundancy in case the connection of one interface is lost. The performance of our proposed network structure is investigated using comprehensive ns-2 computer simulations. In this study, high data rate real-time and low data rate non-real-time applications are considered. The effect of a wide range of network parameters is tested such as the WiFi transmission rate, LTE transmission rate, the number of real-time and non-real-time nodes, application traffic rate, and different wireless propagation models. We focus on critical quality-of-service (QoS) parameters such as packet delivery delay and packet loss. We also measured the energy consumed in packet transmission. Compared with a single-interface WiFi-based or an LTE-based network, our simulation results show the superiority of the proposed network structure in satisfying QoS with lower latency and lower packet loss. We found also that the proposed multihoming structure enables the smart city sensors and other applications to realize a greener communication by consuming a lesser amount of transmission power rather than single interface-based networks

Utilizing M2M technologies for building reliable smart cities

With a large majority of the world's population moving towards urban environments in the foreseeable future, the notion of Smart City is emerging globally as an important research topic. The population movement will affect the consumption rate of natural resources i.e. water, soil, and plants. Therefore, innovative management and monitoring systems are required to enhance citizen's quality of life. Additionally, the power grid complexity is increasing as more private or enterprise buildings become virtual power generation facilities by deploying clean energy generators based on renewable energy sources (e.g. Photo voltaic cells). By installing small smart and affordable devices in key points around the city, the information about environment status and resources consumption can be collected and transmitted (over different network technologies) to higher level control systems. This will support predictions, decision making, trigger prompt actions at device domain or notifying the consumers about possible actions adapt to the current power grid resources. When the predictions and control over demand behavior and reduction of unnecessary power generation are improving, there will be a positive impact on the costs and CO2 emissions, rendering the entire city smarter. This paper introduces an infrastructure for reliable Smart City, investigates a number of use cases scenario and propose possible solutions. The proposed architecture is based on a Smart City platform and an ETSI M2M/ oneM2M compliant Machine-to-Machine communication framework

Infrastructure sharing of 5G mobile core networks on an SDN/NFV platform

When looking towards the deployment of 5G network architectures, mobile network operators will continue to face many challenges. The number of customers is approaching maximum market penetration, the number of devices per customer is increasing, and the number of non-human operated devices estimated to approach towards the tens of billions, network operators have a formidable task ahead of them. The proliferation of cloud computing techniques has created a multitude of applications for network services deployments, and at the forefront is the adoption of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV). Mobile network operators (MNO) have the opportunity to leverage these technologies so that they can enable the delivery of traditional networking functionality in cloud environments. The benefit of this is reductions seen in the capital and operational expenditures of network infrastructure. When going for NFV, how a Virtualised Network Function (VNF) is designed, implemented, and placed over physical infrastructure can play a vital role on the performance metrics achieved by the network function. Not paying careful attention to this aspect could lead to the drastically reduced performance of network functions thus defeating the purpose of going for virtualisation solutions. The success of mobile network operators in the 5G arena will depend heavily on their ability to shift from their old operational models and embrace new technologies, design principles and innovation in both the business and technical aspects of the environment. The primary goal of this thesis is to design, implement and evaluate the viability of data centre and cloud network infrastructure sharing use case. More specifically, the core question addressed by this thesis is how virtualisation of network functions in a shared infrastructure environment can be achieved without adverse performance degradation. 5G should be operational with high penetration beyond the year 2020 with data traffic rates increasing exponentially and the number of connected devices expected to surpass tens of billions. Requirements for 5G mobile networks include higher flexibility, scalability, cost effectiveness and energy efficiency. Towards these goals, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation have been adopted in recent proposals for future mobile networks architectures because they are considered critical technologies for 5G. A Shared Infrastructure Management Framework was designed and implemented for this purpose. This framework was further enhanced for performance optimisation of network functions and underlying physical infrastructure. The objective achieved was the identification of requirements for the design and development of an experimental testbed for future 5G mobile networks. This testbed deploys high performance virtualised network functions (VNFs) while catering for the infrastructure sharing use case of multiple network operators. The management and orchestration of the VNFs allow for automation, scalability, fault recovery, and security to be evaluated. The testbed developed is readily re-creatable and based on open-source software