Goal-Oriented Transport Layer Protocols for Wireless Control

Goal-oriented communication is a promising approach to tailor the network resource management algorithms to the needs of particular applications, thus enhancing the efficiency of resource utilization and boosting the application performance. In the context of distributed cyber-physical systems and networked control systems, the design of a control-aware transport layer (TL) represents a realistic approach for goaloriented communications since it can be integrated into generic control setups without making assumptions on particular hardware or network technologies and deliver enhanced end-to-end performance. This demo showcases the application performance of different TL schemes used for communication between the sensors and the controllers monitoring and actuating inverted pendulums, i.e., multi-dimensional plants. The nodes of the control loops are realized with Zolertia Re-Mote devices, and multiple control loops communicate over the shared wireless network using IEEE 802.15.4 standard. We use the demonstration testbed to compare the performance of conventional, state-of-the-art, and novel goal-oriented TL schemes by observing the emulated dynamics of inverted pendulums.