Phd in INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

Thesis title: Next Generation IoT technologies to boost 5G infrastructures performance

Communication technologies are developing very rapidly and are achieving several breakthrough results. The advent of the 5 th generation mobile communication networks (5G) has completely reshaped the domain of wireless technologies, allowing to reach high throughput, even in the order of Gbps, and low latency, below a millisecond. Such an innovative concept allows to serve different use cases with specific communication requirements, in fact, 5G paradigm provides a set of key enabling technologies to support the Internet of Things paradigm towards the goal of ubiquitous deployment. This thesis presents an overview for these key enabling technologies, in particular by focusing on Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Edge/Fog computing. The thesis also discusses the potential of 5G-based IoT in supporting vertical domains. The railway vertical is investigated, by identifying the limitations of the diagnostic systems currently available. A edge computing driven solution is then provided to autonomously traffic steer towards terrestrial 5G and satellite connectivity. The conceived solution is realized as a Proof-of-Concept and evaluated, representing a concrete step towards the realization of on-board predictive maintenance systems. The energy vertical is the second domain investigated by identifying the limits of 4G tech- nologies towards the realization of the smart grid paradigm. A solution fostering the application of synchrophasor measurement technology to dynamic distribution energy networks has been im- plemented accordingly. An evaluation on a real energy monitoring testbed showed a noticeable improvement in the availability of the system and the capability to readily respond to network reconfigurations. Short range connectivity services is the last considered domain. An analysis of the recently standardized non-cellular 5G paradigm has been carried out, implementing an autonomous mesh routing protocol for Bluetooth Low Energy version 5. The developed solution is shown to correctly relay end-to-end messages outperforming flooding-based protocols. A use case implementation of such a technology is finally presented as an Intrusion Detection System for Industry 4.0. The work concludes by outlining possible future developments of the considered solutions.