A survey of communication protocols for internet of things and related challenges of fog and cloud computing integration

The fast increment in the number of IoT (Internet of Things) devices is accelerating the research on new solutions to make cloud services scalable. In this context, the novel concept of fog computing as well as the combined fog-to-cloud computing paradigm is becoming essential to decentralize the cloud, while bringing the services closer to the end-system. This article surveys e application layer communication protocols to fulfill the IoT communication requirements, and their potential for implementation in fog- and cloud-based IoT systems. To this end, the article first briefly presents potential protocol candidates, including request-reply and publish-subscribe protocols. After that, the article surveys these protocols based on their main characteristics, as well as the main performance issues, including latency, energy consumption, and network throughput. These findings are thereafter used to place the protocols in each segment of the system (IoT, fog, cloud), and thus opens up the discussion on their choice, interoperability, and wider system integration. The survey is expected to be useful to system architects and protocol designers when choosing the communication protocols in an integrated IoT-to-fog-to-cloud system architecture.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

uDDS: A Middleware for Real-time Wireless Embedded Systems

[EN] A Real-Time Wireless Distributed Embedded System (RTWDES) is formed by a large quantity of small devices with certain computing power, wireless communication and sensing/actuators capabilities. These types of networks have become popular as they have been developed for applications which can carry out a vast quantity of tasks, including home and building monitoring, object tracking, precision agriculture, military applications, disaster recovery, industry applications, among others. For this type of applications a middleware is used in software systems to bridge the gap between the application and the underlying operating system and networks. As a result, a middleware system can facilitate the development of applications and is designed to provide common services to the applications. The development of a middleware for sensor networks presents several challenges due to the limited computational resources and energy of the different nodes. This work is related with the design, implementation and test of a micro middleware for RTWDES; the proposal incorporates characteristics of a message oriented middleware thus allowing the applications to communicate by employing the publish/subscribe model. Experimental evaluation shows that the proposed middleware provides a stable and timely service to support different Quality of Service (QoS) levels. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.This work was developed as a part of the D2ARS Project supported by CYTED. UNESCO code 120325;330417;120314;120305.González, A.; Mata, W.; Villaseñor, L.; Aquino, R.; Simó Ten, JE.; Chávez, M.; Crespo Lorente, A. (2011). uDDS: A Middleware for Real-time Wireless Embedded Systems. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. 64(3-4):489-503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-011-9550-zS489503643-4Akyildiz, I.F., Su, W., Sankarasubramaniam, Y., Cayirci, E.: A survey on sensor networks. IEEE Commun. Mag. 40, 102–114 (2002)Aquino, R., González, A., Rangel, V., García, M. Villaseñor, L.A., Edwards-Block, A.: Wireless communication protocol based on EDF for wireless body sensor networks, k. Journal of Applied Sciences and Technology 6(2), 104–114 (2008)Bonnet, P., Gehrke, J.E., Seshadri, P.: Querying the physical world. IEEE Pers. Commun. 7(5), 10–15 (2000)Boonma, P., Suzuki, J.: TinyDDS: an interoperable and configurable publish/subscribe middleware for wireless sensor networks. In: Hinze, A., Buchmann, A. (eds.) Handbook of Research on Advanced Distributed Event-based Systems. Publish/Subscribe and Message Filtering Technologies, IGI Global (2009)Cerpa, A., Elson, J., Hamilton, M., Zhao, J.: Habitat monitoring: application driver for wireless communications technology. ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Data Communications in Latin America and the Caribbean, Costa Rica (2002)Corsaro, A., Schmidt, D.C.: The design and performace of real-time java middleware. IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst. 14(11), issn 1045–9219, 1155–1167 (2003)Culler, D.E., Hong, W.: Wireless sensor networks introduction. Commun. ACM 47(6), 30–33 (2004)Estrin, D., Govindan, R., Heidemann, J.S., Kumar, S.: Next century challenges: scalable coordination in sensor networks. In: Mobile Computing and Networking, pp. 263–270 (1999)Heinzelman, W.B., Murphy, A.L., Carvalho, H.S.: Middleware to support sensor network applications. IEEE Netw. 18, 6–14 (2004)Hill, J., Szewczyk, R., Woo, A., Hollar, S., Culler, D., Pister, K.: System architecture directions for networked sensors. ACM SIGOPS Oper. Syst. Rev. 34(5), 93–104 (2000)Levis, P., Culler, D.: Mate: a tiny virtual machine for sensor networks. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Achitectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems. San Jose, CA (2002)Liu, T., Martonosi, M.: Impala: a middleware system for managing autonomic, parallel sensor systems. In: Proceedings of the Ninth ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles and Practice of Parallel Programming. San Diego, CA (2003)Mata, W., González, A., Aquino, R., Crespo, A., Ripoll, I., Capel, M.: A wireless networked embedded sistem with a new real-time Kernel PaRTiKle. Electronics, Robotics and Automotive Mechanics Conference, CERMA 2007. ISBN 0-7695-2974-7. Cuernavaca, México (2007)Mata, W., González, A., Crespo, A.: A proposal for real-time middleware for wireless sensor networks. Workshop on Sensor Networks and Applications (WseNA’08). Gramado, Brasil (2008)Mata, W., González, A., Fuentes, G., Fuentes, R., Crespo, A., Carr, D.: Porting jRate(RT-Java) to a POSIX real-time Linux Kernel. Tenth Real-Time Linux Workshop. Colotlán, Jalisco México (2008)MiLAN Project: Available: http://www.futurehealth.rochester.edu/milan (2008)OMG, Data Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems Version 1.2. OMG Technical Document (2007)OMG, Model Driven Architecture (MDA), Document Number ormsc/2001-07-01. Technical report, OMG (2001)OMG, Overview and guide to OMGs architecture, OMG Technical Document formal/03-06-01 (2003)Pardo-Castellote, G., Farabaugh, B., Warren, R.: An Introduction to DDS and Data-centric Communications. Available: http://www.omg.org/news/whitepapers/Intro_To_DDS.pdf (2005)Peiro, S., Masmano, M., Ripoll, I., Crespo, A.: PaRTiKle OS, a replacement of the core of RTLinux. In: 9th Real-Time Linux Workshop (2007)Peiro, S., Masmano, M., Ripoll, I., Crespo, A.: PaRTiKle LPC, port to the LPC2000. Tehth Real-Time Linux Workshop. Colotlán, Jalisco M’exico (2008)Pottie, G.J., Kaiser, W.J.: Wireless integrated networks sensors. Commun. ACM 43(5), 52–58 (2000)Souto, E., Guimaraes, G., Vasconcelos, G., Vieira, M., Rosa, N., Ferraz, C., Kelner, J.: Mires: a publish/subscribe middleware for sensor networks. 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Enabling Multi-Mission Interoperable UAS Using Data-Centric Communications

We claim the strong potential of data-centric communications in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), as a suitable paradigm to enhance collaborative operations via efficient information sharing, as well as to build systems supporting flexible mission objectives. In particular, this paper analyzes the primary contributions to data dissemination in UAS that can be given by the Data Distribution Service (DDS) open standard, as a solid and industry-mature data-centric technology. Our study is not restricted to traditional UAS where a set of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) transmit data to the ground station that controls them. Instead, we contemplate flexible UAS deployments with multiple UAV units of different sizes and capacities, which are interconnected to form an aerial communication network, enabling the provision of value-added services over a delimited geographical area. In addition, the paper outlines an approach to address the issues inherent to the utilization of network-level multicast, a baseline technology in DDS, in the considered UAS deployments. We complete our analysis with a practical experience aiming at validating the feasibility and the advantages of using DDS in a multi-UAV deployment scenario. For this purpose, we use a UAS testbed built up by heterogeneous hardware equipment, including a number of interconnected micro aerial vehicles, carrying single board computers as payload, as well as real equipment from a tactical UAS from the Spanish Ministry of Defense.This article was partially supported by the European H2020 5GRANGE project (grant agreement 777137), and by the 5GCity project (TEC2016-76795-C6-3-R) funded by the SpanishMinistry of Economy and Competitiveness

Publish/subscribe protocol in wireless sensor networks: improved reliability and timeliness

The rapidly-evolving demand of applications using wireless sensor networks in several areas such as building and industrial automation or smart cities, among other, makes it necessary to determine and provide QoS support mechanisms which can satisfy the requirements of applications. In this paper we propose a mechanism that establishes different QoS levels, based on Publish/Subscribe model for wireless networks to meet application requirements, to provide reliable delivery of packet and timeliness. The first level delivers packets in a best effort way. The second one intends to provide reliable packet delivery with a novel approach for Retransmission Timeout (RTO) calculation, which adjusts the RTO depending on the subscriber Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR). The third one provides the same reliable packet delivery as the second one, but in addition, it provides data aggregation trying to be efficient in terms of energy consumption and the use of network bandwidth. The last one provides timeliness in the packet delivery. We evaluate each QoS Level with several performance metrics such as PDR, Message Delivery Ratio, Duplicated and Retransmitted Packet Ratio and Packet Timeliness Ratio to demonstrate that our proposal provides significant improvements based on the increase of the PDR obtained.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A role-based software architecture to support mobile service computing in IoT scenarios

The interaction among components of an IoT-based system usually requires using low latency or real time for message delivery, depending on the application needs and the quality of the communication links among the components. Moreover, in some cases, this interaction should consider the use of communication links with poor or uncertain Quality of Service (QoS). Research efforts in communication support for IoT scenarios have overlooked the challenge of providing real-time interaction support in unstable links, making these systems use dedicated networks that are expensive and usually limited in terms of physical coverage and robustness. This paper presents an alternative to address such a communication challenge, through the use of a model that allows soft real-time interaction among components of an IoT-based system. The behavior of the proposed model was validated using state machine theory, opening an opportunity to explore a whole new branch of smart distributed solutions and to extend the state-of-the-art and the-state-of-the-practice in this particular IoT study scenario.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Cyber-Physical Systems: a multi-criteria assessment for Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems

This research work was partially supported by funds provided by the European Commission in the scope of FoF/H2020-636909 C2NET, FoF/H2020-723710 vf-OS and ICT/H2020-825631 ZDMP.This article addresses a multi-criteria decision problem regarding the more suitable device (system) to perform a task for cyber-physical systems. New embedded systems provided everyday makes engineers’ decision very difficult. Components are proposed to formally describe solutions, criteria, constraints and priorities, taking into account users’ specific aspects. To materialise all formal descriptions, a model-driven approach is followed, allowing the design of enablers for interoperability with standards. It is enabled the use of different software languages and decision methods. Proposed framework enables a better Internet-of-Things system selection, and therefore stakeholders can perform a more suitable design of their cyber-physical enterprise systems.authorsversioninpres

A middleware protocol for time-critical wireless communication of large data samples

We present a middleware-based protocol that reliably synchronizes large samples consisting of multiple frames efficiently and within application level QoS requirements over a lossy wireless channel. The protocol uses a custom retransmission scheme, exploiting the latency requirements on sample level for frame level scheduling. It can be integrated into the popular DDS middleware. We investigate some technical limits of such a protocol and compare it to existing error protocols in the software stack and in the wireless protocol and combinations thereof. The comparison is based on an Omnet++ simulation using an established wireless channel error model. For evaluation, we take a use case from automated valet parking where infrastructure data provided via a wireless link augments in-vehicle sensor data. The use case respects the related safety requirements. Results show that the application awareness of the presented protocol, significantly improves service availability by transmitting data efficiently in time even under higher frame error rates

Taking Arduino to the Internet of things: the ASIP programming model

Micro-controllers such as Arduino are widely used by all kinds of makers worldwide. Popularity has been driven by Arduino’s simplicity of use and the large number of sensors and libraries available to extend the basic capabilities of these controllers. The last decade has witnessed a surge of software engineering solutions for “the Internet of Things”, but in several cases these solutions require computational resources that are more advanced than simple, resource-limited micro-controllers. Surprisingly, in spite of being the basic ingredients of complex hardware–software systems, there does not seem to be a simple and flexible way to (1) extend the basic capabilities of micro-controllers, and (2) to coordinate inter-connected micro-controllers in “the Internet of Things”. Indeed, new capabilities are added on a per-application basis and interactions are mainly limited to bespoke, point-to-point protocols that target the hardware I/O rather than the services provided by this hardware. In this paper we present the Arduino Service Interface Programming (ASIP) model, a new model that addresses the issues above by (1) providing a “Service” abstraction to easily add new capabilities to micro-controllers, and (2) providing support for networked boards using a range of strategies, including socket connections, bridging devices, MQTT-based publish–subscribe messaging, discovery services, etc. We provide an open-source implementation of the code running on Arduino boards and client libraries in Java, Python, Racket and Erlang. We show how ASIP enables the rapid development of non-trivial applications (coordination of input/output on distributed boards and implementation of a line-following algorithm for a remote robot) and we assess the performance of ASIP in several ways, both quantitative and qualitative