Martin Stusek

Implementation of True IoT Vision

Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to become a driver in an emerging era of interconnected world through the advanced connectivity of smart devices, systems, and services. IoT goes beyond a broad range of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication technologies and covers a wide variety of networking protocols. There exist solutions like MQTT or SIP collecting data from sensors, CoAP for constrained devices and networks, or XMPP for interconnecting devices and people. Also there is a plethora of standards and frameworks (OSGi, AllJoyn) bringing closer the paradigm of IoT vision. However, the main constraint of most existing platforms is their limited mutual interoperability. To this end, we provide a comprehensive description of protocols suitable to support the IoT vision. Further, we advocate an alternative approach to already known principles and employ the SIP protocol as a container for M2M data. We provide description of data structures and practical implementation principles of the proposed structures (JSON and Protocol Buffers are discussed in detail) transmitted by SIP as a promising enabler for efficient M2M communication in the IoT world. Our reported findings are based on extensive hands-on experience collected after the development of advanced M2M smart home gateway in cooperation with the operator Telekom Austria Group.

Performance analysis of the OSGi-based IoT frameworks on restricted devices as enablers for connected-home

The connected-home ecosystem is currently one of the highly discussed applications of Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. Usually, this scenario is based on a center-point (so called smart home gateway) which provides the bridging connectivity inside (with the sensors) and outside (with the remote applications) the home. Such gateway is usually a restricted device running on Linux-based operating system (e.g. OpenWRT) including required applications on the top of it. In this paper, we focus on OSGi framework as currently very preferable platform for IoT services in combination with Raspberry Pi embedded hardware board which is also very popular for assuring the gateway features in the smart home. The performance analysis of three selected OSGi frameworks is provided with the aim to critically evaluate the most suitable candidate to become a solid enabler for the connected-home. Since HTTP is the most frequently applied communication protocol for data exchange between smart home gateway and any remote (cloud) application, a particular focus is given to the testing of three implementations of HTTP servers running as OSGi bundles on the gateway. All the obtained results including practical outputs are concluded at the end of our paper.

Keeping eyes on your home: Open-source network monitoring center for mobile devices

As the Internet continues to grow; it becomes more and more obvious that the communication network and its nodes play an increasingly important role. The traditional network management tools just monitor basic activity of network devices, but there is a common need for more complex solution including a mobile interface providing users with a convenient remote monitoring. Since the Internet of Things concept relays on the smart home gateway as a key component interacting with all sensors and appliances deployed within a building the network monitoring is not interesting only for network operators or companies. Also common end users want to have their intelligent households under a continuous control and be informed about specific events. Considering that and aiming at the monitoring and management of network components, we proposed a solution which is running on Raspberry Pi device with the support of openHAB platform and is able to monitor system resources and network activity of different network nodes. As key communication protocols we are utilizing SNMP and HTTP. Our developed system provides end-users with a very comfortable interface running on mobile devices or within any web browser. Proposed solution is completely open-source and can be easily ported to any other industry platform or extended by any additional feature or 3rd party application.

Remote management of intelligent devices: Using TR-069 protocol in IoT

The aggressive expansion of emerging smart devices connected to the Internet infrastructure is nowadays considered as one of the most challenging components of the Internet of Things (IoT) vision. As a particular segment of IoT, the smart home gateways, also named Machine-Type Communication Gateway (MTCG), become an important direction for industry including telecommunication operators. In most cases, the MTCG acts as a bridge between connected smart objects and the public network (Internet). As a consequence of the IoT domain expansion, the separate configuration of each individual Machine-to-Machine (M2M) device is not feasible anymore due to steadily growing numbers of M2M nodes. To perform this task, several novel technologies have recently been introduced. However, legacy protocols and mechanisms for remote network management still retain a certain application potential for IoT. Accordingly, we have investigated the well-known protocol TR-069 with a particular focus on its usability for MTCG. To this end, the software module (bundle) based on the TR-069 for remote configuration and management of MTCG, as well as for controlling the end smart devices, has been developed. We believe that our implementation (available as open source on GitHub) can serve as an important building block for efficient management of future IoT devices. Therefore, TR-069 protocol constitutes a proven and standardized technology and could be easily deployed by most of the network and service providers today.

Emerging 5G applications over mmWave: Hands-on assessment of WiGig radios

Nowadays, many emerging technologies, such as Augmented and Virtual reality, require extremely high-rate data transmissions. This imposes an increasing demand on the network throughput, which currently surpasses the capabilities of commercially available wireless communication systems. To address this constraint, some companies are considering the implementation of high-throughput wired technologies, such as optical fibers, as part of their products. This approach is effective in terms of communication link capacity, but on the other hand may bring disadvantages and constraints in terms of user mobility (i.e., the limited length of cables). Therefore, we are currently witnessing much faster development of novel high-rate wireless technologies, which are considered to be enablers for future 5G applications. This paper offers an evaluation of the emerging IEEE 802.11ad (WiGig) wireless technology capable of delivering multi-gigabit data transfer rates. This hands-on assessment aims at real-world experimentation as well as simulation-based study of selected scenarios to assess the usability of the millimeter-wave technology in prospective 5G applications. All of our practical measurements were conducted on the commercially available WiGig-ready Dell D5000 hardware platforms. The obtained data was comprehensively compared with the corresponding simulation scenario in Network Simulator 3.

Prototyping Minimal Footprint NFC-Based User Access Control System for IoT Applications

User access control systems have become a standard part of security systems in many consumer as well as industrial applications. The majority of these systems utilize tokens to gain an access into restricted areas such as buildings, garages, and workplaces. They are available in different shapes and sizes, but their communication interface often utilizes NFC technology ensuring compatibility throughout a variety of distinct tokens. Main goal of this paper is to share most important hands-on experience acquired during the development of NFC-based user access control system with minimal deployment footprint. Common handheld/wearable devices like smartphones or smartwatches have been used to eliminate the need for another item to be carried by a user. In our Android-based implementation, users are authenticated via server application and their accounts can be managed by the user interface called Locker. Further, MySQL database acts as a storage for user data and for authentication purposes as well.