Towards Precision Control in Constrained Wireless Cyber-Physical Systems

Abstract

Abstract. This paper introduces the problem of high precision control in constrained wireless cyber-physical systems. We argue that balancing conflicting performance objectives, namely energy e ciency, high reliability and low latency, whilst concurrently enabling data collection and targeted message dissemination, are critical to the success of future applications of cyber-physical systems that leverage networks of constrained wireless devices. We describe the contemporary art in practical collection and dissemination techniques, and select the most applicable for evaluation. A comprehensive simulation study is presented, the results of which show that the current art falls significantly short of desirable performance when inter-packet intervals decrease to those required for precision control. It follows that there is a significant need for further study and new solutions to solve this emerging problem.