Old Wine in New Skins? Revisiting the Software Architecture for IP Network Stacks on Constrained IoT Devices

In this paper, we argue that existing concepts for the design and implementation of network stacks for constrained devices do not comply with the requirements of current and upcoming Internet of Things (IoT) use cases. The IoT requires not only a lightweight but also a modular network stack, based on standards. We discuss functional and non-functional requirements for the software architecture of the network stack on constrained IoT devices. Then, revisiting concepts from the early Internet as well as current implementations, we propose a future-proof alternative to existing IoT network stack architectures, and provide an initial evaluation of this proposal based on its implementation running on top of state-of-the-art IoT operating system and hardware.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures and table

A Case for Time Slotted Channel Hopping for ICN in the IoT

Recent proposals to simplify the operation of the IoT include the use of Information Centric Networking (ICN) paradigms. While this is promising, several challenges remain. In this paper, our core contributions (a) leverage ICN communication patterns to dynamically optimize the use of TSCH (Time Slotted Channel Hopping), a wireless link layer technology increasingly popular in the IoT, and (b) make IoT-style routing adaptive to names, resources, and traffic patterns throughout the network--both without cross-layering. Through a series of experiments on the FIT IoT-LAB interconnecting typical IoT hardware, we find that our approach is fully robust against wireless interference, and almost halves the energy consumed for transmission when compared to CSMA. Most importantly, our adaptive scheduling prevents the time-slotted MAC layer from sacrificing throughput and delay

Information Centric Networking in the IoT: Experiments with NDN in the Wild

This paper explores the feasibility, advantages, and challenges of an ICN-based approach in the Internet of Things. We report on the first NDN experiments in a life-size IoT deployment, spread over tens of rooms on several floors of a building. Based on the insights gained with these experiments, the paper analyses the shortcomings of CCN applied to IoT. Several interoperable CCN enhancements are then proposed and evaluated. We significantly decreased control traffic (i.e., interest messages) and leverage data path and caching to match IoT requirements in terms of energy and bandwidth constraints. Our optimizations increase content availability in case of IoT nodes with intermittent activity. This paper also provides the first experimental comparison of CCN with the common IoT standards 6LoWPAN/RPL/UDP.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures and tables, ACM ICN-2014 conferenc

Properties and topology of the DES-Testbed

The Distributed Embedded Systems Testbed (DES-Testbed) is a hybrid wireless mesh and wireless sensor network that has been deployed at Freie Universität Berlin and was successively extended from November 2007 to December 2010. This technical report gives an overview of the current topology and the properties of the IEEE 802.11 wireless mesh network that is part of the DES-Testbed. The information that was gathered from an experimental study shall enable researchers to optimize their experiment scenarios, to support the evaluation of experiments, and to derive improved models of real world deployments. The differences of testbeds compared with simulation models and how to evaluate and filter the raw data are addressed. The focus of our study is an up-to-date description of the testbed state and to highlight particular issues. We show that the node degree, link ranges, and packet delivery ratios are not normal distributed and that simple means are not sufficient to describe the properties of a real world wireless network. Significant differences of the results from three channels are discussed. As last, the technical report shows that the DES-Testbed is an overall well connected network that is suited for studies of wireless mesh network and wireless mobile ad-hoc network problems.09.03.201

A survey of flooding, gossip routing, and related schemes for wireless multi- hop networks

Flooding is an essential and critical service in computer networks that is used by many routing protocols to send packets from a source to all nodes in the network. As the packets are forwarded once by each receiving node, many copies of the same packet traverse the network which leads to high redundancy and unnecessary usage of the sparse capacity of the transmission medium. Gossip routing is a well-known approach to improve the flooding in wireless multi-hop networks. Each node has a forwarding probability p that is either statically per-configured or determined by information that is available at runtime, e.g, the node degree. When a packet is received, the node selects a random number r. If the number r is below p, the packet is forwarded and otherwise, in the most simple gossip routing protocol, dropped. With this approach the redundancy can be reduced while at the same time the reachability is preserved if the value of the parameter p (and others) is chosen with consideration of the network topology. This technical report gives an overview of the relevant publications in the research domain of gossip routing and gives an insight in the improvements that can be achieved. We discuss the simulation setups and results of gossip routing protocols as well as further improved flooding schemes. The three most important metrics in this application domain are elaborated: reachability, redundancy, and management overhead. The published studies used simulation environments for their research and thus the assumptions, models, and parameters of the simulations are discussed and the feasibility of an application for real world wireless networks are highlighted. Wireless mesh networks based on IEEE 802.11 are the focus of this survey but publications about other network types and technologies are also included. As percolation theory, epidemiological models, and delay tolerant networks are often referred as foundation, inspiration, or application of gossip routing in wireless networks, a brief introduction to each research domain is included and the applicability of the particular models for the gossip routing is discussed

RIOT: One OS to Rule Them All in the IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) embodies a wide spectrum of machines ranging from sensors powered by 8-bits microcontrollers, to devices powered by processors roughly equivalent to those found in entry-level smartphones. Neither traditional operating systems (OS) currently running on internet hosts, nor typical OS for sensor networks are capable to fulfill all at once the diverse requirements of such a wide range of devices. Hence, in order to avoid redundant developments and maintenance costs of IoT products, a novel, unifying type of OS is needed. The following analyzes requirements such an OS should fulfill, and introduces RIOT, a new OS satisfying these demands

(2nd extended revision)

aktualisierte Version von TR-B-11-0

Connecting the World of Embedded Mobiles: The RIOT Approach to Ubiquitous Networking for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly evolving based on low-power compliant protocol standards that extend the Internet into the embedded world. Pioneering implementations have proven it is feasible to inter-network very constrained devices, but had to rely on peculiar cross-layered designs and offer a minimalistic set of features. In the long run, however, professional use and massive deployment of IoT devices require full-featured, cleanly composed, and flexible network stacks. This paper introduces the networking architecture that turns RIOT into a powerful IoT system, to enable low-power wireless scenarios. RIOT networking offers (i) a modular architecture with generic interfaces for plugging in drivers, protocols, or entire stacks, (ii) support for multiple heterogeneous interfaces and stacks that can concurrently operate, and (iii) GNRC, its cleanly layered, recursively composed default network stack. We contribute an in-depth analysis of the communication performance and resource efficiency of RIOT, both on a micro-benchmarking level as well as by comparing IoT communication across different platforms. Our findings show that, though it is based on significantly different design trade-offs, the networking subsystem of RIOT achieves a performance equivalent to that of Contiki and TinyOS, the two operating systems which pioneered IoT software platforms

Spontaneous Wireless Networking to Counter Pervasive Monitoring

International audienceSeveral approaches can be employed to counter pervasive monitoring at large scale on the Internet. One category of approaches aims to harden the current Internet architecture and to increase the security of high profile targets (data centers, exchange points etc.). Another category of approaches aims instead for target dispersal, i.e. disabling systematic mass surveillance via the elimination of existing vantage points, thus forcing surveillance efforts to be more specific and personalized. This paper argues how networking approaches that do not rely on central entities -- but rather on spontaneous interaction, as locally as possible, between autonomous peer entities -- can help realize target dispersal and thus counter pervasive monitoring

Demo: IoT Meets Robotics - First Steps, RIOT Car, and Perspectives

International audienceWe present a cloud-enhanced, four-wheeled, mobile mini- robot, assembled from low-cost, off-the-shelf hardware parts, and open-source software building blocks. These building blocks provide a reusable and extensible base for emerging applications mixing robotics with the Internet of Things