NextIoT: Enabling Next-Generation Internet of Things Applications using Synchronous Transmissions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Marco Zimmerling
• Subject Area: Security and Dependability, Operating-, Communication- and Distributed Systems ; Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering ; Computer Architecture, Embedded and Massively Parallel Systems
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 406243871

The Internet of Things (IoT) is upon us. Embedded networks of up to a thousand low-power wireless sensors are integrated with cloud computing systems to drive powerful IoT applications, from condition monitoring to smart office solutions. The wireless networking technology enabling these applications was invented by the research community about ten years ago: best-effort data collection and reliable network reprogramming on top of low-power link layers and static network topologies. Now the next wave of IoT applications is looming on the horizon and will bring new challenges. Applications like wireless robotic materials and autonomous swarming drones will feature highly dynamic network topologies and mission-critical control and coordination tasks. Current wireless networking technology cannot offer the dependability, performance, and predictability needed for these new IoT applications.The NextIoT project aims at enabling the next generation of IoT applications by making low-power wireless networking significantly more reliable, fault-tolerant, performant, efficient, and predictable. To this end, the NextIoT project will work toward understanding, improving, and exploiting synchronous transmissions, a disruptive concept that already proved instrumental to solve a number of long-standing research problems. NextIoT will conduct fundamental research at the intersection of networked embedded systems and wireless communications. The project targets contributions that range from basic insights and analytical models to novel communication primitives and networking protocols, most of which will run on standard IoT hardware and thus have an immediate impact on the real world.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups