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NFMI: Near Field Magnetic Induction Based Communication Computer Networks 181 (2020) 107548 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computer Networks journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comnet Survey paper NFMI: Near Field Magnetic Induction based communicationI Amitangshu Pal <, Krishna Kant Computer and Information Sciences, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, United States of America ARTICLEINFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Near Field Magnetic Induction (NFMI) based communication is an emerging technology that promises several Magnetic Induction Communications advantages over the traditional radio frequency (RF) communication including low energy use, ability to work IoT reliably in a variety of difficult propagation media (e.g., water, non-ferromagnetic metals, underground, tissue Channel Modeling media of fresh produce & meats, etc.), and low leakage possibility because of fast decay. Furthermore, since the Underground communication MI technology is useful for efficient power transfer as well, it provides the possibility of passive tagging as well. Underwater communication In this paper, we provide a technical overview of NFMI technology and its potential for several applications in RF challenged environments. We also lay out a number of challenges with NFMI technology and its use in various applications. 1. Introduction communication is based on the principle of resonant inductive coupling (RIC) between two matched coils, each forming an LC circuit with the The ongoing IoT based automation is expected to transform many same resonance frequency. MI communication (MIC) modulates the activities and processes that make a city or community tick. Smart magnetic field and forms the basis for near field communications (NFC) sensing and short-range wireless communications form the bedrock between MI devices. Such communication can be made purely magnetic for building sophisticated automation services. Radio frequency (RF) by blocking the electric field (e.g., via an Aluminum foil) and therefore based communications (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi) are well established and will not suffer from the usual fading and diffraction associated with work extremely well in open, uncluttered environments. However, in- the electric field. Due to these advantages, MI communication has been creasingly the communications needs involve environments with char- studied for some RF-challenged environments such as underwater [4], acteristics that make RF communications difficult — these include underground [5], and Body Area Networks [6], and some commercial presence of aqueous or plant/animal tissue media which cause high products are available, such as audio headphones by NXP [7] and signal absorption, metallic clutter that causes diffraction or shielding RuBee MI tags useful in product labeling [8]. of the signals, or underground operation that results in an extremely In this paper we provide a detailed overview of the NFMI technology complex communications channel. Reducing absorption by choosing and communications, and discuss its research challenges and applica- lower frequencies helps in attenuation [1,2], but needs bigger antennas, bility to short-range wireless communication needs in the emerging IoT which introduces the problem of undesirable size and potentially severe infrastructure. Although there are some survey articles in the literature interference with nearby radios. Also, the power consumption of RF that cover the use of magnetic induction in the context of various radios is generally quite high. When localization is important, narrow- applications, such as underground communication [9], underwater band RF technologies only provide an accuracy of a few meters, which communication [10], bio-medical applications [11] etc., a comprehen- may be inadequate [3]. sive discussion of the NFMI technology and applications is not available Ultrasound is another well established technology that works well in the current literature. We provide such a coverage in this paper and in aqueous and underground media, but requires larger size radios and consider the applicability and challenges of NFMI communication in higher power consumption, but still cannot operate in a cluttered envi- ronment. Visible light communication (VLC) is an excellent technology food logistics, automated asset tracking, inventory control, and smart for line-of-sight communications through transparent media, but its retailing. We also survey some available NFMI devices and prototypes, performance deteriorates in presence of obstacles. which are sparse in the other surveys. Because of these limitations, we focus on the emerging Near Field The outline of the paper is as follows. Section2 briefly discusses Magnetic Induction (NFMI or simply MI) based communication. MI both NFMI, traditional RF/ultrasound short-range communications I This work was supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), United States of America grants under award numbers CNS-1744187 and CNS-1844944. < Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. Pal), [email protected] (K. Kant). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107548 Received 29 April 2020; Received in revised form 26 July 2020; Accepted 4 September 2020 Available online 16 September 2020 1389-1286/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. A. Pal and K. Kant Computer Networks 181 (2020) 107548 technologies, and VLC and shows comparison between them. Sec- 2.2. Ultrasound communications tion3 discusses the theoretical background of magnetic induction and MI communication. Section4 briefly describes some commercial Another technology of interest for challenging environments is Ul- and experimental implementations of NFMI communications technolo- trasound communications (or USC) which is based on the propagation gies. Section5 reviews some recent advances in the NFMI technol- of high frequency pressure waves through the media. Ultrasound prop- ogy. Section6 discusses several communications applications involv- agation is heavily studied in underwater environments where it can be ing challenging environments where the MI technology is attractive. used for very low-data rate (at most a few hundred bits/s) commu- This section also discusses how NFMI can coexist and combined with nications over hundreds of meters [33–35]. The current state of USC RF communication in different application scenarios. Section7 dis- communications is discussed in a survey article [36] and the channel cusses several research challenges of enabling and enhancing NFMI characterization in [37]. This type of communication is focused on communications. The paper is concluded in Section8. achieving long distance rather than low power. The use of USC for body communications networks is explored in [18,20]. Note that the 2. Short-range wireless communications numbers quoted for ultrasound in Table1 are those for body area networks (small membranes). Lower frequencies and larger antennas In this section, we briefly discuss characteristics of short-range can, of course, provide larger ranges, but at the cost of much higher wireless communications technologies, including radio frequency (RF), power consumption. Ultrasound, Visible light communication, and MI based technologies. Table1 provides a compact comparison between these technologies. 2.3. Visible light communications 2.1. Short range RF technologies Visible light communication (VLC) has been standardized by IEEE in 2011 in the form of IEEE 802.15.7 and can achieve 100 Mb/s or higher Radio Frequency (RF) based communications are ubiquitous both transmission rate for line-of-sight communications in clear media. The for long range and short range communications. The applications con- lack of penetration of VLC through most objects and walls however sidered in this paper are largely those that require communication over does provide opportunities for reducing interference and avoiding the a rather limited range — from ∼1 m for body area networks to at most problem of communication leakage. ∼100 m in smart agriculture. Therefore, we shall focus largely on short Several survey articles have recently appeared on VLC [16,38,39]. range RF technologies such as Bluetooth (BT), its variants such as low In [38] the authors have discussed the physical layer techniques such as energy BlueTooth (BLE) and Zigbee. modulation, circuit design in the context of VLC, whereas the authors Bluetooth is an IEEE standard technology operating in the 2.4 GHz in [16] have studied different networking aspects such as sensing ISM band and design to communicate among a few devices in a and medium access protocols of VLC. Various applications of VLC are personal area networks (PANs) [21–24]. It works in a master–slave reported in [39]. architecture where one master device can connect to up to seven Owing to its low attenuation in water, VLC has also shown promise devices to form a piconet. To minimize the effect of interference with in achieving high-speed underwater wireless optical communication other devices, Bluetooth uses frequency hopping scheme by switching (UWOC) links spanning up to hundreds of meters (ù300 m) [19]. the carrier in between a set of frequency channels. Bluetooth can UWOC is studied extensively in several recent survey articles [19,40, provide a communication range of tens or hundreds of meters, while 41]. In pure water the light absorption is minimum at 400–500 nm of can achieve a peak data rate of 3 Mbps. BlueTooth Low Energy (BLE or the visible spectrum, however, such absorption characteristics change BTLE) is a slightly modified version of BT with short connection
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