Reliable machine-to-machine multicast services with multi-radio cooperative retransmissions

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11036-015-0575-6The 3GPP is working towards the definition of service requirements and technical solutions to provide support for energy-efficient Machine Type Communications (MTC) in the forthcoming generations of cellular networks. One of the envisioned solutions consists in applying group management policies to clusters of devices in order to reduce control signaling and improve upon energy efficiency, e.g., multicast Over-The-Air (OTA) firmware updates. In this paper, a Multi-Radio Cooperative Retransmission Scheme is proposed to efficiently carry out multicast transmissions in MTC networks, reducing both control signaling and improving energy-efficiency. The proposal can be executed in networks composed by devices equipped with multiple radio interfaces which enable them to connect to both a cellular access network, e.g., LTE, and a short-range MTC area network, e.g., Low-Power Wi-Fi or ZigBee, as foreseen by the MTC architecture defined by ETSI. The main idea is to carry out retransmissions over the M2M area network upon error in the main cellular link. This yields a reduction in both the traffic load over the cellular link and the energy consumption of the devices. Computer-based simulations with ns-3 have been conducted to analyze the performance of the proposed scheme in terms of energy consumption and assess its superior performance compared to non-cooperative retransmission schemes, thus validating its suitability for energy-constrained MTC applications.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Goodbye, ALOHA!

©2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) to interconnect and Internet-connect everyday people, objects, and machines poses new challenges in the design of wireless communication networks. The design of medium access control (MAC) protocols has been traditionally an intense area of research due to their high impact on the overall performance of wireless communications. The majority of research activities in this field deal with different variations of protocols somehow based on ALOHA, either with or without listen before talk, i.e., carrier sensing multiple access. These protocols operate well under low traffic loads and low number of simultaneous devices. However, they suffer from congestion as the traffic load and the number of devices increase. For this reason, unless revisited, the MAC layer can become a bottleneck for the success of the IoT. In this paper, we provide an overview of the existing MAC solutions for the IoT, describing current limitations and envisioned challenges for the near future. Motivated by those, we identify a family of simple algorithms based on distributed queueing (DQ), which can operate for an infinite number of devices generating any traffic load and pattern. A description of the DQ mechanism is provided and most relevant existing studies of DQ applied in different scenarios are described in this paper. In addition, we provide a novel performance evaluation of DQ when applied for the IoT. Finally, a description of the very first demo of DQ for its use in the IoT is also included in this paper.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Machine-type communications: current status and future perspectives toward 5G systems

Machine-type communications (MTC) enables a broad range of applications from mission- critical services to massive deployment of autonomous devices. To spread these applications widely, cellular systems are considered as a potential candidate to provide connectivity for MTC devices. The ubiquitous deployment of these systems reduces network installation cost and provides mobility support. However, based on the service functions, there are key challenges that currently hinder the broad use of cellular systems for MTC. This article provides a clear mapping between the main MTC service requirements and their associated challenges. The goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of these challenges and the potential solutions. This study presents, in part, a roadmap from the current cellular technologies toward fully MTC-capable 5G mobile systems.Peer reviewe

The Internet of Things in Health, Social Care, and Wellbeing

The Internet of Things (IoT) enables opportunities to remotely sense and control objects via communication networks. We study services based on connected devices and the collaboration they generate between the ICT and the Health, Social Care and Wellbeing (HSCWB) industries. In HSCWB, IoT can support a change from episodic treatments of illness to preventive care and wellbeing solutions. The IoT can be a supporter in cost efficient and high quality health care. The objective is to achieve healthier life years and more efficiency in health and social care. Even if the potential of IoT in HSCWB has been proven in pilot projects and small-scale solutions, the benefits and opportunities for many actors are still unclear. There is a research gap in studying the roles and business opportunities for market-driven technology-based solutions enabled by connected devices. The research approach separates technological and business domains. On the technology side, the focus is on advances in connectivity for IoT. We present the technical details on a limitation to support IoT devices in cellular networks. We quantify the limitations in the Random Access Channel of the LTE air interface to support IoT devices. Moreover, we propose the adaptation of an access mechanism to enable massive number of simultaneous access attempt in cellular networks. On the business side, we identify and present how the conditions of the health and social care structure in Sweden affect the establishment of IoT solutions in HSCWB. We then show how these conditions have generated three distinctive development patterns—to innovate within the public sector, to develop solutions in the private care sector, or to target the wellbeing sector to avoid regulatory setbacks. Based on these patterns, we look closer into study cases to show how business opportunities have been addressed from a business network perspective. When deploying an IoT service, not all critical challenges can be appreciated at a single firm level. Therefore, we rely on a network-level business model framework to analyze emerging IoT services in HSCWB. The findings suggest that IoT components can improve an existing service by automating internal working processes, or they can enable new value propositions and convenience to end users. In general terms, the collaboration can be used (i) to improve the efficiency of existing services in health and social care without an original intention to change the service offering, or (ii) to create novelty and differentiation, without affecting the internal logics of existing HSCWB services.QC 20180828IoT Ecosystems (VINNOVA)COIN-SWEATMTC2020M2MRIS

Validation of a communication standard between detectors and telecontrol systems in the railway enviroment

The railway environment relies over several detection systems to provide a secure trans- portation; some of these devices are the lateral wind detector, fallen object detectors, weather stations, vertical impacts detector, among many others. Each device provides particular functionalities and claims its own communication requirements. Given the complexity of a telecontrol system, a homogeneous communication solution supposes an improvement tool in terms of eficiency and future growth of the network, allowing connection capability with open systems, supplier independence and reducing installation and maintenance costs. This project includes a classification of the detection systems in the railway environ- ment to be aware of their complexity, in addition, issues related to remote systems and transport SCADA protocols are summarized. Further on the study, some general concepts related to this project's scenario must be described to comprehend the communication between detection and control systems and provide a standard solution for the communication of the current detection systems in the railway environment. Once analyzed the requirements, the solution that better suites characteristics such as standardization, interoperability, scalability and extensibility is the IEC 60870-5-104 communication standard. To adapt this technology to the railway control environment a data model specification was developed to integrate each particular detection protocol and facilitates the development of the implementation to validate the communication between the local operation points and the technical buildings. The addressing architecture is described to take advantage of the protocol's bene- fits, considering the necessary modifications in the control centres equipment according to each addressing plan; also the database model created to adapt the information from each detector studied previously to the desired standard will be described and finally the applications developed as test model to validate the specification of the selected standard for its use in railways detection systems are explained

Validation of a communication standard between detectors and telecontrol systems in the railway enviroment

The railway environment relies over several detection systems to provide a secure trans- portation; some of these devices are the lateral wind detector, fallen object detectors, weather stations, vertical impacts detector, among many others. Each device provides particular functionalities and claims its own communication requirements. Given the complexity of a telecontrol system, a homogeneous communication solution supposes an improvement tool in terms of eficiency and future growth of the network, allowing connection capability with open systems, supplier independence and reducing installation and maintenance costs. This project includes a classification of the detection systems in the railway environ- ment to be aware of their complexity, in addition, issues related to remote systems and transport SCADA protocols are summarized. Further on the study, some general concepts related to this project's scenario must be described to comprehend the communication between detection and control systems and provide a standard solution for the communication of the current detection systems in the railway environment. Once analyzed the requirements, the solution that better suites characteristics such as standardization, interoperability, scalability and extensibility is the IEC 60870-5-104 communication standard. To adapt this technology to the railway control environment a data model specification was developed to integrate each particular detection protocol and facilitates the development of the implementation to validate the communication between the local operation points and the technical buildings. The addressing architecture is described to take advantage of the protocol's bene- fits, considering the necessary modifications in the control centres equipment according to each addressing plan; also the database model created to adapt the information from each detector studied previously to the desired standard will be described and finally the applications developed as test model to validate the specification of the selected standard for its use in railways detection systems are explained

Massive access in the random access channel of LTE for M2M communications: an energy perspective

The capacity limits of the Random Access Channel (RACH) of Long Term Evolution (LTE) for highly dense Machineto-Machine communications are studied in this paper. We consider the case study when a high number of devices attempt to transmit information to the same base station in a very short period of time. Simulations with up to 30000 devices have been performed, considering several parameter configurations related to the random access procedure of LTE. The energy efficiency is proposed as a primordial metric to compare any improvement regarding the random access procedure.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Is the random access channel of LTE and LTE-A suitable for M2M communications? A survey of alternatives

The 3GPP has raised the need to revisit the design of next generations of cellular networks in order to make them capable and efficient to provide M2M services. One of the key challenges that has been identified is the need to enhance the operation of the random access channel of LTE and LTE-A. The current mechanism to request access to the system is known to suffer from congestion and overloading in the presence of a huge number of devices. For this reason, different research groups around the globe are working towards the design of more efficient ways of managing the access to these networks in such circumstances. This paper aims to provide a survey of the alternatives that have been proposed over the last years to improve the operation of the random access channel of LTE and LTE-A. A comprehensive discussion of the different alternatives is provided, identifying strengths and weaknesses of each one of them, while drawing future trends to steer the efforts over the same shooting line. In addition, while existing literature has been focused on the performance in terms of delay, the energy efficiency of the access mechanism of LTE will play a key role in the deployment of M2M networks. For this reason, a comprehensive performance evaluation of the energy efficiency of the random access mechanism of LTE is provided in this paper. The aim of this computer-based simulation study is to set a baseline performance upon which new and more energy-efficient mechanisms can be designed in the near future.Peer Reviewe

Terrain-aided navigation of an underwater vehicle

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:D200183 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Multi-radio cooperative retransmission scheme for reliable machine-to-machine multicast services

Mobile Machine-to-Machine (M2M) market is expected to grow dramatically in the upcoming years; predictions agree that the majority of wireless traffic will correspond to this type of communication. M2M devices deployed in proximity to each other might be handled as groups or clusters when sharing the same communication attributes and serving to achieve joint target. Moreover, devices that feature multiple radio interfaces are commonly used nowadays; they can be connected to a cellular access network, e.g., LTE, and simultaneously to a short-range network, also known as capillary network, among surrounding devices, e.g., Wi-Fi and ZigBee. For services such as over-the-air (OTA) firmware update, the same information shall be sent to all the group members over the cellular access network. A Multi-Radio Cooperative Retransmission Scheme for Reliable Multicast Services is presented as a solution to reliably manage reception errors occurred over the cellular network; by carrying out retransmissions over a short-range network it is possible to reduce both the traffic load over the cellular link and the energy consumption in error recovery. Ns-3 simulations were performed with LTE network models to analyze the scheme in terms of energy consumption and prove its usefulness in autonomous, battery driven, devices.Peer Reviewe