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KTHx: CPN01x Cyber-Physical Networks

Cyber-Physical Networks (KTHx CPN01x)

This syllabus is also available as a PDF-version.

Course aim

In this course, you will learn about the future evolution of communication networks towards so-called machine-type applications, also referred to as Cyber-Physical Systems. You will be equipped with the basics to design, implement and dimension such networks according to application needs. Most of this knowledge represents the underlying principles driving the most current evolution of information networking. This evolution necessitates the reconsideration and redesign of major parts of communication networks to make them suitable for modern applications like robot and drone coordination, control of automation machinery or also augmented reality applications.

The course provides an overview of the underlying principles of this future evolution towards Cyber-Physical Networks, while also discussing open research problems and societal implications of such networks.

Purpose and Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this course, you will:

  • be able to identify and explain the requirements of control applications and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) with respect to networking solutions
  • be able to match design principles of Cyber-Physical Networks to different application requirements
  • understand and be able to explain the consequences of massive and/or critical wireless networking for the higher layers of communication systems
  • be able to identify major open research challenges in the context of cyber-physical networks and their implications in meeting societal challenges

Course Content

This course is outlined in an introduction and five Chapters:

In the Introduction, an introduction to the course is provided, where you as a student can find all the relevant information about the course; a short introduction to the topic of the course, the course outline, the course Syllabus (this text) and an introduction to the course team.

In the first Chapter, Chapter 1: Requirements of Cyber-Physical Systems, examples of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are presented, a more formal definition and characteristics of CPS is given. We investigate the relationship between control systems and CPS, as well as, the requirements of CPS and how they relate to particular networks. We look into the dependability of CPS, traditional networks for CPS, the future for the networks of CPS and how a control strategy works. We also look into which numerical level the corresponding networks for CPS need to meet to pass latency and reliability requirements.

In the second Chapter, Chapter 2: Massive Wireless Networks for Cyber-Physical Systems, we will dig deeper into Low-Complexity and Low-Power Nodes, Scheduling, and Duty Cycling, Access Control for Massive Systems and finally, Privacy and Security.

In the third Chapter, Chapter 3: Critical Wireless Networking for Cyber-Physical Networking, we study different approaches to overcome the corresponding challenges with availability and low-latency. We also discuss availability and low-latencies in terms of Diversity, Scheduling, Transceiver Complexity, Interference Control, and Fault Tolerance. In the final unit of the chapter, we focus on Security and Privacy.

In the fourth Chapter, Chapter 4: Higher-Layer Networking for Cyber-Physical Networking, we study higher layer aspects of CPNs, particularly addressing three different technical challenges; the OverHead Reduction for Massive Machine to Machine (MTM) Communication Systems, the Latency Reduction for Critical MTM Communication Systems in the wide area in context and finally the Interfacing towards the Critical Application.

The last Chapter, Chapter 5: Course Wrap-Up, contains a summary of the course and we also look into some current research topics within the field of Cyber-Physical Systems, such as dependable Wireless Networks, Security and Privacy for URLLC and dependable, mobile edge computing architectures, to name a few.

Study pace and Effort

This course is self-paced which means that you choose at what pace you work with the course material yourself. We expect that this course will take about 20 hours of work to complete.

Requirements for course completion

Participants are required to earn at least 70 % of all points from the tasks in the Chapter Exams to pass the course.

Pre-course requirements and Level (i.e. Introductory, mediate, advanced)

This is an introductory course on the subject of Cyber-Physical Systems.

No specific prerequisite for taking this course exist, but in order to be able to follow this course it is recommended that you are knowledgeable about:

  • the basis of data networking, in particular, the layered approaches to a network stack
  • the basics of wireless communications (wireless channel, modulation, and coding, medium access control approaches)

If you do not have a good foundation of knowledge on these topics, we advise you to brush up on your knowledge about this. You may consider reading the following texts:

  • A. Tanenbaum, "Computer Networks", Prentice Hall, 2002
  • A. Kumar et al., "Wireless Networking", Elsevier, 2008

Language

All course materials are in English.