An information service infrastructure for Ambient Networks. In

ABSTRACT Communication environments are becoming increasingly more complex due to the diversity of available network technologies in terms of spatial coverage and design characteristics, and the proliferation of multi-function devices. In order to take full advantage of such technology capital, there is a growing need to reduce complexity for both end-users and network operators delivering services over these ubiquitous communication environments. Recent research efforts have moved in the direction of creating solutions that facilitate self-properties (i.e. selfconfiguring, -adaptation -management, -optimisation, -organisation) in future networks. An important enabler underpinning such solutions is the availability of a reliable and up-to-date knowledge base to simplify and foster autonomic decision-making. We introduce the Ambient Networks Information Service Infrastructure (ANISI), which aims at gathering and correlating information from different layers of the protocol stack and across different domains. We show how ANISI supports both enhanced mobility management and context-aware communications in pervasive networking environments

Brand Protection, Pizzas, and the Case for IoT Traceability

In this column, we take a journey to Europe and analyze how IoT technology could be used to protect the Made in Italy brand and make it harder for fake products to find their way into the market, therefore protecting consumers from being misled in their purchases. Recent research into what is commonly referred to as the “Italian sounding” phenomenon, estimated its value to be around 100 billion Euro (+70 percent over the past 10 years). One can argue whether or not this number is the actual amount “missing” from the Italian economy or whether it is not also reflecting the fact that the offer of authentic products cannot sustain demand due to lack of enough production or simply lack of adequate distribution channels (i.e. business-driven choices, political-embargos, etc.)

iCore: a Cognitive Management Framework for the Internet of Things

iCore is an EU FP7 Integrated Project aimed at leveraging on the use of cognitive technologies for empowering the Internet of Things to deliver on the current expectations which see it as one of the main pillars of the Future Internet. The project brings together a strong set of industrial Partners, mostly from Europe but spanning also China and Japan which collaborate with research centers and universities to deliver solutions that address heterogeneity and reusability of IoT objects while striving for self-management capabilities that keep low complexity as the numbers of interconnected objects increase exponentially

A Dynamic Pricing Method for Efficient Radio Resource Management in Wireless Access Networks

Radio Resource Management(RRM) has become critical with the current growth in the development of new technologies and services in the field of cellular communications. Efficient management of available radio resources and the possibility of dynamically selling unused spectrum are crucial challenges for the telecom operators. We propose an auction model for efficiently marketing radio resources and a dynamic pricing method for setting the prices of communication resources for sale. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed pricing method in maximizing the revenue and success rate of the bid compared to the random pricing

IoT and cloud convergence: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract: The success of the IoT world requires service provision attributed with ubiquity, reliability, high-performance, efficiency, and scalability. In order to accomplish this attribution, future business and research vision is to merge the Cloud Computing and IoT concepts, i.e., enable an “Everything as a Service” model: specifically, a Cloud ecosystem, encompassing novel functionality and cognitive-IoT capabilities, will be provided. Hence the paper will describe an innovative IoT centric Cloud smart infrastructure addressing individual IoT and Cloud Computing challenges

IoT Technologies and Privacy in a Data-Bloated Society: Where Do We Stand in the Fight to Prepare for the Next Pandemic?

In this column we plan to take a tour around different physical locations in the world with the objective of highlighting the peculiarities of the trendiest IoT-related applications in selected regions. Thus, the “IoT World” will certainly be physical, but traveling around it shall also expose to the readers how different application domains have been addressed, with particular attention to business sustainability

Exploiting Cost-Effective IoT Devices for Trustless Agri-Food Supply Chain Management: A Practical Case Study

The exponential rise in the adoption of diverse Internet of Things (IoT) devices has reached the Agriculture and Food (Agri-Food) supply chains. Small and cost-effective sensing IoT devices are fostering substantial research and innovation toward developing reliable, auditable, and transparent traceability systems. Current IoT-based traceability and provenance systems for Agri-Food supply chains are built on top of centralized infrastructures, introducing security and privacy issues such as data integrity, tampering, and single points of failure. In recent years, blockchain technology is attracting the interest of the IoT as a decentralized platform for a trusted record of information, realizing decentralized trustless systems. The inherent properties of this digital technology provide fault-tolerance, immutability, transparency, and full traceability of the stored transaction records. However, there has been little discussion on the role of cost-effective IoT devices in these blockchain-based systems. In this chapter, we propose an architecture for a blockchain-based traceability system for Agri-Food supply chain management. Our architecture seamlessly integrates cost-effective IoT devices producing and consuming digital data along the process. To effectively assess our proposal, we first defined a classical use case within the given vertical domain, namely from-farm-to-fork. Then, we deploy a full-fledged showcase using off-the-shelf constrained sensing devices and two different blockchain implementations. From a device perspective, we measure the overhead that our architecture introduces in the system in terms of memory and program space footprint, processing time, and power consumption. Our results show that cost-effective devices, with an internal clock running at less than 100 MHz, can support our proposed solution in both Ethereum and Hyperledger Sawtooth blockchain networks

Fostering Iot Solutions For Sustainable Development In Africa

Reports on initiatives to promote and develop the Internet of Things in Africa

Rationale and Practical Assessment of a Fully Distributed Blockchain-based Marketplace of Fog/Edge Computing Resources

none3On modern electronic marketplaces, the buyers and sellers (i.e., the users) trade products over software platforms provided by trusted third-party entities. In exchange for better user experience, the users allow these intermediaries to set their own arbitrary rules, which may influence reciprocal interactions and also favor some products over others. Recently, researchers have shown an increased interest in blockchain technology as a possible solution for creating decentralized marketplaces, thus avoiding the need for intermediaries. However, due to the young age of this technology, the majority of architectures proposed in the literature still rely on other types of centralized services, mainly to guarantee better user experiences. Although these schemes offer several benefits over traditional centralized architectures, they introduce other issues, such as single points of failure for the whole system. This paper presents a software architecture and the implementation of a fully decentralized marketplace solely relying on a public blockchain network. To test its effectiveness, we implemented a full-fledged marketplace of Fog/Edge computing resources, evaluating several design decisions and trade-offs in terms of monetary cost versus performance. Our experiments show that the current capabilities of blockchain technology may support such fully decentralized marketplaces, providing seamless user experiences.nonePincheira, Miguel; Vecchio, Massimo; Giaffreda, RaffaelePincheira, Miguel; Vecchio, Massimo; Giaffreda, Raffael