Multi-hop communication for adaptive and self-configuring smart cyber-physical luminous tiles

Advanced building materials are nowadays an active research domain. The luminous tile is a new smart device that combines traditional ceramic tiles with state-of-the-art large area electronic circuits, LED based lighting, embedded sensory and communication capabilities. Luminous tiles can self-illuminate and sense the neighbor environment by means of dedicated sensors. Once installed, a cover made by luminous tiles forms a cyber-physical network of adjacent components where each tile can communicate with adjacent tiles to spread control commands and to collect sensory information by means of a multi-hop message routing. This paper describes goals and technical solutions adopted for the development of the multi-hop communication and coordination protocol that enables the desired features of a cover made by luminous tiles. Notable features include: flexibility in the installation, allowing arbitrary shapes, topologies and orientation; smart self-configuration capabilities; fault-tolerance. Theoretical bounds and simulation results are carried out to assess the performance of the protocol in terms of latencies of the core operations.