An increasing number of devices and objects are connected to the Internet. Together with advances in sensor technology and their mass availability, the use of wireless networks drives the increasing penetration of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications in many domains, such as security and surveillance, transportation, and energy.

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to make headlines, with enormous numbers of devices poised to go online in the coming years. Device heterogeneity, low power and memory, and the need to operate unattended for extended intervals on limited battery lifetimes are typical characteristics of M2M/IoT communications. Hence, there is an increasing drive among developers, equipment manufacturers, and users towards open and interoperable light-weight yet efficient M2M/IoT protocols (such as DDS, AMQP, MQTT, JMS, REST, CoAP and XMPP). So far, those protocols have been applied only in terrestrial networks, which are not always available. Thus, there is the need to assess their suitability also in satellite networks, and propose appropriate improvements to increase the share of satellite communications in the M2M/IoT market.

In this context, the project aims to critically review, to design optimization, and to assess in a satellite network testbed, the recent light-weight application and transport protocols proposed for M2M/IoT communications. The results will be actively reported back to relevant standardization fora.

Project duration: 03.10.2016 - 31.05.2018.