International Journal of "Computing"

Research Institute of Intelligent Computer Systems

Ternopil National Economic University

2010, Vol. 9, Issue 1


Contents and abstracts

  1. U. Grossmann, J. Sieck, A. Sikora. Editorial. - p. 7-8.
  2. A. Fink, H. Beikirch, M. Voss. Improved Indoor Localization with Diversity and Filtering based on Received Signal Strength Measurements. - p. 9-15.
  3. M. Feist, B. Hebeisen, M. Prellwitz, J. Sieck. WEB Technologies for Multimedia-Based, Mobile Museums. - p. 16-21.
  4. J. Lategahn, F. Kuenemund, C. Roehrig. Mobile Robot Localization Using WLAN, Odometry and Gyroscope Data. - p. 22-30.
  5. A. Sikora. WEB2.0 Technology for an Embedded WEB-Based Gateway Platform for Spatially Distributed Wireless Networks. - p. 31-36.
  6. S. Gansemer, S. Pueschel, R. Frackowiak, S. Hakobyan, U. Grossmann. Improved RSSI-based Euclidean Distance Positioning Algorithm for large and dynamic WLAN Environments. - p. 37-44.
  7. Z. Karakehayov. Using Embedded Simulators for Deployment-Specific Adaptation of Sensor Networks. - p. 45-51.
  8. E. Eren, K.-O. Detken. Identity and Access Management According to the Implementation of the SIMOIT Project and TNC@FHH. - p. 52-61.
  9. E. Kuehn, J. Sieck. Design and implementation of location and situation based services for a pervasive mobile adventure game. - p. 62-69.
  10. S. Saponara, F. Iacopetti, L. Fanucci, B. Neri. Experimental Characterization of RFID Systems for Process Control in Industrial Marble Machines. - p. 70-79.
  11. G. Fortino, S. Galzarano, R. Giannantonio, R. Gravina, A. Guerrieri. Spine-Based Application Development on Heterogeneous Wireless Body Sensor Networks. -p. 80-89.

EDITORIAL
“Wireless Systems”

Guest Editors: Uwe Grossmann 1), Juergen Sieck 2), Axel Sikora 3)

1) University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund
Emil-Figge-Strasse. 44, 44227 Dortmund, Germany
Email:uwe.grossmann@fh-dortmund.de
URL: www.mbms.fh-dortmund.de
2) Prof. Dr. Juergen Sieck
University of Applied Sciences Berlin
Treskowallee 8, 10313 Berlin, Germany
Email:j.sieck@htw-berlin.de
URL: inka.htw-berlin.de
3) Prof. Dr. Axel Sikora
Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Loerrach<> Hangstrasse 46-50, 79539 Loerrach, Germany
Email: sikora@dhbw-loerrach.de
URL: http://www.dhbwloerrach.de/index.php?id=sikora

This special issue of the International Scientific Journal of Computing includes a selection of papers presented within the Special Stream Wireless Systems at the Fifth IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications (IDAACS), which was held in Rende/Cosenza, Italy, September 21st-23rd, 2009. The workshop was organized by the Research Institute of Intelligent Computer Systems, Ternopil National Economic University, Ternopil, Ukraine and co-organized by the University of Calabria Rende/Cosenza, Italy.

The IDAACS workshop series is established as a forum for high quality reports on state-of-the-art theory, technology and applications of intelligent data acquisition and advanced computer systems. These techniques and applications have experienced a rapid expansion in recent years that have resulted in more intelligent, sensitive, and accurate methods of data acquisition and data processing. Subsequently, these advances have been applied to: manufacturing process control and inspection; environmental and medical monitoring and diagnostics; and intelligent information gathering and analyses for the purpose security and safety.

The IDAACS’09 workshop sessions were organized under the following topic areas: Advanced Instrumentation and Data Acquisition Systems; Intelligent Distributed Systems and Remote Control; Virtual Instrumentation Systems; Advanced and High Performance Computing Systems; Cluster and Grid Technologies, Parallel Software Tools and Environments; Embedded Systems; Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks for Advanced Data Acquisition and Computing Systems; Advanced Mathematical Methods for Data Acquisition and High Performance Computing; Industrial Signal and Image Processing; Data Analysis and Dynamic Modelling; Intelligent Information and Retrieval Systems; Robotics and Autonomous Systems; Information Computing Systems for Education and Commercial Applications; Bio-Informatics and Homeland Security; Safety, Security and Reliability of Software; Wireless Systems – Special Stream.

The Special Stream – Wireless Systems was convened for the second time in 2009. The papers selected for this special issue reflect the broad variety of research topics in the area of wireless systems.

The paper "Identity and Access Management According to the Implementation of the SIMOIT Project and TNC@FHH" of Eren and Detken considers identity and access management mechanisms and adds new requirements for identity management in mobile ubiquitous environments. The authors present the state-of-the-art in identity management standards, for example the TNC approach as a solution to raise the security level in mobile networks. The modular approach allows the integration of vendor-neutral solutions such as VPN gateways or firewalls.

The paper "Web Technologies For Multimediabased, Mobile Museums" of Feist et al. presents a web-based tour documentation system, where an interactive map of Germany displays stations visited by a mobile museum and future visits. Station details and further information as well as various media representation are visualized. A barrier-free HTML version also provides editorial and administrative functionality.

Within the paper "Improved Indoor Localization with Diversity and Filtering based on Received Signal Strength Measurements" by Fink et al. a diversity concept with redundant data transmission in different frequency bands to reduce the dropout probability is discussed. They also use space diversity and plausibility filtering to reduce the location estimation error significantly. The results presented show that an increased accuracy of the location estimation can be achieved with the chosen diversity concept and plausibility filtering. The localization is more robust against signal fading and frequency specific interference.

The paper "SPINE-Based Application Development on Heterogeneous Wireless Body Sensor Networks" by Fortino et al. presents a framework that allows the programming of signal processing applications on various base architectures, e.g. EmberZNet, Z-Stack and TinyOSnodes, and its integration under one single Spine controller.

In the paper, "Improved RSSI-based Euclidean Distance Positioning Algorithm for large and dynamic WLAN Environments" from Gansemer et al. an improvement to the indoor localization system is presented that has been developed at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund recently. With this improvement, the accuracy of this inherently imprecise RSSI-based measurement approach could be optimized, so that the median Location estimation error (LEE) can be reduced to the region of 2 m.

Karakehayov presents in his paper “Using Embedded Simulators For Deployment-Specific Adaptation of Sensor Networks” an embedded simulation platform, which allows complex multihop networks to be modelled and emulated. Their behaviour is analysed with respect to computational time and energy consumption.

The paper "Design and implementation of location and situation based services for a pervasive mobile adventure game" of Kuehn et al. presents the design and implementation of a location and situation based pervasive mobile adventure game called Sportix. The prototype supports different types of sensor data – including 3D acceleration and XPS – to determine the current position and activity of the player. Data and quests are retrieved from a central information system and visualized on the mobile device.

Through the paper "Mobile Robot Localization Using WLAN, Odometry and Gyroscope Data" of Kuenemund et al., a method for the estimation of positions and motions of mobile robots in an indoor environment is introduced. The authors use WLAN signal strength to estimate the global position of a mobile robot in a building. The paper presents a multi sensor fusion using a Kalman filter, which enhances the accuracy of fingerprinting algorithms and tracking of the robots.

The paper "Experimental Characterization Of RFID Systems For Process Control In Industrial Marble Machines" of Saponara et al. presents an experimental characterisation of different RFID technologies. The application presented allows the automatic detection of the presence of a marble slab in different points of a marble machine.

The paper "WEB2.0 Technology For An Embedded WEB-based Gateway Platform For Spatially Distributed Wireless Networks" of Sikora presents a communication platform for monitoring and deployment of distributed wireless networks using distributed embedded web servers connected to RF-communication heads. Data exchange is provided via XML-feeds between web servers acting as distributed communication hubs with web2.0- capable clients.

This selection of papers presents topics of IDAACS'09. We hope the readers find them interesting, useful and even enjoyable.

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IMPROVED INDOOR LOCALIZATION WITH DIVERSITY AND FILTERING
BASED ON RECEIVED SIGNAL STRENGTH MEASUREMENTS

Andreas Fink, Helmut Beikirch, Matthias Voss

University of Rostock, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
A.-Einstein-Str. 2, D-18059 Rostock, Germany
{andreas.fink;helmut.beikirch;matthias.voss2}@uni-rostock.de
www.e-technik1.uni-rostock.de

Distance estimation by the evaluation of RSSI measurements is a simple and well-known technique to predict the position of an unknown node. Therefore the infrastructure does not have to be extended by expensive hardware for synchronization or direction approximation. However, with the localization based on RSSI measurements common and proven systems can be used for the infrastructure. For indoor environments the distance-pending path loss is affected by strong variations, especially appearing as frequency specific signal dropouts. A diversity concept with redundant data transmission in different frequency bands can reduce the dropout probability. If also space diversity and plausibility filtering are used, the Location Estimation Error can be reduced significantly. The investigations show that a good performance for precision and availability can also be reached with low infrastructural costs.

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WEB TECHNOLOGIES FOR MULTIMEDIA-BASED, MOBILE MUSEUMS

Manuela Feist 1), Benedikt Hebeisen 2), Matthias Prellwitz 3), Juergen Sieck 4)

HTW Berlin (University of Applied Sciences),
Treskowallee 8, 10318 Berlin, Germany,
1) manuela.feist@htw-berlin.de, 2) b.hebeisen@htw-berlin.de, 3) matthias.prellwitz@htw-berlin.de,
4) j.sieck@htw-berlin.de, http://inka.htw-berlin.de/

The paper presents a web-based tour documentation. An interactive map of Germany displays stations already being visited by a mobile museum and those being planned. Station details offering further information as well as various media representation. A barrier-free HTML version also provides editorial and administrative functionality.

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MOBILE ROBOT LOCALIZATION USING WLAN,
ODOMETRY AND GYROSCOPE DATA

Julian Lategahn, Frank Kuenemund, Christof Roehrig

University of Applied Sciences
Dortmund, Emil-Figge-Str. 42,
44227 Dortmund, Germany
roehrig@ieee.org

In this paper a method for estimation of position and motion of a mobile robot in an indoor environment is introduced. The proposed method uses WLAN signal strength to estimate the global position of a mobile robot in an office building. Thus signal strengths of the received access points are stored in the radio map in calibration phase. In localization phase the stored values are compared with actually measured one’s. Therefore a fingerprinting algorithm, that was introduced before, is used. The improvement of the presented work is the multi sensor fusion using Kalman filter, which enhances the accuracy of fingerprinting algorithms and tracking of the robot. For this reason odometric and gyroscopic sensors of the robot are fused with the estimated position of the fingerprinting algorithm. The paper presents the experimental results of measurements made in an office building.

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WEB2.0 TECHNOLOGY FOR AN EMBEDDED WEB-BASED GATEWAY
PLATFORM FOR SPATIALLY DISTRIBUTED WIRELESS NETWORKS

Axel Sikora

Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University Lörrach,
Hangstraβe 46-50.
79539 Lörrach, Germany
sikora@dhbw-loerrach.de,
http://www.dhbw-loerrach.de

A novel communication platform is presented, which helps in the monitoring and deployment of distributed wireless networks. Its major part is based on distributed embedded web servers connected to RF-communication heads. The web servers act as distributed communication hubs and exchange data via XML-feeds with web2.0-capable clients.

The first implementations are concentrating on the monitoring direction, as this approach eases supervision of spatially distributed wireless networks, and also allows seamless remote monitoring. But it is also capable to feed data frames into the wireless network.

The platform already supports protocols like Wireless M-Bus and EnOcean Radio Protocol (ERP), but is flexible to integrate arbitrary protocols. In addition, this is - to the very best knowledge of the authors - the very first AJAX implementation on a very lean embedded web server.

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IMPROVED RSSI-BASED EUCLIDEAN DISTANCE POSITIONING
ALGORITHM FOR LARGE AND DYNAMIC WLAN ENVIRONMENTS

S. Gansemer 1), S. Pueschel 2), R. Frackowiak 3), S. Hakobyan 4), U. Grossmann 5)

University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund,
Emil-Figge-Str. 44, 44227 Dortmund,
http://mbms.fh-dortmund.de
1) sebastian.gansemer@fh-dortmund.de, 2) steffen.pueschel@fh-dortmund.de, 3) robert@frackowiak.de
4) syuzanna.hakobyan@fh-dortmund.de, 5) uwe.grossmann@fh-dortmund.de

This paper presents an algorithm for RSSI fingerprint positioning based on Euclidean distance for the use in a priori existing larger and dynamically changing WLAN infrastructure environments. Symptomatical for such environments are changing sets of base stations for different calibration points and for calibration phase and positioning phase. The presented algorithm has an accuracy of 2.06m median location estimation error. The algorithm uses four threshold parameters to adapt the calculation to the specific measuring environment.

Furthermore the reduction of calibration effort is investigated. It is shown that an enlargement of the calibration grid size from 1m to 6m increases the median location estimation error from 2.06m to 3.5m. Regular calibration measurements include measurements in four rectangular bearings. Reducing the number of calibration bearings results in less calibration effort, but worsens estimation quality.

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USING EMBEDDED SIMULATORS FOR
DEPLOYMENT-SPECIFIC ADAPTATION OF SENSOR NETWORKS

Zdravko Karakehayov

Technical University of Sofia,
Kliment Ohridski 8, Sofia-1000, Bulgaria,
e-mail: zgk@tu-sofia.bg, www.tu-sofia.bg

This paper introduces a method for deployment-specific adaptation of wireless ad hoc networks. The method utilizes sophisticated nodes which model the network signature for actual deployments and routing paths. Since the transmit power is fixed, many nodes may not save energy from communication. At the same time, all nodes save energy from calculations and the number of beacon periods may be controlled. The nodes with embedded simulators control the balance between lifetime and real-time performance. Also, some routes are modified to decline the communication range and save energy. An example shows a significant energy reduction and improved real-time performance.

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IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT ACCORDING TO THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SIMOIT PROJECT AND TNC@FHH

Evren Eren 1), Kai-Oliver Detken 2)

1) FH Dortmund, Emil-Figge-Straβe 42, D-44227 Dortmund,
eren@fh-dortmund.de, http://www.fh-dortmund.de
2) DECOIT GmbH, Fahrenheitstraβe 9, D-28359 Bremen,
detken@decoit.de, http://www.decoit.de

This paper considers some of the identity and access management mechanisms, and adds to this the new requirements posed by identity management in mobile ubiquitous environments. The authors present the state-of-the-art in identity management standards and initiatives in the context of the SIMOIT project and the TNC@FHH implementation. Furthermore, the paper discusses the results achieved by these projects with respect to the generic requirements in different scenarios and compares the achievements.

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DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF LOCATION AND SITUATION
BASED SERVICES FOR A PERVASIVE MOBILE ADVENTURE GAME

Eileen Kuehn, Juergen Sieck

University of Applied Sciences Berlin,
Treskowallee 8, 10318 Berlin, Germany,
Eileen.Kuehn@HTW-Berlin.de / J.Sieck@HTW-Berlin.de, http://inka.htw-berlin.de

This paper describes the design and implementation of a location and situation based pervasive mobile adventure game named Sportix. The prototype uses different types of sensor data – including 3D acceleration data and XPS – to determine the current position and activity of the player. Depending on the firm classification, data and quests are retrieved accordingly from a central information system and visualised for the player on the mobile device. By solving quests and performing sports the player is able to participate in the game.

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EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF RFID SYSTEMS FOR
PROCESS CONTROL IN INDUSTRIAL MARBLE MACHINES

Sergio Saponara, Fabrizio Iacopetti, Luca Fanucci, Bruno Neri

Department of Information Engineering, University of Pisa, Via Caruso, 16, I-56122, ITALY,
{sergio.saponara, fabrizio.iacopetti, luca.fanucci, b.neri}@iet.unipi.it, www.iet.unipi.it

The paper presents an experimental characterization of wireless systems, specifically RFID technologies, applied to polishing/cutting process control in the marble industry. The application of RFID systems has the final aim of allowing the automatic and contact-less detection of the presence of a marble slab in different points of a marble machine, outside and/or inside, trying to overcome some limitations of the currently used proximity detectors. Slab detection is needed for the process control in order to properly activate the abrasive or cutting heads of the machine. Four RFID systems at 125 kHz, 13.56 MHz, 868 MHz and 2.45 GHz have been tested in different set-ups representative of those found in marble machines. Starting from commercially available tags, readers and antennas, ad-hoc developed or customized hardware and/or software have been used for the experimental test campaign, that has been carried out also considering dirty and wet working environments representative of those found in real applications.

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SPINE-BASED APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT ON HETEROGENEOUS
WIRELESS BODY SENSOR NETWORKS

Giancarlo Fortino 1), Stefano Galzarano 1), Roberta Giannantonio 2),
Raffaele Gravina 1, 3), Antonio Guerrieri 1)

1) Dept. of Electronics, Informatics, and Systems (DEIS), University of Calabria, Rende (CS), Italy,
e-mail: g.fortino@unical.it, galzarano@si.deis.unical.it, aguerrieri@deis.unical.it
2) TILAB, Telecom Italia, Torino, Italy, e-mail: roberta.giannantonio@telecomitalia.it
3) WSN Lab Telecom Italia, Berkeley, CA 94704,
e-mail: rgravina@deis.unical.it

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a novel technology enabling new classes of applications and systems for ubiquitous and pervasive computing. In particular, WSNs for the human body, also known as Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs), will enable not only continuous, multi-purpose monitoring of people but also will support social interaction among people coming into physical contact. In these contexts, applications demand a wide range of functionalities, in terms of sensor types, processing performance, communication capabilities. Moreover the development of such applications has to deal with the issue of handling heterogeneous WBSNs since different kinds of sensor node architectures could be necessary to fulfill all the application requirements. This paper proposes an approach based on the SPINE frameworks (SPINE1.x and SPINE2) for the programming of signal processing applications on heterogeneous wireless sensor platforms. In particular, two integrable approaches based on the proposed frameworks are described that allow the development of applications for WBSNs constituted by heterogeneous sensor nodes. The approaches are exemplified through a human activity recognition system based on a WBSN composed of two types of sensor nodes, heterogeneous with respect to base software and hardware.

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