The Internet of Things - IP for Smart Objects

For the past several years, my primary focus has been to promote the use of IP for smart objects. This topic is at the core of my Ph.D. dissertation from UC Berkeley, where I designed, implemented, and evaluated the world's first complete IPv6/6LoWPAN stack for low-power wireless networks. I also helped start Arch Rock Corp, where I led the development of the world's first commercial IPv6/6LoWPAN product and the first ever IP stack for smart objects to earn the IPv6 Ready-Phase 2 (Gold) designation. I participate in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and IP for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance to standardize and promote the use of IP for smart objects.

I have produced (with the help of others) a number of materials over the years and have linked them here for those that want to learn more about IP for smart objects and 6LoWPAN. I hope you find them useful.

What's New

Slides for my RPL presentation for draft-04 in the ROLL WG at the 76th IETF.

Arch Rock's PhyNet stack is the first IP network stack for smart objects to achieve the IPv6 Forum's highest level of compliance with IPv6 - earning the IPv6 Ready-Phase 2 (Gold) designation. See the press release here.

Follow me on twitter!

Articles and Tutorials

Time to ROLL - Routing Over Low power and Lossy networks
Video of David Culler's keynote at ETTX. David presents my work on IPv6/6LoWPAN in his own flavor and gives his take on how it can shape the future of sensornets. You'll recognize many of the slides from some of my other talks.
IP-based Wireless Sensor Networking: Secure, Reliable, Low-Power IP Connectivity for IEEE 802.15.4 Networks
A high-level overview on the benefits of IP and an introduction to 6LoWPAN.
6LoWPAN: Incorporating IEEE 802.15.4 into the IP architecture
A more technical tutorial on 6LoWPAN, including some insight into the design decisions, explanation of header formats, and challenges that remain to be addressed.
6LoWPAN Tutorial: IP on IEEE 802.15.4 Low-Power Wireless Networks
A technical tutorial in powerpoint form, explaining the benefits of IP and the design of 6LoWPAN. Being the first 6LoWPAN tutorial publicly available, some information contained within is now out of date.
Lightweight IPv6 Stacks for Smart Objects: the Experience of Three Independent and Interoperable Implementations
Brings together some important information that I and other implementors have learned in developing IPv6/6LoWPAN networks.
Arch Rock IP/6LoWPAN Overview: An IPv6 Network for Wireless Sensor Networks
A very brief technical overview of the IPv6/6LoWPAN solution provided by Arch Rock Corporation.
TinyOS Kernel - IPv6 (TOSKI)
This IPSN'09 tutorial provided a hands-on overview of creating IPv6/6LoWPAN applications using a TinyOS-based network kernel.

Standards Specifications

Transmission of IPv6 Packets over IEEE 802.15.4 Networks (RFC 4944)
Gabriel Montenegro, Nandakishore Kushalnagar, Jonathan Hui, and David Culler.
Compression Format for IPv6 Datagrams in 6LoWPAN Networks (work in progress)
Jonathan Hui and Pascal Thubert.
Neighbor Discovery for 6LoWPAN (work in progress)
Zach Shelby, Pascal Thubert, Jonathan Hui, Samita Chakrabarti, and Erik Nordmark.
RPL: IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks (work in progress)
Tim Winter, Pascal Thubert, JP Vasseur, Jonathan Hui, Thomas Clausen, Philip Levis, Stephen Dawson-Haggerty, Kris Pister, and Anders Brandt.

Academic Work

IP is Dead, Long Live IP for Wireless Sensor Networks
Jonathan W. Hui and David E. Culler. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, November 05 - 07, 2008). SenSys '08. ACM, New York, NY.
[Paper] [Slides] [BibTex]
An Extended Internet Architecture for Low-Power Wireless Networks - Design and Implementation
Jonathan W. Hui. PhD. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, California, USA, 2008).
[Dissertation] [Slides] [BibTex]
6LoWPAN: Extending IP to Low-Power, Wireless Personal Area Networks
Jonathan W. Hui and David E. Culler. IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 37-45, Jul/Aug, 2008.
[Paper] [BibTex]
A Sensor Network Architecture for the IP Enterprise
Arch Rock Corporation. In Proceedings of the Sixth international Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, April 25 - 27, 2006). IPSN '07. ACM, New York, NY, 407-415.
[Abstract] [BibTex]
A New Embedded Web Services Experience for Wireless Sensor Networks
Arch Rock Corporation. In Proceedings of the 4th international Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (Boulder, Colorado, USA, October 31 - November 3, 2006). SenSys '06. ACM, New York, NY.
Received best demo award.
CS194-05 (S'08): The Internet of Everyday Things
In Spring 2008, I helped teach an undergraduate EECS design studio course, called the Internet of Everyday Things. In addition to teaching core networking and embedded computing concepts, the goal was for students to build fun and useful IP-based applications on top of the same IPv6/6LoWPAN kernel developed for my research. The course was amazingly successful. In a matter of weeks, students built a Google Maps/Nordic Trac Cyber-Physical Mashup, Web-Enabled Coffee Pot, and a Smart Refrigerator.

6LoWPAN in Action

Building a Smarter Grid in Oklahoma City
GE and OG&E are working together to build a smarter grid in Oklahoma City. For 6,600 participants of our project, technology like the GE SmartMeter™ is changing the way they use electricity in powerful new ways. Look closely and you'll find the Arch Rock logo on the in-home displays.
Helping Firefighters Save Lives
The Advanced Incident Response System (AIRS) is an IPv6-enabled solution that allows incident response personnel from various local, municipal, and government agencies to communicate seamlessly during an event while minimizing dependencies on the fixed infrastructure of the disaster site.

Press

© 1999-2009 Jonathan W. Hui. All Rights Reserved.