Towards a Distributed Testbed for Wireless Embedded Devices for Industrial Applications

Abstract

Wireless embedded devices are key elements of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. The complexity of these devices as well as the number of connected devices to networks increase steadily. The high intricacy of the overall system makes it error-prone and vulnerable to attacks and leads to the need to test individual parts or even the whole system. Therefore, this paper presents the concept of a flexible and distributed testbed to evaluate correct behavior in various operation or attack scenarios. It is based on the Robot Operating System (ROS) as communication framework to ensure modularity and expandability. The testbed integrates RF-jamming and measurement devices to evaluate remote attack scenarios and interference issues. An energy harvesting emulation cell is used to evaluate different real-world energy harvesting scenarios. A climatic test chamber allows to investigate the influence of temperature and humidity conditions on the system-under-test. As a testbed application scenario, the automated evaluation of an energy harvesting wireless sensor network designed to instrument automotive engine test benches is presented.