Within the SoBigData.it Transnational Access program, I carried out a research visit at the University of Catania, collaborating with Prof. Fabio Busacca and Prof. Sergio Palazzo on the study of Age of Information (AoI) as a performance metric for Wi-Fi-enabled Industrial IoT systems. AoI quantifies how fresh the information used by AI-driven controllers remains over time — a key factor for real-time automation and predictive maintenance.

Our discussions examined how IEEE 802.11ax/be Wi-Fi networks, through the Target Wake Time (TWT) mechanism, can regulate update intervals to improve information freshness while preserving energy efficiency. We also outlined the structure of an open AoI dataset that will document freshness dynamics, transmission delays, and scheduling policies.

The visit defined a coherent roadmap for future modeling, simulation, and dataset activities within the Pervasive Intelligence Virtual Lab, contributing to the SoBigData vision of Pervasive Intelligence in Industry 4.0.