Pre-emptive Flow Installation for Internet of Things Devices within Software Defined Networks

The predicted prevalence of both Internet of Things (IoT) based devices and the concept of Software Defined Networking (SDN) as a new paradigm in networking, means that consideration is required for how they will interact. Current SDN implementations operate on the principle that on receiving an unrecognised packet, a switch will query a centralised controller for a corresponding rule. Memory limitations within current switch devices dictate that this rule can only be stored for a short period of time before being removed, thus making it likely that the relatively infrequent data samples sent from IoT devices will have a transmission interval longer than this timeout. This paper proposes a Pre-emptive Flow Installation Mechanism (PFIM) that dynamically learns the transmission intervals of periodic network flows and installs the corresponding rules within a switch, prior to the arrival of a packet. A proof-of-concept implementation shows this to have a significant effect on reducing the delay experienced by these flows. © 2015 IEEE

Qualité de service dans l'IOT : couche de brouillard

Abstract : The Internet of Things (IoT) can be defined as a combination of push and pull from the technological side and human side respectively. This push and pull effect results in more connectivity among objects and humans in the near surrounding environments [1]. With the growth in the field of IoT, in recent times, the risk of real time failures has increased as well. The failures are often detected by certain points of vulnerability in the system. Narrowing down to the root causes we get the point of failures and that leads to the required measures to overcome them. This creates the need for IoT systems to have a proper Quality of Service (QoS) architecture. Thus, QoS is becoming a crucial issue with the democratization of IoT. QoS is the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network or a cloud computing service, particularly the performance seen by the users of the network. In this study, we propose the methods of enforcement of QoS in IoT platforms. We will highlight the challenges and recurrent issues faced by all IoT platforms which in turn inspired us to build a generic tool to overcome these challenges by enforcing the QoS in all the IoT platforms with an easy to use set up. The main focus of this study is to enable QoS features in the Fog layer of the IoT architecture. Existing platforms and systems enabling QoS features in the Fog layer are also highlighted. Finally, we validate our proposed model by implementing it on our AMI-LAB platform.L'Internet des objets (IdO) (Internet of Things en anglais), peut être défini comme une combinaison d’interactions entre les Humains et le monde technologique de l’Internet. De cet effet résulte une interconnexion entre les objets physiques et les appareils technologiques dans leur environnement proche. Ces dernières années le domaine de l'IdO s’est beaucoup développé, entrainant ainsi une augmentation du risque de défaillances en temps réel. Les défaillances sont souvent détectées par certains points de vulnérabilité dans le système. En se concentrant sur les causes profondes, le point de défaillance peut être détecter, ce qui conduit aux mesures à mettre en place pour surmonter les défaillances. Les systèmes IdO ont donc besoin d'avoir une architecture de Qualité de Service (QdS) adéquate. Ainsi, la QdS devient un enjeu crucial avec la démocratisation de l'IdO. La QdS est la description ou la mesure de la performance globale d'un service, tel qu'un réseau de téléphonie ou informatique, ou un service de cloud computing, en particulier la performance perçue par les utilisateurs du réseau. Dans cette étude, nous proposons les méthodes de mise en œuvre de la QdS dans les plateformes IdO. Nous mettrons en lumière les défis et les problèmes récurrents rencontrés par toutes les plateformes IdO, qui nous ont inspirés à construire un outil générique pour surmonter ces défis en imposant la QdS dans toutes les plateformes IdO avec une configuration facile à utiliser. L'objectif principal de cette étude est de permettre les fonctionnalités de QdS dans la couche Fog de l'architecture IdO. Les plateformes et systèmes existants permettant les fonctionnalités de QdS dans la couche Fog sont également mis en évidence. Enfin, nous soulignons la validation de notre modèle en le mettant en œuvre sur notre plateforme AMI-LAB

Abstracting Application Development for Resource Constrained Wireless Sensor Networks

Ubiquitous computing is a concept whereby computing is distributed across smart objects surrounding users, creating ambient intelligence. Ubiquitous applications use technologies such as the Internet, sensors, actuators, embedded computers, wireless communication, and new user interfaces. The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is one of the key concepts in the realization of ubiquitous computing, whereby smart objects communicate with each other and the Internet. Further, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a sub-group of IoT technologies that consist of geographically distributed devices or nodes, capable of sensing and actuating the environment.WSNs typically contain tens to thousands of nodes that organize and operate autonomously to perform application-dependent sensing and sensor data processing tasks. The projected applications require nodes to be small in physical size and low-cost, and have a long lifetime with limited energy resources, while performing complex computing and communications tasks. As a result, WSNs are complex distributed systems that are constrained by communications, computing and energy resources. WSN functionality is dynamic according to the environment and application requirements. Dynamic multitasking, task distribution, task injection, and software updates are required in field experiments for possibly thousands of nodes functioning in harsh environments.The development of WSN application software requires the abstraction of computing, communication, data access, and heterogeneous sensor data sources to reduce the complexities. Abstractions enable the faster development of new applications with a better reuse of existing software, as applications are composed of high-level tasks that use the services provided by the devices to execute the application logic.The main research question of this thesis is: What abstractions are needed for application development for resource constrained WSNs? This thesis models WSN abstractions with three levels that build on top of each other: 1) node abstraction, 2) network abstraction, and 3) infrastructure abstraction. The node abstraction hides the details in the use of the sensing, communication, and processing hardware. The network abstraction specifies methods of discovering and accessing services, and distributing processing in the network. The infrastructure abstraction unifies different sensing technologies and infrastructure computing platforms.As a contribution, this thesis presents the abstraction model with a review of each abstraction level. Several designs for each of the levels are tested and verified with proofs of concept and analyses of field experiments. The resulting designs consist of an operating system kernel, a software update method, a data unification interface, and all abstraction levels combining abstraction called an embedded cloud.The presented operating system kernel has a scalable overhead and provides a programming approach similar to a desktop computer operating system with threads and processes. An over-the-air update method combines low overhead and robust software updating with application task dissemination. The data unification interface homogenizes the access to the data of heterogeneous sensor networks. A unification model is used for various use cases by mapping everything as measurements. The embedded cloud allows resource constrained WSNs to share services and data, and expand resources with other technologies. The embedded cloud allows the distributed processing of applications according to the available services. The applications are implemented as processes using a hardware independent description language that can be executed on resource constrained WSNs. The lessons of practical field experimenting are analyzed to study the importance of the abstractions. Software complexities encountered in the field experiments highlight the need for suitable abstractions.The results of this thesis are tested using proof of concept implementations on real WSN hardware which is constrained by computing power in the order of a few MIPS, memory sizes of a few kilobytes, and small sized batteries. The results will remain usable in the future, as the vast amount, tight integration, and low-cost of future IoT devices require the combination of complex computation with resource constrained platforms

Abstracting Application Development for Resource Constrained Wireless Sensor Networks

Ubiquitous computing is a concept whereby computing is distributed across smart objects surrounding users, creating ambient intelligence. Ubiquitous applications use technologies such as the Internet, sensors, actuators, embedded computers, wireless communication, and new user interfaces. The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is one of the key concepts in the realization of ubiquitous computing, whereby smart objects communicate with each other and the Internet. Further, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are a sub-group of IoT technologies that consist of geographically distributed devices or nodes, capable of sensing and actuating the environment.WSNs typically contain tens to thousands of nodes that organize and operate autonomously to perform application-dependent sensing and sensor data processing tasks. The projected applications require nodes to be small in physical size and low-cost, and have a long lifetime with limited energy resources, while performing complex computing and communications tasks. As a result, WSNs are complex distributed systems that are constrained by communications, computing and energy resources. WSN functionality is dynamic according to the environment and application requirements. Dynamic multitasking, task distribution, task injection, and software updates are required in field experiments for possibly thousands of nodes functioning in harsh environments.The development of WSN application software requires the abstraction of computing, communication, data access, and heterogeneous sensor data sources to reduce the complexities. Abstractions enable the faster development of new applications with a better reuse of existing software, as applications are composed of high-level tasks that use the services provided by the devices to execute the application logic.The main research question of this thesis is: What abstractions are needed for application development for resource constrained WSNs? This thesis models WSN abstractions with three levels that build on top of each other: 1) node abstraction, 2) network abstraction, and 3) infrastructure abstraction. The node abstraction hides the details in the use of the sensing, communication, and processing hardware. The network abstraction specifies methods of discovering and accessing services, and distributing processing in the network. The infrastructure abstraction unifies different sensing technologies and infrastructure computing platforms.As a contribution, this thesis presents the abstraction model with a review of each abstraction level. Several designs for each of the levels are tested and verified with proofs of concept and analyses of field experiments. The resulting designs consist of an operating system kernel, a software update method, a data unification interface, and all abstraction levels combining abstraction called an embedded cloud.The presented operating system kernel has a scalable overhead and provides a programming approach similar to a desktop computer operating system with threads and processes. An over-the-air update method combines low overhead and robust software updating with application task dissemination. The data unification interface homogenizes the access to the data of heterogeneous sensor networks. A unification model is used for various use cases by mapping everything as measurements. The embedded cloud allows resource constrained WSNs to share services and data, and expand resources with other technologies. The embedded cloud allows the distributed processing of applications according to the available services. The applications are implemented as processes using a hardware independent description language that can be executed on resource constrained WSNs. The lessons of practical field experimenting are analyzed to study the importance of the abstractions. Software complexities encountered in the field experiments highlight the need for suitable abstractions.The results of this thesis are tested using proof of concept implementations on real WSN hardware which is constrained by computing power in the order of a few MIPS, memory sizes of a few kilobytes, and small sized batteries. The results will remain usable in the future, as the vast amount, tight integration, and low-cost of future IoT devices require the combination of complex computation with resource constrained platforms

Flow Based Security for IoT Devices using an SDN Gateway

With near exponential growth predicted in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) based devices within networked systems there is need of a means of providing their flexible and secure integration. Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a concept that allows for the centralised control and configuration of network devices, and also provides opportunities for the dynamic control of network traffic. This paper proposes the use of an SDN gateway as a distributed means of monitoring the traffic originating from and directed to IoT based devices. This gateway can then both detect anomalous behaviour and perform an appropriate response (blocking, forwarding, or applying Quality of Service). Initial results demonstrate that, while the addition of the attack detection functionality has an impact on the number of flow installations possible per second, it can successfully detect and block TCP and ICMP flood based attacks

Load Balancing Algorithms In Software Defined Network

Compared with the traditional networks, the SDN networks have shown great advantages in many aspects, but also exist the problem of the load imbalance. If the load distribution uneven in the SDN networks, it will greatly affect the performance of network. Many SDN-based load balancing strategies have been proposed to improve the performance of the SDN networks. Therefore, in this paper a finding form comprehensive review help to improve further understanding of lead b balancing algorithms in SDN

Design and implementation of multicast listener discovery protocol on constrained devices

Para la aplicación y apoyo del uso de IPv6 en 6LoWPANs (Low-power Wireless Personal Area Networks), ha habido numerosas investigaciones y se han desarrollado protocolos y mecanismos estandarizados. Sin embargo para la comunicación multicast en estas redes, el tema esta aún bastante abierto a la investigación. La comunicación multicast permite conectar routers con hosts preseleccionados por grupos. La comunicación multicast es muy beneficiosa para aplicaciones con dispositivos con recursos limitados ya que ahorra energía y ancho de banda. A continuación mostramos posibles ejemplos de estas aplicaciones, la iluminación de un edificio organizada por plantas, una red de sensores de temperatura organizados por áreas y un largo número de aplicaciones basadas en la comunicación de un punto a varios puntos preseleccionados. El grupo de investigación de la universidad de Aalto (Finlandia) llamado MAMMoTH (Massive Scale Machine-to-Machine Service) tiene como uno de sus objetivos construir un protocolo multicast para dispositivos con recursos limitados. Para el desarrollo de este protocolo, es necesario un protocolo de encaminamiento multicast y un protocolo de gestión de grupos multicast. Este último, es el protocolo que he desarrollado como “research assistant” para mi proyecto final de carrera. En este proyecto final de carrera, se ha diseñado, implementado y evaluado el protocolo MLD para dispositivos con recursos limitados. MLD permite a un router IPv6 gestionar grupos multicast. No obstante, el uso de MLD en LoWPANs tiene varios problemas como la definición del area local, el tamaño de los paquete y la complejidad del comportamiento del router. El protocolo ha sido implementado en Contiki, un sistema operativo para desarrollar para el “Internet of Things”. Contiki permite conectar sistemas pequeños de poco coste con poca potencia a Internet. Hemos ampliado la pila TCP/IP de Contiki para respaldar MLD. El protocolo ha sido evaluado y analizado sobre un simulador en diferentes topologías para validar el funcionamiento. Del mismo modo, también se ha verificado que el tamaño del objeto creado no ocupaba más memoria de la disponible en los dispositivos Z1 Zolertia

A Priority-based Fair Queuing (PFQ) Model for Wireless Healthcare System

Healthcare is a very active research area, primarily due to the increase in the elderly population that leads to increasing number of emergency situations that require urgent actions. In recent years some of wireless networked medical devices were equipped with different sensors to measure and report on vital signs of patient remotely. The most important sensors are Heart Beat Rate (ECG), Pressure and Glucose sensors. However, the strict requirements and real-time nature of medical applications dictate the extreme importance and need for appropriate Quality of Service (QoS), fast and accurate delivery of a patient’s measurements in reliable e-Health ecosystem. As the elderly age and older adult population is increasing (65 years and above) due to the advancement in medicine and medical care in the last two decades; high QoS and reliable e-health ecosystem has become a major challenge in Healthcare especially for patients who require continuous monitoring and attention. Nevertheless, predictions have indicated that elderly population will be approximately 2 billion in developing countries by 2050 where availability of medical staff shall be unable to cope with this growth and emergency cases that need immediate intervention. On the other side, limitations in communication networks capacity, congestions and the humongous increase of devices, applications and IOT using the available communication networks add extra layer of challenges on E-health ecosystem such as time constraints, quality of measurements and signals reaching healthcare centres. Hence this research has tackled the delay and jitter parameters in E-health M2M wireless communication and succeeded in reducing them in comparison to current available models. The novelty of this research has succeeded in developing a new Priority Queuing model ‘’Priority Based-Fair Queuing’’ (PFQ) where a new priority level and concept of ‘’Patient’s Health Record’’ (PHR) has been developed and integrated with the Priority Parameters (PP) values of each sensor to add a second level of priority. The results and data analysis performed on the PFQ model under different scenarios simulating real M2M E-health environment have revealed that the PFQ has outperformed the results obtained from simulating the widely used current models such as First in First Out (FIFO) and Weight Fair Queuing (WFQ). PFQ model has improved transmission of ECG sensor data by decreasing delay and jitter in emergency cases by 83.32% and 75.88% respectively in comparison to FIFO and 46.65% and 60.13% with respect to WFQ model. Similarly, in pressure sensor the improvements were 82.41% and 71.5% and 68.43% and 73.36% in comparison to FIFO and WFQ respectively. Data transmission were also improved in the Glucose sensor by 80.85% and 64.7% and 92.1% and 83.17% in comparison to FIFO and WFQ respectively. However, non-emergency cases data transmission using PFQ model was negatively impacted and scored higher rates than FIFO and WFQ since PFQ tends to give higher priority to emergency cases. Thus, a derivative from the PFQ model has been developed to create a new version namely “Priority Based-Fair Queuing-Tolerated Delay” (PFQ-TD) to balance the data transmission between emergency and non-emergency cases where tolerated delay in emergency cases has been considered. PFQ-TD has succeeded in balancing fairly this issue and reducing the total average delay and jitter of emergency and non-emergency cases in all sensors and keep them within the acceptable allowable standards. PFQ-TD has improved the overall average delay and jitter in emergency and non-emergency cases among all sensors by 41% and 84% respectively in comparison to PFQ model

Source and network coding on mobile devices

This project concerns the development and implementation of a full functional demonstrator for cooperative wireless networking and network coding, which is a technology for improving performance in wireless networks. An application for distribute a video among nodes forming a cooperative cluster is implemented. The implementation is done for the Maemo platform. In Cellular Controlled Peer-to-Peer (CCP2P) networks, besides being connected to an outside world using cellular links, a group of mobile devices in close proximity form a cooperative cluster contributing their onboard capabilities and resources to exploit them a more efficient way. This project implements this kind of networks. Diverse cooperating phones agree on splitting a video to download and start to receive it through USB from a server (simulating the cellular link). Simultaneously the received data is exchanged over the short-range link using three different transmission schemes: Network coding and broadcast, which were implemented in a previous work, and a new hybrid schema developed as a combination of both, broadcast and network coding. After implementation of the program, tests are carried out, to see the results achieved with this new schema and compare it with the previous ones, in terms of throughput, energy consumption and necessary time to distribute the whole video. The results obtained show an improvement in the three cases for the new hybrid schema, which use broadcast at the beginning, when all the nodes are interested in all the packets, and Network Coding for retransmissions of packets