Francesca Lo Piccolo

A measurement study of the mobile agent JADE platform

Despite its recent release, the mobile agent JADE platform is attracting the scientific community attention for its effective and seamless portability. Unlike most of the JADE research efforts, which have so far focused mainly on the agent framework architecture and on the technical design issues, this paper aims at showing JADE performance measurements. First, we assess the effect of two different factors, the operating system and the execution environment, on the container start up operations. A statistical approach based on the ANOVA analysis has been followed. Second, we investigate JADE scalability with specific reference to the agent migration and the interaction with FIPA agents

Towards fully IP-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPANs

This extended abstract describes a poster and a proposal for demonstration. Its focus is on low rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs) which use IEEE 802.15.4 physical and MAC layers at the lower layers of the protocol stack. More precisely, goal of this extended abstract is to present a real test-bed, whose main goal is to demonstrate how IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPANs can fully inter-operate with IP networks. To this end, the protocol stack implemented at each IEEE 802.15.4 node includes the so said LoWPAN adaptation layer, which has been defined by the IETF 6LoWPAN working group. Moreover, we will present a possible practical solution for the problem of how to realize a gateway between the IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPANs and the IP networks.

On the IP support in IEEE 802.15.4 LR-WPANs: Self-configuring solutions for real application scenarios

Due to the lack of IP support, the ZigBee protocol stack for IEEE 802.15.4 low rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs) is the perfect solution for closed, ad-hoc environments. However, we can envisage also open and interconnected application scenarios, such as the Internet of Things or the integration of ZigBee/IEEE 802.15.4 nodes in mobile/smart phones, that would greatly benefit from the IP support. The LoWPAN adaptation layer proposed by the 6LoWPAN IETF working group to enable the transmission/reception of IPv6 data in IEEE 802.15.4 networks may be regarded as the first step towards the direction of IP direct support into IEEE 802.15.4 nodes. However, a fully fledged solution to be used in the scenarios outlined above still lacks the following functionality: i) self-configuring address assignment mechanism; ii) multi-hop routing protocol; iii) support of Internet-compliant transport protocols; iv) self-configuring network and service discovery. It may seem trivial to provide such functionality in an IP world, as off the shelf solutions could be adopted; however, this is not an easy task, given the very limited hardware capabilities of IEEE 802.15.4 devices. In this paper we define a complete protocol architecture and specific self-configuring mechanisms to support the aforementioned functionality over IEEE 802.15.4 devices, taking into account their hardware constraints. We also present an implemented test-bed which demonstrates the functionality of the proposed solution in a real application scenario. 1.

Impact of Chosen Error Criteria in RSS-based Localization: Power vs Distance vs Relative Distance Error Minimization

The paper focus is on the minimum mean square error (MSE) estimation methods in RSS-based localization techniques. We in particular discuss three different error criteria: i) minimizing the mean square distance error (distance-based MSE), ii) minimizing the mean square power error (power-based MSE), iii) minimizing the mean square relative distance error (relative distance-based MSE). The goal is to assess the impact of the chosen error criterion on the estimate accuracy. Simulation results show that i) flip ambiguities in the position estimate may occur when the node to be positioned is very close to the signal source, ii) in presence of flip ambiguities, provided that RSS measurements are combined with information about the signal arrival direction, relative distance-based MSE minimization offers better accuracy in a bi-dimensional localization scenario1.

Campus++: A publish-subscribe architecture for intermittently connected 802.15.4 networks

The aim of this extended abstract is to present Campus++, a location-based publish-subscribe system for intermittently connected delay tolerant networks, exploiting IEEE 802.15.4 devices, and taking into due account the severe constraints deriving from their physical characteristics. We describe our proposed architectural model and how we implemented our solution in a real test-bed. We point out that our system can be easily adapted to operate in a fully distributed, infrastructure-less way, allowing free communications e.g. in disaster areas or in areas in which ”usual” communications means are either non existent or intentionally made unavailable.

RELAX: REaL time transmission of flight information and blAck boXes data

This position paper aims at proposing the use of satellite-based communication systems, which will play an ever increasing role in the future aeronautical communication services, to enable the real time transmission of flight information and black boxes data. Besides the immediate availability of the black boxes data after an air crash, the amount and the kind of the recorded data may be augmented, by including for example cockpit images. The RELAX system will also increase the aircraft safety level, reduce the accident rates and improve the monitoring process overall performance. In this paper, we briefly review existing proposals on this topic, list possible advantages and drawbacks and sketch a draft system architecture