Project Description:

A vast amount of data is collected in the smart city IoT [1], some of it for specific application objectives and some of it to populate repositories of information for behaviour and activity analysis [2] [3]. 

The range of devices operating in the smart city and the rate at which data is collected in real time lends itself to operational challenges with regard to the routing of information across the end-to-end path. Resources (such as bandwidth, memory, and CPU processing capability) are made available in limited volume, and contention between resource availability can occur, resulting in an application request and subsequent SLA achievement not being fulfilled. This situation will increasingly become a problem as both the number of devices operating in the smart city and the range of application services offered grow. We can therefore assume that a range of routing protocols specific to the requirements of the smart city domain will evolve [4].

In relation to this problem, it is significant to note that different packets of data can have different associated financial costs or implications [5]. Networks are, in effect, therefore routing money, as opposed to simply data – best effort guarantees are now no longer good enough. The cost of a packet can be considered from the perspective of the revenue which will be generated by the company responsible for hosting the application. The cost of the packet can therefore also be considered from the implication, financial or service-based, for the person who has invoked the packet transmission.

In the constrained operating environment, priorities can therefore have important implications between packets. Packets which are carrying application traffic, for example, are therefore likely to be prioritised over packets returning data to a repository for behaviour or trend analysis. Furthermore, application data packets with a greater associated financial value should be prioritised over packets of lesser value. 

The challenge of this project is therefore to develop a routing protocol which is suitable for operation in the smart city IoT. It should take into account the fact that different packets carrying different application data have different associated financial implications and should therefore be treated with different levels of priority. 

The proposed routing scheme should be implemented using open source network simulation software, such as NS-3 [6] or OMNeT++ [7].

As part of this project, you will be required to contribute to the libraries available in NS3 (https://www.nsnam.org/docs/models/html) and include, for example, the provision of capability to represent devices which are common in the smart environment. You will also be responsible for contributing to the 'applications' library in NS2 (https://www.nsnam.org/docs/models/html/applications.html) to enable the simulation of applications which are representative of operation in the smart city and therefore allow a financial cost to also be associated with a packet. 

The routing scheme developed should take into account the vast number of devices in the smart city in its design. A queuing scheme which is suitably optimised for use in the smart city should also be incorporated into the routing protocol developed. 

References:
[1] B. Marr, "How Big Data and the Internet of Things create Smarter Cities," May 2015; Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/05/19/how-big-data-and-the-internet-of-things-create-smarter-cities/.
[2] C. Noonan, "Breaking through Big Data, Analytics and the Internet of Things," May 2014; Available at: http://smartcitiescouncil.com/article/breaking-through-big-data-analytics-and-internet-things.
[3] Thingful; Homepage at: https://thingful.net/.
[4] N. Yadav M and R. Dodmane, "Routing Strategies for Smart City Applications based on Intellignet Clubbing of Multi Parameters," International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, Vol. 2, Iss. 7, Jul. 2014; Available at: http://www.ijircce.com/upload/2014/july/9_Routing.pdf. 
[5] V. Misra, "Routing Money, Not Packets," Communications of the ACM, Vol. 58, No. 6, Jun. 2015, pp. 24-27; doi: 10.1145/2753120.
[6] NS-3 Homepage; Available at: https://www.nsnam.org/. 
[7] OMNeT++ Homepage; Avaiable at: https://omnetpp.org/.