Internet of Things | ZHAW Institute of Embedded Systems InES

The Internet of Things (IoT) seamlessly interconnects objects, products and machines. The resulting benefits include increased productivity, reduced waste of resources and enhanced security. In addition, IoT enables completely new services and business models. The InES has broad and proven project experience in designing reliable networks of low-cost, energy-efficient IoT nodes, authenticating those nodes, and providing the technology to operate the various connections securely.

Our Services

Do you want to network your components wirelessly and energy-efficiently? We have proven project expertise with Bluetooth Low Energy (ble), Thread/ZigBee, proprietary Sub-GHz technologies, LoRa, NB-IoT, NFC as well as WiFi and Mobile Communications. We support you in the implementation of intelligent, scalable networks with low energy consumption.

Design of system concepts, feasibility studies and exhibition demonstrators
Consulting on the choice of technology and selection of radio components
Rapid Prototyping and Proof-of-Concept
Design of Printed Circuit Boards (PCB)
Writing microcontroller firmware: radio, protocols, sensors, actuators
Interfacing to gateways and service platforms (cloud)
Implementation of Smartphone Apps
Verification: Long-term tests and stress testing
Embedded Security: Threat analysis and protection measures

Selected Areas of Expertise

Building Automation with Thread Network

Smart Buildings
Redundant mesh topology for IPv6
Open Source Stack: OpenThread, Zephyr RTOS (Linux Foundation)
Protocols: IEEE 802.15.4, 6LoWPAN, IPv6, UDP, DTLS, CoAPS

Bluetooth Low Energy

Beacons, Connected Mode and Bluetooth Mesh
Applications in the areas of proximity, identification of objects and data transmission; with and without smartphone

Sub-1GHz

Precision Agriculture / Precision Farming
Long-term evaluation in the field of five selected radio components of different manufacturers
Design and implementation of a radio network for sensors in the vineyard. Installation and configuration procedures specifically adapted to the process in the field.

LoRaWAN and LoRa-based Synchronous Mesh

Smart Infrastructures / Smart Cities
Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) according to LoRa Alliance. Use of own or externally operated gateways.
The LoRa-based Synchronous Mesh, developed in cooperation with Eawag, also reaches nodes in the underground (Deep Indoor).

Project with Eawag

In-Sewer LPWAN

Embedded Security

Evaluation board with Arduino form factor for Secure Elements of leading semiconductor vendors. The evaluation board enables a simple and rapid prototyping in customer applications.
Secure Elements are tamper-proof chips as a storage location for private keys and for processing of cryptographic functions.
Reference implementations with Zephyr RTOS and Mbed TLS
Isolation with ARM TrustZone and application of Trusted Execution Environments (TEE)
Secure Boot and Secure Firmware Updates
Authentication, encryption and integrity checking on low power IoT radio nodes

Regression Testing of Wireless Networks

Emulation of the radio links in the FPGA allows the specific control of topologies.
Protocols and medium access procedures can be tested in an automated and reproducible way.