Dependable Wireless Communication and Localization in the Internet of Things

Wireless technologies suffer from physical and man-made impairments (e.g., multipath propagation and interference from competing transmissions, as well as from the effect of temperature variations and other environmental properties): this impairs the reliability, timeliness, and availability of IoT systems. At the same time, we see a wave of new safety-critical IoT applications that require performance guarantees. This chapter surveys methods to increase the dependability of the IoT, specifically focusing, first, on increasing the frequency bandwidth from narrowband, over wideband, towards ultra-wideband to better handle multipath effects and interference. Second, the chapter focuses on increasing the adaptability such that a networked system can compensate disturbances also dynamically, eventually striving for cognitive abilities. A distinguishing feature of this chapter is its comprehensive treatment of dependability issues across multiple layers, from signal processing, over microwave engineering, and to networking.