Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks — Open Access Journal

Nowadays, the penetration of sensors and actuators in different application fields is revolutionizing all aspects of our daily life. One of the major sectors that is taking advantage of such cutting-edge cheap smart devices is healthcare. In this context, Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) at home represents a tempting opportunity for hospitals to reduce clinical costs and to improve the quality of life of both patients and their families. It allows patients to be monitored remotely by means networks of Internet of Things (IoT) medical devices equipped with sensors and actuators that collect healthcare data from patients and send them to a Cloud-based Hospital Information System (HIS) for processing. Up to now, many different proprietary software systems have been developed as stand-along expensive solutions, presenting interoperability, extensibility, and scalability issues. In recent years, the European Commission (EC) has promoted the wide adoption of FIWARE technology, launching 16 Industrial Accelerators focusing on different application fields. One of these, i.e., FICHe, is specialized in healthcare, providing the guidelines on how to develop eHealth systems. This paper focuses on how to compose new cutting-edge IoT and Cloud-based Cyber Physical Health Sytem (CPHS) services and applications interconnected with remote medical sensors and actuators using FIWARE technology in the context envisioned by FICHe. In particular, we discuss the design and development of an RPM system implemented through the collaboration between the Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS) “Bonino Pulejo” (i.e., a clinical and research healthcare centre specialized in the treatment of neuro lesions), University of Messina, IBM Research, Telefónica, and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. The description of our best practice provides a model and guidelines for the development of lightweight and low cost RPM services for rural and isolated areas, with the expectation of expanding healthcare to the developing world and in general allows us to outline how to deal with the real adoption of the FIWARE technology in an e-health project. Full article

Enabling haptic communication as well as voice and data over the future 5G cellular system has become a demand. Tactile Internet is one of the main use cases of the 5G system that will allow the transfer of haptic communications in real time. Latency, availability, reliability, and security are the main design challenges of the tactile Internet system and haptic based bilateral teleoperation systems. An end-to-end latency of 1 ms remains the main challenge toward tactile Internet system realization, not only for the processing and coding delays but mainly for the limitations of light. In this work, we analyze the key solutions to overcome the light limitations and enable the tactile Internet over any distances with the required latency. Building a virtual model or model mediated for the remote environment at the edge cloud unit near to the end user is the main solution. By means of AI, the virtual model can predict the behavior of the remote environment and thus, the end user can interact with the virtual environment with a high system experience. This literature review covers the existing work of the model mediated bilateral teleoperated systems and discusses its availability for the tactile Internet system. Furthermore, the security issues of tactile Internet system and the effect of model mediated system on the required security level of tactile Internet applications are discussed. Finally, a structure for the tactile Internet system, with the deployment of model mediation, is suggested. Full article

With the increase of population density and the rural exodus to cities, urbanization is assuming extreme proportions and presents a tremendous urban problem related to waste generation. The increase of waste generation has been considered a significant challenge to large urban centers worldwide and represents a critical issue for countries with accelerated population growth in cities. The Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing offer an automation possibility through cyberphysical systems that will change the way solid waste management is performed. Considering IoT requirements, a review analysis of waste management models available in the literature is performed in detail in this paper. Then, a deep review is undertaken of the related literature based on IoT infrastructure for efficient handling of waste generated in urban scenarios, focusing on the interaction among concessionaires and waste generators (citizens) from the perspective of a shorter collection time with reduced costs, as well as citizenship promotion. An IoT-based reference model is described, and a comparison analysis of the available solutions is presented, with the goal to highlight the most relevant approaches and identify open research issues on the topic. Full article

By nature, some jobs are always in closed environments and employees may stay for long periods. This is the case for many professional activities such as military watch tours of borders, civilian buildings and facilities that need efficient control processes. The role assigned to personnel in such environments is usually sensitive and of high importance, especially in terms of security and protection. With this in mind, we proposed in our research a novel approach using multi-sensor technology to monitor many safety and security parameters including the health status of indoor workers, such as those in watchtowers and at guard posts. In addition, the data gathered for those employees (heart rate, temperature, eye movement, human motion, etc.) combined with the room’s sensor data (temperature, oxygen ratio, toxic gases, air quality, etc.) were saved by appropriate cloud services, which ensured easy access to the data without ignoring the privacy protection aspect of such critical material. This information can be used later by specialists to monitor the evolution of the worker’s health status as well as its cost-effectiveness, which gives the possibility to improve productivity in the workplace and general employee health. Full article

In the last decade, video surveillance systems have become more and more popular. Thanks to a decrease in price of video camera devices and the diffusion of cheap small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), video monitoring is today adopted in a wide range of application cases, from road traffic control to precision agriculture. This leads to capture a great amount of visual material to be monitored and screened for event detection. However, information that is gathered from a platform of video monitoring UAVs may produce high-volume data, whose processing is unfeasible to be done locally by the same UAVs that perform monitoring. Moreover, because of the limited bandwidth of wireless links connecting UAVs to computing infrastructures that are installed on ground, offloading these data to edge clouds renders these platforms infeasible for video analysis applications with low-latency requirements. The target of this paper is to extend a 5G network slice for video monitoring with a Flying Ad-hoc NETwork (FANET) constituted by UAVs with multi-access edge computing (MEC) facilities (MEC UAVs), flying very close to the layer of UAVs monitoring the area of interest. A policy for mutual help among MEC UAVS is defined in order to increase the performance of the whole aerial MEC platform, so further reducing end-to-end latency between sources and actuators, and increasing system reliability. A use case is considered for a numerical analysis of the proposed platform. Full article

This paper proposes a monitoring system retro-fittable for existing Intravenous (IV) infusion setup. Traditionally, doctors and nurses use their experience to estimate the time required by an IV bottle to empty which makes the IV therapy vulnerable to human error. The current study proposes an internet connected monitoring platform for IV drip chambers. The device enables doctors and nursing staff to monitor the drip parameters wirelessly while emphasizing on low costs and high degree of reliability. It has two main units, namely chamber unit and pole unit. Chamber unit houses two types of sensors, optical based for drop detection and capacitive based for level detection, both of which are placed on the chamber unit. The pole unit majorly consists of a microcontroller and a GSM-based (Global System Mobile Communication) communication module. In addition, the device was tested along with various parameters like accuracy, readout stability, change in fluid used, changes in ambient conditions, end chamber conditions, optical unit malfunctions. Finally, the monitored data was securely and reliably transmitted to commercial cloud service using HTTP API calls (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) (Application Programming Interface). This data was stored and visualized for ease of readability for nurses and doctors. Full article

This paper offers a review of different types of Error Correction Scheme (ECS) used in communication systems in general, which is followed by a summary of the IEEE standard for Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). The possible types of channels and network models for WBAN are presented that are crucial to the design and implementation of ECS. Following that, a literature review on the proposed ECSs for WBAN is conducted based on different aspects. One aspect of the review is to examine what type of parameters are considered during the research work. The second aspect of the review is to analyse how the reliability is measured and whether the research works consider the different types of reliability and delay requirement for different data types or not. The review indicates that the current literatures do not utilize the constraints that are faced by WBAN nodes during ECS design. Subsequently, we put forward future research challenges and opportunities on ECS design and the implementation for WBAN when considering computational complexity and the energy-constrained nature of nodes. Full article

Falls in the elderly are a common health issue that can involve severe injuries like hip fractures, requiring considerable medical attention, and subsequent care. Following surgery, physiotherapy is essential for strengthening muscles, mobilizing joints and fostering the return to physical activities. Ideally, physiotherapy programmes would benefit from active home-based monitoring of the elderly patients’ daily activities and exercises. This paper aims at providing a preliminary analysis addressing three key research questions. First, what are the key involved activities (at-hospital, home exercises, and activities of daily living) during the post-operative hip fracture rehabilitation process? Second, how can one monitor and identify a range of leg exercises accurately? Last, what is the most suitable sensor location that can categorize the majority of the physical activities thought to be important during the rehabilitation programme? During preliminary testing, it was noted that a standard deviation of the acceleration signal was suitable for classification of static activities like sitting, whereas classification of the ambulatory activities like walking, both the frequency content and related amplitude of the acceleration signal, plays a significant role. The research findings suggest that the ankle is an appropriate location for monitoring most of the leg movement physical activities. Full article

The ubiquitous diffusion of Power Electronic Converters (PECs) in many fields of application including traction and energy conversion suggests the possibility of new and better integration of advanced power conversion and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services. This work investigates the possible advancements in the use of optical communication links made of plastic optical fibers for control of PECs. The optical communication link connects the switching control to the converter control, following the line of separation between the expertise of power electronic and control engineers. Control wise, a PEC is a black box compatible with any off-board controller, now immune from the Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) produced by the power switches. The redundant optical link is ready for the high switching and sampling frequencies, made possible by relying on SiC power semiconductor devices (100+ kHz). Distributed control of multiple PEC units and advanced telemetry for diagnostics and prognostics are targeted. A proof-of-concept demonstrator is presented and tested. Moreover, the possible evolution towards a power electronic cloud with remote management and orchestration is described. Full article

A large number of advancements have taken place in microprocessor-based systems leading to significantly more processing, memory, storage, sensing, actuating, recognition, controlling and communication capabilities. Robotics is one of the areas that have benefited a lot from these advancements. Many important and useful applications for single-robot and multi-robot systems (MRS) have emerged. Such applications include search and rescue, detection of forest fires, mining, construction, disaster management, and many more. MRS systems greatly enhance the capabilities and effectiveness of today’s robots. They extend the robotic system capabilities by increasing the ability to perform more complex tasks and allow performance of inherently distributed ones. In addition, they increase parallelism, enhance robustness, and improve system reliability. However, to perform their tasks in an effective manner, communication between the individual robots becomes an essential component. In this paper, we discuss the various types and architectures of MRS systems and focus on the networking issues, and services that are required to enable MRS systems to be more efficient in performing their roles in their respective applications. We also identify the similarities and differences between mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) and MRS systems, analyze robot-to-robot (R2R) and robot-to-infrastructure (R2I) communication links, and identify the protocols that can be used at the various levels in the MRS hierarchy. Full article

A new phase of evolution of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication has started where vertical Internet of Things (IoT) deployments dedicated to a single application domain gradually change to multi-purpose IoT infrastructures that service different applications across multiple industries. New networking technologies are being deployed operating over sub-GHz frequency bands that enable multi-tenant connectivity over long distances and increase network capacity by enforcing low transmission rates to increase network capacity. Such networking technologies allow cloud-based platforms to be connected with large numbers of IoT devices deployed several kilometres from the edges of the network. Despite the rapid uptake of Long-power Wide-area Networks (LPWANs), it remains unclear how to organize the wireless sensor network in a scaleable and adaptive way. This paper introduces a hierarchical communication scheme that utilizes the new capabilities of Long-Range Wireless Sensor Networking technologies by combining them with broadly used 802.11.4-based low-range low-power technologies. The design of the hierarchical scheme is presented in detail along with the technical details on the implementation in real-world hardware platforms. A platform-agnostic software firmware is produced that is evaluated in real-world large-scale testbeds. The performance of the networking scheme is evaluated through a series of experimental scenarios that generate environments with varying channel quality, failing nodes, and mobile nodes. The performance is evaluated in terms of the overall time required to organize the network and setup a hierarchy, the energy consumption and the overall lifetime of the network, as well as the ability to adapt to channel failures. The experimental analysis indicate that the combination of long-range and short-range networking technologies can lead to scalable solutions that can service concurrently multiple applications. Full article

The use of smart antenna systems (SASs) in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) has been promoted as the best choice to improve spatial division multiple access (SDMA) and throughput. Although directional communications are expected to provide great advantages in terms of network performance, directional MAC (medium access control) protocols introduce several issues. One of the most known problems in this context is represented by the fact that, when attempting to solve or at least mitigate the problems introduced by these kinds of antennas especially at MAC layer, a large amount of energy consumption is achieved; for example, due to excessive retransmissions introduced by very frequently issue such as deafness and handoff. The expedients proposed in order to reduce these drawbacks attempting to limit beamforming time of nodes in cooperation with a round-robin scheduling can grant high performance in terms of fairness and throughput. However, the overall energy distribution in the network is not efficient due to static approach. In view of this, we propose adaptive beamforming time with round-robin MAC providing a dynamic assignment of the beamforming time with the aim to limit the waste of energy of nodes. The proposed approach provides benefits in terms of energy consumption distribution among nodes in sectorized antennas environments and, simultaneously, improves MAC packet performance. Full article

This work investigates boundary node selection when tracking a jammer. A technique to choose nodes to track jammers by estimating signal-to-noise Ratio (SNR), jammer-to-noise ratio (JNR), and jammer received signal strength (JRSS) are introduced in this paper. We proposed a boundary node selection threshold (BNST) algorithm. Every node can become a boundary node by comparing the SNR threshold, the average SNR estimated at the boundary node, and the received BNST value. The maximum sensing range, transmission range, and JRSS are the main parts of this algorithm. The algorithm is divided into three steps. In the first step, the maximum distance between two jammed nodes is found. Next, the maximum distance between the jammed node and its unjammed neighbors is computed. Finally, maximum BNST value is estimated. The extended Kalman filter (EKF) is utilized in this work to track the jammer and estimate its position in a different time step using selected boundary nodes. The experiment validates the benefits of selecting a boundary when tracking a jammer. Full article

Agricultural research involves study of the complex soil–plant–atmosphere–water system, and data relating to this system must be collected under often-harsh outdoor conditions in agricultural environments. Rapid advancements in electronic technologies in the last few decades, as well as more recent widespread proliferation and adoption of electronic sensing and communications, have created many options to address the needs of professional, as well as amateur, researchers. In this study, an agricultural research project was undertaken to collect data and examine the effects of different agronomic practices on yield, with the objectives being to develop a monitoring system to measure soil moisture and temperature conditions in field plots and to upload the data to an internet website. The developed system included sensor nodes consisting of sensors and electronic circuitry to read and transmit sensor data via radio and a cellular gateway to receive node data and forward the data to an internet website via cellular infrastructure. Microcontroller programs were written to control the nodes and gateway, and an internet website was configured to receive and display sensor data. The battery-powered sensor nodes cost $170 each, including electronic circuitry and sensors, and they were operated throughout the cropping season with little maintenance on a single set of batteries. The solar-powered gateway cost $163 to fabricate, plus an additional cost of $2 per month for cellular network access. Wireless and cellular data transmissions were reliable, successfully transferring 95% of sensor data to the internet website. Application of open-source hardware, wireless data transfer, and internet-based data access therefore offers many options and advantages for agricultural sensing and monitoring efforts. Full article

With the emergence of Internet of Things (IoT), the research on Smart Cities with wireless sensor networks (WSNs) got leveraged due to similarities between objectives in both Smart City and IoT. Along with them, research in controlling WSN faces new challenges and opportunities for data aggregation and routing has received consistent focus from researchers. Yet new techniques are being proposed to address modern challenges in WSN and efficient resource utilization. Moreover, solutions are required to integrate existing deployed WSN with ever increasing numbers of IoT devices in Smart Cities, that benefit both. In this work, we present an approach for routing in a WSN, in which IoT is used opportunistically to reduce the communication overhead of the sensors. In our approach, WSN deployed in a Smart City interacts with the IoT devices to route the data to the sink. We build a prototype Integration Platform for the WSN that allows interaction with IoT devices and utilizes them opportunistically that results in an energy efficient routing of data. Simulation results show that the direction is quite promising and our approach offers to utilize IoT to gain unique advantages. Full article

The Internet of Things (IoT) holds great promises to provide an edge cutting technology that enables numerous innovative services related to healthcare, manufacturing, smart cities and various human daily activities. In a typical IoT scenario, a large number of self-powered smart devices collect real-world data and communicate with each other and with the cloud through a wireless link in order to exchange information and to provide specific services. However, the high energy consumption associated with the wireless transmission limits the performance of these IoT self-powered devices in terms of computation abilities and battery lifetime. Thus, to optimize data transmission, different approaches have to be explored such as cooperative transmission, multi-hop network architectures and sophisticated compression techniques. For the latter, compressive sensing (CS) is a very attractive paradigm to be incorporated in the design of IoT platforms. CS is a novel signal acquisition and compression theory that exploits the sparsity behavior of most natural signals and IoT architectures to achieve power-efficient, real-time platforms that can grant efficient IoT applications. This paper assesses the extant literature that has aimed to incorporate CS in IoT applications. Moreover, the paper highlights emerging trends and identifies several avenues for future CS-based IoT research. Full article

In this paper, we investigate mechanisms for improving the quality of communications in wireless-optical broadband access networks (WOBAN), which present a promising solution to meet the growing needs for capacity of access networks. This is achieved by using multiple gateways and multi-channel operation along with a routing protocol that effectively reduces the effect of radio interference. We present a joint route and channel assignment scheme with the objective of maximizing the end-to-end probability of success and minimizing the end-to-end delay for all active upstream traffic in the WOBAN. Performance evaluations of the proposed scheme are presented using ns-2 simulations, which show that the proposed scheme improves the network throughput up to three times and reduces the traffic delay by six times in presence of 12 channels and four network interface cards (NICs), compared to a single channel scenario. Full article

Five-G heterogeneous network overlaid by millimeter-wave (mmWave) access employs mmWave meshed backhauling as a promising cost-efficient backhaul architecture. Due to the nature of mobile traffic distribution in practice which is both time-variant and spatially non-uniform, dynamic construction of mmWave meshed backhaul is a prerequisite to support the varying traffic distribution. Focusing on such scenario of outdoor dynamic crowd (ODC), this paper proposes a novel method to control mmWave meshed backhaul for efficient operation of mmWave overlay 5G HetNet through Software-Defined Network (SDN) technology. Our algorithm is featured by two functionalities, i.e., backhauling route multiplexing for overloaded mmWave small cell base stations (SC-BSs) and mmWave SC-BSs’ ON/OFF status switching for underloaded spot. In this paper, the effectiveness of the proposed meshed network is confirmed by both numerical analyses and experimental results. Simulations are conducted over a practical user distribution modeled from measured data in realistic environments. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm can cope with the locally intensive traffic and reduce energy consumption. Furthermore, a WiGig (Wireless Gigabit Alliance certified) device based testbed is developed for Proof-of-Concept (PoC) and preliminary measurement results confirm the proposed dynamic formation of the meshed network’s efficiency. Full article