Here is the schedule. Each speaker has been asked to take some time to generate some discussion, on top of the traditional questions from the audience.
9:30 - 10:30 : Presentation
Samer Lahoud, ESIB (Associate professor at Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth), on the subject of "Low Power Wide Area Networks for the Internet of Things"
Summary: By extending the connectivity to everyday objects, the Internet of Things (IoT) is providing humans with better interaction and control over their environment and activities. Low-Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) are recent candidates for empowering the IoT. They are perfectly suited for connecting devices that need to send small amounts of data over a long range, while maintaining long battery life. Particularly, LoRaWAN and NB-IoT are two promising LPWAN technologies for tackling the IoT challenges. They bring the desired ubiquitous connectivity to enable most of the outdoor IoT applications. The technical aspects of LoRaWAN are specified by the LoRa alliance, while NB-IoT is being standardized by 3GPP.
In this talk, we first introduce the global context of the IoT. We also summarize the challenges of designing the end-to-end IoT chain. Then, we present the recent advances of LPWAN technologies, focusing on LoRaWAN and NB-IoT. Finally, we cover the design challenges and the research directions in each of these technologies.
10:30 - 11:30 : Presentation
Cédric Adjih (Researcher at INRIA Saclay)), on the subject of "On Doing 5G with Old Low Cost Wireless Sensor Nodes*"
*with RIOT, FIT IoT-LAB and one SDR device"
Summary: We will present work-in-progress experimenting of some 5G-related method(s) on low cost wireless sensor nodes. We are focusing on massive access (for machine-type communication), and we will describe one of the most readily experimental family of methods for random access known as "Coded Slotted Aloha", along with its already known features and performance evaluation aspects. Proof-of-concept experimentation will be also described starting from the underlying hardware platform, FIT IoT-LAB (a large scale open testbed IoT Lab), and the underlying software platform, RIOT (an Operating System from the Internet of Things - http://riot-os.org/).
Using additionally a software-defined receiver, we will show how such 5G-like random access can be experimented on such typical 802.15.5-based devices. A analysis of preliminary results will be provided, along with some lessons learned and some consequences on the design space of such methods.