“Relationship between materials and ICT”

A team of UTOV approaches the topic area of the Internet of Things (IoT) from the perspective of the few types of human communication. Through this perspective on the human communication types, this research specifically addresses how IoT technologies can support humans and their endeavors by exploring the fields of sensors and wireless,

ByN (Body as a network Node) [1-3]: a developing scenario for future networks could envisage an active role of the human body in the network functions and performance. The decreasing distance between network user and his/her smart devices and the consequent increasing interaction between user’s body, senses and brain commands with the network concur in the above vision, where user needs and device functions tend to converge. If human body is intended to host some of the device and network node functions, the development of suitable bio-compatible materials would be a pillar in the development of the above scenario. The analysis of the effects of a human body (or parts of it) on the radiating Electro-Magnetic waves is a very important aspect to enable the design of new ICT applications of radio signals. EM Phantoms are physical models of the human body that accurately reproduce the effect of the body on electromagnetic radiation. Whole and partial body EM phantoms represent humans in terms of dielectric properties in a wide range of frequencies from below 10 MHz to above 100 GHz. They enable reproducible and consistent Over-The-Air (OTA) evaluation of wireless devices operating in the proximity of the body.

Space Softwarization [4]: a fascinating innovation related to ICT networks will deal with the software-driven transformation of the integrated network composed by terrestrial, aerial and space components. While the progress of the Software Defined Networking (SDN) approach in terrestrial networks is on-going, satellite experts are recently becoming sensitive to the application of the SDN paradigm to the space component. The space component can also contribute to the data cloudification. When the SDN approach will be fully deployed also at space level, consequences will be amazing at space, ground and user segment levels. The above scenario would imply a deep transformation in terms of satellite configuration and hardware needs, where the key would become the use of the “intangible material”, i.e. an intelligent and flexible software-driven configuration.

References

[1] G. Sannino, M. Ruggieri, (2017) “Body as A network Node: key is the oral Cavity”, in “Human Bond Communication” (Ed’s Dixit S., Prasad R.), Wiley, pp. 87-96, ISBN 9781119341338.

[2] M. Ruggieri, G. Sannino, C. Stallo, (2016) “5G: the Last Frontier?”, Chapter 11 (pp. 163-178) of the book “5G Outlook: Innovations and Applications”, Edited by R. Prasad, ISBN: 9788793379770; e-ISBN: 9788793379787, River Publishers.

[3] S. Di Domenico, M. De Sanctis, E. Cianca, M. Ruggieri, “WiFi-based through-the-wall presence detection of stationary and moving humans analyzing the doppler spectrum”, IEEE Arospace Magazine, 33, no. 5-6, May-June 2018, ISSN: 0885-8985, DOI: 10.1109/MAES.2018.170124, Scopus EID: 2-s2.0-85048095375

[4] T. Rossi, M. De Sanctis, E. Cianca, C. Fragale, M. Ruggieri, H. Fenech, “Future space-based communications infrastructures based on High Throughput Satellites and Software Defined Networking”, 2015 IEEE International Symposium on Systems Engineering (ISSE), Pages: 332 – 337, DOI: 10.1109/SysEng.2015.7302778.