Objectives

The course will provide the basics on the enabling technologies of the Internet of Things which can be classified into two broad families: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Radio Frequency Identification Systems (RFID). Related to WSNs, the course will overview the most common hardware components of sensor nodes, and will further address the challenges which have to be faced to interconnect and manage such tiny devices. As for RFID systems, the course will highlight the main features and standards commonly adopted to set up RFID systems, with specific focus on the problem of collision arbitration and resolution. Since the Internet of Things is/will be most likely constituted by heterogeneous technologies and systems, the last part of the course will be dedicated to unifying approach to manage hybrid network architectures.

Program at a Glance

1-Introduction: the vision of ambient intelligence, application examples, enabling Technologies (Sensor Networks, RFID), networking Building Blocks and Abstractions

2-Wireless Sensor Networks
Hardware Components & Abstractions: sensor node hardware architectures, energy consumption models for sensor nodes
Operating Systems and Execution Environments: TinyOS, IBM MoteRunner.
Medium Access Control Layers: scheduled MAC versus random-access MAC, protocol examples and performance evaluations guidelines
Routing in WSNs: the problem of delivering the information remotely through multi-hop networks. 
Enabling Technologies and Standards: 
The ZigBee protocol stack: the IEEE 802.15.4 PHY/MAC layer, ZigBee Network layer, ZigBee application layer and profiles
6LowPAN: IPv6 and UDP header compression, the Routing Protocol for Low power lossy networks (RPL), the COnstrained Application Protocol (COAP)

3-Radio Frequency Identification
Application Scenarios
The Physical Layers of RFID: operation band, transmission fundamentals
Collision Arbitration Standards and Solutions: Tree-based arbitration, frame-aloha based arbitration, the Q-Algorithm, performance evaluation of arbitration protocols

4-Hands-On Activities

Setting up Applications in TinyOS and MoteRunnerPushing real-world data to the web with Xively

Evaluation Criteria

The students will be evaluated through a written exam on the topics of the course. The common exam format includes three exercises and a set of questions on the topics of the course, and one final exercise on the practical part of operative systems for wireless sensor networks. Students have to substitute the written exercise on the operative systems by working on project activities on the design of applications and networking solutions for the Internet of Things.

The course web site makes available: lecture/exercises slides, targeted readings (technical papers, standards, survey) on the course topics, coding examples to play with operative systems for wireless sensor networks