Data Aggregation, Fusion and Recommendations for Strengthening Citizens Energy-aware Behavioural Profiles

In this paper, ENTROPY platform, an IT ecosystem for supporting energy efficiency in buildings through behavioural change of the occupants is provided. The ENTROPY platform targets at providing a set of mechanisms for accelerating the adoption of energy efficient practices through the increase of the energy awareness and energy saving potential of the occupants. The platform takes advantage of novel sensor networking technologies for supporting efficient sensor data aggregation mechanisms, semantic web technologies for unified data representation, machine learning mechanisms for getting insights from the available data and recommendation mechanisms for providing personalised content to end users. These technologies are combined and provided through an integrated platform, targeting at leading to occupants' behavioural change with regards to their energy consumption profiles.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of Global IoT Summit 201

AI-powered Infrastructures for intelligence and automation in beyond-5G systems

In this paper, a vision for beyond-5G systems is proposed where automation, intelligence and data privacy in cloudnative infrastructures are in focus. Exploiting the convergence of cloud technologies at the edge and mobile communication networks, a set of architectural and technological solutions is discussed that will play a fundamental role on the path from 5G towards future sixth-generation systems. Currently, a strong need is felt in the telecommunication world for greater automation to meet the extreme requirements expected for future 6G applications. In this regard, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining high momentum as one of the central enabling technologies for beyond-5G networks. Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Federated Learning (FL) are here proposed as technologies to enhance network automation and enable privacy-aware applications. Blockchain is proposed as a solution for non-repudiation and trustworthiness in the AI pipelines. These technologies are brought together in a comprehensive cloud-native architectural vision to fill the gap between current 5G systems and AI-powered secure systems of the future

Separation of concerns among application and network services orchestration in a 5G ecosystem

5G networks evolution is tightly bounded with the need to support vertical industries network performance and operating requirements. Such an objective is associated with a set of challenges related mainly to the provision of frameworks that can tackle aspects related to the various 5G stakeholders (e.g. software developers, application/service providers, telecom/infrastructure providers), without imposing strict requirements on their collaboration terms. Towards this direction, in the current manuscript, we detail a novel holistic framework tackling the overall lifecycle of 5G-ready applications design, development, deployment and orchestration over application-aware network slices. Separation of concerns among the related stakeholders per layer of the proposed architecture regards one of the basic considered principles

NEURON: Enabling Autonomicity in Wireless Sensor Networks

Future Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) will be ubiquitous, large-scale networks interconnected with the existing IP infrastructure. Autonomic functionalities have to be designed in order to reduce the complexity of their operation and management, and support the dissemination of knowledge within a WSN. In this paper a novel protocol for energy efficient deployment, clustering and routing in WSNs is proposed that focuses on the incorporation of autonomic functionalities in the existing approaches. The design of the protocol facilitates the design of innovative applications and services that are based on overlay topologies created through cooperation among the sensor nodes

Provision of advance context-aware services in dynamic heterogeneous networks

Next generation network characteristics (they are larger in scale, more dynamic and more heterogeneous) increase the complexity in the design and provision of advanced services, making the traditional approaches inefficient or even inappropriate. In order to cope with these characteristics, services are expected to adapt to environmental conditions and run with minimum human intervention. In this dissertation, specific techniques are proposed for the provision of advanced services in dynamic and heterogeneous environments. Initially, techniques exploiting context awareness and specific architectures for the design and deployment of such services are presented. Similar techniques are also described aiming at the autonomic provision of advanced services in dynamic and heterogeneous environments. Features such as autonomicity in the creation, operation and management of dynamic networks, application of p2p techniques for data management and creation and maintenance of overlay networks are key components of the proposed techniques. Specifically, a generic architecture for autonomic development and provision of services in dynamic heterogeneous environments is proposed, as well as a prototype implementation of the architecture. Based on the proposed architecture, a new protocol (NEURON) is designed that can operate in a particular layer of the architecture and support autonomic clustering and hierarchical routing in dynamic environments, focusing on its applicability in large scale networks (e.g. large sensor networks). In addition, specific context models for dynamic networks are described, in order to facilitate the support of context awareness and the extraction of useful events in the network, based on the capabilities offered by the proposed architecture. Finally, the concept of virtual sensor networks is introduced for the correlation among the existing networking infrastructure, the provided services and the active user communities. Specific techniques for creating and managing virtual sensor networks are proposed. Through appropriate simulation and emulation experiments, useful conclusions are extracted for the performance of the proposed mechanisms, while directions for future extensions of the proposed work are also provided.Τα χαρακτηριστικά των δικτύων νέας γενιάς αυξάνουν την πολυπλοκότητα στο σχεδιασμό και την παροχή προηγμένων υπηρεσιών, καθιστώντας τις υφιστάμενες σχετικές τεχνικές ανεπαρκείς. Τα μελλοντικά δίκτυα γίνονται μεγαλύτερα, πιο δυναμικά και πιο ετερογενή, επιβάλλοντας την ανάγκη στις παρεχόμενες υπηρεσίες να μπορούν να προσαρμόζονται στις συνθήκες του περιβάλλοντός τους και να απαιτούν ελάχιστη ανθρώπινη παρέμβαση. Στην παρούσα εργασία προτείνονται τεχνικές ανάπτυξης προηγμένων υπηρεσιών Διαδικτύου σε δυναμικά ετερογενή περιβάλλοντα. Αρχικά, μελετούνται τεχνικές παροχής υπηρεσιών με επίγνωση περιβάλλοντος και προτείνονται αρχιτεκτονικές σχεδιασμού και ανάπτυξης τέτοιων υπηρεσιών. Στη συνέχεια, προτείνονται αντίστοιχες τεχνικές σε δυναμικά ετερογενή δίκτυα που στοχεύουν στην αυτόνομη παροχή προηγμένων υπηρεσιών. Χαρακτηριστικά, όπως αυτονομία στην ανάπτυξη, λειτουργία και διαχείριση δυναμικών δικτύων, δημιουργία και συντήρηση υπερκείμενων δικτύων, και εφαρμογή p2p τεχνικών για διαχείριση δεδομένων πάνω από τέτοια δίκτυα, αποτελούν βασικά συστατικά των προτεινόμενων τεχνικών. Συγκεκριμένα, προτείνεται μία γενική αρχιτεκτονική για την ανάπτυξη και παροχή αυτόνομων υπηρεσιών σε δυναμικά ετερογενή περιβάλλοντα, καθώς και μία πρότυπη υλοποίηση της αρχιτεκτονικής αυτής. Με βάση την προτεινόμενη αρχιτεκτονική, παρουσιάζεται ένα νέο πρωτόκολλο (NEURON), το οποίο μπορεί να λειτουργήσει σε συγκεκριμένο στρώμα της αρχιτεκτονικής και να υποστηρίξει αυτόνομη δημιουργία ομάδων (clusters) και ιεραρχική δρομολόγηση σε δυναμικά περιβάλλοντα, εστιάζοντας στην εφαρμογή του κυρίως σε δίκτυα μεγάλης κλίμακας (π.χ. μεγάλα δίκτυα αισθητήρων). Επιπλέον, προδιαγράφονται μοντέλα αναπαράστασης περιβάλλοντος (context models) για δυναμικά δίκτυα, προκειμένου να παρέχονται δυνατότητες υποστήριξης επίγνωσης περιβάλλοντος και εξαγωγής χρήσιμων καταστάσεων, με βάση τις δυνατότητες που προσφέρονται από την προτεινόμενη αρχιτεκτονική. Τέλος, εισάγεται η έννοια των νοητών δικτύων αισθητήρων (virtual sensor networks), τα οποία παρέχουν την δυνατότητα συσχέτισης ανάμεσα στα υπάρχοντα δεδομένα στο δίκτυο, τις παρεχόμενες υπηρεσίες και τις υφιστάμενες κοινότητες χρηστών. Προτείνονται τεχνικές δημιουργίας και διαχείρισης νοητών δικτύων αισθητήρων. Μέσω κατάλληλων προσομοιώσεων και εξομοιώσεων, εξάγονται χρήσιμα συμπεράσματα για τους προτεινόμενους μηχανισμούς, ενώ αναφέρονται και κατευθύνσεις για μελλοντικές επεκτάσεις της εργασίας

Improving Social Cohesion in Educational Environments Based on A Sociometric-Oriented Emotional Intervention Approach

Sociometric-oriented approaches have been applied the last years in numerous cases and domains, targeting at the improvement of social groups’ characteristics for achieving personal and team-based objectives. Considering the existing approaches and the published results, in the current study, a set of emotional intervention activities based on a sociometric-oriented approach were designed and implemented with the clear objective to augment social cohesion within members of a social group in primary school students. Petrides’ trait emotional model was used to identify the emotional profile of the experimental and control group members, while the set of implemented activities was based on Bisquerra’s emotional competencies model. Sociometrics were used to evaluate the initial, intermediate and final level of social cohesion of both groups. Based on the realized statistical analysis and the produced evaluation results, useful insights with regards to the social group indicators that mainly affect the social cohesion levels are extracted and presented. It should be noted that the detailed study was based on the exclusive usage of open-source Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools for supporting educational needs

Smart Cities of the Future as Cyber Physical Systems: Challenges and Enabling Technologies

A smart city represents an improvement of today’s cities, both functionally and structurally, that strategically utilizes several smart factors, capitalizing on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to increase the city’s sustainable growth and strengthen the city’s functions, while ensuring the citizens’ enhanced quality of life and health. Cities can be viewed as a microcosm of interconnected “objects” with which citizens interact daily, which represents an extremely interesting example of a cyber physical system (CPS), where the continuous monitoring of a city’s status occurs through sensors and processors applied within the real-world infrastructure. Each object in a city can be both the collector and distributor of information regarding mobility, energy consumption, air pollution as well as potentially offering cultural and tourist information. As a consequence, the cyber and real worlds are strongly linked and interdependent in a smart city. New services can be deployed when needed, and evaluation mechanisms can be set up to assess the health and success of a smart city. In particular, the objectives of creating ICT-enabled smart city environments target (but are not limited to) improved city services; optimized decision-making; the creation of smart urban infrastructures; the orchestration of cyber and physical resources; addressing challenging urban issues, such as environmental pollution, transportation management, energy usage and public health; the optimization of the use and benefits of next generation (5G and beyond) communication; the capitalization of social networks and their analysis; support for tactile internet applications; and the inspiration of urban citizens to improve their quality of life. However, the large scale deployment of cyber-physical-social systems faces a series of challenges and issues (e.g., energy efficiency requirements, architecture, protocol stack design, implementation, and security), which requires more smart sensing and computing methods as well as advanced networking and communications technologies to provide more pervasive cyber-physical-social services. In this paper, we discuss the challenges, the state-of-the-art, and the solutions to a set of currently unresolved key questions related to CPSs and smart cities