Upcoming Events

Everybody welcome!

Abstract:

Not long ago, access to the Internet was limited to proper computers: PCs, laptops, tablets and phones. Now everyday objects such as TVs, watches and cars are connected to the Internet too. And increasingly, we are embedding tiny computers into other things --such as buildings, plants and animals-- to make them part of a new ecosystem: the Internet of Things (IoT). These 'things' are forming networks of their own and enabling new exciting applications such as self-herding cattle and street lights agreeing amongst themselves about the level of illumination in our cities.

The sheer number of devices expected to be part of the IoT poses two important scientific challenges. The first challenge is reliable coverage. These (billions of) ‘things’ will be deployed in different scenarios but they will always require a gateway within reach to transmit information. The second challenge is bandwidth. The IoT will need to communicate vast amounts of information. We need to investigate new means of wireless communication to accommodate this demand in a sustainable manner.

In this talk, I will present our recent work on IoT systems based on radio and optical links. The talk will be divided into two parts. First, I will focus on IoT networks that communicate with low-power long-range radios (LoRa) and describe methods to estimate their coverage without requiring any training data. Second, I will introduce a novel wireless platform that relies solely on sunlight for communication (no radio waves). This new platform is composed of a smart surface that reflects (modulates) ambient light to transmit information without causing any flickering effects to the user.