IoTEF: A Federated Edge-Cloud Architecture for Fault-Tolerant IoT Applications

in Journal of Grid Computing (2020)

The evolution of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has led to an increased emphasis on edge computing for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), in which applications rely on processing data closer to the data ... [more ▼]

The evolution of Internet of Things (IoT) technology has led to an increased emphasis on edge computing for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), in which applications rely on processing data closer to the data sources, and sharing the results across heterogeneous clusters. This has simplified the data exchanges between IoT/CPS systems, the cloud, and the edge for managing low latency, minimal band- width, and fault-tolerant applications. Nonetheless, many of these applications administer data collec- tion on the edge and offer data analytic and storagecapabilities in the cloud. This raises the problem of separate software stacks between the edge and the cloud with no unified fault-tolerant management, hin- dering dynamic relocation of data processing. In such systems, the data must also be preserved from being corrupted or duplicated in the case of intermittent long-distance network connectivity issues, malicious harming of edge devices, or other hostile environ- ments. Within this context, the contributions of this paper are threefold: (i) to propose a new Internet of Things Edge-Cloud Federation (IoTEF) architec- ture for multi-cluster IoT applications by adapting our earlier Cloud and Edge Fault-Tolerant IoT (CEFIoT) layered design. We address the fault tolerance issue by employing the Apache Kafka publish/subscribe platform as the unified data replication solution. We also deploy Kubernetes for fault-tolerant manage- ment, combined with the federated scheme, offering a single management interface and allowing automatic reconfiguration of the data processing pipeline, (ii) to formulate functional and non-functional requirements of our proposed solution by comparing several IoT architectures, and (iii) to implement a smart build- ings use case of the ongoing Otaniemi3D project as proof-of-concept for assessing IoTEF capabilities. The experimental results conclude that the architecture minimizes latency, saves network bandwidth, and handles both hardware and network connectivity based failures [less ▲]

Data Exchange Interoperability in IoT Ecosystem for Smart Parking and EV Charging

in Sensors (2018)

Many domains are trying to integrate with the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, such as public administrations starting smart city initiatives all over the world. Cities are becoming smart in many ways ... [more ▼]

Many domains are trying to integrate with the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, such as public administrations starting smart city initiatives all over the world. Cities are becoming smart in many ways: smart mobility, smart buildings, smart environment and so on. However, the problem of non-interoperability in the IoT hinders the seamless communication between all kinds of IoT devices. Different domain specific IoT applications use different interoperability standards. These standards are usually not interoperable with each other. IoT applications and ecosystems therefore tend to use a vertical communication model that does not allow data sharing horizontally across different IoT ecosystems. In 2014, The Open Group published two domain-independent IoT messaging standards, O-MI and O-DF, aiming to solve the interoperability problem. In this article we describe the practical use of O-MI/O-DF standards for reaching interoperability in a mobile application for the smart city context, in particular for the Smart Mobility domain, electric vehicle (EV) charging case study. The proof-of-concept of the smart EV charging ecosystem with mobile application user interface was developed as a part of an EU (Horizon 2020) Project bIoTope. [less ▲]

IoT-based Smart Parking System for Sporting Event Management

in Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Services (2016, December 01)

By connecting devices, people, vehicles and infrastructures everywhere in a city, governments and their partners can improve community wellbeing and other economic and financial aspects (e.g., cost and ... [more ▼]

By connecting devices, people, vehicles and infrastructures everywhere in a city, governments and their partners can improve community wellbeing and other economic and financial aspects (e.g., cost and energy savings). Nonetheless, smart cities are complex ecosystems that comprise many different stakeholders (network operators, managed service providers, logistic centers...) who must work together to provide the best services and unlock the commercial potential of the IoT. This is one of the major challenges that faces today's smart city movement, and more generally the IoT as a whole. Indeed, while new smart connected objects hit the market every day, they mostly feed "vertical silos" (e.g., vertical apps, siloed apps...) that are closed to the rest of the IoT, thus hampering developers to produce new added value across multiple platforms. Within this context, the contribution of this paper is twofold: (i) present the EU vision and ongoing activities to overcome the problem of vertical silos; (ii) introduce recent IoT standards used as part of a recent Horizon 2020 IoT project to address this problem. The implementation of those standards for enhanced sporting event management in a smart city/government context (FIFA World Cup 2022) is developed, presented, and evaluated as a proof-of-concept. [less ▲]

Building Lifecycle Management System for Enhanced Closed Loop Collaboration

in 13th IFIP International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM16) (2016, June 29)

In the past few years, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry has carried out efforts to develop BIM (Building Information Modelling) facilitating tools and standards for enhanced ... [more ▼]

In the past few years, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry has carried out efforts to develop BIM (Building Information Modelling) facilitating tools and standards for enhanced collaborative working and information sharing. Lessons learnt from other industries and tools such as PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) – established tool in manufacturing to manage the engineering change process – revealed interesting potential to manage more efficiently the building design and construction processes. Nonetheless, one of the remaining challenges consists in closing the information loop between multiple building lifecycle phases, e.g. by capturing information from middle-of-life processes (i.e., use and maintenance) to re-use it in end-of-life processes (e.g., to guide disposal decision making). Our research addresses this lack of closed-loop system in the AEC industry by proposing an open and interoperable Web-based building lifecycle management system. This paper gives (i) an overview of the requirement engineering process that has been set up to integrate efforts, standards and directives of both the AEC and PLM industries, and (ii) first proofs-of-concept of our system implemented on two distinct campus. [less ▲]

IoT Platforms Initiative

in Vermesan, Ovidiu; Friess, Peter (Eds.) Digitising the Industry Internet of Things Connecting the Physical, Digital and Virtual Worlds (2016)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is considered to be one of the enablers of the next industrial revolution. It is fuelled by the advancement of digital technologies, as well as dramatically changing how ... [more ▼]

The Internet of Things (IoT) is considered to be one of the enablers of the next industrial revolution. It is fuelled by the advancement of digital technologies, as well as dramatically changing how companies engage in business activities and people interact with their environment. The IoT’s disruptive nature requires the assessment of the requirements for its future deployment across the digital value chain in various industries and many application areas. The IoT is bridging the physical, digital, cyber and virtual worlds and requires sound information processing capabilities for the “digital shadows” of these real things. IoT applications are gradually moving from vertical, single- purpose solutions to multi-purpose and collaborative applications interacting across industry verticals, organizations and people, which represents one of the essential paradigms of the digital economy. Many of those applications still have to be identified, while involvement of end users in this innovation is crucial. IoT technologies are key enablers of the Digital Single Market (DSM), which will have a potentially significant impact on the creation of jobs and growth, along with providing opportunities for IoT stakeholders in deploying and commercializing IoT technologies and applications within European and global markets. The following chapters will provide insights into the state of the art for research and innovation regarding the IoT, while exposing you to the challenges and opportunities within future IoT ecosystems, which address IoT technology as well as applications developments and deployments for various domains (consumer/business/industrial/art). [less ▲]

O-MI/O-DF Standards as Interoperability Enablers for Industrial Internet: a Performance Analysis

in O-MI/O-DF Standards as Interoperability Enablers for Industrial Internet: a Performance Analysis (2016)

The Industrial Internet should provide means to create ad hoc and loosely coupled information flows between objects, users, services, and business domain systems. However, today’s technologies and ... [more ▼]

The Industrial Internet should provide means to create ad hoc and loosely coupled information flows between objects, users, services, and business domain systems. However, today’s technologies and products often feed ‘vertical silos’ (e.g., vertical/siloed apps), which inevitably result in multiple and non-interoperable systems. Standardization will play an ever-increasing part in enabling information to flow between such vertically-oriented closed systems. This paper presents recent IoT messaging standards, notably O-MI (Open Messaging Interface) and O-DF (Open Data Format), whose initial requirements were defined for enhanced collaboration and interoperability in product lifecycle management. A first analytical model of the minimal traffic load (in bytes) to fulfil the required/basic standard specifications is then proposed. A smart maintenance use case relying on the first version of the standard reference implementation is developed, based on which our analytical model is applied to evaluate the degree of deviation (w.r.t. the standard specifications) of this reference implementation. [less ▲]

Opportunity to Leverage Information-as-an-Asset in the IoT -- The road ahead

in 3rd International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud (2015, August 24)

In traditional product companies, creating value meant identifying enduring customer needs and manufacturing well-engineered solutions. Two hundred and fifty years after the start of the Industrial ... [more ▼]

In traditional product companies, creating value meant identifying enduring customer needs and manufacturing well-engineered solutions. Two hundred and fifty years after the start of the Industrial Revolution, this pattern of activity plays out every day, especially in a connected world where products are no longer one-and-done. Making money is not anymore limited to physical product sales and other revenue streams become possible after the initial product sale, which are service-based information and knowledge in today's IoT (including subscriptions and apps, new analytics for cognitive capabilities...). While information and knowledge are the "new oil" of the IoT era, it nonetheless remains challenging to perceive and extract the real value of those assets, as information is not as tangible and concrete as physical assets. In this respect, this paper introduces the major "laws of information" and discusses how these laws can be leveraged to their full extend thanks to the IoT possibilities. Further, the paper discusses the key challenges that remain to be addressed in today's IoT to concretize such laws. Finally, a set of real-life business use cases identified by the Open Platform 3.0TM Forum are presented from the information law perspectives. [less ▲]

Data supply chain in Industrial Internet

in 11th IEEE World Conference on Factory Communication Systems (2015, May)

The Industrial Internet promises to radically change and improve many industry's daily business activities, from simple data collection and processing to context-driven, intelligent and pro-active support ... [more ▼]

The Industrial Internet promises to radically change and improve many industry's daily business activities, from simple data collection and processing to context-driven, intelligent and pro-active support of workers’ everyday tasks and life. The present paper first provides insight into a typical industrial internet application architecture, then it highlights one fundamental arising contradiction: "Who owns the data is often not capable of analyzing it". This statement is explained by imaging a visionary data supply chain that would realize some of the Industrial Internet promises. To concretely implement such a system, recent standards published by The Open Group are presented, where we highlight the characteristics that make them suitable for Industrial Internet applications. Finally, we discuss comparable solutions and concludes with new business use cases. [less ▲]