Survey of Component-Based Software Engineering within IoT Development

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a growing area in everyday life. New applications under the umbrella term IoT are being developed continuously. A typical IoT system consists of quite a large set of interchangeable components. In prototype development the Raspberry Pi and Arduino have become core components of wireless sensor network solutions. This research looks at how component-based software engineering (CBSE) and off-the-shelf components can be taken advantage of when defining IoT systems. We will attempt to identify the common properties of IoT systems and compare how well these properties relate to the CBSE component characteristics: composability, deployability, comprehensive documentation, independence, and standardization. The research methodology used in this study is a literature survey. The main results of the study show that CBSE is not widely used. There has been very little research on the software side of applications, as most studies have focused on describing the hardware side of implementations. The conclusion can be made that, in order for studies to be reproducible, the software side should be described in more detail.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

OSKU - an Application for Collecting User Feedback on Living Conditions in Buildings

Reducing energy consumption is currently a very topical area of research, but perhaps it is more a question of optimizing rather than reducing consumption. Preserving optimal working and living conditions within buildings should also be considered in combination with energy usage. The global rise in temperature caused by climate change may bring requirements for additional cooling of buildings, even in geographical areas that have not needed cooling in the past. In Finland, the winter months will require buildings to be heated to provide a comfortable indoor environment even in the future. A multitude of sensors exist for measuring quantities such as carbon dioxide, relative humidity, and temperature, but how well do the values measured by sensors match the subjective feelings of the people living or working inside buildings? In an attempt to discover how people feel in their working environment, we developed an application called OSKU for collecting user feedback concerning indoor air quality, and tested it in two real-life locations (a daycare center and a school), which were also fitted with sensors. In this paper we will describe the application, the use cases, and give an example of how we compared the feedback with the measured sensor values.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Yhteiskunnallisen vuorovaikuttamisen ja tutkimustulosten läpinäkyvyyden ristiaallokossa

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Categorization of Digital Twins : A Literature Review of IoT and Industry

In recent years, the digital twin concept has gained traction in both academia and industry. But what is a digital twin? It is quite common to see many kinds of publications from scientific research to news articles on digital twins mentioning that there is no exact definition for the term. In this paper, we will go through the digital database of IEEE Xplore in an attempt to find out how the publications on digital twins use the term, and how the twins could be categorized and defined more clearly. Our focus is on literature that studies the digital twins within the context of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and industry. Our studies will show that there is indeed a need for a more standardized definition for the term, and that digital twin is often used as a blanket term to cover many systems, prototypes and implementations that may or may not be actual digital twins.Peer reviewe

Comparing the Use of Custom-built and Commercial Off-the-shelf Data Gathering Devices in IoT Systems

IoT refers to a wide range of devices that have Internet access, and collect and transmit information. Data have to be gathered from the most diverse environments. Custom data gathering devices are often necessary in situa- tions where the data being collected are unique or need to be collected in a certain way. This is because commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products may not have the necessary capabilities or features to meet the specific requirements of the data collection. This study focuses on COTS and self- built data gathering devices by comparing two data gathering prototype systems: The first designed and implemented from scratch and the second built with COTS components. Both systems are compared in terms of various features such as cost-effectiveness, time saving, and the usefulness of the output. The end goal of the study is to provide a proposal for when it is appropriate to use COTS components and when it is necessary to design and build devices yourself.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Framework and Development Process for IoT Data Gathering

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a growing area in everyday life. New applications under the umbrella term IoT are being developed continually. This development has raised the need for framework definitions for different purposes. This research introduces a special software/hardware framework for data gathering systems to be used in IoT related systems. The purpose of the research is to show the usability of a certain software/hardware combination in prototype development. The software/hardware framework has been developed during several research projects by following the same prototype development process. This is proposed as a descriptive model for the prototyping process. The main contribution of this research is the framework itself. The framework consists of a model of the system with selected components. The placement of the sensor network is also presented. The purpose of the framework is to guide and assist the construction of data gathering prototypes. Furthermore, the advantages of the framework are to support re-usability, portability, and interchangeability. This research introduces the framework, its main components, and their interconnections. In addition, the prototype development process used is presented.Peer reviewe

Portable Fog Gateways for Resilient Sensors Data Aggregation in Internet-less Environment

Fog computing is gaining attention due to the potential of aggregating and processing time-sensitive data at the nearby intelligent gateways. It reduces the latency of sensors data aggregation and response time therefore, improve real-time action which is beneficial in environmental monitoring and early warning systems. However, deploying edge computing in Internet-less environment seems unpractical and the mobility of gateways is less focused in current literature. In this paper, we present a practical design of a portable gateways scheme for sensors data aggregation and processing in Internet-less environment. The proposed gateways can locate their geographical locations which can be automatically converted into location names at the central gateway. The proposed portable Fog Gateways are developed by using open-source hardware and integrated with Cloud database for data storage. Data processing techniques such as data parsing and Reverse Geocoding are conducted for reliable data transmission by using GSM/GPRS technology and geographical location name detection respectively. Finally, a case study has been conducted to evaluate the feasibility of our proposed Fog Gateways scheme in real-time application

Interpretation, Modeling and Visualization of Crowdsourced Road Condition Data

Nowadays almost everyone has a mobile phone and even the most basic smartphones often come embedded with a variety of sensors. These sensors, in combination with a large user base, offer huge potential in the realization of crowdsourcing applications. The crowdsourcing aspect is of interest especially in situations where users’ everyday actions can generate data usable in more complex scenarios. The research goal in this paper is to introduce a combination of models for data gathering and analysis of the gathered data, enabling effective data processing of large data sets. Both models are applied and tested in the developed prototype system. In addition, the paper presents the test setup and results of the study, including a description of the web user interface used to illustrate road condition data. The data were collected by a group of users driving on roads in western Finland. Finally, it provides a discussion on the challenges faced in the implementation of the prototype system and a look at the problems related to the analysis of the collected data. In general, the collected data were discovered to be more useful in the assessment of the overall condition of roads, and less useful for finding specific problematic spots on roads, such as potholes.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe