Telecommunication Networks Group Technische Universität Berlin Towards Cooperating Objects: Communication for Cooperation Prof. Dr.-Ing. Adam Wolisz with support of Dr. Holger Karl

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 2 Embedded Systems : steps of operation Isolated embedded systems, performing local functionalities Individual embedded systems provide data and obtain supervisory commands from coordinating units Embedded systems create “clouds” to fulfill a common goal: COOPERATION Measurements Measurements and control Clouds of Embedded Systems cooperate with other, entering into their proximity....

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 3 Enabling factors Rapid increase of the number of embedded systems involved in different environments # of embedded systems in the car..., building,... Progress in (wireless) communication Sensors/Actuators enabled for remote control. (IEEE P1451 standard for sensors/actuators) Embedded systems become a commodity: “motes”, cheap image capturing devices, personalized embedded systems, tags....  New dimension of information capturing

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 4 Should Europe care? Europe is leading in numerous fields of Embedded Systems applications. Strong background in sensors, measurement, automation industry, home appliances. E.g., intelligent controllers, automobile industry, building automation, Strong background in wireless communication Very good starting point... but also a risk to loose the assets if not enough dynamics....

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 5 Challenges Focus is on the information (or the service), not on the device (object not device) Redundant objects can replace each other in their functionality: Care about Semantic not about Identity Communication mostly wireless (even mobile) – no continuous connectivity! Problems of scale and dynamics Real Time requirements... Longevity, security, privacy, robustness.....

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 6 What will be done differently Discontinuous operation (cycling) makes “state collection by observation of the others” difficult Processing of information in the network! (Not only at the edge of a network.. Like: in network aggregation of data Communication changes from a node-centric paradigm to a data-centric paradigm Differences in “motes” and networking solutions make standardization of services and APIs more important than standardization on solutions.

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 7 How to built such platforms? How to merge seamlessly wireless nodes/networks while maintaining semantics? How to achieve that including mobility How to attach them to public internet? What are appropriate architectures for in- network processing, wireless, embedded, data- centric communication systems? How far could/Should standardization go (Standardization vs. flexibility and efficiency!) STANDARDIZE SERVICES NOT SOLUTIONS!!

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 8 What is needed Applications: think differently!! Services, services: location, time synchronization, consensus...etc Unified/ complementary service usage and communication mechanisms: Querying, publish/subscribe; message passing; peer-to- peer systems; semantic web Tool (boxes) to make an application programmers task easier? Coupling of the data-centric communication model with the existing internet.

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 9 Management and incremental growth No turn-key solutions, devices will be incrementally added to existing system Adapt cooperation structure to appearance of new sources and sinks of information Assurance of long life... Energy usage control! Diagnosis of “dead” components

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 10 Interdisciplinary character of the field: Scientific: Cross fertilization between control theory, traffic theory, estimation/prediction, and information theory Technical dimension (hardware design, sensors, actuators, batteries and energy sources, communication, networking, platforms, operating systems) Cross industry issues: Platforms common for building management, telecom, consumer electronics, industrial systems, logistics...  There is need for a harmonized action

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 11 Industry participation: role of SMEs Two industry types involved: Platform developers Adopters - from different areas! Small-scale cooperating devices are attractive for SMEs (Unlike cellular networks, which are geared towards big companies) Open Hardware /Software Platforms will make development of specific applications easier for SMEs

TKN Telecommunication Networks Group Co-operative Objects 12 Conclusions The need is there Perquisites are there There are more questions than answers how to do it  Right time to discuss