Machine Type Communication

The LOG-a-TEC experimental facility is evolving towards a setup in which dense machine type communication (MTC), machine to machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies can be developed and evaluated. LOG-a-TEC 3.0 extends the previous version of the facility with LR-WPAN and LPWAN, thus supporting at the same time, long and short range communications. In addition to previously existing TVWS, clean slate non-IEEE 802.15.4, IEEE 802.15.4, and custom protocol stacks, spectrum sensing by energy detection and covariance, signal generation including wireless mic profiles, game theoretic power allocation, LOG-a-TEC 3.0 adds the following new components:

Ultra wideband communication using the SNPN-UWB board

The SNPN-UWB board supports communication over UWB channels in the 3.5 GHz to 6.5 GHz frequency bands based on DecaWave DWM1000 UWB module.

Long range, low power communication using LoRa and the SNN-S272 board

SNN-S272 is a LoRa radio module supporting long range, low power communication in the 860-1000MHz frequency band based on the Semtech SX-1272 transceiver. It was designed for the for VESNA development board connecting to it over 12 pin VESNABUS connector. The core of the module is the SX1272 transceiver, which employs LoRa™ modulation. So it’s perfect for low data rate application, where long range and low power are necessary. Module is compatible with LoRaWAN LMiC library.

Long range, low power communication using SigFox

SigFox is developing LPWAN technology using ultra-narrowband transmissions in the unlicensed 868 MHz European short-range devices band. In the elastic Wireless Networking Experimentation (eWINE) project, we are collaborating with SigFox and have set up a base station at our premises. We also have a number of experimental devices, based on hardware SigFox modems as well as software implementation of the SigFox protocol using the Ettus USRP N200 software-defined radio.

Using the SigFox base station, transceivers and the LOG-a-TEC facilities, we are able to perform experiments with the intelligent control of transceivers as depicted in the figure below.