Utilizing LTE QoS features to provide a reliable access network for cyber-physical systems

Cyber-physical systems (CPSs) are a new paradigm of control systems where control, communication, and computation fields intersect. Applications of such systems are expected to play an important role in many domains in the future. This includes critical domains such as transportation and health domains. Hence, it is quite important for such systems to operate reliably. Moreover, many CPS applications are characterized by having different modes of operation along with different corresponding traffic patterns and communication requirements. All this requires reliable communication networks that provide not only quality of service (QoS) support but also flexibility to adapt according to the varying communication requirements of the application/user. On the other hand, recent cellular standards such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) offer higher QoS control compared to earlier cellular standards with the ability to differentiate traffic at both the service and user levels. In this paper, we evaluate the ability of LTE cellular technology under certain QoS and load conditions to provide reliable communications for CPS applications characterized by possessing different modes of operation along with different corresponding traffic patterns and communication requirements. Our evaluation results indicate the ability of LTE cellular technology to provide reliable and adaptable communications for CPSs when QoS is provided.