Franca Delmastro

Bio: Franca Delmastro is an academic researcher from National Research Council. The author has contributed to research in topics: Mobile computing & Mobile device. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 48 publications receiving 1122 citations.

Experimenting an indoor bluetooth-based positioning service

Abstract: The Bluetooth wireless technology is an emerging technology originally designed as a short-range connectivity solution for personal, portable, and handheld electronic devices. This paper briefly presents the functionality, and the architecture of an indoor positioning service based on this technology. Most of the design choices for the service have been strongly influenced by Bluetooth features. The effectiveness of the indoor positioning service is critically analyzed. Experimental and simulation results used for defining the policy of mobile device discovery are shown.

Design and analysis of a Bluetooth-based indoor localization system

Abstract: The emerging context-aware applications relying on the wireless networking, require the availability of network services that provide even simple notions of context as position and identity. In the last few years several localization and tracking systems for indoor environment have been proposed. However, these systems are often very expensive since they require the installation of dedicated infrastructures of sensors based on radio, ultrasound or infrared technologies, to determine the user position. This paper aims to propose and analyze a novel indoor localization and tracking system based on the Bluetooth technology. This is a short-range, low complexity and low cost wireless technology that supports explicit device discovery services. The proposed localization system fully integrates these device discovery procedures into the infrastructure-based network of Bluetooth access points that provides the wireless connectivity inside a building. This design approach guarantees a cost-effective solution for the positioning service implementation. In this paper we have extensively investigated through simulative analysis the performances of the proposed localization system, showing that it has a negligible overhead, still providing a timely update of user location.

Experimenting opportunistic networks with WiFi Direct

Abstract: WiFi Direct introduces new opportunities to deploy real opportunistic networks through users' mobile devices. However, its original specification does not take into account all the parameters that can emerge from an opportunistic network scenario, not only in terms of technical requirements (e.g., available resources and connectivities) but also of users characteristics and profiles, which can heavily influence the system's performances and devices' interactions. In this work we investigate the feasibility of creating opportunistic networks on top of WiFi Direct framework by analyzing the protocol's performances in real scenarios with a variable number of mobile devices. Experimental results show the times required to form a group of variable size and the best configurations to support opportunistic networking operations and upper layer applications.

From Pastry to CrossROAD: CROSS-layer ring overlay for ad hoc networks

Abstract: P2P systems for mobile ad hoc networks are currently an open research area. Most of the existent solutions were thought for the wired networks, where thousands of nodes participate to the same service, while ad hoc networks are generally characterized by limited dimensions and scarce resources. In this paper, a performance evaluation of a structured P2P system (Pastry), running on a real ad hoc network, will be presented, and a new optimized solution, called CrossROAD, will be defined. CrossROAD exploits a cross-layer architecture to reduce the communication overhead introduced by Pastry and, at the same time, maintains all the basic principles of structured overlay networks.

A survey of indoor positioning systems for wireless personal networks

Abstract: Recently, indoor positioning systems (IPSs) have been designed to provide location information of persons and devices. The position information enables location-based protocols for user applications. Personal networks (PNs) are designed to meet the users' needs and interconnect users' devices equipped with different communications technologies in various places to form one network. Location-aware services need to be developed in PNs to offer flexible and adaptive personal services and improve the quality of lives. This paper gives a comprehensive survey of numerous IPSs, which include both commercial products and research-oriented solutions. Evaluation criteria are proposed for assessing these systems, namely security and privacy, cost, performance, robustness, complexity, user preferences, commercial availability, and limitations.We compare the existing IPSs and outline the trade-offs among these systems from the viewpoint of a user in a PN.

A Survey of Indoor Localization Systems and Technologies

Abstract: Indoor localization has recently witnessed an increase in interest, due to the potential wide range of services it can provide by leveraging Internet of Things (IoT), and ubiquitous connectivity. Different techniques, wireless technologies and mechanisms have been proposed in the literature to provide indoor localization services in order to improve the services provided to the users. However, there is a lack of an up-to-date survey paper that incorporates some of the recently proposed accurate and reliable localization systems. In this paper, we aim to provide a detailed survey of different indoor localization techniques, such as angle of arrival (AoA), time of flight (ToF), return time of flight (RTOF), and received signal strength (RSS); based on technologies, such as WiFi, radio frequency identification device (RFID), ultra wideband (UWB), Bluetooth, and systems that have been proposed in the literature. This paper primarily discusses localization and positioning of human users and their devices. We highlight the strengths of the existing systems proposed in the literature. In contrast with the existing surveys, we also evaluate different systems from the perspective of energy efficiency, availability, cost, reception range, latency, scalability, and tracking accuracy. Rather than comparing the technologies or techniques, we compare the localization systems and summarize their working principle. We also discuss remaining challenges to accurate indoor localization.