Alessandro Puiatti

Probabilistic Routing Protocol for Intermittently Connected Mobile Ad hoc Network (PROPICMAN)

Routing in intermittently connected mobile ad hoc networks (ICMAN) is a very challenging problem because disconnections are prevalent and the lack of knowledge about network dynamics hinders good decision making. In ICMAN one of the most important decisions is how to choose the most suitable intermediate(s) to forward the message to the destination. We propose in this document a new algorithm (PROPICMAN) that, based on context information, allows the sender to select the neighbor(s) such that the message has the highest probability to reach the destination.

Smartphone-centred wearable sensors network for monitoring patients with bipolar disorder

Bipolar Disorder is a severe form of mental illness. It is characterized by alternated episodes of mania and depression, and it is treated typically with a combination of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. Recognizing early warning signs of upcoming phases of mania or depression would be of great help for a personalized medical treatment. Unfortunately, this is a difficult task to be performed for both patient and doctors. In this paper we present the MONARCA wearable system, which is meant for recognizing early warning signs and predict maniac or depressive episodes. The system is a smartphone-centred and minimally invasive wearable sensors network that is being developing in the framework of the MONARCA European project.

Mobile and ubiquitous systems: computing, networking, and services

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 8th International ICST Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking, and Services, MobiQuitous 2011, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2011. The 34 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. They cover a wide range of topics ranging from localization and tracking, search and discovery, classification and profiling, context awareness and architecture, location and activity recognition as well as a best paper session, an industry track, and poster and demo papers.

WiSwitch: Seamless Handover between Multi-Provider Networks

Traditionally, global node mobility problem is addressed at networking layer (e.g. Mobile IP and related solutions). However, none of these classes of solution is designed for supporting seamless handover switch between different network providers and technologies, where the node accesses the network from another point of access (with new access procedure) and can change technology access. Starting from the observation that seamless mobility is requested by the applications, we tackle the problem at higher layer. The proposed solution, called WiSwitch, provides always-on, continuous and optimised network services, whenever possible, to the applications independently from lower layers.

Development of a platform to combine sensor networks and home robots to improve fall detection in the home environment

Over the last decade, significant progress has been made in the development of wearable sensor systems for continuous health monitoring in the home and community settings. One of the main areas of application for these wearable sensor systems is in detecting emergency events such as falls. Wearable sensors like accelerometers are increasingly being used to monitor daily activities of individuals at a risk of falls, detect emergency events and send alerts to caregivers. However, such systems tend to have a high rate of false alarms, which leads to low compliance levels. Home robots can enable caregivers with the ability to quickly make an assessment and intervene if an emergency event is detected. This can provide an additional layer for detecting false positives, which can lead to improve compliance. In this paper, we present preliminary work on the development of a fall detection system based on a combination sensor networks and home robots. The sensor network architecture comprises of body worn sensors and ambient sensors distributed in the environment. We present the software architecture and conceptual design home robotic platform. We also perform preliminary characterization of the sensor network in terms of latencies and battery lifetime.

Radio-based trail usage monitoring with low-end motes

Outdoor automated people counting is essential to the proper management of recreational and protected areas. We present a solution for radio-based people counting that employs low-end motes to detect the signature of shadowing events left by humans on the RF signal as they interrupt the line-of-sight path between a radio transmitter and a receiver. Our solution can be implemented with devices with a reduced form factor, requires little computing power, and provides a satisfactory performance at a low energy cost. We illustrate our implementation on TelosB nodes and present an extensive set of results from a real-world deployment.

Enhanced DHCP client

The current network architecture for mobile devices presents applications with a synchronous model and employs end-to-end connections. In reality, devices are often disconnected from the network and, while they are disconnected, they can connect to other devices in the neighborhood and exploit the connectivity to allow the user to continue to work. This is the key concept of the Haggle project [1], a ground-up redesign of networking for mobile devices, to support the mobile user scenario. In order to benefit from users mobility, it is necessary to be able to opportunistically switch between (ad hoc) connections, whenever a new opportunity of connection arises. This imposes that connection set-up time must be minimal, considering that the nodes will probably stay in the range of each other for a short time frame. However, we saw that the 802.11 connectivity in Haggle carries significant overhead (especially when switching between Access Point (AP) mode and ad hoc mode, particularly when switching to AP mode) as the DHCP handshake takes a lot of time [2]. This suggested us to implement a new DHCP Client to speed-up the time for retrieving the IP during the connection to an AP, and to effectively implement opportunistic networking.

An enhanced MAC architecture for multi-hop wireless networks

The IEEE 802.11 MAC family of standards has been designed for communication in traditional wireless LANs. The enhancement of the IEEE 802.11 family of standards is mainly seen in terms of channel speeds [1][2]. This fact, combined with advances in portable/handable computing and wireless technologies are expected to further increase possibilities and significant interest in the design and development of instantly deployable, wireless networks. Its usability in multi-hop wireless networks has been discussed in several papers. Starting from several known problems and issues, and analyzing the cause of these problems, we design the architecture of an enhanced IEEE 802.11 MAC card for multi-hop wireless networks

Characterization of in-tunnel distance measurements for vehicle localization

An increased number of vehicular applications and services requires accurate distance measurements. Due to specific properties of radio waves propagation, it may not be effective to use ranging systems designed for other environments inside tunnels. In this paper we analysed the characteristics of time of flight based ranging for in-tunnel applications. Based on our analysis, we designed a vehicle localization system showing that the time of flight approach is a suitable, accurate and cost effective solution for this purpose. We designed and validated our solution by performing real experiments in a tunnel located in Lugano, Switzerland.

Demonstrating seamless handover of multi-hop networks

Traditionally, global network mobility problem is addressed at networking layer. However, none of these solution is designed for supporting seamless horizontal and vertical handover. The demonstrated solution, called WiOptiMo, provides always-on, continuous and optimized network services, whenever possible, to the applications independently from lower layers. The whole network can move and all network nodes can continue to work with the optimal connection, until some possible connection exists. This paper shows how the network mobility can be handled at application layer with WiOptiMo and presents a demonstration scenario with a mobile network, whose nodes access audio and video application without being affected by the fact that the network moves and switches from one network access to another.