Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging domain that promises ubiquitous connection to the Internet, turning common objects into connected devices. The IoT paradigm is changing the way people interact with things around them. It paves the way for creating pervasively connected infrastructures to support innovative services and promises better flexibility and efficiency. Such advantages are attractive not only for consumer applications, but also for the industrial domain. Over the last few years, we have been witnessing the IoT paradigm making its way into the industry marketplace with purposely designed solutions. In this paper, we clarify the concepts of IoT, Industrial IoT, and Industry 4.0. We highlight the opportunities brought in by this paradigm shift as well as the challenges for its realization. In particular, we focus on the challenges associated with the need of energy efficiency, real-time performance, coexistence, interoperability, and security and privacy. We also provide a systematic overview of the state-of-the-art research efforts and potential research directions to solve Industrial IoT challenges.

Industrial Internet of Things: Challenges, Opportunities, and Directions

The use of flying platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), popularly known as drones, is rapidly growing. In particular, with their inherent attributes such as mobility, flexibility, and adaptive altitude, UAVs admit several key potential applications in wireless systems. On the one hand, UAVs can be used as aerial base stations to enhance coverage, capacity, reliability, and energy efficiency of wireless networks. On the other hand, UAVs can operate as flying mobile terminals within a cellular network. Such cellular-connected UAVs can enable several applications ranging from real-time video streaming to item delivery. In this paper, a comprehensive tutorial on the potential benefits and applications of UAVs in wireless communications is presented. Moreover, the important challenges and the fundamental tradeoffs in UAV-enabled wireless networks are thoroughly investigated. In particular, the key UAV challenges such as 3D deployment, performance analysis, channel modeling, and energy efficiency are explored along with representative results. Then, open problems and potential research directions pertaining to UAV communications are introduced. Finally, various analytical frameworks and mathematical tools, such as optimization theory, machine learning, stochastic geometry, transport theory, and game theory are described. The use of such tools for addressing unique UAV problems is also presented. In a nutshell, this tutorial provides key guidelines on how to analyze, optimize, and design UAV-based wireless communication systems.

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A Tutorial on UAVs for Wireless Networks: Applications, Challenges, and Open Problems

Low power wide area (LPWA) networks are attracting a lot of attention primarily because of their ability to offer affordable connectivity to the low-power devices distributed over very large geographical areas. In realizing the vision of the Internet of Things, LPWA technologies complement and sometimes supersede the conventional cellular and short range wireless technologies in performance for various emerging smart city and machine-to-machine applications. This review paper presents the design goals and the techniques, which different LPWA technologies exploit to offer wide-area coverage to low-power devices at the expense of low data rates. We survey several emerging LPWA technologies and the standardization activities carried out by different standards development organizations (e.g., IEEE, IETF, 3GPP, ETSI) as well as the industrial consortia built around individual LPWA technologies (e.g., LoRa Alliance, Weightless-SIG, and Dash7 alliance). We further note that LPWA technologies adopt similar approaches, thus sharing similar limitations and challenges. This paper expands on these research challenges and identifies potential directions to address them. While the proprietary LPWA technologies are already hitting the market with large nationwide roll-outs, this paper encourages an active engagement of the research community in solving problems that will shape the connectivity of tens of billions of devices in the next decade.

Low Power Wide Area Networks: An Overview

Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC FDMA), a modified form of orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), is a promising technique for high data rate uplink communications in future cellular systems. SC-FDMA has similar throughput performance and essentially the same overall complexity as OFDMA. A principal advantage of SC-FDMA is the peak-to-average power ratio (PARR), which is lower than that of OFDMA. SC FDMA is currently a strong candidate for the uplink multiple access scheme in the long term evolution of cellular systems under consideration by the third generation partnership project (3GPP). In this paper, we give an overview of SC-FDMA. We also analyze the effects of subcarrier mapping on throughput and PARR. Among the possible subcarrier mapping approaches, we find that localized FDMA (LFDMA) with channel-dependent scheduling (CDS) results in higher throughput than interleaved FDMA (JFDMA). However, the PARR performance of IFDMA is better than that of LFDMA. As in other communications systems there are complex tradeoffs between design parameters and performance in an SC-FDMA system

Single carrier FDMA for uplink wireless transmission

The IoT paradigm holds the promise to revolutionize the way we live and work by means of a wealth of new services, based on seamless interactions between a large amount of heterogeneous devices. After decades of conceptual inception of the IoT, in recent years a large variety of communication technologies has gradually emerged, reflecting a large diversity of application domains and of communication requirements. Such heterogeneity and fragmentation of the connectivity landscape is currently hampering the full realization of the IoT vision, by posing several complex integration challenges. In this context, the advent of 5G cellular systems, with the availability of a connectivity technology, which is at once truly ubiquitous, reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient, is considered as a potentially key driver for the yet-to emerge global IoT. In the present paper, we analyze in detail the potential of 5G technologies for the IoT, by considering both the technological and standardization aspects. We review the present-day IoT connectivity landscape, as well as the main 5G enablers for the IoT. Last but not least, we illustrate the massive business shifts that a tight link between IoT and 5G may cause in the operator and vendors ecosystem.

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Internet of Things in the 5G Era: Enablers, Architecture, and Business Models

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the handling of a status message transmitted from a data unit reception node to a data unit transmission node.SOLUTION: A method in a reception node is provided for the handling of the status information related to a data unit transmitted from the transmission node to the reception node through a radio link. The reception node identifies some missing units among the data units transmitted from the transmission node (401). The reception node transmits a reduced status message to the transmission node through a radio link (402). The message includes a negative response to the first part of missing data units, and is reduced to omit each negative response to residual missing data. In the transmission node, the omitted negative response to the residual missing data unit is not mistakenly interpreted as a correctly received data unit.

Method and apparatus for communication system

A method and apparatus according to the present invention addresses and/or prevents lost protocol synchronization in HARQ systems caused by ACK/NACK errors. One embodiment detects lost synchronization errors for NDI-based retransmission protocols and restores synchronization by sending an explicit RESET message. In response to the RESET message, the transmitter aborts the transmission of a current PDU and transmits a new PDU and corresponding NDI. Another embodiment prevents protocol synchronization errors by sending scheduling grants on a packet by packet basis. The receiver sends a subsequent explicit scheduling grant to the transmitter based on an error evaluation of a received PDU. The transmitter will not send the next PDU unless it receives the subsequent explicit scheduling grant.

Improved protocol synchronization for harq background

The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement for reducing a state transition time from a power saving state for a user equipment (18) in a communication network. The state transition time is reduced by retaining in the user equipment (18) one or more information parameter, such as the radio network temporary identifier for a high speed downlink shared channel (H-RNTI), when performing a state transition to said power saving state so as to enable a time reduction when said user equipment switches back from said power saving state.

Reducing state transition time

Selon l'invention, un emetteur pouvant presenter une disponibilite de puissance marginale peut retransmettre de maniere autonome des trames transmises precedemment contenant les memes donnees. L'emetteur envoie une trame initiale a une station d'emission-reception de base (BTS) et retransmet immediatement la meme trame independamment d'une quelconque transmission d'ACK/NAK de la BTS. Les retransmissions sont accumulees dans le recepteur et decodees apres transmission d'une quantite suffisante de la trame. Apres reception de la derniere trame retransmise, la BTS envoie un ACK/NAK a l'emetteur qui est accepte.

Procede et systeme pour assurer des retransmissions autonomes dans un systeme de communication sans fil

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an improved procedure for synchronization of reconfiguration of RRC procedures between a radio base station and UE.SOLUTION: This is achieved by associating a new configuration to be used by UE with an additional UE identity. The UE is normally identified by a first UE identity, but is informed in a reconfiguration message that the UE also has the additional UE identity. The UE is identified by the additional UE identity when the new configuration is to be activated. Hence, when a radio base station detects that the UE responds to requests, which include the additional UE identity, the radio base station can conclude that the UE has activated the new configuration.

Johan Torsner

Papers

Method and apparatus for communication system

Improved protocol synchronization for harq background

Reducing state transition time

Procede et systeme pour assurer des retransmissions autonomes dans un systeme de communication sans fil

Methods and arrangements for mobile communications network