Extending the Internet of Things to the future Internet through IPv6 Support

Emerging Internet of Things (IoT)/Machine-to-Machine (M2M) systems require a transparent access to information and services through a seamless integration into the Future Internet. This integration exploits infrastructure and services found on the Internet by the IoT. On the one hand, the so-called Web of Things aims for direct Web connectivity by pushing its technology down to devices and smart things. On the other hand, the current and Future Internet offer stable, scalable, extensive, and tested protocols for node and service discovery, mobility, security, and auto-configuration, which are also required for the IoT. In order to integrate the IoT into the Internet, this work adapts, extends, and bridges using IPv6 the existing IoT building blocks (such as solutions from IEEE 802.15.4, BT-LE, RFID) while maintaining backwards compatibility with legacy networked embedded systems from building and industrial automation. Specifically, this work presents an extended Internet stack with a set of adaptation layers from non-IP towards the IPv6-based network layer in order to enable homogeneous access for applications and services

Use of templates and the handle for large-scale provision of security and IoT in the built environment

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the main standard for constructions in the Built Environment. However, the currently agreed BIM interchange standards (IFC, COBie) are not suited for much further extension, lacking features needed for the incorporation of IoT and security. In addition, these standards are used to describe buildings and other assets through files, where the different building assets are entities with a fixed data structure and no relations between them. That is, two assets represented in the file, even described with the same data structure, are treated as separated elements, so that changes in one element do not affect the data structure of the other one. This will cause functional problems in future Building Automation Systems, such as the lack of provision for handling all objects of a particular type at the same time when adding specific or general security features. To address these issues, we present here a novel approach, this was part of our research work in the EBIS project (Extending BIM Level 2 to support IoT & Security) and forms the basis of the PETRAS APBIM Project. The approach is based on the use of digital objects (DOs), instead of files, to represent built environments with IoT and security features. Also, these DOs could be used to define customised hierarchical structures to represent flexible data structures and relate built assets between them, what we called templates. These DOs to represent assets are supported by the Handle System, a Secure Identity Data Management System (SIDMS). This approach will allow the incorporation of generic and specific security features to all assets of a specific class. It will allow also the incorporation of assets defined generically in other domains to become templates, after appropriate processing, in the BIM databases. In order to validate our proposal, a Proof of Concept (PoC) is conducted in this research. We conclude with some comments on future work in the advertising of building features in a catalogue system - working in collaboration with our approach

Nanostructured solid-state hybrid photovoltaic cells fabricated by electrostatic layer-by-layer deposition

We report on the fabrication of hybrid organic/inorganic photovoltaic cells utilizing layer-by-layer deposition of water-soluble polyions and nanocrystals. A bulk heterojunction structure was created consisting of alternating layers of the p-conductive polythiophene derivative poly[2-(3-thienyl)-ethoxy-4-butylsulfonate] and n-conductive TiO2nanoparticles. We fabricated working devices with the heterostructure sandwiched between suitable charge carrier blocking layers and conducting oxide and metal electrodes, respectively. We analyzed the influence of the thickness and nanostructure of the active layer on the cell performance and characterized the devices in terms of static and transient current response with respect to illumination and voltage conditions. We observed reproducible and stable photovoltaic behavior with photovoltages of up to 0.9 V

Experiences from the Public Safety Arena for Future Internet

The objective of the U-2010 project team is to provide the most capable means of communication and the most effective access to information to everybody required to act in case of accident, incident, catastrophe or crisis, while using existing or future telecommunication infrastructures. We feed our experiences with the technologies involved into the discussion on the Future Internet

The SUMOVER project: Media Tools’ present and future

The UK Joint Infrastructure and Services Committee (JISC) has funded from 7/2005 to 7/2007 the SUMOVER project, aiming at improving the Media Tools (RAT, VIC and the UCL Common library) for the benefit of the research community. The outcome of the project is now making an impact on the community. In addition to the continuous bug fixes and updates, we are providing new features. We expect these features to have a stronger impact on the quality of the conferences, including those carried out over the AccessGrid. In this talk we are present the progress we have made in upgrading the Media Tools’ under SUMOVER. The main innovations to date are based on the items of a wish list that was expressed in two workshops comprising users and developers that were held in October 2005 and January 2007. In VIC we have made the following improvements: • Integrated a number of state-of-the-art video codecs, offering not only higher quality video, but also aiming at interoperability with other technologies, such as the inSORS IG2. The H.264 codec in VIC is capable of matching the 3 quality profiles offered by inSORS and it is doing so in a standardised way according to IETF RFC3984. • Image overlay support • An experimental new GUI by NCHC • Scalable or full-screen video window • Dynamic CPU architecture detection, as well as a new scriptable installer for Windows. • A grabber for Windows based on DirectX/WDM, • Graceful error handling • The ability to build VIC with the latest versions of the Tcl/Tk libraries which are available on most systems today. Similarly, RAT has seen a number of stability improvements. In addition there have been the following improvements: • Code related to audio buffer reading is now running thread safe. • Error handling code has been significantly cleaned up to avoid side-effects which potentially led to crashes in the past. • The ALSA driver has been improved where possible, with better handling of certain hardware (such as mixer controls and newer audio chipsets). • The ability of RAT to re-bind dynamically on a new address and port at runtime. The above listed new features and improvements are part of SUMOVER’s target to form a common code base for the Media Tools, which would integrate the most important features we identified during the first year of the project scattered in various code repositories. We are now approaching our target of building a unified source repository that would benefit the whole AccessGrid community, by making the new features available to the AGTk toolkit, as well as by integrating the existing patches and features generated from within the AG community. We have been coordinating this effort with ANL over the past few months and we are expecting the new AG release to make use of the common code base. SUMOVER held its 2nd workshop in January 2007, which emphasised the many technical issues that had been resolved and were included in the common code base. We have also received very positive results from our evaluation group, and we would like to maintain and further strengthen the interaction with the whole Advanced Collaborative Environments (ACE) community to identify directions which will help bring the Media Tools forward. The AccessGrid community can be a source of such discussions. During the remainder of the project, we expect to ensure that the H.264 addition is compliant with both the RFC on packet formats and the release from INSORS. The achievement of this compatibility will require strong collaboration with INSORS. We expect that all the innovations will have been released not only on the web site but also in Access Grid release before the AG retreat. We expect also to incorporate further suggestions that may be made in the Retreat. We will explore further sources of funding for this work – albeit at a lower level. We are not confident at present that such support will be forthcoming