The PLASMA (Service Platform for Smart Cities with Dense M2M Networks) project will address the technological challenges that appear when a large number of devices such as sensors and actuators are interconnected, in order to develop data capture platforms and to transfer open link data, in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) in Smart Cities. Our aim is that our research will have the maximum possible impact in the solution of the problem. Thus, we look for a solution based on a theoretical research activity component together with a practical innovative activity component based in the development of a platform with real users.
This platform will allow us, one the one hand, to characterize the potential research challenges in such a way that we will assure that these ones will correspond to real necessities at the same time that the results of the project are optimized; and in the other hand, this approach will allow us to test some of the technological and algorithmical solutions proposed in the project.
More specifically, in the project, we will address the design and optimization of mechanisms and protocols that will allow us to solve the technological challenges that appear when it is necessary to transfer large amounts of data with a high density of users, taking into account the following facts:
(i) Both, the sampling (capturing) of data and the design and selection of the protocol stack have to take into account the Hardware constraints of the node. This means that the protocol stack has to be adjusted to the device memory requirements and that the communication protocols have to be designed in such a way that they energy consumption is optimized.
(ii) The information transfer in an environment with a large amount of devices has to be as efficient as possible and in the case of using cellular technologies, has to impact as low as possible with other applications.
(iii) The search for solutions that minimize the access network impact and the communication protocols when the data captured is multimedia.
(iv) The security and privacy aspects in the capture of information.
(v) The analysis of economic models that will allow the development of feasible value-added services based on massive sensoring data.
Finally, other of the main objectives of the project is to build a platform, called CommSensum (visit http://commsensum.pc.ac.upc.edu/), that will follow the model of a Community Sensing Platform for the capture of open link data. We believe that it is important the real use in the context of Smart Cities and that users not belonging to the project participate in the exploitation of the platform. For that purpose, we will dedicate an important effort to get a community of real users through participating in diffusion activities, publishing open source software and applications that will allow the development of applications by third parties and that will also allow us to participate industrial and European projects among others.
The partners are the Compnet Research Group at UPC and the research group GIRBA at UPV.