ANNUAL REPORT 2012

Centre for Research on Embedded Systems 

CERES 

ANNUAL REPORT 2012 

halmstad university

Cover photos 

Zain-ul-Abdin, Kristina Kunert, Jan Duracz, Hoai 

Hoang Bengtsso and Anita Sant’Anna 

Jonson, humanoid 

Edward Lee 

Kristoffer Lidström 

Adam Duracz and Annette Böhm 

Photos in the Annual Report: Roland Thörner and others 

CERES Annual Report 2012

CERES 


Research Profile 

Annual Report 2012

Table of Contents 

CERES 5 

Preface 5 

Introduction 6 

CERES Research Focus 6 

Main scientific areas 6 

Main application areas 6 

CERES Research Focus in a Broader Context 7 

First year of the “CERES+” Phase 7 

Phases of Development 8 

CERES Management during 2012 8 

Cooperation with Industry 9 

Funding10 

CERES Funding 2012 10 

Personell11 

Highlights 201214 

Halmstad Colloquium 14 

CERES Open Day 14 

IEEE Workshop on Vehicular Communications 14 

Halmstad University now a Foundation Research Centre 15 

New Industrial Graduate School 15 

Best paper Award 15 

Second Summer School on Accurate Programming 15 

Second Workshop on Design, Modeling and Evaluation of Cyber Physical Systems (CyPhy’12) 15 

11th meeting of the IFIP Working Group 2.11 15 

International Cooperation in Prestigious National Science Foundation Project 16 

CERES at Embedded Conference Scandinavia 16 

Ph D Graduation 17 

Four New Professors 18 

Extended Abstracts20 

JUMP - Jump to Manycore Platforms 20 

STAMP - Streaming Applications on Embedded High-Performance Commercial Platforms 22 

HTM - Hierarchical Temporal Memory on Manycores 23 

HIPEC - High Performance Embedded Computing 24 

SMECY - Smart multicore embedded systems 26 

Acumen+: Core Enabling Technology for Acumen 27 

MaC2WiN – Management Challenges in Cognitive Wireless Networks 28 

WisCon - Wireless sensor concept node 31 

VehicleNets – Dependable Real-Time Services in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks 32 

CVAN: Cross-Layer Design of VANETs for Traffic Safety 34 

A Virtual Testbed for Smart Micro Grids 36 

Publications 2010-201237 

International full-paper reviewed journal papers 37 

Books, book chapters and editorial work 38 

Doctoral and Licentiate theses 38 

International full-paper reviewed conference papers 38 

Internal reports 42 

Other (incl. national conferences and international conferences without full-paper review) 42 

4 CERES Annual Report 2012

CERES 


Annual Report 2012 

Preface 

Summing up the year 2012 it is clear that it has been a very 

important year in the progression of CERES as an internationally 

well-known research centre. The cooperation with industry 

has been taken one step further by starting new research 

projects together with our strategic industry partners – projects 

that include international research cooperation. We have continued 

to develop our strategic research alliances with academic 

partners in continental Europe and the Americas, as well as 

with our ELLIIT partners in Sweden. Our research capability 

has been considerably increased and sharpened by the enrollment 

of four new professors: two guest professors, one promoted 

professor, and one newly recruited full professor. We have 

started up an advanced, distinguished-speaker seminar series, 

the Halmstad Colloquium, which helps to put CERES and 

Halmstad University on the scientific world map. 

All this is part of the ambition to lift CERES one step further 

in international reputation and attractiveness as a research 

partner. The development programme, named CERES+ and 

financed by the Knowledge Foundation, runs over two years 

(2012-2013). We expect to see the full effects of the ambitious 

build-up during the years to come. 

Equally important is the development of the research at Halmstad 

University as a whole, especially the research in co-production 

with industry. This is growing rapidly, also with support 

from the Knowledge Foundation, under the name of Research 

for Innovation. 2012 was the first year of the University’s status 

as a “Foundation Research Centre (KK-miljö)”, a status that, 

among other things, opens improved opportunities for interdisciplinary 

research initiatives bridging information technology, 

health and innovation sciences. 

This annual report highlights the most important achievements 

within CERES during 2012 and gives brief presentations of 

ongoing or recently finished research projects. PhD graduation 

and a best paper award were among the things we celebrated in 

2012. The staff of CERES has made a remarkable job during 

2012 and I am happy to welcome several new, enthusiastic coworkers 

joining the crew in the turn of the year to 2013! 

Bertil Svensson 

Director of CERES 

CERES Annual Report 2012 

5

Introduction 

The Centre for Research on Embedded Systems (CERES) is 

a research centre within the School of Information Science, 

Computer and Electrical Engineering (School of IDE) at 

Halmstad University. The centre was initiated in 2003 and has 

been built up in close cooperation with industry and with support 

from The Knowledge Foundation. 

The scientific focus of CERES is on Cooperating Embedded 

Systems, more specifically on enabling solutions for cooperating 

and high-performance embedded systems and their applications. 

The prioritized applications come from health care, 

traffic and transport, and advanced sensing and communication 

systems. The research projects provide knowledge (solutions, 

theories, methods and tools) to bridge the gap from basic 

enabling technologies to application domains. By this, CERES 

is intended to increase the competitiveness of Swedish industry. 

Main scientific areas 

Computer architectures and languages is one main scientific 

area. It includes the new opportunities and challenges related 

to parallel and reconfigurable systems, particularly their programming, 

as well as the development and use of languages 

for specific domains. Special attention is given to languages 

for modeling and simulation of cyber-physical systems. An 

other main area is real-time and wireless communication, 

which includes methods for guaranteed real-time services and 

dependable information transfer in wired as well as wireless 

networks, and also hardware and software technologies to enable 

low-power wireless applications. Finally, in distributed 

systems, research is concentrated on technologies for coordination 

of such systems, for example wireless sensor networks. 

CERES is an arena for industrially motivated, long-term research. 

In this, CERES serves as a partner for industry’s own 

research and development, as a recruitment base for those who 

seek staff with cutting-edge knowledge, and as a competence 

resource for industry and society. CERES hosts research education 

and profiled master and bachelor studies. 

CERES plays an important role in the profile and strategic development 

of Halmstad University, for example by hosting a 

major part of the PhD education in Information Technology 

and by being a leading player in the University’s strategic research 

initiative, Research for Innovation. Also, with its strong 

record of spin-off companies from the embedded systems area, 

CERES is considered vitally important for the University’s further 

development as a strongly innovation-oriented university. 

Zain Ul-Abdin, Kristina Kunert, Jan Duracz, Hoai Hoang Bengtsson 

and Anita Pinheiro Sant´ Anna at CERES Open Day where they all 

gave talks. 

Jonson, humanoid and Walid Taha, professor, expert of cyber-psysical 

systems. 

Main application areas 

Solutions Enabling for embedded Systems systems cooperation are End widely usage applicable. 

CERES has chosen to put particular effort into a few. 

and 

technologies solutions 

Applications 

business models 

The first is health and elderly care, in which “ambient assisted 

living” is used as a term for technologies and services to support 

elderly people to continue to live an independent and active 

life. The second is intelligent traffic and transport systems, in 

which cooperative systems can be used for collision avoidance, 

intelligent cruise control, more efficient public transportation, 

safer and more secure transport of goods, and many other benefits. 

Finally, in sensing and communication systems, massively 

parallel, cooperating embedded processors are needed for 

efficient signal processing in array-antenna based radar systems, 

radio base stations and advanced multimedia terminals and 

sports equipment. 

CERES Research Focus 

Cooperating Embedded Systems is the “three-word focus” of 

CERES. The cooperation opportunities among and within 

embedded systems are enabled by new, emerging technologies. 

However, it is not these emerging technologies per se that are in 

focus for CERES researchers, rather, it is the solutions for cooperation 

on a higher level (in terms of architectures, protocols, 

networks, modeling and programming tools, system development 

methods, etc.) that are developed, analyzed and applied. 

Human care can be further assisted by the use of technology 


First year of the “CERES+” Phase 

Following up on its six-year support of CERES in the form of 

“profile funding”, The Knowledge Foundation in 2011 offered 

CERES to qualify for two-year “profile+ funding” during 2012 

and 2013. The goal of the new two-year period must be to 

further develop the centre’s international research edge and its 

international research network, while at the same time maintaining 

its focus on industrially relevant research and industrial 

collaborations. 

Andreas Olofsson, Adapteva, giving a seminar about Epiphany 

Manycore Architecture 

CERES Research Focus in a Broader Context 

Within the School of IDE, CERES is part of a larger, coordinated 

research arena within information technology, covering 

the entire spectrum from basic, enabling technologies to 

end usage and business models, see Figure 1. The right-going 

arrows can be understood as “enables” and the left-going as 

“demands”. The core expertise of CERES is mainly used in 

the two circles meeting in “systems solutions”. In projects performed 

in cooperation with industry it is a great asset to CE- 

RES to have access to this wide-ranging expertise. 

Enabling 

technologies 

Systems 

solutions 

Applications 

End usage and 

business models 

Figure 1. Embedded and intelligent systems research, ranging from 

enabling technologies, via systems solutions and applications, to 

business models. 

Over the years, CERES has achieved strong national recognition 

and is also attractive as an international partner, for example 

in European research projects. In that light, CERES ambition 

during the current two-year period is to further establish 

itself as an internationally renowned research centre for cooperating 

intelligent embedded systems, with a special tip of smart 

cooperation and communication, and smart programming 

and execution. 

For smart cooperation and communication, research in realtime 

communication is focusing on the efficiency of interaction 

and communication in distributed systems in that it is 

characterized by a cross-layer approach. Thus it does not address 

the various “layers” of communication solutions in isolation, 

but together (“cross-layer design,” or so-called multi-layer 

synthesis), including also the application level. This results in 

smarter, more tailored cooperating embedded systems that take 

into consideration the conditions, application requirements 

and limited resources. 

For smart programming and execution, research on integrated 

parallel computers (“manycores”) focuses on the effectiveness 

of the programming and execution of the embedded systems. 

Programming techniques appropriate for the application area 

are developed, meaning that they should both be effective for 

the application programmer and allow for adaptivity and smart 

energy saving during execution. The latter requires cooperation 

between language and architecture researchers on the one hand 

and real-time researchers on the other. 

CERES position as a leading actor in embedded systems has 

attracted national cooperation in the ELLIIT consortium, consisting 

of the universities in Linköping, Lund, Halmstad and 

Blekinge. This consortium was selected by the Swedish Government 

(in 2009) to achieve long-term extra funding of research 

that is considered to be of particular strategic importance to 

Sweden. Since 2010 CERES has been performing joint, strategic 

research projects together with the other ELLIIT partners. 

CERES is also active in international collaborations, the largest 

and most important one being the EU Artemis project SMECY 

(Smart Multicore Embedded Systems) which has 29 partners 

from nine European countries. CERES is national coordinator 

for the Swedish part of the consortium. Another positioning 

on the international arena is in relation to the European 

Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Researchers 

of CERES have become well-known for their expertise in 

understanding the characteristics of different communication 

standards when applied to inter-vehicle communication for 

increased road traffic safety. These researchers have been contracted 

by ETSI to be involved in the work towards future European 

standards for vehicle-to-vehicle communication. 

Ambric Software evaluation board, used by CERES researchers for 

programming on multicore processors. 


7

Through this focusing, the different CERES skills are taken 

advantage of in a more targeted way. It is also an approach 

that has its origins in the needs of the applications, which is 

pleasing to the industrial partners of CERES, enabling them to 

significantly continue to contribute to research. Practical conditions, 

requirements and restrictions create interesting strategic 

research questions that lead to industry relevant research. 

The two-year CERES+ funding started in January 2012. New 

collaborative projects have started together with the most important 

industrial partners. In each project there is also cooperation 

with foreign, leading international players from both 

academia and industry. To further sharpen the profile CERES 

has also developed specific cooperative projects and exchanges 

with selected academic research centres in the U.S., Europe and 

South America. To increase the visibility of CERES and spread 

the word about our special expertise and interest to both academia 

and industry, recurring seminars on intelligent cooperating 

embedded systems have been held with invited speakers of 

very high quality. The seminars, known by the name Halmstad 

Colloquium, are recorded and made publicly available on the 

internet. 

Overall, this should lead to Halmstad University not only consolidating 

its position as belonging to the country’s leaders in 

embedded systems, but is also becoming known and sought 

after as a partner at global level in the chosen research edge. 

The phase of national recognition, when the centre became 

well-known nationally and attracted increasing industry cooperation, 

can be seen as the period 2007 – 2010. The phase of 

effects on society is when direct and indirect effects of CERES 

research and innovation activities can be seen in industry and 

society. These effects are mainly achieved through the innovation 

support activities of CERES. Results in terms of, e.g., new 

companies and innovation centres can be seen from 2009 and 

onwards. 

The phase of international excellence, finally, is when the 

centre is attractive in national and international excellence networks 

and joint projects. Initial signs of this phase appeared 

during 2011 and continued during 2012. The efforts in the 

CERES+ programme, funded by The Knowledge Foundation 

during 2012-2013, are aimed at strengthening this position 

during these years and beyond. 

CERES Management during 2012 

Management group: 

CERES Director: 

CERES Vice Director: 

CERES Coordinator: 

Leadership Group: 


Magnus Jonsson 

Roland Thörner 

The above, plus: 

Hoai Hoang Bengtsson, 

Tomas Nordström, and 

Elisabeth Uhlemann 


Magnus Jonsson 

Walid Taha introducing Edward A. Lee from UC Berkeley before 

he’s giving a seminar at Halmstad Colloquium. The seminars are 

published on the Internet. The video from this occasion has been 

viewed more than 500 times. 

Phases of Development 

The development of CERES over a 10 – 15 years period towards 

its vision of international excellence and positive effects 

on industry and society can be described in terms of four phases: 

The build-up phase was when the orientation was defined, the 

first partnerships were established, the necessary first recruitments 

were done and the co-production projects with industry 

all got started. This phase started when CERES was first initiated 

in 2001; it continued through the platform years 2003 − 

2004 and the first couple of years (2005 – 2007) of the profile 

period. 

Roland Thörner 

Tomas Nordström 

Hoai Hoang Bengtsson 

Elisabeth Uhlemann 


Cooperation with Industry 

A group of eight Swedish companies were contracted partners 

when CERES was started as a profile. Over the years, these 

partners have participated in research projects, often with several 

companies in each project. With some of the companies a 

long-term, stabile strategic relationship has developed, resulting 

in joint strategic recruitments, joint efforts in European research 

initiatives, etc. Others have a somewhat less active role, 

while yet other companies have joined CERES as partners in 

specific projects. At the same time the cooperation with academic 

partners, in Sweden and abroad, has developed, sometimes 

into long-term strategic alliances. 

The number of industrial and academic partners of different 

kinds is shown in Figure 2. It shows a steady increase of both 

industrial and academic collaboration over the years. From 

2010 there is a significant increase in industrial partnership, 

due to involvement in a large EU project. 

60 

50 

SAAB 

SAAB has an established relationship to Halmstad University 

dating back to the early 1990-s, and over the years the 

cooperation has broadened and deepened. SAAB has benefited 

from it not only from the knowledge gained, but also 

through recruitment based on the fact that a large number 

of PhD students have worked in joint projects. 

SAAB’s main aim with the continued collaboration in the 

network management area is to create an integrated project 

team in which company representatives work together 

with academia to address key network management challenges, 

rather than establishing separate work packages for 

the industry. Our intention is therefore to contribute to 

the research activity through a partnership complementing 

and benefitting from academic excellence. Within such an 

integrated project team, SAAB will act to provide domain 

information that characterizes the problem space and sets 

long-term goals for network management system behaviour 

emanating from our background and ongoing national and 

international research and development activities. 

http://www.saabgroup.com/ 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 

Swedish industries and ins8tutes 

Swedish universi8es 

Foreign industries and ins8tutes 

Foreign universi8es 

Figure 2: Number of partners of different kinds in CERES research 

projects 2003 – 2011 

An important part of the CERES+ programme 2012-2013 is 

to extend and deepen the research cooperation with the strategic 

industrial partners. 

This is how these partners motivate their continued participation 

in the CERES research programme: 

Free2move 

Free2move has earlier had an industrial PhD student within 

CERES, who has now graduated and works in the company. 

Signal processing and architectures for low power signal 

processing is a core competence for the company. In order 

to be able to develop products pushing state-of-the-art, we 

need to be involved in research in these fields. The company 

is developing communication products for the outdoor 

market with novel functionality. There is an increasing 

demand for high audio quality and long battery lifetime 

for these devices. One of the most prioritized issues is to 

find and learn how to use architectures for our processing 

needs that, through massive parallelism at low clock rates, 

are much more energy efficient than the more traditional 

approaches used today. 

http://www.free2move.se 

Volvo Group Advanced Technology & Research 

Over the past six years, Volvo Group Advanced Technology 

& Research has participated in the CERES program, 

through which we have gained in-depth knowledge of cooperating 

embedded systems and wireless real-time communication. 

The cooperation with Halmstad University, combined 

with our participation in European research projects 

such as CVIS, Safespot and PRE_DRIVE C2X, has given 

Volvo a knowledge platform on which to build future cooperative 

Intelligent Transport Systems and services, for more 

efficient, safer and more environmentally friendly transport. 

Our goal with the continuation of the CERES cooperation 

is to continue to deepen our knowledge of the subject area 

along with Halmstad University, in order to be able to make 

important contributions to the on-going European standardization 

in the field of ITS. 

http://www.volvogroup.com 


9

Funding 

During the first years of CERES, The Knowledge Foundation was of course the dominating funding source. This is seen in the 

diagram of Figure 3 as the blue and red parts of the bars. Over the years, this situation has changed − due to increased funding from 

other sources − so that in later years the funding from The Knowledge Foundation amounts to about one third of the total research 

funding. The most important other financing sources are VINNOVA, the European Union, and the government’s strategic research 

initiative within ICT. 

18 000 

16 000 

14 000 

12 000 

10 000 

8 000 

6 000 

4 000 

2 000 

0 

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 

KK pla0orm or profile or profile+ Other KK funding Other external funding HH internal funding 

Figure 3: Research funding (in KSEK) from The Knowledge Foundation (KK), other external funding, and internal funding, 2003 

– 2012. 

CERES Funding 2012 

CERES Funding 2012 KSEK 

Profile+ funding from The Knowledge Foundation 5 000 

Other funding from The Knowledge Foundation 420 

Other external funding 5 960 

Internal funding, Halmstad University 5 494 

Sum 16 874 

Figure 4: Financing of CERES research during 2012. Only cash financing 

is shown. The additional in-kind financing from industrial 

partners during 2012 amounts to approximately 2 500 KSEK. 

Internal funding, 

Halmstad 

University 

Profile+ funding 

from The 

Knowledge 

Founda6on 

Other external 

funding 

Other funding 

from The 

Knowledge 

Founda6on 

Figure 5. Financing of CERES research 

during 2012. Distribution among funders. 

Other external funding consist of EU, 

SSF, ELLIIT, VINNOVA and others. 


Personell 

Jonsson, Magnus 

Prof., Ph.D 

Prof., Real-time Computer Systems 

Vice Director of CERES 

Magnus.Jonsson@hh.se 

Larsson, Tony 

Prof., Ph.D. 

Prof., Embedded Systems 

Uhlemann, Elisabeth 

Ph.D. E.E. 

Associate Prof., Communication 

Systems 

Elisabeth.Uhlemann@hh.se 

Wickström, Nicholas 

Ph.D. C.E. 

Associate Prof., Computer Systems 

Tony.Larsson@hh.se 


Prof., Ph.D. 

Prof., Computer Systems Engineering 

Director of CERES 

Nicholas.Wickstrom@hh.se 

Bengtsson, Jerker 

PhD. C.E. 

Assistant Prof., Computer Architecture 

Bertil.Svensson@hh.se 

Walid Taha 

Prof., Ph.D. 

Prof., Computer Science 

walid.taha@hh.se 

Nordström, Tomas 

Prof., Ph.D. 

Prof., Computer Engineering 

tomas.nordstrom@hh.se 

Hammerstrom, Dan 

Prof., Ph.D. 

Guest Prof., Computer Architecture 

Hoang Bengtsson, Hoai 

Ph.D. C.E. 

Assistant Prof., Computer Systems Engineering 

Hoai.Hoang@hh.se 

Ul-Abdin, Zain 

Ph.D. C.E. 

Post Doc, Computer Science & Engineering 

Zain-ul-Abdin@hh.se 

Kunert, Kristina 

Ph.D. C.E. 

Post doc, Comp.Eng./Data Comm. 

Kristina.Kunert@hh.se 

Gaspes, Verónica 

Ph.D. C.S. 

Assoc. Prof., Computer Science 

Nilsson, Björn 

Ph.D. C.E. 

Lecturer, Computer Engineering 

(part time) 

Veronica.Gaspes@hh.se 


11

Duracz, Jan 

Ph.D. C.S. 

Postdoc Computer Science 

Nilsson, Emil 

Lic.Tech.,E.E. 

Research Engineer Electronics 

jan.duracz@hh.se 

Bilstrup, Urban 

Ph.D. C.E. 

Lecturer, Computer Engineering/ 

Wireless Communication 

Urban.Bilstrup@hh.se 

Emil.Nilsson@hh.se 

Weckstén, Mattias 

Lic.Tech.,C.S. 

Lecturer, Computer Engineering 

Mattias.Wecksten@hh.se 

SantAnna, Anita 

PhD Signals and Systems 

Postdoc Cyber-physical Systems 

Sjöberg, Katrin 

Lic.Tech. Signals and Systems 

Ph.D. stud,. Signals and Systems 

anita.santanna@hh.se 

Atkinson,Kevin 

PhD C. S. 

Post-doctoral Fellow 

Hertz, Erik 

Lic.Tech., Eng. 

Research Engineer 

kevin.atkinson@hh.se 

Masood, Jawad 

PhD Mechanical Engineering 

Postdoctoral Researcher Cyber-physical 

Systems 

jawad.masood@hh.se 

Lidström, Kristoffer 

Lic.Tech, C.E. 

Ph.D. stud., Information Technology 

Graduated February 2012 

erik.hertz@hh.se 

Eldemark, Hans-Erik 

M.Sc. E.E. 

Lecturer, Computer Engineering and 

Innovation Engineering 

Hans-Erik.Eldemark@hh.se 

Parsapoor, Mahboobeh 

M.Sc. EIS 

Research Engineer 

mahboobeh.parsapoor@hh.se 

Böhm, Annette 

Lic.Tech. C.E. 

Ph.D. stud., Computer Science and 

Engineering 

Annette.Bohm@hh.se 

Hoang, Le-Nam 

M.Sc. 


Engineering 

le-nam.hoang@hh.se 


Duracz, Adam 

M. Sc. C. S. 

PhD Student Computer Science and 

Engineering 

adam.duracz@hh.se 

Gebrewahid, Essayas 

M. Sc. C.E. 

Ph.D.Stud., Computer Science and 

Engineering 

essayas.gebrewahid@hh.se 

de Morais, Wagner 

M.Sc. C.E. 


Engineering 

wagner.demorais@hh.se 

Thörner, Roland 

M.Sc. Informatics 

Project coordinator 

Bornhager, Malin 

B.Sc. C.E. 

Lecturer 

Malin.Bornhager@hh.se 

Torstensson, Olga 

M.Sc. 

Lecturer 

Olga.Torstensson@hh.se 

Heimer, Philip 

B.Sc. 

Lecturer 

philip.heimer@hh.se 

Lithén, Thomas 

Engineer 

Research engineer 

roland.thorner@hh.se 

thomas.lithen@hh.se 

Dellstrand, Börje 

M.Sc. E.E. 

Lecturer 

Månsson, Nicolina 

M.Sc. 

Lecturer 

Nicolina.Mansson@hh.se 

Erlandsson, Stella 

B.Sc. Innov. Eng. 

Project manager, Liaison officer 

stella.erlandsson@hh.se 


13

Highlights 2012 

Halmstad Colloquium 

The Halmstad Colloquium is a distinguished speaker series 

hosted by the School of Information Science and Computer 

& Electrical Engineering at Halmstad University. The speakers 

are invited from universities around the world to talk about 

topics in the areas of embedded and intelligent systems, cyber 

physical systems, and related areas. The colloquium is an activity 

of CERES and CAISR (Centre for Applied Intelligent 

Systems Research). 

CERES Open Day 

The annual CERES Open Day was held on November 7th. 

The day, as usual, attracted many visitors from industry and 

academic partners, who could listen to an invited talk by Hans- 

Peter Schwefel, Scientific Director at FTW, Vienna, Austria, 

and see demonstrations of ongoing research at CERES. Oral 

presentations were given by the young researchers of CERES: 

Hoai Hoang Bengtsson, Anita Pinheiro Sant’Anna, Jan Duracz, 

Kristina Kunert, and Zain-ul-Abdin. A talk on dark silicon 

and heterogeneous manycore processors by the newest professor 

of CERES, Tomas Nordström concluded the day. 

During 2012 Halmstad Colloquium had the pleasure to welcome: 

Edward A. Lee, UC Berkeley 

Charles Consel, INRIA 

Steven Shladover, ITS Berkeley 

Aaron Ames, Texas A&M University 

IEEE Workshop on Vehicular Communications 

On behalf of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society and the 

VT/COM Sweden Chapter Board, CERES organized a oneday 

Workshop on Wireless Vehicular Communications on November 

30, 2012 with around 40 participants. The workshop 

featured an invited speaker, Andreas Festag from NEC, Germany, 

funded by the IEEE VTS, as well as presentations by senior 

researchers from Lund, Chalmers and Halmstad Universities. 

Participants came from Lund, Chalmers, Blekinge Institute of 

Technology, Tampere University of Technology, SP Technical 

Research Institute of Sweden, Volvo Cars, Volvo Group Trucks 

Technology, Ericsson Research, Qamcom Research and Technology, 

and Kapsch TrafficCom. The host was Dr. Elisabeth 

Uhlemann, CERES. 

Karl-Erik Årzén, LTH 

Claus Führer, LTH 

Invited speaker Andreas Festag 


Halmstad University now a Foundation Research 

Centre 

Effective January 1st, 2012, Halmstad University is now a 

Foundation Research Centre (Swedish: KK-miljö), meaning 

that a ten-year contract has been signed concerning support of 

the long-term development of strategic research at the University. 

The investment will be made in the areas of information 

technology, especially embedded intelligent systems, further in 

innovation sciences and in health and lifestyle – as well as, not 

least, interdisciplinary research involving all three areas. The 

long-term further development of CERES is of course expected 

to benefit from this venture, and the CERES research centre is 

now part of this over-arching initiative, named Research for 

Innovation. 

Second Summer School on Accurate Programming 

On May 30 – June 1, 2012, CERES organized the second 

summer school on accurate programming. The school attracted 

around 20 participants including 8 from industry: HMS, 

Etteplan and Bombardier. Lectures and tutorials were offered 

by Veronica Gaspes (CERES), John Hughes (Chalmers and 

QuviQ), Rex Page (Oklahoma University) and Walid Taha 

(CERES). The topics of the school include property based testing 

and test-driven software development. The tools used include 

Erlang, Scala, Quickcheck and Scalacheck. 

New Industrial Graduate School 

In December 2012, The Knowledge Foundation decided to finance 

an industrial graduate school with eight PhD students, 

all employed in industry but being trained at Halmstad University 

and participating in joint academic/industrial research. 

The goal of the industrial graduate school, named Embedded 

and Intelligent Systems Industrial Graduate School (EISIGS), 

is to provide the right environment for producing qualified, 

independent researchers (PhDs) that understand, advance, and 

champion embedded and intelligent systems research. It aims 

to strengthen Swedish industry by training doctoral-level researchers 

that have both technical depth and a broad understanding 

of industrial requirements and innovation processes. 

In particular, recognizing the importance of a firm’s ability to 

innovate and transform innovation to new business opportunities, 

an emphasis on innovation pervades the school’s entire 

program. To realize the emphasis on innovation, the graduate 

school will be managed and run in cooperation with researchers 

in Halmstad University’s Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship 

and Learning Research (CIEL), which is also a leading 

player in the Research for Innovation initiative. 

PhD students and partners from industry attending a course in 

accurate programming 

Second Workshop on Design, Modeling and Evaluation 

of Cyber Physical Systems (CyPhy’12) 

On June 6 – 8, 2012, CERES hosted CyPhy’12. The workshop 

was attended by researchers from Alfaisal University, Aston 

University, Halmstad University, Linköping University, Texas 

A&M University, and University of Twente. 

Best paper Award 

At the 9th IEEE International Workshop on Factory Communication 

Systems – Communication in Automation (WFCS 

2012) in Lemgo/Detmold, Germany, May 21-24, 2012, the 

CERES contribution “Deterministic real-time medium access 

for cognitive industrial radio networks” was honoured with the 

Best Paper Award in the category Work in Progress Papers. The 

paper was authored by Kristina Kunert, Magnus Jonsson, 

and Urban Bilstrup. 

11th meeting of the IFIP Working Group 2.11 

On June 25-27, 2012, CERES hosted the 11th meeting of the 

IFIP working group 2.11. The working group collects excellent 

researchers in the area of program generation. The meeting was 

attended by around 30 attendees and included more than 20 

presentations as well as a number of discussions. 


15

International Cooperation in Prestigious National 

Science Foundation Project 

The US NSF project “A CPS Approach to Robot Design", with 

Halmstad/CERES and Rice University professor Walid Taha as 

principal investigator was granted funding from the National 

Science Foundation. Professor Taha's group at Halmstad has 

hosted one post-doctoral fellow working on the development 

of Acumen, Kevin Atkinson, and also hosted a member of the 

"Halmstad Group" NAO robots called Jonson. The development 

of Acumen is currently supported by this US NSF project, 

base funding from Halmstad University, and a CERES+ 

project co-funded by the Swedish KK foundation. The NSF 

project supports one PhD student, Yingfu Zeng, who graduated 

from Halmstad University and started his PhD studies at 

Rice in 2012. Halmstad/CERES is also hosting Prof. Robert 

Cartwright from Rice University, who is also involved in leading 

the project. Halmstad University has also developed and 

offered a Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) course that was first 

proposed within and is closely coordinated with this project. 

In the summer of 2013, two PhD students from Rice University 

will be visiting Halmstad to use Acumen to develop 

models of different types of robots representative of the type 

of robots developed by Professors O'Malley (Rice) and Ames 

(Texas A&M). 

More information about the project can be found here: http:// 

www.effective-modeling.org/p/robot-design.html . Here is a 

summary of first year results: http://cps-vo.org/node/5938 

CERES at Embedded Conference Scandinavia 

As previous year CERES took part in the Embedded Conference 

Scandinavia in Stockholm. Hoai Hoang Bengtsson, Zainul-Abdin 

and Urban Bilstrup gave appraised talks. At the conference, 

held in early October, Halmstad University succeeded 

one more time to win the Swedish Embedded Award (student 

category), this time with the project “Smartbeat” developed by 

Robert Bäckström and Isak Ladeborn. 

One of the students, Isak Ladeborn from Halmstad University, 

in the winning team at Student Embedded Award, together with 

Hans-Erik Eldemark, Halmstad University and Professor em Bengt 

Magnhagen in the Competition Committee. 

Jonson and Walid Taha 

Lorentzon 

The winners of Student Embedded Award 2012, 

Robert Bäckström and Isak Ladeborn 

Aaron D. Ames 

Marcia O’Malley 


Ph D Graduation 

Situation-Aware Vehicles 

Supporting the Next Generation of Cooperative Traffic Systems 

KRISTOFFER LIDSTRÖM 

PhD thesis, Örebro University 

Main supervisor: Tony Larsson (Halmstad University) 

Co-supervisors Mathias Broxvall Örebro Universitet 

Opponent: Dr. Steven Shladover, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA 

Grading Committee: Professor Claes Beckman, Center for Wireless Systems, Royal Institute 

of Technology KTH, Kista, Stockholm, Professor Simin Nadjm-Tehrani, Real-Time Systems 

lab, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University 

Docent Paolo Falcone, Signals and Systems, Chalmers Institute of Technology, Göteborg 

Wireless communication between road vehicles enables a range 

of cooperative traffic applications including safety, efficiency 

and comfort functions. A common characteristic of the envisioned 

applications is that they act on environmental information 

to intepret traffic situations in order to provide the driver 

with warnings or recommendations. In this thesis we explore 

both the detection of hazardous traffic situations in order to 

provide driver warnings but also the detection of situations in 

which the cooperative system itself may fail. 

The first theme of this thesis investigates how traffic 

safety functions that incorporate cooperatively exchanged 

information can be constructed so that they become resilient 

to failures in wireless communication. Inspired by how human 

drivers coordinate with limited information exchange, 

the use of pre-defined models of normative driver behavior is 

investigated by successfully predicting driver turning intent at 

an intersection using mobility traces extracted from video recordings. 

Furthermore a hazardous driving warning criterion 

based on model switching behavior is proposed and evaluated 

through test drives. Maneuvers classified as hazardous in the 

tests, such as swerving between lanes and not braking for traffic 

lights, are shown to be correctly detected using the criterion. 

Whereas robust coordination mechanisms may mask communication 

faults to some degree, severe degradations in communication 

are still expected to occur in non-line-of-sight conditions 

when using wireless communication at 5.9 GHz. 

The second theme of the thesis explores how communication 

performance can be efficiently logged, gathered 

and aggregated into maps of communication quality. Both innetwork 

aggregation as well as centralized aggregation is investigated 

using vehicles in the network as measurement probes 

and the feasibility of the approach in terms of bandwidth and 

storage requirements is shown analytically. In conjunction with 

a proposed communication quality requirements format, tailored 

specifically for vehicle-to-vehicle applications, such maps 

can be used to enable application-level adaptation in response 

to situations where quality requirements likely cannot be met. 

Dr. Kristoffer Lidström 


17

Four New Professors 

Towards the end of 2012, four new professors at CERES were appointed: 

Tomas Nordström was, by the Faculty Board and the Vice Chancellor, promoted docent and professor and is, from November 2012, 

Professor of Computer Engineering at Halmstad University. 

Mohammad Mousavi was recruited as new professor. He comes from TU Eindhoven in the Netherlands and was, by the Vice Chancellor, 

appointed professor at Halmstad University in November 2012. He starts his employment as Professor of Computer Systems 

Engineering in March 2013. 

Robert “Corky” Cartwright was appointed Guest Professor in Computer Science at Halmstad University. He is professor at Rice 

University, TX, USA, and will spend the full year 2013 with CERES at Halmstad University. The visit is funded by The Knowledge 

Foundation. 

Alexey Vinel was appointed Guest Professor in Real-Time Communication at Halmstad University. He holds a position at Tampere 

University of Technology and will be part-time at Halmstad University during 2013 – 2014. The visit is funded by The Knowledge 

Foundation. 

Robert “Corky” Cartwright 

Robert “Corky” Cartwright is Professor of Computer Science at Rice University. He earned a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude 

in Applied Mathematics from Harvard College in 1971 and a doctoral degree in Computer Science from Stanford University in 

1977 under the supervision of David Luckham and John McCarthy. After serving as an Assistant Professor at Cornell University 

from 1976 to 1980, he joined the faculty of Rice University, where he helped found the Computer Science Department in 1984. 

He has been a tenured member of the Rice faculty since 1981. 

For the past 40 years, Professor Cartwright has conducted fundamental research on the theory, design, and implementation of 

programming languages. His early work focused on formalizing functional programs as definitions extending a first order theory 

of the program data, enabling proofs of correctness by simple structural induction. He subsequently extended this framework to 

encompass higher order data by allowing data constructors to be lazy (non-strict). In the process, he identified the constructive 

reals as an interesting case study in higher order data definition and did seminal research (with Hans Boehm) on the definition 

and implementation of exact real arithmetic. This line of research culminated in the construction a comprehensive framework 

(with M. Felleisen and P.L. Curien) for formalizing the semantics of arbitrary deterministic interactive computations. 

In a quest to make program verification more tractable, Prof. Cartwright recognized that many program invariants could be 

expressed as types in a sufficiently rich type system. So he suggested enriching type systems beyond the limits that can be enforced 

by a compiler and dubbed the resulting type systems “soft type systems”. He and his graduate students developed tractable algorithms 

(based on unification) for inferring the correctness of soft typing annotations for functional programs. 

More recently, Professor Cartwright’s research has focused on improving the languages and tools used in mainstream software 

engineering, notably Java. Together with Guy Steele, he designed an extension of Java called NextGen that supports first-class generics 

(classes and methods parameterized by type) while retaining compatibility with the Java Virtual Machine. He is currently 

collaborating with Walid Taha on developing better linguistic frameworks built on top of the Java Virtual Machine for specifying 

and simulating cyber-physical systems such as robots. 

Professor Cartwright has a passionate interest in improving introductory computer science curricula. To this end, he has served 

on numerous committees formed by the College Board and the ACM, culminating in his appointment to the ACM Education 

Board from 1997 to 2006. At Rice, he led (with Zung Nguyen and Stephen Wong) the development of an object-oriented 

programming curriculum based on data-directed design using design patterns. To support this curriculum, he supervised the 

development of an open-source pedagogic programming environment called DrJava which has been adopted by many other 

colleges and universities. 

Throughout his career, Professor Cartwright has been active in professional service including serving on the editorial boards; 

serving as general chair, program chair, or program committee member for major research conferences; serving on the ACM 

Turing Award Committee; and serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association. In 1998, 

he was elected as a Fellow of the ACM. 


Mohammad Mousavi 

Mohammad Mousavi (born on July 3, 1978 in Tehran) is a professor of Computer Systems 

Engineering and specializes in model-based testing and verification. 

Mohammad received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2005 from from Eindhoven University 

of Technology (TU/e), the Netherlands, under the supervision of Jan Friso Groote 

(TU/e) and Gordon Plotkin (Edinburgh). Since then, he has been assistant professor at 

the Department of Electrical Engineering at TU/e, postdoctoral researcher at Reykjavik 

University, Iceland, assistant and associate professor at the Department of Computer Science 

at TU/e. 

Mohammad has been involved in several national and European research projects and is 

the (co-)author of more than 80 chapters and scientific papers in refereed books, journals 

and conference proceedings. 

Mohammad has been the guest editor of special issues for Science of Computer Programming 

(Elsevier) and Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering (Springer). 

Mohammad Mousavi 


Tomas Nordström received the M.S.E.E. degree in 1988, the licentiate degree in 1991, and 

the Ph.D. degree in 1995, all from Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. 

His PhD Thesis “Highly Parallel Computers for Artificial Neural Networks” is linking the 

two scientific areas computer engineering and signal processing, between which he has 

been moving ever since. 

Between 1996 and 1999, he was with Telia Research (the research branch of the Swedish 

incumbent telephone operator) where he developed broadband Internet communication 

over twisted copper pairs. He also became Telia’s leading expert in speaker verification 

during these years. In December 1999, he joined the FTW Telecommunications Research 

Center Vienna, Austria, where he has been working as a Key Researcher in the field of 

“broadband wireline access.” 

In 2009 he got a position as an Associate Professor in computer systems engineering at 

Halmstad University (HH), Sweden. At HH he has returned to the area of computer architecture 

and his current research interests include all aspects of energy-efficient embedded 

computers. Since 2012 he holds a full Professor position in Computer Engineering and is 

building up a research group focusing on heterogeneous many-core architectures. Additionally, 

he will also be engaged in exploring novel non-conventional computing and communication 

concepts, like hierarchical temporal memory, a new machine learning concept, 

and the use of nano-communication for wireless network-on-chip communication. 


Photo: FTW 

Alexey Vinel 

Alexey Vinel (born on February 7, 1983 in Leningrad) is a guest professor in data communications 

and specializes in intelligent transportation systems and performance evaluation 

of wireless networks. Alexey received his Ph.D. degree (candidate of science) in technical 

sciences from the Institute for Information Transmission Problems, Russian Academy of 

Sciences, Moscow in 2007. He has been a researcher at the Department of Electronics and 

Communications Engineering, Tampere University of Technology, Finland since 2010. 

Alexey is the (co-)author of scientific papers in recognized journals (e.g. IEEE JSAC, IEEE 

TVT, etc.) and conference proceedings. He is a member of organizing (e.g. General Chair 

of ITST-2011) and technical committees of many international conferences. He has been 

a Senior Member of IEEE and Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters since 

2012. Alexey Vinel 


19

Extended Abstracts 

JUMP - Jump to Manycore Platforms 

JUMP - The JUmp to Manycore Platforms 

Anders Åhlander (SAAB), Bertil Svensson (HH), Hoai Hoang Bengtsson (HH/SAAB), Per Ericsson (SAAB), 

Per-Arne Wiberg (F2M), Suleyman Sava (F2M), and Zain-ul-Abdin (HH) 

1 Challenges 

Development of advanced embedded signal processing systems, 

such as smart phones, multimedia devices, radio base 

stations, and radar systems require high performing parallel 

computer platform solutions. Although the specific design and 

implementation requirements of the different kinds of applications 

within this domain are not the same, they share many 

functional characteristics and typically require performance-, 

cost- and engineering efficient development solutions in order 

to be competitive on the commercial market. 

The consensus today is that increased parallelism in various 

forms is the main way ahead for providing significant performance 

improvement in advanced computing systems while 

keeping the energy consumption and heat dissipation under 

control [1]. Manycore processor architectures offer scalable 

parallelism and the performance needed for implementation of 

the functionality required in high-end embedded sensor- and 

communication systems. However, the increasing programming 

complexity of such highly parallel computing technology 

will to a large degree affect existing product development and 

in particular software development processes. Industry need 

to take a jump in terms of re-targeting from existing software 

development solutions to solutions compatible with evolving 

manycore platforms, i.e., not just one parallel platform but a 

sequence of ever more parallel architectures. 

The main challenge ahead for industry is how to efficiently 

perform the technology shift from current application hardware 

platforms to future generations of platforms including 

heterogeneous manycore technology. The scientific challenge 

is to reconcile two conflicting needs: development productivity 

and performance efficiency. Software portability, program 

correctness and programmer productivity all demand that programs 

are written in a high-level language capable of expressing 

application-level parallelism while abstracting away platform 

dependent physical parallelism. In contrast, performance efficiency 

is traditionally better achieved by developing code tuned 

for the specific target hardware. Software development tools 

need to bridge this gap. 

2 Goals 

The overall goal of the project is to investigate and develop 

programming and development technologies enabling the efficient 

design and programming of highly integrated embedded 

manycore systems. This will in particular deal with embedded 

signal processing systems where traditional generic processor 

architectures and their corresponding programming models are 

not efficient enough to meet the required performances and/or 

other non-functional system properties. The project will focus 

on studying new performance- and energy-efficient manycore 

processors and developing new parallel programming tools with 

the aims to, 

• enable engineering-efficient development and power efficient 

implementations, 

• support platform independency and hardware/software 

scalability, and 

• present solutions that can evolve with future manycore 

architectures. 

A concrete objective in order to demonstrate the approach is 

to develop a convenient programming tool for the Adapteva 

manycore used in signal processing (radar signal processing and 

video encoding). 

3 Engagement 

3.1 Halmstad University (HH) 

HH will focus on (i) investigation of trends in processing architectures 

suitable for high-performance embedded signal processing 

and, in particular on (ii) investigation of programming 

and scheduling tools for scalable, platform independent signal 

processing software development on manycore hardware. Important 

parts of (ii) are intermediate languages and models of 

computation. 

3.2 SAAB 

SAAB will focus on investigating future trends in application 

requirement and how the manycore capability meets the performance 

requirements of future signal processing systems. In 

particular, SAAB is interested in: 

• Scalable, heterogeneous, and reconfigurable parallel architectures 

for complex multi-function radar systems. 

• Software models, which are scalable and reusable for different 

parallel architectures. 

• How to minimize the impact on the application’s nonfunctional 

behaviour when changing hardware platform. 

3.3 Free2move (F2M) 

F2M will focus on research questions related to energy efficiency. 

F2M’s core interest is handheld or wearable communication 

devices for sports and harsh environments. The latest 

generation manycore architectures have promising properties. 

The programming tool chain is however lagging behind. F2M’s 

particular interests are: 

• Low power signal processing for voice and video streaming 

• Exploration of the mapping of video codecs on the low 

power floating-point manycore architecture. 

3.4 International Engagement 

• The project will have active involvement from Adapteva 

Inc., a privately held fabless semiconductor company 

based in Lexington, Massachusetts. Adapteva has developed 

maybe the world’s most energy efficient manycore 

microprocessor and is in the process of scaling this up to 

hundreds of processors. The company’s technology thus 

offers high performance at very low power, which is exactly 

what is asked for by the industrial partners in the 

project. Adapteva will supply the project with hardware, 

software development tools, and detailed knowledge of the 


characteristics of the architectures. The close contacts with 

the company will enable the researchers to get a more accurate 

view of the expected up-scaling and other development 

of manycore architectures. 

• The project will make use of the established connections 

with other partners from SMECY project such as Verimag/ 

UFJ (Universite Joseph Fourier) and open new connection 

with other potention partner in Europe: ETH Zurich. 

4 Working Plan 

The complexity of future embedded manycore systems development 

requires an overall strategy establishing a close interaction 

between applications, programming models and hardware 

architecture platforms. The project is organized into three work 

packages: 

4.1 WP1. Studies of challenges in future signal processing 

applications 

An important aspect when it comes to the applications is the 

trend, i.e., the way that the requirements increase over time. 

We must find application development solutions for manycore 

platforms that can manage a continuous increase of the 

signal processing requirements. The requirements come from 

increased raw performance demands and/or performance per 

watt demand, as well as increased functional complexity. The 

objective of this WP is to give the application requirements 

needed to study how/if many-cores can increase the processor 

performance and allow the implementation of new features requested 

by future DSP applications. Outcome of this WP can 

be used as input for WP2 and WP3. 

4.2 WP2. Investigation of potential hardware architectures 

for future signal processing applications 

The key objective of this work package is to analyze the important 

trends in massively parallel processor architectures that 

could be used for future embedded signal processing applications. 

The investigations in this work package will focus on 

identifying the salient characteristics of the selected architectures: 

Adapteva, CoherentLogix and ElementCXI. 

Partners 

Halmstad University (HH) 

SAAB AB, business area electronic defence systems (SAAB) 

Free2move AB (F2M) 

Adapteva, Inc. (AI) 

Duration and Financial 

The project will run over 2 years (Sept 2011 – August 2013) 

Project size: ca 4.5 MSEK or more 

HH: 3.0 MSEK (=67%), funded by KKS (CERES+) 

SAAB EDS: 900 KSEK (=20%) in kind 

F2M: 600 KSEK (13%) in kind 

Adapteva: TBD (not counted as matching to KKS) 

References 

1. K. Asanovic, R. Bodik, B. C. Catanzaro, J. J. Gebis, P. 

Husbands, K. Keutzer, D. A. Patterson, W. L. Plishker, J. 

Shalf, S. W. Williams and K. A. Yelick, ”The Landscape 

of Parallel Computing Research: A View from Berkeley”, 

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2006-183, EECS Department , 

University of California, Berkeley, Dec 18, 

2006 

2. Yury Markovskiy, Eylon Caspi, Randy Huang, Joseph 

Yeh, Michael Chu, John Wawrzynek, and André DeHon, 

“Analysis of Quasi-Static Scheduling Techniques in a Virtualized 

Reconfigurable Machine”, In Proceedings of the 

Tenth ACM International Symposium on Field-Programmable 

Gate Arrays (FPGA 2002), Monterey CA, pp. 196- 

-205, Feb. 24--26, 2002. 

3. J. Eker, J. Janneck, E. A. Lee, J. Liu, X. Liu, J. Ludvig, S. 

Sachs, Y. Xiong, “ Taming heterogeneity - the Ptolemy approach”, 

Proceedings of the IEEE, 91(1):127-144, January 

2003. 

4. P. Bourgos, A. Basu, S. Bensalem, K. Huang, J. Sifakis, 

Verimag Research Report N0 TR-2011-1, January 2011. 

5. W. Haid, K. Huang, I. Bacivarov, and L. Thiele, Multiprocessor 

SoC Software Design Flows. IEEE Signal Processing 

Magazine, 26(6):64—71, Nov. 2009 

4.3 WP3. Methods and Tools for Application Development 

on Manycores 

In this work package we will investigate tool infrastructure for 

DSP software development on manycore processors. We have 

chosen one tool chain from SMECY project: DOL/BIP [4], 

which was developed at ETH Zurich and Verimag. Inparticular 

we focus on using DOL (Distributed Operation Layer) [5] for 

modelling signal processing applications and architecture. The 

goal of the project is to complete development of the tool flow 

from software model to code generation for chosen architecture. 

One of the key components to an efficient implementation of 

such a tool flow is to make use of suitable and well-defined 

parallel models of computation, which capture parallelism and 

expose design time predictable execution behaviour. 


21

STAMP - Streaming Applications on Embedded High-Performance Commercial Platforms 

Streaming Applications on Embedded High-Performance Commercial Platforms 

Zain-ul-Abdin 1 , Bertil Svensson 1 , Hoai Hoang Bengtsson 1 

1. Centre for Research on Embedded Systems, Halmstad University, SE-301 18 Halmstad, Sweden 

STAMP project has sprung out of the successful ELLIIT cooperation ”Flexible embedded platforms for ELLIIT applications” between 

LTH/CS, LTH/EIT, LiU/datorteknik, and HH/CERES. The consortium managed to get funding from SSF for a five-year 

project within the framework program Electronic and Photonic Systems (project HiPEC – High Performance Embedded Computing, 

project leader Kris Kuchcinski). While the HiPEC project has a focus on the design of new hardware architectures and efficient 

mapping of applications on these, the proposed project has a focus on the efficient use of architectures that are emerging on the 

commercial market at an increasing pace. 

The focus in this project is on the efficient use of architectures that are emerging on the commercial market at an increasing pace. 

We will develop the necessary methods and tools to complete the design flow, namely compiling and running CAL applications, 

targeting these emerging commercial architectures. The project started in 2012 and will continue until 2014. 

Introduction & Motivation 

The massively parallel processor arrays are customized to 

achieve high-performance in the order of tens of GFLOPS at 

a very low power budget typically a few watts. It is these properties 

that make these architectures very well-suited for implementing 

high-performance embedded applications having 

regular data streaming patterns. While these massively parallel 

and reconfigurable architectures promise to bring the needed 

performance and energy efficiency to tomorrow’s industrial 

applications, the big challenge is how to program them efficiently 

and achieve the necessary portability and scalability. 

STAMP Tool-chain 

In this project, we intend to propose the necessary methods 

(and tools) to complete the design flow, namely compiling 

and running CAL applications, targeting these emerging commercial 


Goals 

The overall goals of the project are: 

(1) 

(2) 

to complete the design flow (methodology and tools) 

for efficient execution, in terms of performance and energy 

consumption, of Cal programs on selected commercial 


to propose transformations, optimizations, representations, 

and runtime-environments that would enable the 

best scaling of an implementation across diverse commercial 

architectures, obtained from the same initial 

specification. 

The project does not address general purpose processing; 

rather it is oriented towards the needs of high-performance 

embedded signal processing applications. 

Results so far 

1. Intermediate Representation for dataflow programs based 

on Actor Machine Model: A machine model for dataflow 

actors has been proposed that captures the structure and 

logic of selecting and executing the actions comprising the 

actor. 

2. Translator from CAL actor language into the Intermediate 

Representation: A translator has been developed that translates 

the CAL actor language to the intermediate representation 

of actor machine model. 

3. CAL compilation backend to Ambric array of processors: A 

prototype backend of CAL compilation framework has been 

developed to compile CAL programs to the proprietary languages 

of Ambric i.e., aJava and aStruct languages. 


HTM - Hierarchical Temporal Memory on Manycores 

HTM - Hierarchical Temporal Memory on Many-cores 

T. Nordström, D. Hammerstrom, Zain-ul-Abdin, J. Duracz, and B. Svensson 


Introduction 

An increasingly important aspect of embedded computing is 

the processing and understanding of noisy real world data, 

then making decisions and taking timely actions based on these 

data. Consequently, various kinds of intelligent computing 

structures are being investigated as important building blocks 

in embedded system design. 

One very promising algorithm is Hierarchical Temporal Memory 

(HTM) which is being developed by Numenta, Inc. and 

which is already being used in a number of real applications. 

Being based on more biological kinds of models, HTM is massively 

parallel, but it is also computationally intensive and as 

it is integrated into real applications, it is starting to run into 

performance limitations. The goal of this CERES project is to 

explore suitable hardware support for the acceleration of the 

Hierarchical Temporal Memory 

HTM Learning 

Cortical Learning Algorithm (CLA) is a memory system that 

learns sequences of patterns and makes predictions. When an 

HTM model is exposed to a stream of data the CLA predicts 

what is likely to happen next, similar to how you predict the 

next note in a familiar song or the next word someone is likely 

to say in a common phrase. In addition, the CLA modifies 

its memory with each new record. Thus the HTM models are 

continually adapting to reflect the most recent patterns. 

Next Steps 

As memory is critical in HTM, as in most artificial neural network 

models, we will focus our effort on many-core mapping 

strategies towards optimizing memory management. 

In our cooperation with Portland State University, PSU has 

been focusing on FPGA and GPU implementation and HH 

on multi-core and Ambric/Adapteva “many-core” style parallelism. 

As a next step we hope to compare these different implementations. 

Project Key Data 

Partners: Halmstad University, Portland State University, Numenta, 

Inc., Nethra Imaging, Inc. , and Adapteva, Inc. 

Duration: Sep. 2011 – Dec. 2013, 

Funding: CERES+ project, Volume: 820 kSEK 

Contact: Tomas Nordström, HH 

HTM Structure 

The HTM-CLA is a highly detailed model of a layer of cells in 

the neocortex. In a typical CLA implementation there are 2000 

columns of simulated neurons (one per output bit of the spatial 

memory structure) and twenty simulated neurons per column, 

giving each CLA over 40,000 neurons. Each neuron has dozens 

of non-linear dendrite segments and potentially thousands of 

synapses. 

HTM on Adapteva 

Master students Zhou Xi & Luo Yaoyao, have implemented 

CLA on our Adapteva development board. 

They have investigated how to map HTM-CLA onto Adapteva’s 

Epiphany many-core architecture and have been running 

experiments to find out the speedup and efficiency of this 

HTM mapping onto this many-core architecture. Preliminary 

results show an almost perfect scalability when mapping HTM 

onto Adapteva. 


23

HIPEC - High Performance Embedded Computing 

HIGH-PERFORMANCE EMBEDDED COMPUTING 

V. Gaspes 1 , E. Gebrewahid 1 , T. Nordström1, Zain-ul-Abdin 1 


HiPEC is a project partly financed by SSF, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, in which CERES collaborates with Lund 

University and Linköping University. The project started on July 2011 and addresses the development of programmable parallel 

platforms for high performance signal processing applications. Two research groups at Lund and Linköping universities address the 

development of parallel hardware architectures while CERES and a group at Lund University develop programming languages and 

tools for programming these and other commercial parallel architectures. 

1. Background and Motivation 

Parallelism is the main way to provide significant performance 

improvement of embedded systems while keeping energy consumption 

low. Streaming applications are good candidates for 

parallelization since they are regular and exhibit data parallelism. 

Traditionally, ASICs have been designed to implement 

specific functionality with high performance and low power 

constraints. Recently, coarse-grained reconfigurable array architectures 

have been proposed as flexible but still high performance 

alternatives. It is therefore expected that a DSP computing 

system, increasingly parallel and reconfigurable, will be one 

of the dominating parts in OEM equipments in 2020 because 

it maximally exposes opportunities of parallelization. In this 

project, we address reconfigurable array processor architectures 

as well as software tools for their programming. A massively 

parallel execution platform with powerful computing nodes 

and hierarchical interconnection structure suitable for streaming 

applications will be developed and studied. The distinct 

features of our software development approach are the use of 

the CAL language for programming of these architectures as 

well as the development and use of tools for timing and energy 

analysis at early design stages. Combining both hardware and 

software experts in the same project provides a strong basis for 

covering the whole spectrum of this new technology. 

2. Problem 

Up until recently, the evolution of computing machines was 

characterized by an unabated increase in performance. This 

progress was in large part due to steady advances in silicon 

manufacturing technology, which provided cheaper, smaller, 

and faster circuits, and, to some degree due to improvements 

in processor architecture that exploited those advances to create 

ever faster processors. This development, however, has considerably 

slowed down in the last few years. As a result of these 

developments, the computational power of individual processors 

is no longer increasing, and consequently the only way to 

significantly improve the performance of a computing machine 

is to use more processors operating at the same time: the age of 

parallelism has finally arrived. 

The model of the sequential instruction set computer has been 

a very powerful abstraction that brought enormous benefit to 

the computing community. This is in stark contrast with the 

situation in the world of parallel machines, where no such nearly-universal 

machine model exists. There is no common machine 

model tying these platforms together, and consequently 

there are no common tools, no common languages, and no 

common code in the form of applications or libraries. In this 

project, we propose to narrow this gap and work on both massively 

parallel hardware platform architecture and tools for software 

development. 

3. Approach 

We focus on stream/dataflow computing and related parallel 

computing platforms and programming models. In our view, 

only a synergy between the hardware platform and the software 

paradigm can truly bring forth the benefits of parallelism that 

computing strives after today. For this purpose we adopt an 

actor based programming paradigm realized in the programming 

language CAL and we design and study massively parallel, 

hyerarchical and heterogeneous architectures. The CERES 

team will focus on tools for mapping programs written in CAL 

and on studying forms of organizing the networks that lead to 

opportunities to reduce power consumption. Figure 1 exposes 

the vision for the design flow using the tools resulting from the 

project. 

Figure 1: Proposed design flow for mapping CAL applications 

onto reconfigurable platforms. 


PARTNERS AND STATUS 

Project funding: SSF, Rambidrag Elektronik/Fotonik 2010, 

HiPEC: Högpresterande inbyggda system, diarienummer 

RE10-0081. 

The project started on July 2011. One of the young researchers 

left the university and moved to industry. One of the PhD students 

abandoned her studies due to her personal situation. One 

project addressing the use of similar methods but addressing 

commercial architectures has started as a collaboration between 

Lund and CERES. 

The project leader is Krzysztof Kuchcinski. Veronica Gaspes is 

coordinator for the CERES group. 

Results from the project will form part of the PhD theses of 

Essayas Gebrewahid (admitted at Halmstad University in the 

fall of 2011) and of a new PhD student that is being recruited 

during January 2013 to replace a PhD student that had to interrupt 

her studies. 

PUBLICATIONS 

[1] Zain-ul-Abdin, B. Svensson, “Occam-pi for programming 

of massively parallel reconfigurable architectures”, International 

Journal of Reconfigurable Computing, Vol. 2012, Article ID 

504815, 2012. 

[2] Zain-ul-Abdin, E. Gebrewahid, B. Svensson, “Managing 

dynamic reconfiguration for fault-tolerance on a manycore architecture”, 

accepted for Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop, 

part of IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and 

Systems, May 2012. 


25

SMECY - Smart multicore embedded systems 

SMECY - Smart Multicore Embedded Systems 

T. Nordström, J. Bengtsson, Zain-ul-Abdin, H. Hoang Bengtsson, E. Gebrewahid, and B. Svensson 


Introduction 

One of the grand challenges with multicore technology is to 

develop efficient design and development tools for multicore 

architectures for various resource-constrained embedded system 

applications, such as wireless communication and radar. 

The mission of the SMECY project is to develop new system 

design and development technologies enabling the exploitation 

of many (100s) core architectures. 

Applications 

The two main applications we at HH are looking at are: 

- Radar, mainly Digital Beam Forming (DBF) as part 

of AESA (Active Electronic Scanned Array) signal processing, 

done in collaboration with SAAB 

- Mobile Video and Wireless Transmission, done in 

collaboration with Free2Move 

Platforms 

At HH we have been focusing on the P2012 architecture from 

STMicroelectronics, which is a many-core architecture that, in 

its first incarnation, will have 4 clusters with 16 cores each. 

Hardware 

We are currently exploring ways to best introduce heterogeneity 

into the P2012 architecture, as separate HW accelerators or 

as part of the many-core processors. 

Software 

HAMMER tool-chain 

We have developed the HAMMER tool, which is an actororiented 

programming front-end for DSP kernels. 

The HAMMER tool provides techniques for dynamic analysis 

of non-functional execution properties of many-core programs. 

HAMMER relies on the PAR4ALL backend to enable 

compilation to the P2012 platform. 

Occam-pi tool-chain 

By using the mobility features of the occam-pi language we 

have provided language-based abstractions enabling dynamic 

resource management in the P2012 platform. We have also 

implemented an occam-pi compiler back-end to generate native 

programming model code for the P2012 platform. With 

occam-pi we got up to a six-fold reduction in lines-of-code 

compared to the native programming model (NPM) implementation 

provided by STM. We, furthermore, got a 50% reduction 

in application accumulated execution time. 

Publications 

Zain-ul-Abdin, E. Gebrewahid, and B. Svensson, ”Managing 

Dynamic Reconfiguration for Fault-tolerance on a Manycore 

Architecture”, RAW 2012 held in conjunction with 26th Annual 

Int. Parallel & Distributed Processing Symp. (IPDPS 

2012), May 21-22, Shanghai, China, 2012. 

Zain-Ul-Abdin, and B. Svensson, “Occam-pi for programming 

of massively parallel reconfigurable architectures”, International 

Journal of Reconfigurable Computing, vol. 2012, Article ID 

504815, 2012. 17 pages. 

E. Gebrewahid, Zain-ul-Abdin, and B. Svensson, ”Mapping 

Occam-Pi Programs to a Manycore Architecture”, Presented at 

MCC’11, Linköping, Sweden, Nov. 2011. 

Zain-ul-Abdin, “Programming of Coarse-Grained Reconfigurable 

Architectures,” Ph.D. Thesis, May 2011. 

Zain-ul-Abdin and B. Svensson, “Occam-pi as a high-level 

language for coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures”. 

Proceedings of the 18th International Reconfigurable Architectures 

Workshop (RAW'2011) in conjunction with International 

Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IP- 

DPS'2011), 2011. 

Zain-ul-Abdin, A. Åhlander, and B. Svensson, “Programming 

real-time autofocus on a massively parallel reconfigurable architecture 

using Occam-pi,” Proceedings of the 19th Annual 

IEEE International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom 

Computing Machines (FCCM'2011), 2011. 

Bengtsson J., “Intermediate representations for simulation and 

implementation,” in Handbook of Signal processing systems, 

1st ed., Bhattacharyya, S.S., E.F. Deprettere, R. Leupers and 

J. Takala, Springer, Aug. 29, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-4419-6344-4 

Project Key Data 

HH People: Tomas Nordström (coordinator since summer 

2012), Jerker Bengtsson, Zain-ul-Abdin, Essayas Gebrewahid, 

Bertil Svensson, Hoai Hoang Bengtsson 

Partners: Halmstad University, Free2Move, Realtime Embedded, 

Saab, STMicroelectronics, and 22 more partners from 

nine countries 

Duration: Feb. 2010 – Jan. 2013, 

Funding: EU, ARTEMIS programme, Volume: 20.4 M€. 

Web: http://smecy.eu/ 


Acumen+: Core Enabling Technology for Acumen 

Acumen+: Core Enabling Technology for Acumen 

Walid Taha, Veronica Gaspes, Jerker Bengtsson 

Centre for Research on Embedded Systems (CERES), 

Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden. 

Introduction 

We are developing a modeling and simulation language design 

called Acumen around the thesis that, for a variety of reasons 

mathematics is the right formalism for describing many cyberphysical 

systems. Two key hypotheses underlying this thesis are 

that 

• Precise modeling is essential for meaningful experimentation, 

analysis, and verification and 

• Mathematical models are more amenable to parallel simulation 

than efficient codes. 

For the Acumen research program to take off, and to develop 

more traditional research funding proposals, attaining some 

preliminary results along these two dimensions is of crucial importance. 

To this end, we propose a two year activity that will 

develop Acumen along two dimensions that will allow us to 

accumulate a wide range of preliminary results that would form 

a solid basis for pursuing funding from a wide range of sources 

beyond CERES and the KK foundation. The proposed project 

also includes a component on developing international connections 

both in terms of software development and in terms 

of teaching a course on the results of the project internationally. 

[1] 

[2] 

[3] 

[4] 

[5) 

[6] 

[7) 

References 

The Acumen Distribution at www.acumen-language.org. 

Mathematical Equations as Executable Models, Yun Zhu, 

Edwin Westbrook, Jun Inoue, Alexandre Chapoutot, 

Cherif Salama, Marisa Peralta, Travis Martin, Walid Taha, 

Marcia O’Malley, Robert Cartwright, Aaron Ames, Raktim 

Bhattacharya, The First International ACM/IEE Conference 

on Cyber Physical Systems (ICCPS’10), Stockholm, 

2010. 

In Pursuit of Real Answers, Angela Yun Zhu, Walid Taha, 

Robert Cartwright, Matthieu Martel, Jeremy G. Siek, International 

Conference on Embedded Software and Systems 

(ICESS’09), Hangzhou, 2009. 

“Globally Parallel, Locally Sequential”, Paul Brauner and 

Walid Taha, International Workshop on Parallel/High- 

Performance Object-Oriented Scientific Computing (PO- 

OSC'10), Las Vegas, 2010. 

Differential dynamic logic for hybrid systems, Andre 

Platzer, Journal of Automated Reasoning, 2008 - Springer. 

The Ambric, Wikipedia Article. 

A new representation for exact real numbers, A Edalat, 

Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 1997 

- Elsevier. 

Research Questions 

The overarching question behind this research is whether simulation 

technologies can be relied on for early experimentation 

with novel designs of embedded and cooperative systems. This 

general question gives rise to important technical questions, 

including: 

• Are there effective and efficient methods for detecting numerical 

precision errors? 

• Are there ways to effectively and efficiently compute with 

variable precision representations? 

• Are there ways to unify the diverse methods available from 

numerical computation, starting from integration to more 

sophisticated operations? 


27

MaC2WiN – Management Challenges in Cognitive Wireless Networks 

Management Challenges in Cognitive Wireless Networks 

(MaC 2 WiN) 

U. Bilstrup 1 , H. Åkermark 2 , M. Parsapoor 


2. Security and Defense Solutions, Saab, SE-581 11 Linköping, Sweden 

Abstract – In this project a cognitive radio network management system architecture is proposed and evaluated in the context of network 

and spectrum management of next generation military tactical communication system. The emphasis is on proposing a cognitive 

engine especially considering features like: capabilities for local processing of goals, monitoring of the local environment, reaction to 

contextual events by self-configuration and information propagation for interactions with and between components and network elements, 

objective functions and their interrelations to measuring and control parameters. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

_ 


Today the context of a modern military operation can 

span from small special unit operations to large 

multinational military endowers. It include: humanitarian 

relief, peace support, restoration of administrative control, 

regional and interstate conflict and defense of national 

territory. To support this large mission spectrum it 

requires that a force has “tactical agility” [1], i.e. is able to 

quickly comprehend unfamiliar situations, creatively 

apply doctrine, and make timely decisions. The agility 

requirement is a result of the transformation of the modus 

operandi of the industrial age cold war era doctrine 

towards an information age asymmetric warfare doctrine. 

As consequence, the traditional military command and 

control (C2) structure is changing from a hierarchical 

platform centric view to a network centric view. In the 

traditional platform centric view “the ability to engage a 

target normally resides on the weapons system” [2]. In a 

network centric view a target can be sensed by any sensor 

(on any platform) and that target data can be sent through 

the battlefield wide network to the most appropriate 

shooter to engage the target. It should be noted that 

control is still essential and that fundamental elements of 

command and control (C2) are still valid, e.g. it is better 

to act then react and to dictate time, place and purpose, 

scope and peace of operation. It is obvious that these 

abilities inherently require situation awareness, speed of 

command, and responsiveness. From a communication 

system perspective the network centric view introduces 

some differences from the traditional tactical 

communication architecture: the information flows is not 

following the chain of command, patterns of interaction is 

less constrained, roles and responsibilities are change 

appropriately to the state of the operation, and one size 

does not fit all. These requirements demand for a 

communication infrastructure that is highly mobile and 

adaptive to the context of operation. Furthermore, the 

requirement of situation awareness requires more 

bandwidth at the tactical edge of the communication 

system. Considering the heterogeneous set of systems of 

systems that is interacting in such infrastructure of 

networks of networks, the configuration, management and 

optimization is not a trivial problem. 

2. Problem 

The communications field is continuously undergoing 

technical changes where new capabilities are added to 

increase efficiency, decrease costs or add value in some 

other performance dimension. Two of these technical 

changes are the development of more general radio 

architectures with a separation of functionality into 

general hardware and extensible software (SDR, Software 

Defined Radio), and cognitive radio (CR) technology 

where radio platforms are allowed to adaptively seek out 

and use an unoccupied part of the electromagnetic 

spectrum. Together, SDR and CR technologies are 

expected to bring a number of benefits to wireless 

network operation for several different wireless 

networking environments. Depending on the application, 

such wireless networks can also be expected to add 

several challenges compared to other wireless network 

environments: 

• A wide range of operating conditions: Where 

cellular networks can be designed and 

provisioned to support of given set of services 

within a known area, ad hoc networks are often 

asked to support (through configuration and 

adaptive mechanisms) a wide range of different 

operating conditions with various mobility 

patterns, network densities and traffic patterns. 

• Operation and internetworking in heterogeneous 

network environments: MANETs (Mobile Adhoc 

NETworks) can be expected to be deployed 

and used in a manner where services are 

expected to traverse over a number of different 

wired or wireless networks. 

• User and service differentiation: Due to the 

bandwidth constraints and high variability, 

MANETs can be expected to encounter 


comparatively more frequent instances where 

there is a negative mismatch between demands 

for and supply of communication resources. It is 

expected that resources can be allocated in a 

manner where some users and services, that have 

been identified as particularly important, 

experience less service disruptions in these 

situations. 

Traditional network management systems are based on 

a manager-agent architecture where each network element 

contains an agent that provides software component 

interfaces, which allow for remote configuration and 

extraction of variables. A centralized manager 

periodically polls the agent of a network element to get or 

set a value of different variables’. An agent of a network 

element can also asynchronously send a message to the 

manager, e.g. reporting the occurrence of a fault. 

Traditional network management systems are managed 

manually by a network system operator via some 

graphical interface. The wireless networking 

environments that are of primary interest in this research 

project, characterized by the properties described earlier, 

bring several added challenges to traditional, centralized 

network management paradigms. Such traditional 

network management paradigms often rely on centralized 

and human-controlled management decisions propagated 

to network elements, which are clearly not adequate as a 

centralized entity can never be expected to have and 

analyze the network state information that is necessary to 

make informed network management decisions. This 

proposed research primarily addresses two management 

aspects, performance management and security 

management, coupled to a support tool that is used during 

the provisioning, operation and evaluation of a cognitive 

network on a per-mission basis. We will here and in the 

following research areas use the term Cognitive Network 

Management System as an abstraction for this software 

tool. 

3. Goal 

The goal is to give an architectural description of a 

cognitive radio network management system in the 

context of network and spectrum management of next 

generation military tactical communication system. The 

main capabilities that are focused on are: simplify and 

shorten the mission preparation and configuration phases 

for national and multi-national deployments of tactical 

networks, improve tactical network performance by 

enabling dynamic spectrum and network management, 

and improve spectrum utility to maximize the use of 

military spectrum allocations. Some identified important 

aspects are: security aspects of cognitive network 

management, capabilities for local processing of goals, 

monitoring of the local environment, reaction to 

contextual events by self-configuration and information 

propagation for interactions with and between CNMS 

components and network elements, objective functions 

and their interrelations to measuring and control 

parameters. As a reference point for describing the 

architecture a waveform is described and analyzed from 

the perspective of measures, control parameters, behavior, 

and their relation to objective functions and mission based 

utility. Identification of important parameters, their 

behavior and relations are conducted by smaller 

simulation (small world isolation) and implementation 

studies included in the project. The approach for 

designing these experiments is based on requirement 

extraction from available scenarios and user cases. The 

main focus is directed towards the goal of indentifying a 

feasible architecture for cognitive network management 

system, i.e. its structural design and its behavior.. 

4. Accomplishments 

The proposed system architecture is a multi-tier structure, 

where individual tiers can operate autonomous without 

overlaying tiers. These tiers reflect the horizontal structure 

in a network of networks. It includes everything from 

individual parameters of a protocol executing on a 

platform to higher level policy respiratory. The 

management interfaces, figure 1, towards the waveform is 

inherited from architecture derived in the ARAGORN 

project [3]. The low level control and learning, blue box 

in figure 1, is representing all algorithms that control and 

optimize the operation of the system in short term. It is a 

very big challenge to truly understand all these control 

parameters in waveform, how they are dependent on each 

other and their time constant. In order to get a better 

understanding of such control parameters, mechanisms, 

and their behavior the project especially have looked at 

evolutionary algorithms for resource assignment [4]-[6] 

(typically NP hard problems), were algorithmic stability 

(robustness), algorithmic convergence and time 

complexity especially been studied for centralized 

algorithms. The next step is to look at the same algorithms 

with decentralized implementation. 

Figure 1. Functional modules and interfaces. 

Furthermore, to understand and to be able to model the 

behavior of the mechanisms a theoretical benchmark 


29

waveform is under construction [7]. The main objective 

for this part of the project is to identify important 

parameters, their time constants and their 

interdependencies. 

The working hypothesis for high level reasoning and 

learning (the core of a cognitive engine) is to apply a new 

cognitive model based on emotional learning. The 

proposed cognitive model is based on the function and the 

anatomical structure of the human emotional system, 

figure 2. The function of the emotional system is to 

control basic instincts like: aggression, fear, laughter, 

sexual arousal etc. In the proposed model the structural 

sub parts, figure 2, mimic the limbic system regions [8] in 

the human brain including: thalamus, sensory cortex, 

amygdala, and orbitofrontal cortex. The connections 

between these sub parts are similar to the structure of 

those regions of the limbic system of a human brain that 

have a role in emotional learning. 

Figure 2. Structural model of emotional learning. 

Developing an artificial cognitive model for high level 

reasoning and learning is a challenge since it must provide 

four capabilities: decision, prediction, control and, 

optimization. The focus has so far been to evaluate the 

prediction capability of the proposed computational 

model of emotional learning. Especially, evaluating its 

capability of predicting stochastic time series [9]-[10], 

this unfortunately is a very common parameter context 

that a network management system has to operate within. 

For the evaluation of the prediction capability of the 

cognitive model as well artificial stochastic time series as 

natural stochastic time series have been used, Lorenz time 

series, Henon time series and sun spot time series, 

respectively. 

The graph in figure 3 displays the monthly smoothed 

sunspot number from 1976 to 1996 both the real value 

and the value predicted 6 month ahead by using a 

proposed implementation of emotional learning model 

[10]. 

Figure 3. The real and predicted values of smoothed monthly 

sunspots from January 1976 to April 1996 using BELFIS. 

References 

[1]S. R. Atkinsson and J. Moffat, The Agile Organization – From 

informal networks to complex effects and agility, Command and Control 

Research Program (CCRP) publishing series, 2005. 

[2] M. J. Ryan an d M. R. Frater, Tactical Communication for the 

Digitized Battlefield, Artech House, 2002. 

[3]ARAGORN homepage: http://www.ict-aragorn.eu/ 

[4] M. Parsapoor, U. Bilstrup, " Using the grouping genetic algorithm 

(GGA) for channel assignment in a cluster-based mobile ad hoc network 

," in proceedings of the 8th Swedish National Computer Networking 

Workshop. SNCNW 2012, June, 2012. 

[5] M. Parsapoor and U. Bilstrup, "Imperialist Competition Algorithm 

for DSA in Cognitive Radio Networks," in proceedings of 8th 

International Conference on Wireless Communications, Networking and 

Mobile Computing, WiCOM 2012, Shanghai, China September, 2012. 

[6] M. Parsapoor and U. Bilstrup, “Merging ant colony optimization 

based clustering and an imperialist competitive algorithm for spectrum 

management of a cognitive mobile ad hoc network,” in proceedings of 

The Wireless Innovation Forum Conference on Communications 

Technologies and Software Defined Radio, SDR-WInnComm 2013, 

Wahington D.C., U.S. January 2013. 

[7] K. Kunert, M. Jonsson and U. Bilstrup, “Deterministic real-time 

medium access for cognitive industrial radio networks,” in Proceedings 

of the 9th IEEE International Workshop on Factory Communication 

Systems, WFCS 2012, Lemgo, Germany, 2012. 

[8] M.S. Gazzaniga, R. B. Ivry and G.S. Mangun, Cognitive 

Neuroscience – The Biologu of the Mind, 3 ed ., W. W. Norton & 

Company, 2009. 

[9] M. Parsapoor and U. Bilstrup, " Neuro-Fuzzy Models, BELRFS and 

LOLIMOT, for Prediction of Chaotic Time Series," in proceedings of 

the International Symposium on INnovations in Intelligent SysTems and 

Applications, INISTA 2012, Trabzon, Turkey, July, 2012. 

[10] M. Parsapoor and U. Bilstrup, “Brain Emotional Learning Based 

Fuzzy Inference System (BELFIS) for Solar Activity Forecasting,” in 

proceedings of 24 th IEEE International Conference on Tools with 

Artificial Intelligence, ICTAI 2012, Athens, Greece November, 2012. 

______________________________________________ 


Funding: CERES+, KK-Foundation 

Partners: Saab Security and Defense Solutions 

Project period: January 2012 – December 2013. 

Project members: Urban Bilstrup, Hans Åkermark, 

Mahboobeh Parsapoor, Kristina Kunnert 

Project leader: Urban Bilstrup 

______________________________________________ 


WisCon - Wireless sensor concept node 

WiSCoN – WIRELESS SENSOR CONCEPT NODE 

P. Enoksson 1 , B. Fliesberg 2 , E. Johansson 3 , M. Jonsson 4 , K. Kunert 4 , and M. Öhman 3 

1. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden 

2. Volvo 3P, Gothenburg, Sweden 

3. Volvo Technology Corporation, Gothenburg, Sweden 

4. Centre for Research on Embedded Systems (CERES), Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden 

The objective of the project is to explore and show the concrete benefits and potential of self-sustaining wireless sensors and 

to understand their limitations. The scope of the project includes not only wireless communication, but also aspects related to 

energy supply and storage. The intention is to build a wireless-sensor concept node that can be used to realistically assess the 

feasibility of self-sustaining wireless sensors from an industrialization viewpoint. 


In today’s advanced and complex vehicles systems, sensors 

are key components, acting as sources of much of the data 

that is required input into a large number of complex invehicle 

control functions. Typically, the sensors’ power 

supply, as well as the data exchange, is realized with 

standard wiring. A reduction or elimination of sensor 

wiring will allow for a reduction of material cost, product 

weight (leading to better fuel economy), and issues with the 

wiring harness quality. It will also enable new concepts that 

are infeasible today due to limitations set by the wiring 

harness (routing and packaging issues, placement of 

moving parts, etc.). 

The purpose of this project is to build a knowledge base 

covering the technology behind self-sustaining wireless 

sensors in vehicles. The goal is to realistically assess the 

feasibility of wireless sensors from an industrialization 

viewpoint. 

We aim at developing a wireless-sensor concept node for 

studying and evaluating various concepts and technologies 

needed for wireless sensors for automotive applications, 

including energy supply, communication technologies, and 

power management. The overall goal is to explore and 

show the concrete benefits and potential of self-sustaining 

wireless sensors and also to understand its limitations. 

Some of the prospective benefits of wireless sensors in 

automotive applications include: 

Reduction of product cost by elimination of wiring 

harness and connectors 

Increased quality by removing sources of failures 

related to wiring and connectors 

Reduction of manufacturing and aftermarket costs by 

reducing the installation and replacement time for 

sensors 

Reduction of wiring harness variants (→ simpler 

variant handling → lower development and product 

cost) 

Possibility to place sensors where it is infeasible to 

have wired sensors (such as moving and sealed parts) 

2. Approach 

In order to achieve the vision of self-sustaining wireless 

sensors, it is necessary to achieve a good level of maturity 

in a number of technologies, such as energy harvesting, 

local energy storage, wireless energy distribution, lowpower 

sensor technologies, and short-range wireless 

communication. 

Local energy storage 

Energy storage can be dimensioned to carry energy for 

short time intervals (as a container for locally generated 

energy), or for long time intervals (service period or 

lifetime of a vehicle). Possible short-time storage 

technologies include, e.g., rechargeable batteries (NiMh, 

LiIon, etc.) or small supercaps. For long-time storage nonrechargeable 

battery technologies are a possibility. 

Energy harvesting devices 

MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) based energy 

harvesting devices can generate energy in the µW range 

from vibrations. In most cases this is too low for powering 

sensors, but combined with efficient energy storage, a 

complete system can be built. 

Low power sensors 

Ultra-low power sensors available on the market together 

with proper energy management make it possible to lower 

the energy consumption of a sensor node so it can be 

powered by an energy scavenger. 

Short range wireless digital communication 

Communication between the sensor nodes need to be 

energy efficient. Quality of service issues need to be 

addressed, and frequency and modulation must be chosen 

correctly in order to increase the probability of signals 

reaching the receivers in a space full of metallic structures. 

Partners and Status 

Academic partner: Chalmers University of Technology 

Industrial partner: Volvo Technology Corporation 

Project funding: Funded by VINNOVA through the FFI – 

Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation program 

(Vehicle Development collaboration program) 

Project volume: 5.24 MSEK (HH share: 0.35 MSEK) 

Duration: January 1, 2011 – December 31, 2013. 

Project leader: Mikaela Öhman, Volvo Technology 

Corporation 

Participating researchers at CERES: Dr Kristina Kunert, 

Prof. Magnus Jonsson 


31

VehicleNets – Dependable Real-Time Services in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks 

VehicleNets – Dependable Real-Time Services in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks 

Annette Böhm 1 , Le-Nam Hoang 1 , Magnus Jonsson 1 , Kristina Kunert 1 , Tony Larsson 1 , 

Katrin Sjöberg 2 , Lars Strandén 3 , Elisabeth Uhemann 1 , Alexey Vinel 1,4 , and Hossein Zakizadeh 2 

1. Centre for Research on Embedded Systems, Halmstad University; 2. Volvo Technology Corporation; 

3. SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden; 4. Tampere University of Technology 

In this project, we investigate how to improve the communication support in cooperative traffic safety and traffic efficiency 

applications. Especially, we investigate wireless ad hoc networks carrying data traffic having concurrent requirements on 

reliability and real-time performance. The aim is to increase the performance of the communication systems used by these 

applications by tailoring the deployed protocols to the specific communication requirements, operating conditions and system 

constraints. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

communication requirements and data traffic models 


derived from the application layer are used to influence 

the lower layers of the protocol stack, at the same time as 

the operating conditions such as current channel 

conditions and interference situation determine the 

content and type of future data traffic. This implies that 

the realization must not only support the current 

requirements and conditions, but also be able to adapt 

during runtime to cope with the dynamic nature of 

vehicular ad hoc networks. 

Many emerging applications enabled by wireless ad hoc 

networks have concurrent requirements on reliable and 

time-critical (real-time) communication. A typical 

example of such an emerging application area is traffic 

safety systems. This project aims to increase the 

performance of the communication systems used by these 

applications by tailoring the deployed protocols to the 

specific communication requirements, operating 

conditions and system constraints. 

2. Project Goals 

The overall project goal of this two-year project is to 

provide design guidelines for low complexity 

communication systems tailored to the requirements and 

conditions encountered in vehicular ad hoc networks. The 

communication systems should give the best possible 

performance under given constraints, and allow trading 

off used resources against achievable performance for 

varying operating conditions. Typical constraints are 

complexity, upper bounded delay in terms of real-time 

deadlines and limited network-induced interference to 

enable fairness and scalability in decentralized ad hoc 

networks. The considered performance metrics are 

derived from emerging traffic safety applications and 

include spectral efficiency, outage probability, network 

fairness and deadline miss ratio. In this context two 

example applications are considered: platooning and 

emergent approaching vehicles. 

One goal is to investigate how 802.11p, the new standard 

for short to medium range vehicular communication, 

performs in the targeted type scenario and to compare 

802.11p to own solutions in terms of real-time 

performance and reliability. 

3. Approach 

To approach theoretical limits for reliable 

communications with practical receiver complexity while 

utilizing the scarce radio spectrum as efficiently as 

possible, cross-layer design of cooperative 

communication strategies is adopted. This implies that 

As the communication environment encountered in 

vehicular networks is highly dynamic, it is necessary to 

make the communication protocols at all layers context 

aware. The qualitative communication requirements 

imposed by the applications must be connected to the 

current channel conditions in a given area. By using 

information from onboard sensors like radar, lidar, and 

cameras, as well as knowledge about sensor readings of 

surrounding vehicles, a better picture of the surroundings 

and the radio environment can be obtained. By relating 

the requirements from the applications to kinematic and 

specific traffic situations, more dependable services can 

be developed with, e.g., graceful degradation in case of 

communication outage. 

The data traffic models and the communication 

requirements are also used to derive performance metrics, 

which could be of a traditional sort, such as spectral 

efficiency, reliability and throughput, but also metrics 

from emerging applications such as outage probability, 

network fairness, deadline miss ratio and energy 

efficiency should be considered. Next, the performance 

goals together with the operating conditions and particular 

constraints on complexity, hardware or software will 

determine the chosen realization. The different tools used 

for realization in this project include cooperative coding 

and diversity, iterative signal processing algorithms, 

incremental redundancy, relaying, network coding, 

routing, scheduling and medium access methods. 

4. Results (so far) 

A study of how to adapt the CAM (periodically 

broadcasted status messages) report rate to the 

potentially low road traffic density of a rural road has 

been performed. By making use of the priority levels 


provided by the 802.11p quality of service mechanism, 

we showed that hazards can be detected earlier and the 

available bandwidth is used more efficiently, while still 

not over-exploiting the network resources. 

Two technical reports (TR) [ETSI 2011] [ETSI 2012] 

have been handed in to ETSI about time-slotted 

medium access control (MAC) methods for vehicular 

communications. ETSI had funded the work with the 

two TRs in a so-called specialist task force (STF), but 

the work is highly connected to the VehicleNets project. 

The dissemination of event-triggered warning messages 

(DENM) within a platoon of vehicles, together with 

CAM messages, has been studied. We have evaluated 

the effect of adaptive send rates, priority schemes and 

message dissemination models on the dissemination 

delay of warning messages within the platoon and on 

the successful exchange of periodic status updates. 

A method to increase the reliability of Road Side Unit 

(RSU) based communication by incorporating a realtime 

retransmissions scheme has been developed. The 

RSU is responsible for the scheduling. Simulation 

results show that significant improvements of the 

reliability can be obtained, especially when the number 

of vehicles communicating is limited. 

The methods for reliable RSU based real-time 

communication has been adapted and evaluated for the 

platooning scenario. The performance for, e.g., different 

platoon sizes has been evaluated and the results are 

promising. 

An analytical model to evaluate the CAM 

transmissions, which accounts for frequent periodic 

updates of broadcasted data and IEEE 802.11p 

prioritized channel access with multichannel-related 

phenomena under various link quality conditions, has 

been developed. 

Joint work has been initiated with Lund University to 

determine how shadowing and hidden terminals affect 

the MAC method. 

An initial study on the adaptation of the physical layer 

in IEEE 802.11p has been made. 

An initial study of city safety and the role of wireless ad 

hoc networks has been made. 


The project is funded by the Knowledge Foundation 

(through the CERES profile+). Moreover, the project is 

funded by SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden and 

Volvo Technology Corporation in the form of, e.g. 

manpower. 

Project leader: Magnus Jonsson. 

Project duration: formally 2012-2013, but in practice the 

project started in 2011. 

PUBLICATIONS & REPORTS (SO FAR) 

Böhm, A., M. Jonsson, E. Uhlemann, “Adaptive cooperative 

awareness messaging for enhanced overtaking assistance on 

rural roads,” Proc. IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference 

(VTC Fall), San Francisco, CA, USA, Sept. 2011. 

Campolo, C., A. Molinaro, A. Vinel, and Y. Zhang “Modeling 

prioritized broadcasting in multichannel vehicular networks,” 

IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 

687-701, Feb. 2012. 

“Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS); Performance Evaluation of 

Self-Organizing TDMA as Medium Access Control Method 

Applied to ITS; Access Layer Part,” ETSI TR 102 862 V1.1.1, 

ETSI, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France, 2012. 

“Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS); STDMA recommended 

parameters and settings for cooperative ITS; Access Layer Part,” 

ETSI TR 102 861 V1.1.1, ETSI, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France, 

2012. 

Jonsson, M., K. Kunert, and A. Böhm, “Increased 

communication reliability for delay-sensitive platooning 

applications on top of IEEE 802.11p,” M. Berbineau et al. 

(Eds.): Nets4Cars/Nets4Trains 2013, LNCS 7865, Springer- 

Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 121-135, 2013. 15 pages. 

Jonsson, M., K. Kunert, and A. Böhm, “Increasing the 

probability of timely and correct message delivery in road side 

unit based vehicular communication,” Proc. 15th IEEE 

Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC 2012), 

Anchorage, AK, USA, Sept. 16-19, 2012. 8 pages. 

Jonsson, M. "Why real-time communication matters," Embedded 

Conference Scandinavia (ECS2011), Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 

4-5, 2011. 

Lidström, K., K. Sjöberg, U. Holmberg, J. Andersson, F. Bergh, 

M. Bjäde, and S. Mak, "A modular CACC system integration 

and design," IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation 

Systems, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 1050-1061, Sept. 2012. 

Sjöberg, K., E. Uhlemann, and E. Ström, "How severe is the 

hidden terminal problem in VANETs when using CSMA and 

STDMA?," Proc. IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC 

Fall), San Francisco, CA, USA, Sept. 2011. 

Uhlemann, E., “Report on Wireless Vehicular Communications 

(VTS News),” IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 7, no. 

3, pp. 102-106, 2012. 


33

CVAN: Cross-Layer Design of VANETs for Traffic Safety 

CVAN: Cross-‐Layer Design of VANETs for Traffic Safety 

Project manager: Elisabeth Uhlemann 1 

Project members: Taimoor Abbas 2 , Le Nam Hoang 1 , Maria Kihl 2 , Erik G. Larsson 3 , Katrin Sjöberg 1 and Fredrik Tufvesson 2 

1 Halmstad University (HH), 2 EIT, Lund University (LU) and 3 ISY, Linköping University (LiU) 

Rationale and Motivation 

Traffic-safety applications based on inter-vehicle 

communications have quite demanding operating 

conditions and generate delay-sensitive data traffic 

with requirements on high reliability. From ongoing 

standardization activities (IEEE 802.11p, ETSI ITS- 

G5 and ISO CALM M5), it is clear that most trafficsafety 

applications will be based on vehicular ad 

hoc networks (VANETs) where event-driven hazard 

warning messages and time-triggered positioning 

messages are broadcasted on the 5.9 GHz band. 

Traffic-safety applications differ from most existing 

applications using wireless communications 

in that reliability and predictable delay are required 

concurrently. Traditional performance measures, 

such as throughput, are therefore not directly applicable. 

Existing wireless protocols have been designed 

to provide reliable (web browsing) or timecritical 

communications (voice) but not both concurrently. 

Achieving high data reliability within a 

given time frame is particularly difficult in vehicular 

networks due to the highly dynamic radio channel 

and fading characteristics. Traffic-safety applications 

must also be designed to take the characteristics 

of a VANET into account, namely: a decentralized 

network topology, peer-to-peer communications 

between highly mobile terminals, one common 

channel where broadcast is the preferred communication 

mode. Consequently, the technical issues that 

need to be resolved concern all layers in the protocol 

stack. A cross-layer design paradigm enables 

sufficient dynamics to meet the increased performance 

requirements of traffic-safety applications 

such that both quality of service (QoS) constraints 

and the specific conditions expected for vehicular 

systems can be satisfied. 

Scientific Questions Addressed 

The CVAN project address the following crosslayer 

scientific questions: 

Develop new channel models: Due to the carrier 

frequency of 5.9 GHz, the high relative speed between 

transceivers and the antennas being located at 

approx. the same height (as opposed to the case 

with a base station and a mobile terminal), existing 

channel models are not applicable. 

Develop new performance metrics: Trafficsafety 

applications imply a distributed control system, 

with concurrent requirements on high reliability 

and real-time deadlines. Existing performance 

metrics throughput and data rate are thus not applicable. 

Further, also the metric deadline miss ratio 

traditionally used for real-time traffic, needs to be 

redefined for broadcast. 

Design new protocols: The ad hoc network with 

broadcast data dissemination implies that the solutions 

need to be self-organizing and scalable. The 

time-critical and reliable-sensitive data traffic requires 

a solution that provides predictable delay and 

high reliability. All these features should imbue all 

layers in the protocol stack. 

On the individual layers, the following scientific 

questions are addressed: 

Channel characterization and antenna placement: 

Radio channel models are seminal for performance 

evaluation of wireless systems. The timevariations 

encountered in a VANET arise because 

of the high mobility of transmitter, receiver as well 

as many important scattering objects. In CVAN we 

construct channel models based on radio measurements 

of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) propagation. The 

models include the typical non-stationary conditions, 

and can be used for simulations of system 

performance as well as analysis of antenna-channel 

interaction. Note that both single and multiple antenna 

models are considered, with emphasis on robustness 

rather than maximizing spectral efficiency. 

Medium Access Control: To support real-time 

deadlines, the medium access control (MAC) method 

must be predictable such that the maximum 

channel access delay is known. Further, all nodes 

should be able to access the channel with equal 

probability within a limited time period, i.e., the 

MAC method must be fair. If the MAC protocol 

schedules transmissions appropriately, the packet 

reception probability (PRP) for the closest neighboring 

nodes is maximized and reliability is improved. 

The number of vehicles participating in a 

VANET is unknown and cannot be restricted. The 

adopted MAC method must therefore be scalable. 

The MAC method adopted by current standardization, 

CSMA, has some of the desired properties, it is 


decentralized, self-organizing and aims at minimizing 

interference between any transmitters, but it 

does not necessarily maximize the PRP for the closest 

neighboring nodes or provide scalable, fair and 

predictable channel access for broadcast. In CVAN, 

a decentralized, self-organizing, predictable and 

scalable MAC algorithm capable of maintaining a 

high PRP for the closest neighboring nodes also in 

overloaded networks is under development. 

Traffic-safety applications based on broadcast: 

An efficient data dissemination strategy for trafficsafety 

applications must ensure a high success rate 

regarding the timely delivery of the emergency 

message to all the vehicles within a safety zone. 

Thus, we have developed an adaptive selective 

broadcast algorithm which increments the transmission 

power level of the sender each time it senses 

that warning messages are not received. Compared 

to regular selective broadcast algorithms and flooding, 

our algorithm shows a clear improvement in 

warning delivery ratio even when network connectivity 

is low. A high-performance dissemination algorithm 

proactively adapting transmission power to 

network density is the next objective in CVAN. 

Scientific Achievement and Activities 

Halmstad actively participates in standardization 

within ETSI TC ITS. The work on the MAC layer 

resulted in ETSI initiating a specialist task force 

(STF395) to evaluate time-slotted MAC approaches 

for VANETs. Katrin Sjöberg from Halmstad was 

elected the STF leader and received Euro 45 000:- 

from the European Commission funding her research. 

The project members organize a yearly workshop 

on Wireless Vehicular Communications, which 

apart from speakers from Lund and Halmstad also 

features invited speakers funded by IEEE VTS. In 

2012 it was Andreas Festag, NEC and the workshop 

took place Nov. 30, 2012 in Halmstad, 

www.hh.se/wwvc2012. 


35

A Virtual Testbed for Smart Micro Grids 

A VIRTUAL TESTBED FOR SMART MICRO GRIDS 

A. Sant’Anna 1 , V. Gaspes 1 , W. Taha 1 , R. Bass 2 


2. Power Engineering Lab, Portland State University, 97207 Oregon, USA 

This project is part of CERES+. The project addresses the cooperation between Portland State University (PSU) 

and Halmstad University (HU) and strengthens the group at HU working on modeling cyber physical systems. 

The project started on June 2012 and is concerned with the development of models and simulations that support 

the study and development of smart micro grids. 


Electrical grids with the ability to automatically 

gather, monitor, and react to information are 

commonly referred to as “smart grids”. Grids are 

becoming “smarter,” in part, thanks to the 

proliferation of phasor measurement units (PMU), 

which enable synchronized real-time measurements of 

multiple remote points on the grid. The tendency for 

the future is to have more and more of these units 

deployed throughout the grid, making new ways of 

monitoring and managing power systems possible. 

Power systems are composed of three main elements: 

generation, transmission and distribution. These can 

span thousands of kilometers and provide electricity to 

thousands of houses, offices and industries. In this 

project, however, we will consider small parts of the 

grid referred to as micro grids. An example of micro 

grid could be a neighborhood or a university campus. 

In this context, smart buildings are important 

components of smart micro grids. They can monitor 

the use of electricity, optimize costs based on current 

electricity prices and even predict its occupant’s 

needs. 

2. Problem Statement 

Micro grids can be decomposed into three layers: 

The physical layer, which includes appliances and 

equipment that consume electricity; 

The sensor and communication networks, which 

gather and transmit information about the grid; 

The grid management, which processes the 

acquired information and makes decisions about 

when and how to use electricity. 

Normally, each layer is studied separately. However, 

smart grids are the combination of all three and can 

only be studied by considering all three layers 

together. 

This project addresses the need for models and 

simulation tools that can consider all three layers 

concurrently. 

3. Approach 

This project will be organized as two interrelated 

studies. The activities of each of the studies are 

explained below. 

A. Residential heating systems for demand response 

programs 

This study will develop models of residential heating 

systems composed of an isolated water tank and 

forced convection. It is believed these heating systems 

may be used by electricity distribution companies to 

dynamically adjust voltage, frequency and load in the 

grid - known as demand response programs. 

Simulations will be used to investigate whether this is 

possible to achieve without compromising the thermal 

comfort of the home. 

B. Modeling a smart home: development and 

validation 

This study will develop models of home appliances 

and other residential loads, as well as models of 

sensors and management schemes that are feasible 

with the technology commercially available today. 

This incorporates all three layers described in Section 

2. These models will represent a real home where data 

can be collected. The acquired data will be compared 

to the simulated data in order to validate the models. 


Funding: CERES+ (KK foundation) 

Duration: 01 June 2012 – 01 June 2013 

Project coordinator: Veronica Gaspes 

This project includes two trips to Portland, Oregon, 

where Anita Sant’Anna can meet and interact with 

Robert Bass and his team, and a number of other 

actors in the field of smart grids. The first trip took 

place during October 2012. 

The first study is being conducted jointly with Robert 

Bass at Portland State University. The respective 

publication will be written during January and 

February 2013. 

The second study will enlist the help of Hans Erik 

Eldemark. Most models have been developed, but the 

data collection and the writing of the respective 

publication will take place during February, March, 

April and May 2013. 

PUBLICATIONS 

Two publications have been planned: 

A feasibility study of the use of residential heating 

systems for demand response programs based on 

simulations; 

Comparison of simulation results and real data 

collected from a smart home. 


Publications 2010-2012 

International full-paper reviewed journal papers 

Accepted during 2012 for publication during 2013 

Wolkerstorfer M., J. Jaldén, and T. Nordström, “Lowcomplexity 

optimal discrete-rate spectrum balancing in 

digital subscriber lines,” Signal Processing, vol. 93. no. 1, pp. 

23-34, 2013. 

N. Noroozi, R. Khosravi, M.R. Mousavi, and T.A.C. 

Willemse. Synchrony and Asynchrony in Conformance 

Testing, Software and Systems Modeling, Springer, 2013. 

Accepted. Available online at Online First. 

2012 

Zain-Ul-Abdin, and B. Svensson, “Occam-pi for 

programming of massively parallel reconfigurable 

architectures”, International Journal of Reconfigurable 

Computing, vol. 2012, Article ID 504815, 2012. 17 pages. 

Lidstrom, K., K. Sjöberg, U. Holmberg, J. Andersson, F. 

Bergh, M. Bjade, and S. Mak, “A modular CACC system 

integration and design,” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent 

Transportation Systems, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 1050-1061, Sept. 


Wolkerstorfer, M., S. Trautmann, T. Nordström, and 

B. Putra, “Modeling and optimization of line-driver 

power consumption in xDSL systems,” EURASIP 

Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, 2012;(2012:226), 

doi:10.1186/1687-6180-2012-226. 

Wolkerstorfer M., D. Statovci, and T. Nordström, 

“Energy-saving by low-power modes in ADSL2,” 

Computer Networks, vol. 56, no. 10, pp. 2468-2480, 2012. 

Wolkerstorfer M., D. Statovci, and T. Nordström, 

“Enabling greener DSL access networks by their 

stabilization with artificial noise and SNR margin,” Cluster 

Computing, Apr. 2012. 

Wolkerstorfer M., J. Jaldén, and T. Nordström, “Column 

generation for discrete- rate multi-user and multi-carrier 

power control,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 

60, no. 9, pp. 2712-2722, 2012. 

2011 

Böhm, A., and M. Jonsson, “Real-time communication 

support for cooperative, infrastructure-based traffic 

safety applications,” International Journal of Vehicular 

Technology, 2011. 17 pages. 

Salama, C., G. Malecha, W. Taha, J. Grundy, and J. 

O’Leary, “Static consistency checking for verilog wire 

interconnects,” Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation 

2011, pp. 1-34, Sept. 2011. 

Taha, W., P. Brauner, R. Cartwright, V. Gaspes, A. Ames, 

and A. Chapoutot, “A core language for executable 

models of cyber physical systems: work in progress 

report,” SIGBED Review,” vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 39-43, 2011. 

Pignaton de Freitas, E., T. Heimfarth, C. E. Pereira, 

A. Morado Ferreira, F. Rech Wagner, and T. Larsson, 

“Multi-agent support in a middleware for mission-driven 

heterogeneous sensor networks”, The Computer Journal, 

vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 406-420, 2011. 

Sant’Anna, A., A. Salarian, N. Wickström, “A new 

measure of movement symmetry in early Parkinson’s 

disease patients using symbolic processing of inertial 

sensor data,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 

vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2127-2135, 2011. 

Zaveri, M.S. and D. Hammerstrom, “Performance/ 

price estimates for cortex-scale hardware: A design space 

exploration,” Neural Networks, (Archival Journal of the 

International Neural Network Society), vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 291- 

304, Apr. 2011. 

Mhaidat, K. M., M.A. Jabri, and D. Hammerstrom, 

“Representation, methods, and circuits for time-based 

conversion and computation,” International Journal of 

Circuit Theory and Applications, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 299-311, 

Mar. 2011. 

2010 

Freitas E.P., T. Heimfarth, R.S. Allgayer, F.R. Wagner, C.E. 

Pereira, T. Larsson, and A.M. Ferreira. “Coordinating 

aerial robots and unattended ground sensors for 

intelligent surveillance systems,” International Journal of 

Computers, Communications & Control. vol. 5, no.1, 2010. p. 

55-73. 

Sant’Anna, A. & N. Wickström “A symbol-based approach 

to gait analysis from acceleration signals: identification 

and detection of gait events and a new measure of gait 

symmetry”, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in 

Biomedicine, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 1180-1187, Sept. 2010. 

Nilsson, B., L. Bengtsson, and B. Svensson, “An energy 

and application scenario aware active RFID protocol,” 

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and 

Networking, vol. 2010, Article ID 432938, 15 pages, 2010. 

doi:10.1155/2010/432938 

Zaveri, M. S. and D. Hammerstrom, “Nano/CMOS 

implementations of inference in bayesian memory – an 

architecture assessment methodology,” IEEE Transactions 

on Nanotechnology, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 194-211, Mar. 2010. 


37

Books, book chapters and editorial work 


Mecklenbräuker, C., L. Bernadó, O. Klemp, A. Kwoczek, 

A. Paier, M. Schack, K. Sjöberg, E. Ström, F. Tufvesson, 

E. Uhlemann, and T. Zemen, “Vehicle-to-vehicle 

communications,” in Pervasive Mobile and Ambient Wireless 

Communications,” edited by R. Verdone and A. Zanella, 

Springer London 2012, pp. 577-608. ISBN: 978-1-4471- 

2314-9. 

Bellalta, B., A. Vinel, M. Jonsson, J. Barcelo, R. 

Maslennikov, P. Chatzimisios, and D. Malone, editors. 

Multiple Access Communications, 5th International Workshop, 

MACOM 2012, Maynooth, Ireland, Nov. 19-20, 2012, 

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 7642, Springer, ISBN 

978-3-642-34975-1. 183 pages. 

2011 

De Freitas, E., B. Bösch, R. Allgayer, L. Steinfeld, F. 

Wagner, L. Carro, C. Pereira, and T. Larsson, “Mobile 

Agents Model and Performance Analysis of a Wireless 

Sensor Network Target Tracking Application,” Smart 

spaces and next generation wired/wireless networking: 11th 

International Conference, NEW2AN 2011, and 4th 

Conference on Smart Spaces, ruSMART 2011, St. 

Petersburg, Russia, August 22-25 2011 : proceedings. 

Springer, Heidelberg. pp. 274-286, 2011. 

Müller, I., A. Cavalcante, E. De Freitas, R. Allgayer, C. 

Pereira, and T. Larsson, ”Evaluation of RTSJ-Based 

Distributed Control System,” Smart spaces and next 

generation wired/wireless networking: 11th international 

conference, NEW2AN 2011, and 4th Conference on 

Smart Spaces, ruSMART 2011, St. Petersburg, Russia, 

August 22-15, 2011 : proceedings. Springer, Berlin. pp. 

295-303, 2011. 

Wolkerstorfer M., Nordström, T., B. Krasniqi, M. 

Wrulich, and C. Mecklenbräuker, “OFDM/OFDMA 

Subcarrier Allocation”, Cross Layer Designs in WLAN 

Systems, Eds. N. Zorba, C. Skianis and C. Verikoukis, 

Troubador Publishing Ltd, vol. 1, Chapter 6, pp. 177-216, 

2011, ISBN 9781848762275. 

2010 

Bengtsson J., “Intermediate representations for simulation 

and implementation,” in Handbook of Signal processing 

systems, 1st ed., Bhattacharyya, S.S., E.F. Deprettere, R. 

Leupers and J. Takala, Springer, Aug. 29, 2010. ISBN: 

978-1-4419-6344-4 

Jonsson, M., and K. Kunert. “Wired and wireless reliable 

real-time communication in industrial systems,” in 

Factory Automation, Editor: J. Silvestre-Blanes, IN-TECH, 

Vienna, Austria, pp. 161-176, 2010, ISBN 978-953-7619- 

42-8. 2010. 

Heimfarth, T., E. P. Freitas, F. R. Wagner, and T. Larsson. 

“Middleware support for wireless sensor networks: a 

survey,” in Handbook of Research on Developments and Trends 

in Wireless Sensor Networks: From Principle to Practice, H.Jin 

and W.Jiang (organizers), Hershey, Information Science 

Reference (IGI Global), 2010. 

Zaveri, M. S. and D. Hammerstrom, “Chapter 4: CMOL/ 

CMOS implementations of bayesian inference engine: 

digital and mixed-signal architectures and performance/ 

price – a hardware design space exploration,” in CMOS 

Processors and Memories, Ed. Krzysztof Iniewski, Springer, 

2010. DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-9216-8. 

Doctoral and Licentiate theses 


Lidström, K., “Situation-Aware Vehicles Supporting the 

Next Generation of Cooperative Traffic Systems,” Ph.D. 

Thesis, Örebro University, Feb. 2012. 

2011 

Pignaton de Freitas, E., “Cooperative Context Aware 

Setup and Performance of Surveillance Missions Using 

Static and Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks,” Ph.D. thesis, 

Halmstad University, November 2011. 

Zain-ul-Abdin, “Programming of Coarse-Grained 

Reconfigurable Architectures,” Ph.D. Thesis, Örebro 

University, May 2011. 

Wang, Y., “A Domain-Specific Language for Protocol 

Stack Implementation in Embedded Systems,” Ph.D. 

Thesis, Örebro University, June 2011. 

2010 

Nilsson, B., “Energy efficient protocols for active RFID,” 

Ph.D. Thesis, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, 

Sweden, June 2010. 

Kunert, K., “Architectures and protocols for performance 

improvements of real-time networks,” Ph.D. Thesis, 

Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden, Dec. 

2010. 

International full-paper reviewed conference papers 

Accepted during 2013 

Riegler, E., T. Magesacher, D. Statovci, and T. Nordström, 

“Outage analysis for vectored wireline communications”, 

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Communications 

(ICC), Budapest, Hungary, June 9-13, 2013. 

N. Noroozi, M.R. Mousavi, and T.A.C. Willemse. Decomposability 

in Input Output Conformance Testing. 

Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Model-Based Testing 

(MBT 2013), Rome, Italy, Electronic Proceedings in 

Theoretical Computer Science, volume 11, pages 51--66, 

2013. 


F. Dechesne and M.R. Mousavi. Interpreted Systems Semantics 

for Process Algebra with Identity Annotations. 

Post-Proceedings of the 9th International Tbilisi Symposium 

on Language, Logic and Computation (TbiLLC 2011,), 

Kutaisi, Georgia, volume 7758 of Lecture Notes in Computer 

Science, pages 182–-205, Springer, 2013. 

Accepted during 2012 for publication during 2013 

Parsapoor, M. and U. Bilstrup, “Merging ant colony 

optimization based clustering and an imperialist 

competitive algorithm for spectrum management of a 

cognitive mobile ad hoc network,” Proc. of The Wireless 

Innovation Forum Conference on Communications Technologies and 

Software Defined Radio (SDR-WInnComm 2013), Wahington 

D.C., USA, Jan. 2013. 


Parsapoor, M. and U. Bilstrup, “Brain Emotional Learning 

Based Fuzzy Inference System (BELFIS) for Solar 

Activity Forecasting,” Proc. of 24th IEEE International 

Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI 2012), 

Athens, Greece, Nov. 2012. 

Parsapoor, M. and U. Bilstrup, “Imperialist competition 

algorithm for DSA in cognitive radio networks,” Proc. 

of 8th International Conference on Wireless Communications, 

Networking and Mobile Computing (WiCOM 2012), Shanghai, 

China, Sept. 2012. 

Parsapoor, M. and U. Bilstrup, “Neuro-fuzzy models, 

BELRFS and LOLIMOT, for prediction of chaotic time 

series,” Proc. of the International Symposium on INnovations 

in Intelligent SysTems and Applications (INISTA 2012), 

Trabzon, Turkey, July 2012. 

Zain-ul-Abdin, E. Gebrewahid, and B. Svensson, 

”Managing dynamic reconfiguration for fault-tolerance 

on a manycore architecture”, Proc. 26th IEEE International 

Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2012), 

Shanghai, China, May 21-22, 2012. 8 pages. 

Girs, S., E. Uhlemann, and M. Björkman, “The effects 

of relay behavior and position in wireless industrial 

networks,” Proc. IEEE International Workshop on Factory 

Communication Systems, Lemgo, Germany, May 2012, p. 

183-190. 

Inoue, J., W. Taha, “Reasoning about multi-stage 

programs,” Proc. of the 22nd European Symposium on 

Programming (ESOP 2012) held as part of the European Joint 

Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software, ETAPS 2012, 

Tallinn, March 24 - April 1, pp. 357-376. Lecture Notes in 

Computer Science, vol. 7211, 2012. 

Alam, A., Z. Ul-Abdin, and B. Svensson, “Parallelization 

of the estimation algorithm of the 3D structure tensor,” 

Proc. of International Conference on Reconfigurable Computing 

and FPGAs (ReConFig’12), Cancun, Mexico, Dec. 5-7, 


Jonsson, M. and K. Kunert, “MC-EDF: A controlchannel 

based wireless multichannel MAC protocol with 

real-time support,” Proc. 17th IEEE International Conference 

on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA 

2012), Krakow, Poland, Sept. 17-21, 2012. 6 pages. 

Jonsson, M., K. Kunert, and A. Böhm, “Increasing the 

probability of timely and correct message delivery in 

road side unit based vehicular communication,” Proc. 

15th IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC 

2012), Anchorage, AK, USA, Sept. 16-19, 2012. 8 pages. 

Kunert, K., M. Jonsson, and U. Bilstrup, “Deterministic 

real-time medium access for cognitive industrial radio 

networks,” Proc. of the 9th IEEE International Workshop 

on Factory Communication Systems (WFCS 2012), Lemgo/ 

Detmold, Germany, May 21-24, 2012. Best WiP Paper 

Award. 

Taha, W., P. Brauner, Y. Zeng, R. Cartwright, V. Gaspes, 

A. Ames, and A. Chapoutot, ”A core language for 

executable models of cyber-physical systems,” Proc. 

International Workshop on Cyber-Physical Networked Systems 

(CPNS’12), Macau, China, June 20, 2012. 

Willig, A and E. Uhlemann, “On relaying for wireless 

industrial communications: Is careful placement of 

relayers strictly necessary?,” Proc. IEEE International 

Workshop on Factory Communication Systems, Lemgo, 

Germany, May 2012, pp. 191-200. 

Taha, W. and R. Philippsen, “Modeling basic aspects of 

cyber-physical systems,” Proc. 3rd International Workshop 

on Domain-Specific Languages and models for ROBotic systems 

(DSLRob-12). 3rd International Conference on Simulation, 

Modeling, and Programming for Autonomous Robots 

(SIMPAR-2012), Tsukuba, Japan, Nov. 5-8, 2012. 

2011 

Marrocco, G., M. Wolkerstorfer, T. Nordström, and D. 

Statovci, “Energy-efficient DSL using vectoring”, , Proc. 

IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), 

Houston, Texas, USA, Dec. 5-9, 2011. 

Wolkerstorfer, M. and T. Nordström, “Coverage 

optimization in DSL networks by low-complexity discrete 

spectrum balancing”, Proc. IEEE Global Communications 

Conference (GLOBECOM), Houston, Texas, USA, Dec. 

5-9, 2011. 

Bruneau, J., C. Consel, M. O’Malley, W. Taha, and W. 

M. Hannourah, “Virtual testing for smart buildings,” 

International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE’12), 

Guanajuato, Mexico, June 26-28, 2012. 8 pages. 


39

Sjöberg, K., E. Uhlemann, E. G. Ström, “How severe 

is the hidden terminal problem in VANETs when using 

CSMA and STDMA?,” in Proc. IEEE Vehicular Technology 

Conference (VTC Fall), San Francisco, CA, September 

2011, pp. 1-5. 

Lidström, K., J. Andersson, F. Bergh, M. Bjäde, and S. 

Mak, “ITS as a tool for teaching cyber-physical systems,” 

8th ITS European Congress, Lyon, France, 2011. 

Taha, W. and R. Cartwright, “The trouble with real 

numbers,” Proceedings of the Workshop on Software Language 

Engineering for Cyber-Physical Systems (WS4C 2011), Lecture 

Notes in Informatics, Berlin, Germany, 2011. 

Taha, W., V. Gaspes, and R. Page, “Accurate programming: 

thinking about programs in terms of properties,” IFIP 

Working Conference on Domain-Specific Languages (DSL 

2011), Bordeaux, France, 2011. 

Ourique de Morais, W. and N. Wickström, “A serious 

computer game to assist Tai Chi training for the elderly,” 

IEEE 1st International Conference on Serious Games and 

Applications for Health (SeGAH 2011), Braga, Portugal, 

2011. 

Wang, Y. and V. Gaspes. “An embedded language for 

programming protocol stacks in embedded systems” 

Proc. 20th ACM SIGPLAN 2011 Workshop on Partial 

Evaluation and Program Manipulation (PEPM’11), Austin, 

TX, USA, Jan. 24-25, 2011. 

Zain-ul-Abdin and B. Svensson, “Occam-pi as a 

high-level language for coarse-grained reconfigurable 

architectures”. Proceedings of the 18th International 

Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop (RAW’2011) in 

conjunction with International Parallel and Distributed Processing 

Symposium (IPDPS’2011), 2011. 

Böhm, A., M. Jonsson, E. Uhlemann, “Adaptive 

cooperative awareness messaging for enhanced 

overtaking assistance on rural roads,” in Proc. IEEE 

Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Fall), San Francisco, 

CA, September 2011, pp. 1-5. 

Freitas, E.P., T. Heimfarth, L. A. G. Costa, C. E. Pereira, 

A. M. Ferreira, F. R. Wagner, and T. Larsson, “Analyzing 

different levels of geographic context awareness in agent 

ferrying over VANETs,” Proc. of the 2011 ACM Symposium 

on Applied Computing (SAC 2011), Taiwan, Mar. 2011, pp. 

413-418. 

Hassan, A., and T. Larsson, “On the requirements on 

models and simulator design for integrated VANET 

Simulation,” International Workshop on Intelligent 

Transportation - WIT, Hamburg, Germany, 2011. 

Larsson, T., W. Taha, K.-E. Årzen, “Dependable 

automotive systems based on model certified 

components,” Automotive CPS Workshop, June 2011. 

Motter, P., R. S. Allgayer, I. Müller, C. E. Pereira, and 

E. P. Freitas, “Practical issues in wireless sensor network 

localization systems using received signal strenght 

indication,” Proc. of IEEE SAS 2011, San Antonio, USA, 

Feb. 2011, pp. 227-232. 

Nilsson, E., and C. Svensson, “Envelope detector 

sensitivity and blocking characteristics,” 20th European 

Conference on Circuit Theory and Design (ECCTD 2011). pp. 

802-805, 2011. 

Nilsson, E., B. Nilsson, and E. Järpe, “A pharmaceutical 

anti-counterfeiting method using time controlled 

numeric tokens,” 2011 IEEE International Conference on 

RFID-Technologies and Applications, pp. 335-339, 2011. 

Freitas, E.P., T. Heimfarth, I. Farah Netto, C.E.Pereira, 

A.M.Ferreira, F.R.Wagner, and T.Larsson. “Handling 

failures of static sensor nodes in wireless sensor network 

by use of mobile sensors,” Proc. of IEEE FINA-AINA 

2011, Singapore, Mar. 2011, pp. 127-134. 

Sajadian, S., A. Ibrahim, E. P. Freitas, and T. Larsson, 

“Improving connectivity of nodes in mobile WSN,” Proc. 

of IEEE Advanced Information Networking and Applications 

(AINA 2011). Singapore, pp. 364-371, Mar. 2011. 

Sjöberg, K., E. Uhlemann, and E. G. Ström, “Delay and 

interference comparison of CSMA and self-organizing 

TDMA when used in VANETs,” in Proc 7 th International 

Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference, 

Istanbul, Turkey, July 2011, pp. 1488-1493. 

Wang, Y., and V. Gaspes, “A compositional implementation 

of Modbus in protégé,” 6th IEEE International Symposium 

on Industrial Embedded Systems (SIES), pp. 123-131, 2011. 

Zain-ul-Abdin, A. Åhlander, and B. Svensson, 

“Programming real-time autofocus on a massively parallel 

reconfigurable architecture using Occam-pi,” Proceedings 

of the 19th Annual IEEE International Symposium on Field- 

Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM’2011), 

2011. 

2010 

Freitas E.P., T. Heimfarth, I. Farah Netto, C.E. Lino, 

C.E.Pereira, A.M.Ferreira, F.R.Wagner, T.Larsson. “UAV 

Relay Network to Support WSN Connectivity.” Proc. 

International Conference on Ultra Modern Telecommunications 

and Control Systems. Moscow, Russia, Oct. 2010. 

Böhm, A., K. Lidström, M. Jonsson, and T. Larsson, 

“Evaluating CALM M5-based vehicle-to-vehicle 

communication in various road settings through field 

trials”, The 4th IEEE LCN Workshop On User MObility 

and VEhicular Networks (ON-MOVE), Denver, CO, USA, 

Oct. 2010 


Freitas E.P., T. Heimfarth, C.E. Pereira, A.M. Ferreira, 

F.R. Wagner, T. Larsson. “Experimental analysis of 

coordination strategies to support wireless sensor 

networks composed by static ground sensors and UAVcarried 

Sensors”. ISPA 2010 - IEEE International Symposium 

on Parallel and Distributed Processing with Applications. Taipei, 

Taiwan, September 2010. 

Freitas E.P., T. Heimfarth, F.R. Wagner, A.M. Ferreira, 

C.E. Pereira, and T. Larsson. “Geo-aware handover of 

mission agents using opportunistic communication 

in VANET”. Proc. of New2An 2010 - 10th International 

Conference on Next Generation Wired/Wireless Advanced 

Networking, St. Petersburg, Russia, August 2010. p. 365- 

376. 

Freitas E.P., R. Allgayer, T. Heimfarth, F.R. Wagner, T. 

Larsson, C.E. Pereira, and A.M. Ferreira. “Coordination 

Mechanism and Customizable Hardware Platform to 

Provide Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks 

Support”. Proc. of WTR 2010 - 12th Brazilian Workshop 

on Real-Time and Embedded Systems, Gramado, Brazil, May 

2010. p. 77-88. 

Freitas E.P., T. Heimfarth, A.M. Ferreira, C.E. Pereira, F.R. 

Wagner, and T. Larsson. Pheromone-based coordination 

strategy to static sesors on the ground and unmanned 

aerial vehicles carried sensors. Proc. of SPIE, 0277-786X, 

v. 7694. April 2010, p. 769416-1 - 769416-9. 

Freitas E.P., T. Heimfarth, A.M. Ferreira, C.E. Pereira, 

F.R. Wagner, and T. Larsson. “Decentralized task 

distribution among cooperative UAVs in surveillance 

systems applications”. Proc. of WONS 2010 - 7th 

International Conference on Wireless On-demand Network 

Systems and Services, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, February 

2010. pp. 121-128. 

Heimfarth T., E.P. Freitas, C.E. Pereira, A.M. Ferreira, 

F.R. Wagner, and T. Larsson. “Experimental analysis of 

a wireless sensor network setup strategy provided by 

an agent-oriented middleware”, Proc. of AINA 2010 - 

24th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Information 

Networking and Applications. Perth, Australia, April 2010. 

p. 820-826. 

Islam Cheema, F, Zain-Ul-Abdin, and B. Svensson. 

A design methodology for resource to performance 

tradeoff adjustment in FPGAs. Proc. of 7th FPGAWorld 

Conference 2010, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 6, 

2010. 

Kunert K., E. Uhlemann and M. Jonsson, “Enhancing 

reliability in IEEE 802.11 based real-time networks 

through transport layer retransmissions,” in Proc. IEEE 

International Symposium on Industrial Embedded Systems, 

Trento, Italy, July 2010, pp. 146-155. 

Kunert K., E. Uhlemann and M. Jonsson, “Predictable 

real-time communications with improved reliability for 

IEEE 802.15.4 based industrial networks,” in Proc. IEEE 

International Workshop on Factory Communication Systems, 

Nancy, France, May 2010, pp. 13-22. 

Kunert K., M. Jonsson and E. Uhlemann “Exploiting 

time and frequency diversity in IEEE 802.15.4 industrial 

networks for enhanced reliability and throughput.” in 

Proc. IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies 

and Factory Automation, Bilbao, Spain, September 2010, pp. 

1-9. Best paper award. 

Lidström K., and T. Larsson. “A Spatial QoS Requirements 

Specification for V2V Applications”, Proc. of IEEE 

Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, pp. 548-553, 2010 

Nilsson, B.; L. Bengtsson; and B. Svensson, “A snoozing 

frequency binary tree protocol,” Proc. of The Third 

International EURASIP Workshop on RFID Technology, 6-7 

Sept, 2010. 

Nilsson, B., L. Bengtsson, B. Svensson, U. Bilstrup, 

and P.A. Wiberg, “An active backscatter wake-up and 

tag identification extraction protocol for low cost and 

low power active RFID,” Proc. of 2010 IEEE Conference 

on RFID-Technology and Applications, 17-19 June, 2010, 

Guangzhou, China, pp. 86-91. ISBN/ISSN: 978- 

142446700-6. 

Nilsson E., P. Linnér, A. Sikö, U. Bilstrup and P-A. Wiberg 

” A new CMOS radio for low power RFID applications,” 

Proc. of IEEE International Conference on RFID-Technology 

and Applications 2010, Guangzhou, China, June 17-19, 

2010. 

Nilsson E., B. Nilsson, L. Bengtsson, B. Svensson, P-A. 

Wiberg and U. Bilstrup ” A low power-long range active 

RFID-system consisting of active RFID backscatter 

transponders,” Proc. of IEEE International Conference 

on RFID-Technology and Applications 2010, Guangzhou, 

China, June 17-19, 2010. 

Sant’Anna, A. & Wickström, N. “A linguistic approach 

to the analysis of accelerometer data for gait analysis”, 

Proceedings 7th IASTED International Conference on Biomedical 

Engineering (BioMed2010), Innsbruck, 2010. 

Sjöberg-Bilstrup K., E. Uhlemann and E. G. Ström, 

“Scalability issues of the MAC methods STDMA and 

CSMA of IEEE 802.11p when used in VANETs,” in Proc. 

IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshops, 

Cape Town, South Africa, May 2010, pp. 1-5. 

Sjöberg K., J. Karedal, M. Moe, Ø. Kristiansen, R. 

Søråsen, E. Uhlemann, F. Tufvesson, K. Evensen, E. 

G. Ström, “Measuring and using the RSSI of IEEE 

802.11p,” in Proc. 17th World Congress on Intelligent Transport 

Systems, Busan, Korea, October 2010, 9 pages. 


41

Wang Y., and V. Gaspes, “A domain-specific language 

approach to protocol stack implementation,” Practical 

Aspects of Declarative Languages 12th International Symposium, 

PADL 2010, Madrid, Spain, Jan. 18-19, 2010. 

Zain-ul-Abdin and B. Svensson, “Specifying run-time 

reconfiguration in processor arrays using high-level 

language,” Proc. of 4th HiPEAC Workshop on Reconfigurable 

Computing, Jan. 23, 2010. 

Freitas, E.P., T. Heimfarth, I. F. Netto, A. G. Cardoso de 

Sá, C. E. Pereira, A. M. Ferreira, F. R. Wagner, T. Larsson, 

“Enhanced wireless sensor network setup strategy 

supported by intelligent software agents,” Proc. Sensors’10 

- The 9th Annual IEEE Conference on Sensors, Waikoloa, 

USA, Nov. 2010, pp. 813 - 816. 

Brauner, P. and W. Taha, “Globally parallel, locally 

sequential: a preliminary proposal for Acumen objects,” 

Proc. 9th SPLASH/OOPSLA Workshop on Parallel/High- 

Performance Object-Oriented Scientific Computing (POOSC’10), 

Renoe-Tahoe, NV, USA, Oct. 18, 2010. 

Bruneau, J., C. Consel, M. O’Malley, W. Taha, and W. 

M. Hannourah, “Preliminary results in virtual testing 

for smart buildings,” Proc. International ICST Conference on 

Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking, and 

Services (MOBIQUITOUS), Sydney, Australia, Dec. 6-9, 

2010. 

Internal reports 


Bergenhem, C. and M. Jonsson, “Two Protocols with 

heterogeneous real-time services for high-performance 

embedded networks”, Research Report, School of Information 

Science, Computer and Electrical Engineering (IDE), Halmstad 

University, Sweden, 2012. 

2011 

Lidström, K., J. Andersson, F. Bergh, M. Bjäde, S. Mak, 

and K. Sjöberg, “Halmstad University Grand Cooperative 

Driving Challenge,” Research Report IDE1120, School of 

Information Science, Computer and Electrical Engineering (IDE), 

Halmstad University, Sweden, 2011. 14 pages. 

Patoary M.N.I., H. Ali, B. Svensson, J. Eker and H. 

Gustafsson, “Implementation of AMR-WB encoder 

for multi-core processors using dataflow programming 

language CAL”, Research Report IDE1103, School of 

Information Science, Computer and Electrical Engineering (IDE), 

Halmstad University, Sweden, 2011. 

Ul-Abdin Z., and B. Svensson, “Programming realtime 

autofocus on a massively parallel reconfigurable 

architecture using Occam-pi”, Research Report IDE1102, 

School of Information Science, Computer and Electrical 

Engineering (IDE), Halmstad University, Sweden, 2011. 

2010 

Jonsson, M. and K. Kunert, “Control-channel based 

wireless multi-channel MAC protocol with real-time 

support “, Research Report IDE1054, School of Information 

Science, Computer and Electrical Engineering (IDE), Halmstad 

University, Sweden, 2010. 

Other (incl. national conferences and international 

conferences without full-paper review) 


Uhlemann, E., “Report on Wireless Vehicular 

Communications (VTS News),” IEEE Vehicular Technology 

Magazine, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 102-106, 2012. 

Girs, S., E. Uhlemann, and M. Björkman, “On the 

benefits of using relaying in industrial networks with 

different wireless channel characteristics,” Third Nordic 

Workshop on Systems & Network Optimization for Wireless, 

Trysil, Norway, Apr. 2012. 

Parsapoor, M. and U. Bilstrup, “Using the grouping 

genetic algorithm (GGA) for channel assignment in a 

cluster-based mobile ad hoc network ,” Proc. of the 8th 

Swedish National Computer Networking Workshop (SNCNW 

2012), June 2012. 

Zain-ul-Abdin and B. Svensson, “Synthetic-aperture 

radar processing on a manycore architecture,” 5th Swedish 

Workshop on Multi-Core Computing MCC-2011,” Stockholm, 

Sweden, Nov. 2012. 

2011 

Uhlemann, E., “Communication requirements of 

emerging cooperative driving systems,” in Proc. IEEE 

International Conference on Consumer Electronics, Las Vegas, 

NV, Jan. 2011, pp. 281-282. Invited paper. 

Ku, B.-Y., and E. Uhlemann, “Report on rail conference 

and wireless communications : [VTS News]”. IEEE 

Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 111-117, 

2011. 

Gebrewahid, E., Zain-ul-Abdin, and B. Svensson, 

“Mapping occam-pi programs to a manycore 

architecture,” 4th Swedish Workshop on Multi-Core Computing 

MCC-2011,” Linköping, Sweden, 2011. 

Jonsson, M. “Why real-time communication matters,” 

Embedded Conference Scandinavia (ECS2011), Stockholm, 

Sweden, Oct. 4-5, 2011. 

Böhm, A., M. Jonsson, and H. Zakizadeh, “Vehicular 

ad-hoc networks to avoid surprise effects on sparsely 

trafficked, rural roads,” 10th Scandinavian Workshop on 

Wireless Ad-hocNetworks (ADHOC ´11), Stockholm, 

Sweden, May 10-11, 2011. 5 pages. 


Böhm, Annette, Jonsson, Magnus (2011). Positionbased 

real-time communication support for cooperative 

traffic safety services. Proc. of the 11th biennial SNART 

Conference on Real-Time Systems (Real-Time in Sweden 

– RTiS’11), Västerås, Sweden, June 13-14, 2011. 11 pages. 

Taha, W. and M. Weckstén, “Real-time reflection for 

threat detection and prevention,” position paper, 

Workshop on Cooperative Autonomous Resilient Defenses in 

Cyberspace, Arlington, VA, USA, Jan. 27-28, 2011. 

S. Girs, E. Uhlemann and M. Björkman, “The effects of 

channel characteristics on relay behavior and position 

in wireless industrial networks,” presented at the IEEE 

Swedish Communication Technologies Workshop, Stockholm, 

Sweden, Oct. 2011. 

B.-Y. Ku and E. Uhlemann, “Report on Rail Conference 

and Wireless Communications (VTS News),” IEEE 

Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 111-117, 

September 2011. 

A. Alonso, K. Sjöberg, E. Uhlemann, E. Ström, and 

C.F. Mecklenbräuker, “Challenging Vehicular Scenarios 

for Self-Organizing Time Division Multiple Access,” 

presented at the 1 st COST IC1004 Management Committee 

Meeting, Lund, Sweden, TD(11)01031, Jun. 2011. 

2010 

Ström, E., E. Uhlemann and C.F. Mecklenbräuker, 

“Performance Metrics for mobile-to-mobile 

communications,” presented at 12th COST2100 

Management Committee Meeting, Bologna, Italy, 

TD(10)12026, Nov. 2010. 


43


CERES Annual Report 2012

HALMSTAD UNIVERSITY 

PO Box 823 • SE-301 18 Halmstad • Visiting Adress: Kristian IV:s väg 3 

Phone: +46 35 16 71 00 • Fax: +46 35 18 61 92 

E-mail: registrator@hh.se • www.hh.se

ANNUAL REPORT 2012

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