Design and implementation of a mobile- to-machine wireless communication system for remote device control

Abstract

High technological advancement in the field of communication has introduced a new era in wireless device interconnectivity. The advent of wireless M2M (Machine-to-machine, mobile-to-machine and machine-to-mobile) facilitates networking between machines and devices. It combines- communication, electronics, software and power technologies to enable remote human and machine interaction with discrete systems and processes. Wireless M2M can be supported by almost all wireless technologies that include GSM/GPRS, UMTS/3G, LTE, WLAN, WiMAX etc. M2M over EDGE/GPRS is popular as its security features are already available, provides flexibility in mobility and being low-priced. Wireless M2M offers the opportunity of remote controlling a system as TCP/IP based protocols can run over the GSM network like a traditional local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) environment. Already some costly tools are developed in the world market to remotely control a particular power system. Parallel approach has been taken into this project to remotely control a power device by means of a cellular operator’s EDGE/GPRS network. It involves selection of appropriate applications and ability to combine those to enable M2M interaction. A simple approach has been pursued to develop a client-server model which is the basic of the entire concept. Client and server will communicate to each other using wireless data network. Unique type of Access Point Name (APN) is required to enable server-client interaction in which traffic will not traverse to open Internet. Selection of appropriate application is also important as latency in the air interface appends extra delay and propagation constraints play a major role in packet loss which can distort control signal. To overcome these factors, data transfer rate between client and server may be kept as minimum as possible. Again, move from proprietary application to open source based application introduces security hole and leads the system open to vulnerable attacks. To avoid security breach, GSM layer protection in combination with application layer encryption can be used.