Technological Report
Ubiquitous Internet Technologies Unit
DIRECTORS
Daniel Camps, Josep Paradells
TEAM
Marisa Catalán, David Roldán, Laura Herrera, Anna Hurtado, Jordi Pala
Area description
The Ubiquitous Internet Technologies Unit (UITU) is a tight partnership between i2CAT and the Wireless Network Group (WNG) from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) which has developed more than 30 projects in the area of wireless communications since 2003. Our main areas of expertise are Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and high capacity wireless access technologies that are key enablers for the future Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G systems.
UITU’s expertise spans from the physical design of embedded systems to the detailed operation of the main wireless communications protocols, and to the design of scalable IoT backend systems for data collection. UITU’s goal is to research and innovate in wireless technologies that can have an impact on the market, whilst partnering and collaborating with technology companies and other research institutions.
Among the main market sectors impacted by UITU’s technology are: Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, Smart factories, and Telco operators.
Research Lines
Description and goals
The goal of the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) research line is to bring Internet technology to everyday objects. In order to accomplish this goal, it is essential to be able to embed Internet technology into devices constrained in terms of battery and computational capabilities. Therefore, the WSN team is researching, amongst other areas, wireless protocols for low power devices, energy harvesting techniques, radio wake-up systems, visible light communications, and Smart City sensors and infrastructure.
Keywords/Topics
R+D+i projects
| Links | Project | Type of funding | Duration | Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| http://www.i2cat.net/en/projects/urban-t | URBAN-T | Private | 2012 – 2014 | The project aims to design, develop and deploy a WSN management system for monitoring traffic density in a Smart City |
| IoT M2M | Private | 2013 | Design of a batteryless M2M sensor platform, using an integrated solar cell. | |
| Open M2M Platform | Private | 2013 – 2014 | Integration of commercial 6lowPAN smart plug solution into MyKoots M2M platform. | |
| http://www.i2cat.net/en/projects/energrid | ENERGRID | Private | 2011- 2013 | Development of a smart energy management system, comprising electronics, communications and backend systems. |
| http://www.i2cat.net/en/projects/transferencia-urbiotica | Smart Gateway Evolution | Private | 2011- 2014 | Support in the design and development of the evolution of Urbiotica’s WSN Smart City Platform. |
| Wi-Fi deployment study | Private | 2013 | Field study of the Wi-Fi technologies deployed in Barcelona. |
Results Publications
- A. Betzler, C. Gomez, I. Demirkol, J. Paradells, “Congestion Control in Reliable CoAP Communication”, 16th ACM International Conference on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems (MSWIM’13), Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 2013.
- Oller Bosch, Joaquim; Demirkol, Ilker Seyfettin; Casademont Serra, Jordi; Paradells Aspas, Jose; Gamm, Gerd Ulrich; Reindl, Leonhard, “Wake-up radio as an energy-efficient alternative to conventional wireless sensor networks MAC protocols”, ACM International Conference on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems (MSWiM’13), Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 2013.
- M. Catalan-Cid, C. Gomez, J. Paradells, “A Performance Study of Practical Channel Assignment Solutions in Multi-radio Multi-hop IEEE 802.11 Networks”, 10th ACM International Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Wireless Ad Hoc, Sensor, and Ubiquitous Networks (PE-WASUN 2013), Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 2013.
- Gea, Tomas; Paradells Aspas, Jose; Lamarca, Mariano; Roldan, David, “Smart cities as an application of internet of things: experiences and lessons learnt in Barcelona”, International Conference on Innovative Mobile and Internet Services in Ubiquitous Computing, Tokyo, Japan, April 2013.
- Demirkol, Ilker Seyfettin; Paradells Aspas, Jose; Oller Bosch, Joaquim; Casademont Serra, Jordi; Calveras Auge, Ana M.; Catalán Cid, María Luisa, “Energy efficient wireless networking of sensor nodes”, International Conference on Sensors and Measurement Technology (SENSORS´13), Baltimore, USA, Nov. 2013.
- Design, Development, and Performance Evaluation of a Low-Cost, Low-Power Wake-Up Radio System for Wireless Sensor Networks JOAQUIM OLLER, ILKER DEMIRKOL, JORDI CASADEMONT, and JOSEP PARADELLS, ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, Vol. 10, No. 1, Article 11, Publication date: November 2013.
- DEMON: preemptive route recovery for AODV in multi-hop wireless networks based on performance degradation monitoring, Miguel Catalan-Cid, Carles Gomez, Josep Paradells and Jose Luis Ferrer, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking 2013, 2013:286 doi:10.1186/1687-1499-2013-286
- A Novel Power Efficient Location-Based Cooperative Routing with Transmission Power-Upper-Limit for Wireless Sensor Networks. Juanfei Shi, Anna Calveras Ye Cheng and Kai Liu, Sensors 2013, 13(5), 6448-6476; doi:10.3390/s130506448
- TinyCoAP: A Novel Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) Implementation for Embedding RESTful Web Services in Wireless Sensor Networks Based on TinyOS, Alessandro Ludovici , Pol Moreno and Anna Calveras, J. Sens. Actuator Netw. 2013, 2(2), 288-315; doi:10.3390/jsan2020288
Knowledge progress
Throughout 2013, the team on the WSN research line has reinforced their knowledge in embedded systems and low power Internet technologies. Moreover the team has acquired valuable knowledge on scalable mesh networks with 6lowPAN, indoor energy harvesting and M2M communications, as well as low power radio wake-up technologies.
Prototypes/Proofs of Concept/Services
| Name | Description | Use Case/s | Expected Time to Market (months) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENERGRID | Smart plugs and sensors, wireless communications module and IoT backend system | Smart energy in residential homes, company premises, factories, public buildings | 12 |
| URBAN-T | Ultrasound sensor deployed on lamp posts or public signage that monitors traffic intensity. Gateways that provide wireless connectivity to the sensors. | Real-time traffic monitoring in Smart Cities | 6 |
| IoT M2M | Compact M2M devices powered with an integrated solar cell | M2M sensor platform for smart cities, for example for environmental monitoring, or for troubleshooting of cellular deployments | 6 |
Description and goals
The Software Defined Wireless Network (SDWN) research line is a new research line in UITU established in the last quarter of 2013. The goal of the SDWN research line is to complement the WSN line and to research wireless infrastructure solutions that enhance the capacity of future mobile networks. Therefore, the SDWN team researches novel architectures and algorithms for mobile networks, comprising Software Defined Networks (SDN) and dense small cell networks as the two main area of interest.
Keywords/Topics
R+D+i projects
| View | Project | Type of funding | Duration | Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| View | SESAME | FP7- People | 2013-2017 | Define a novel SDN architecture to manage heterogeneous wireless small cell backhaul technologies |
Results Publications
- Camps-Mur, D.; Loureiro, P., “E2D Wi-Fi: A Mechanism to Achieve Energy Efficient Discovery in Wi-Fi,” Mobile Computing, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol.PP, no.99, pp.1,1.
- Ester Mengual, Eduard Garcia Villegas, Rafael Vidal: Channel management in a campus-wide WLAN with partially overlapping channels. PIMRC 2013: 2449-2453
- Lara B. Deek, Eduard Garcia Villegas, Elizabeth M. Belding-Royer, Sung-Ju Lee, Kevin C. Almeroth: Joint rate and channel width adaptation for 802.11 MIMO wireless networks. SECON 2013: 167-175
Knowledge progress
During the short time of operation of the SDWN research line, the team has acquired initial knowledge on SDN architectures and especially on the SDN and 802.11 available software tools which will be the basis to build the assets developed in this line.
Market Approach
The UITU team operates closely with the market through continuous collaboration with companies in the IoT sector, as reflected by the projects carried out in 2013. The main partnerships and cooperation of the UITU are in the following markets:
- Public Administration
- Mobility services
- System integrators
- Telecom operators
- Urban Service Providers
- Service integrators
- Mobile App developers
- Sensor network vendors
- Public Administration
- Utilities
- Hotels
- Real State
- Industry
- Device vendors
- Public Administration
- Chipset vendors
- Telecom operators