Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

The Internet of Things (IoT) extends the Internet to a plethora of physical objects performing tasks in consumer and industrial spaces. It integrates objects with off-site computing and storage infrastructures enabling powerful data analytics and intelligent decision making. There are virtually no limitations to the extent of this integration once the devices are connected to the Internet. The application domains range from smart homes to healthcare to transportation and smart manufacturing. The projected number of Internet connected objects for the next 5 to 10 years is staggering and in the tens or even hundreds of billions. This raises the question of how to enable connectivity and data processing on such a massive scale.This project directly addresses this challenge by investigating technologies that will support high-densitydeployment of IoT objects. To this end, we will develop solutions for cellular communications to close coverage holes in IoT networks. Secondly, we will advance the densification and interworking of communication technologies and develop light-based communication methods for the IoT. These techniques will be the basis for enabling the integration of light-based communication into a hybrid light/radio-frequency IoT network architecture.To achieve the ambitious research objectives, we have assembled a team of outstanding researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and McMaster University with a collective expertise in the radio andwireless communication and resource and network management. This project includes the critical participation of Canadian industrial partners from the telecommunications, networking and LED lighting industries to match the breadth of the research. The results of this project will directly support the development of our partners' IoT products and services as well as the growing number of companies offering IoT solutions.