Phone of Things (PoT)

My Ph.D. research: a standardised bridge between IoT and VoIP that lets people control connected devices through ordinary phone calls and voice commands.

Problem and motivation

IoT systems usually need dedicated apps and interfaces. Telephone networks are already everywhere and familiar to everyone. Phone of Things integrates IoT systems with existing phone infrastructure over SIP, so devices can be reached and controlled through calls and voice.

Overview

The research ran from 2020 to 2023 at the IoT Research Lab of Ontario Tech University, supervised by Dr. Khalid Elgazzar, and produced five peer-reviewed papers on PoT, tSIP and systems built on them.

Architecture

IoT devices run tSIP and register as SIP endpoints with a PoT server (Asterisk on embedded Linux). Calls and voice commands from regular phones reach devices through the existing SIP/VoIP infrastructure; device identity and registration are secured with a blockchain-based mechanism.

Key features

tSIP: a lightweight SIP-based messaging protocol for resource-constrained embedded devices
Smart devices act as SIP endpoints, controllable through phone calls or voice commands
Ambient-aware telephony to reduce missed calls and customer wait times (Location Transparency Call system)
Blockchain-based registration and authentication of IoT devices in PoT systems
Performance evaluation of single-board embedded Linux platforms as Asterisk servers

Status

Research · Ph.D. completed 2023

My role

Ph.D. researcher, IoT Research Lab, Ontario Tech University

Let's build something connected

I’m open to conversations about IoT platforms, building automation integration, network automation and edge-to-cloud software, whether you have a project, a role or a question.