Design and Implementation of the Mobile Internet of Things Based on TD-SCDMA

Network
Zhiyong Shi, Kui Liao, Shiping Yin

Qingbo Ou

Chongqing Communication Institute of PLA

Chongqing, China
Email: szy13@163.com, 80020330@qq.com

College of Communication and Information Engineering

Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Nanjing, China
E-mail: ouqingbo01@163.com

such as the mobile video surveillance, telemedicine, smart

transportation, smart logistics, and smart home applications,
and so on. The network integration not only takes advantage
of IoT development but also promotes TD-SCDMA
application.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows.
Firstly, based on TD-SCDMA, the framework of M-IoT is
designed. And, the functions of main network elements are
described in Sect. II. The communication protocols of M-IoT
are given in Sect. III. In Sect. IV, a system simulation mode
is given by using OPNET software, and the information
throughput and the communication time delay are analyzed.
A brief conclusion is finally made in Sect. V.

AbstractThe Internet of things is a new generation

information network which realizes machine-to-machine
communication. In view of the fact that people need the
mobility of the Internet of things, the integration scheme of
TD-SCDMA network and the Internet of things is designed.
3G TD-SCDMA network is used as the basic network of
transmitting information of the Internet of things. At the same
time, TD-SCDMA mobile terminal is integrated with RFID
reader. TD-SCDMA networks can provide high-bandwidth
and high-speed information transmission channel for the
Internet of things. TD-SCDMA mobile terminal can realize the
mobility of the access part for the Internet of things.
Additionally, the network element functions of the mobile
Internet of things are described. In order to realize the
information exchange between TD-SCDMA network and the
Internet of things, the communication protocols of the mobile
Internet of things are discussed and designed in detail. Finally,
the network performance which is gotten by using OPNET
software shows the mobile Internet of things based on TDSCDMA network can be realized by adopting the rational
network design and the effective communication protocols.

II.

A. Network Architecture
The base idea of developing M-IoT based on TDSCDAM network is as follows. Firstly, it must full use the
infrastructure and network elements in TD-SCDMA network.
Then, based on TD-SCDMA mobile terminal the RFID
reader [1]-[2] developed. So, the interconnection interface
between IoT and TD-SCDMA network is provided. The
management platform of IoT which is connected with TDSCDMA core network is added. Finally, M-IoT based on
TD-SCDMA network is realized at lower cost and is shown
as Fig.1.

Keywords-Mobile Internet of things (M-IoT); TD-SCDMA;

Integration; RFID; OPNET

I.

NETWORK FRAMEWORK

INTRODUCTION

Internet of things (IoT) [1] as a new generation of

information technology, its application has infiltrated every
aspect of daily life, and formed a certain scale of industry.
IoT is now widely used in electric power, transportation,
industrial control, retail, public services management, health,
oil and other industries. It can achieve many functions, such
as vehicle anti-theft, security monitoring, automatic vending,
machine maintenance, public transportation management,
and so on. It can improve production efficiency and has a
positive of lowering production costs. In the 2G era, the
insufficient bandwidth of the mobile communication
network (such as GSM and CDMA) limited the diversity of
business information carrying mode. So, the mobility
development of IoT is also limited.
With the 3G TD-SCDMA mobile communication
technology matures and the realization of commercial
applications, a new era of the application for IoT is opened.
TD-SCDMA network enhances the wireless access network
bandwidth and provides the necessary access conditions for
the mobility development of IoT. The integration of TDSCDMA network and IoT can expand the application of IoT,

Tag

MT

Uu

MT

CN

Iub

UT RAN

RNC
Node B
Tag

Signaling stream
Data stream

TD-SCDMA NETWORK

Tag

Iu-P S

SGSN Gn GGSN

Gi

Management
Platform of M-IoT

Figure 1. Network architecture of M-IoT

From Fig.1, it can be seen that the changes of TDSCDMA network can be summarized as the following five
aspects. First, it is the network structure. In order to integrate
IoT and TD-SCDMA network, the Management platform of
M-IoT is added in TD-SCDMA core network. It provides
some supports (such as the quality and the location of things,
the information inquiry of things) for IoT in network side.
Second, it is the interfaces between two networks. One is the
air interface between the TD-SCDMA mobile terminal and
things with the RFID tag. Another is the interface between

___________________________________
978-1-4244-6943-7/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE



The data link is the traffic information exchange link

between the RFID tag and MP-M-IoT. The information of
the RFID tag is encapsulated as IP format in MT. Then, the
information is sent to MP-M-IoT by MT through TDSCDMA network. MP-M-IoT will send the information of
IP format to MT through TD-SCDMA network at first when
it needs to send the information to the RFID tag. Then, MT
converts the IP data packet to RFID communication message
and sends it to the RFID tag.

the management platform of M-IoT and GGSNThird, it is

the communication protocol. SIP [3]-[4] is used as the
signaling protocol of application layer. RTP is used as the
traffic transport protocol of application layer. IP is used as
transport protocol of network layer in client. At the same
time, the network protocols of RNC and SGSN are extended.
Fourth, it is the equipment function. TD-SCDMA mobile
terminal has RFID reader function besides the
communication functions. Additionally, it supports SIP, RTP
and IP through extending its functions. SGSN supports SIP
and RTP through extending their functions. Fifth, it is the
wireless channel of TD-SCDMA network. The information
of M-IoT is transmitted by using the data channels of the
mobile terminal and TD-SCDMA network data linkls.

B. Communication Protocol
The followings give the communication protocol of MIoT.
1) Communication Protocol from RFID Tag to MP-MIoT: As Fig.2 shows:

B. Network Element Function

Tag

1) Tag: It is a RFID tag. It stores information about

things, such as the production data, the location and the
usage. It accepts the information management and
maintenance of the management platform of M-IoT.
2) Mobile terminal (MT): It is a dual-mode terminal
which includes the TD-SCDMA mobile terminal function
and the RFID reader function. It connects with network and
tags through air interface. It can operate the tag by accepting
the order of the management platform of M-IoT. The tag
information is read and processed by MT. Then, MT
transmits the information to the management platform of MIoT through TD-SCDMA network.
3) Radio network controller (RNC) and serving GPRS
support node (SGSN): Their functions are extended.
4) Management platform of M-IoT (MP-M-IoT): It
provides the network support for M-IoT. It includes the
server, the operation system and the database. The server
realizes the network processing of the product information.
The operation system provides the user interface of M-IoT
and realizes the production information query and
management. The database stores the information of things.
III.

MT

TD-SCDMA Network

Management
platform of M-IoT

Read Order
Information
Establish PDP context flow initiated by MT
SIPAuthentication/certification and media consultation
Packaging and encapsulation
Send information
De-ecapsulation
Information process
Communication

Ending Order
Release communication link

Figure 2. Communication protocol from RFID tag to MP-M-IoT

a) Step 1: MT sends an order to read the RFID tag and

reads the production information stored in the tag.
b) Step 2: The MT is triggered to initiate PDP context
activation process in TD-SCDMA network when MT needs
to send the information to MP-M-IoT.
c) Step 3: The session can be scheduled between MT
and MP-M-IoT before MT sends information to MP-M-IoT,
namely, it sends a request of establishing a communication
link.
x MT sends a request of establishing a communication
link to MP-M-IoT.
x Based on SIP protocol, the mutual authentication
and certification is scheduled between MP-M-IoT
and MT. At the same time, media consultation is
completed.
x MP-M-IoT sends a response of establishing
communication link to MT.
d) Step 4: The information of the RFID tag is
encapsulated as IP format in MT. Then, the IP data are sent
to MP- M-IoT by the communication link established by
step 3.
e) Step 5:M-IoT server will process the received data
and store them in the database. The operation systme of MIoT can view the received message.

COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL

A. Communication Link
From Fig.1, it can be seen that the communication links
include the signaling link and the data link, and each link is
two-way. The signaling link is mainly used to establish and
maintain the data communication between MT and MP-MIoT. The signaling is the application layer signaling and
adopts the SIP protocol. The communication link between
MT and MP-M-IoT will be established by using SIP protocol
when MP-M-IoT needs to send the information about things
to the RFID tag of things, or MT needs to send the
information which is read from the RFID tag to MP-M-IoT.
In the communication process between MP-M-IoT and MT,
SIP protocol is used to maintain the communication link. In
order to reduce the occupancy of the TD-SCDMA network
resources, the communication link will be released by using
SIP protocol when there isnt the communication between
MP-M-IoT and MT in a certain period of time.



f) Step 6: Next, MT may continue to read the

information of RFID tags and send it to MP-M-IoT, or MPM-IoT sends information to RFID tags through TDSCDMA network and MT.
g) Step 7: In order to reduce the occupancy of the TDSCDMA network resources, TD-SCDMA will send the
ending order to MT and MP-M-IoT when there isnt the
communication between MP-M-IoT and MT in a certain
period of time. So, the wireless data channel and the packet
data link are released.
2) Communication Protocol from MP-M-IoT to RFID
Tag: As Fig.3 shows:
Tag

MT

TD-SCDMA Network

IV.

SIMULATION AND RESULT

A. Simulation Model

Management
platform of M-IoT

SIPAuthentication and
certification request

Figure 4. Network model of M-IoT

Establish PDP context flow initiated by network

To verify the network performance of M-IoT, the

network model is built by using OPNET network simulation
software [5]. The network topology which is shown in Fig. 4
includes RFID tag (Tag_1~Tag_3), MT (MT_1~MT_50),
Node B (Node B_1~ Node B_3), RNC, SGSN, GGSN, MPM-IoT (M-IoT_server_and_database and Operation_system).

SIPAuthentication/certification and media consultation

Send information
De-ecapsulation
Information process
Write Order
Information

B. Performance Analysis
Some assumptions are given as follows. The data
communication of M-IoT is the only type of services in
above network simulation. The data communication is
generated between RFID tags and MP-M-IoT. Mobile
terminal MT_1 and the RFID tag Tag_2 move along the path.
The data communication is generated randomly. Finally, the
simulation time is one hour. In Fig.5, Fig.6 and Fig.7, the
network performances are got by running simulation mode.

Communication

Ending Order
Release communication link

Figure 3. Communication Protocol from MP-M-IoT to RFID tag

a) Step 1: In order to send informatin to MT, MP-MIoT sends a request of authentication and certification to MT.
So, PDP context flow is triggered by TD-SCDMA networkside.
b) Step 2: After establishing the PDP context paths
between MT and GGSN, the mutual authentication and
certification is scheduled between MP-M-IoT and MT based
on SIP protocol. At the same time, media consultation is
completed.
c) Step 3: MP-M-IoT retransmits information of tags
to MT.
d) Step 4: MT de-encapsulates the receivd IP data
packet and sends the written order and the information to
RFID tag.
e) Step 5: NextMP-M-IoT may continue to send
information to RFID tags through TD-SCDMA network and
MT, or MT reads the information of RFID tags and sends it
to MP-M-IoT.
f) Step 6: In order to reduce the occupancy of the TDSCDMA network resources, TD-SCDMA will send the
ending order to MT and MP-M-IoT when there isnt the
communication between MP-M-IoT and MT in a certain
period of time. So, the wireless data channel and the packet
data link are released.

Figure 5. Data stream between Tag_3 and the server of M-IoT

From Fig.5, it can be seen that Tag_3 and MP-M-IoT can

communication with each other when the communication
range of RFID reader of MT_1 covers Tag_3. So, the mobile
information interactivity is realized between MP M-IoT and
the RFID tags of the fixed objects.



In Fig.7, the data stream time delay between the M-IoT

server and the RFID tags is shown. The time delay includes
the time of RFID reading and writing, the transmission time
of TD-SCDMA wireless link, the transmission time of TDSCDMA core network, the transmission time between
GGSN and the M-IoT server, the data processing time of
function entities. From Fig.7, it can be seen that maximum
transmission delay is less than 800 milliseconds, and the time
delay can meet the requirement of data communication.
V.

CONCLUSION

In this paper, the realization of M-IoT based on TDSCDMA network is given. The M-IoT service can extend the
business application of TD-SCDMA system, enrich its traffic
functions, and extend its application scenes. At the same
time, M-IoT expands the application of IoT. The network
framework of realizing M-IoT is described. The
communication protocols are discussed in detail. Through
OPNET modeling and simulation, the result shows that MIoT can realize the mobile information interactivity for the
fixed object and the mobile object. M-IoT based on TDSCDMA network can not only expand the application of IoT,
but also benefit the promotion of TD-SCDMA network
applications.

Figure 6. Data stream between Tag_2 and the server of M-IoT

From Fig.6, it can be seen that Tag_2 mobile range is in

the region the RFID reader network which is built by MT_2
and MT_3. The uninterrupted data communication is
realized between Tag_2 and MP- M-IoT. So, the mobile
information interactivity is realized between MP-M-IoT and
the RFID tags of the mobile objects.

REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]
[4]

[5]
Figure 7. Transmission time delay of M-IoT data stream
.



L. Yan, H. S. Ning, et al, Internet of Things: from RFID to the NextGeration Pervasion Networked System, Auerbach Publications,
Taylor & Francis Group, 2006.
S. Ahson and M. Ilyas, RFID handbook: Applications, Technology,
Security, and Pri vacy, Boca Raton, London and New York: CRC
Press, 2008.
ETF Internet Protocol, RFC 3261, SIP: Session initiation protocol, 
June 2002.
A. A. Kist and R. J. Harris, SIP signaling delay in 3GPP. Fremantle
WA:Sixth
International
Symposium
on
Communications
Interworking of IFIP - Interworking, 2002:211-222.
M. Chen, OPNET network simulation (in Chinese) , Beijing: China
tsinghua university press, 2004.