Probability Distributions.- Linear Models for Regression.- Linear Models for Classification.- Neural Networks.- Kernel Methods.- Sparse Kernel Machines.- Graphical Models.- Mixture Models and EM.- Approximate Inference.- Sampling Methods.- Continuous Latent Variables.- Sequential Data.- Combining Models.

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

This paper provides an overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) with emphasis on enabling technologies, protocols, and application issues. The IoT is enabled by the latest developments in RFID, smart sensors, communication technologies, and Internet protocols. The basic premise is to have smart sensors collaborate directly without human involvement to deliver a new class of applications. The current revolution in Internet, mobile, and machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies can be seen as the first phase of the IoT. In the coming years, the IoT is expected to bridge diverse technologies to enable new applications by connecting physical objects together in support of intelligent decision making. This paper starts by providing a horizontal overview of the IoT. Then, we give an overview of some technical details that pertain to the IoT enabling technologies, protocols, and applications. Compared to other survey papers in the field, our objective is to provide a more thorough summary of the most relevant protocols and application issues to enable researchers and application developers to get up to speed quickly on how the different protocols fit together to deliver desired functionalities without having to go through RFCs and the standards specifications. We also provide an overview of some of the key IoT challenges presented in the recent literature and provide a summary of related research work. Moreover, we explore the relation between the IoT and other emerging technologies including big data analytics and cloud and fog computing. We also present the need for better horizontal integration among IoT services. Finally, we present detailed service use-cases to illustrate how the different protocols presented in the paper fit together to deliver desired IoT services.

Internet of Things: A Survey on Enabling Technologies, Protocols, and Applications

Internet of Things (IoT): A review of enabling technologies, challenges, and open research issues

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be used in agriculture to provide farmers with a large amount of information. Precision agriculture (PA) is a management strategy that employs information technology to improve quality and production. Utilizing wireless sensor technologies and management tools can lead to a highly effective, green agriculture. Based on PA management, the same routine to a crop regardless of site environments can be avoided. From several perspectives, field management can improve PA, including the provision of adequate nutrients for crops and the wastage of pesticides for the effective control of weeds, pests, and diseases. This review outlines the recent applications of WSNs in agriculture research as well as classifies and compares various wireless communication protocols, the taxonomy of energy-efficient and energy harvesting techniques for WSNs that can be used in agricultural monitoring systems, and comparison between early research works on agriculture-based WSNs. The challenges and limitations of WSNs in the agricultural domain are explored, and several power reduction and agricultural management techniques for long-term monitoring are highlighted. These approaches may also increase the number of opportunities for processing Internet of Things (IoT) data.

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/8/1781/pdf

Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks for Precision Agriculture: A Review.

A vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is a mobile ad hoc network in which network nodes are vehicles—most commonly road vehicles. VANETs present a unique range of challenges and opportunities for routing protocols due to the semi-organized nature of vehicular movements subject to the constraints of road geometry and rules, and the obstacles which limit physical connectivity in urban environments. In particular, the problems of routing protocol reliability and scalability across large urban VANETs are currently the subject of intense research. Clustering can be used to improve routing scalability and reliability in VANETs, as it results in the distributed formation of hierarchical network structures by grouping vehicles together based on correlated spatial distribution and relative velocity. In addition to the benefits to routing, these groups can serve as the foundation for accident or congestion detection, information dissemination and entertainment applications. This paper explores the design choices made in the development of clustering algorithms targeted at VANETs. It presents a taxonomy of the techniques applied to solve the problems of cluster head election, cluster affiliation, and cluster management, and identifies new directions and recent trends in the design of these algorithms. Additionally, methodologies for validating clustering performance are reviewed, and a key shortcoming—the lack of realistic vehicular channel modeling—is identified. The importance of a rigorous and standardized performance evaluation regime utilizing realistic vehicular channel models is demonstrated.

/pdf/a-comparative-survey-of-vanet-clustering-techniques-4q89xtwm2r.pdf

A Comparative Survey of VANET Clustering Techniques

Today's smartphones and mobile devices typically embed advanced motion sensors. Due to their increasing market penetration, there is a potential for the development of distributed sensing platforms. In particular, over the last few years there has been an increasing interest in monitoring vehicles and driving data, aiming to identify risky driving maneuvers and to improve driver efficiency. Such a driver profiling system can be useful in fleet management, insurance premium adjustment, fuel consumption optimization or CO2 emission reduction. In this paper, we analyze how smartphone sensors can be used to identify driving maneuvers and propose SenseFleet, a driver profile platform that is able to detect risky driving events independently from the mobile device and vehicle. A fuzzy system is used to compute a score for the different drivers using real-time context information like route topology or weather conditions. To validate our platform, we present an evaluation study considering multiple drivers along a predefined path. The results show that our platform is able to accurately detect risky driving events and provide a representative score for each individual driver.

Driver Behavior Profiling Using Smartphones: A Low-Cost Platform for Driver Monitoring

Different research communities varying from telecommunication to traffic engineering are working on problems related to vehicular traffic congestion, intelligent transportation systems, and mobility patterns using information collected from a variety of sensors. To test the solutions, the first step is to use a vehicular traffic simulator with an appropriate scenario in order to reproduce realistic mobility patterns. Many mobility simulators are available, and the choice is usually done based on the size and type of simulation required, but a common problem is to find a realistic traffic scenario. In order to evaluate and compare new communication protocols for vehicular networks, it is necessary to use a wireless network simulator in combination with a vehicular traffic simulator. This additional step introduces further requirements for the scenario. The aim of this work is to provide a scenario able to meet all the common requirements in terms of size, realism and duration, in order to have a common basis for the evaluations. In the interest of building a realistic scenario, we decided to start from a real city with a standard topology common in mid-size European cities, and real information concerning traffic demands and mobility patterns. In this paper we show the process used to build the Luxembourg SUMO Traffic (LuST) Scenario, and present a summary of its characteristics together with an overview of its possible use cases.

/pdf/luxembourg-sumo-traffic-lust-scenario-24-hours-of-mobility-1pekv4fk2b.pdf

Luxembourg SUMO Traffic (LuST) Scenario: 24 hours of mobility for vehicular networking research

Both the industrial and the scientific communities are working on problems related to vehicular traffic congestion, intelligent transportation systems, and mobility patterns using information collected from a variety of sources. Usually, a vehicular traffic simulator, with an appropriate scenario for the problem at hand, is used to reproduce realistic mobility patterns. Many mobility simulators are available, and the choice is made based on the type of simulation required, but a common problem is finding a realistic traffic scenario. The aim of this work is to provide and evaluate a scenario able to meet all the basic requirements in terms of size, realism, and duration, in order to have a common basis for evaluations. In the interest of building a realistic scenario, we used information from a real city with a typical topology common in mid-size European cities, and realistic traffic demand and mobility patterns. In this paper, we show the process used to build the Luxembourg SUMO Traffic (LuST) Scenario, and present a summary of its characteristics together with our evaluation and validation of the traffic demand and mobility patterns.

Luxembourg SUMO Traffic (LuST) Scenario: Traffic Demand Evaluation

Recent advances in portable technologies suggest that ad hoc networks will finally move out from the research and military harbors to the commercial world. In particular, vehicular safety and entertainment applications are mature for the market. Several major manufacturer are considering vehicular communications as an opportunity to increase the profitability and marketability of their vehicles. In this phase, simulations are essential to evaluate the performance of protocols and applications large urban Ad Hoc and Vehicular networks. This paper tackles on the long overdue issue of an high fidelity propagation model for urban ad hoc networks. In particular, we propose CORNER a low computational cost yet accurate urban propagation prediction technique for ad hoc networks in urban scenarios. We also provide validation of the model through a side-to-side comparison of real experiments and simulations.

/pdf/corner-a-realistic-urban-propagation-model-for-vanet-1y2zt1ncd7.pdf

CORNER: a realistic urban propagation model for VANET

Vehicles are getting increasingly connected. Several technologies have emerged over the last decade that allow cars to communicate with each other and with the Internet. In this paper we propose to use the new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard as an alternative technology to exchange data between vehicles. By the means of experiments we show that smartphones with BLE radios can be used to send information at low latency from one car to another even while driving. A communication range of up to 100m can be achieved depending on the scenario and environment. Those promising first results are then used as basis for discussion to identify the potential of BLE for different types of vehicular applications.

Raphael Frank

Papers

Driver Behavior Profiling Using Smartphones: A Low-Cost Platform for Driver Monitoring

Luxembourg SUMO Traffic (LuST) Scenario: 24 hours of mobility for vehicular networking research

Luxembourg SUMO Traffic (LuST) Scenario: Traffic Demand Evaluation

CORNER: a realistic urban propagation model for VANET

Bluetooth Low Energy: An alternative technology for VANET applications