Background:

These master projects get their foundations from the OpenAIS (Open Architectures for Intelligent Solid State Lighting Systems) project -

Following the trends of the creation of the "The Internet of Things" (IoT) and the rapid penetration of SSL based lighting, it is very advantageous to connect the luminaires in buildings to the Internet. OpenAIS aims at setting the leading standard for inclusion of lighting for professional applications in to IoT, with a focus on office lighting. This will enable a transition from the currently existing closed and command oriented lighting control systems to an open and service oriented system architecture.

Openness and service orientation will create an eco-system of suppliers of interoperable components and a market for apps that exploit the lighting system to add value beyond the lighting function. Added value can e.g. be related to more efficient use of the building, reduction of carbon footprint and increased comfort and wellbeing. In addition, IoT will facilitate smooth and effective interaction of the lighting system with other functions in a building such as e.g. HVAC, security and access control. Extensibility and security of the system architecture are important aspects and will be guaranteed.

The OpenAIS project will define the requirements and use cases for offices in 2020, define the best open system architecture, identify existing ICT components to be used and develop additional components. The system will be validated by a pilot installation in a real office setting.

After the OpenAIS project, the Consortium will pursue standardization of the system architecture, aiming at the creation of the leading standard for Internet connected lighting. The project brings together a strong collaboration of the leading lighting companies Zumtobel, Tridonic, and Philips and the major players in IoT technology ARM, NXP and Imtech. Consortium partner Johnson Controls represents the end user and academic knowledge on ICT and system architecture is present through TU/e and TNO-ESI. The Consortium seeks close cooperation with the IoT community.

For experimentation and prototype implementation a set of boards and a full mbed software stack are evailable.

MSc project 1.Finding and using localized services. (TU/e local)

A user in a smart building must be able to control his local environment. The current solution is very physical: inside a building you have access to simple controls like light switches. In a smart building, digital access to sensors, actuators and information is provided which still should have a localized impact. For example, a phone app might be given access to a room based on physical presence in that room.

The MSc assignment entails the analysis of scenarios and the design of solutions (discovery, protocols, message flows) that are feasible in existing systems, and in particular, comply with proposals in the OpenAIS project.

The project uses the following agenda:

  1. Scenario design and literature study for localized behavior, deriving requirements.
  2. Literature study on solution approaches including access control.
  3. Design of a solution in the OpenAIS context.
  4. Prototype design and showcasing demonstration scenarios.

MSc project 2. Mechanisms to monitor system state(with NXP)

An active OpenAIS lighting system consists of four main elements: sensor objects, actuator objects, control objects and miscellaneous objects that include management. Devices are mainly containers of objects. One management concern of a large scale lighting system is to deal with failing functionlity. This concerns whether devices are operational at all and also whether they perform their services.

This project is concerned with mechanisms of how to discover faults and failures, and how to integrate these into the OpenAIS architecture (e.g. by designing special interfaces). Aspects of this assignment include developing a fault model, evaluation of different mechanisms (push/pull heartbeats for example), and definition of relevant state information. Boundary conditions of the implementation take the form of scalability concerns and delay concerns. The experimental implementation using mbed will be the research vehicle.

The project uses the following agenda:

  1. Literature study on fault detection in distributed, service oriented systems.
  2. Define the set of properties / entities that need monitoring.
  3. Study and develop monitoring mechanisms and soft state models.Investigate relevant parameter settings and cost functions.
  4. Propose a design for adding monitoring to the OpenAIS architecture.
  5. Develop a prototype and several demonstration scenarios.

MSc projct 3Evaluation of IPv6 multicast in an IEEE 802.15.4 context. (with NXP)

In OpenAIS (as in any lighting system) some lights must operate collectively. Effectively this implies a form of multicasting at some layer of the network stack. Within OpenAIS the aim is to map this for the wireless domain to multicasting at the MAC level, consisting of a 6LoWPAN network equipped with the tread protocol. The aim of this assignment is to map light control commands to multicast groups and to evaluate the performance. In particular this pertains to questions of scalability, latency and throughput (# broadcasts / second).

The project uses the following agenda:

  1. Literature review of IPv6 multicast.
  2. Selection of proper metrics for evaluation.
  3. Binding of OpenAIS controls to multicast operation.
  4. Evaluation of multicast through simluation, analysis and prototyping.

MSC project 4. System updates (TU/e internal)

An opportunity derived from being a networked system is at the same an essential ingredient for OpenAIS: the ability to update the system. The aim of this project is to examine different types of updates and to propose solutions for these. These updates include any modification in system state and behavior, ranging from configuration adaptation until installations of new services and applications.

The project uses the following agenda:

  1. Examination and categoriation of use cases with respect to system updates in the context of the OpenAIS project.
  2. Literature review of system updates and overview of solutions; identification of cost functions.
  3. Selection of use cases for evaluation and prototype implementation.

MSc project 5. Evaluation of the LWM2M data and interaction model (TU/e internal)

The OpenAIS project uses an object model to represent sensors, actuators and controls. It follows LWM2M closely in this respect, but this also shows limitations in expressive power. This holds true for the LWM2M system organization as well. This project aims to understand requirements to both the data model and the logical organization.

The project uses the following agenda:

  1. Literature review with respect to data models and REST operation, aiming at an overiew, insights and criteria for comparison.
  2. Examination of technical scenarios relevant to OpenAIS with respect to system organization and the use o the data model.
  3. Proposal for a more general data model and comparison with LWM2M.
  4. Proposal for a system organization and comparison with LWM2M.
  5. Prototype implementation and evaluation.