Interoperability of Heterogeneous IoT Platforms

INTER-IoT presents a novel layer-oriented solution for interoperability, to provide interoperability at any layer and across layers among different IoT systems and platforms. Contrary to a more general global approach, the INTER-IoT layered approach has a higher potential in order to provide interoperability. It facilitates a tight bidirectional integration, higher performance, complete modularity, high adaptability and flexibility, and presents increased reliability. This layer-oriented solution is achieved through INTER-LAYER, several interoperability solutions dedicated to specific layers. Each interoperability infrastructure layer has a strong coupling with adjacent layers and provides an interface. Interfaces will be controlled by a meta-level framework to provide global interoperability. Every interoperability mechanism can be accessed through an API. The interoperability infrastructure layers can communicate and interoperate through the interfaces. This cross-layering allows to achieve a deeper and more complete integration.

There are some significant tasks in the first stage of a project in order to achieve success when taking out a new product, a service or release a software. It is essential to know what is in the market and what the potential customers want. Therefore, during the project, we performed a market analysis regarding all the products related with IoT and we had interviews with all the involved actors in all the domains, such as developers, integrators, operators, domain users, clients, etc. Furthermore, from the previous information we define the requirements in order to determine how the system should work and what it should do. This chapter presents the process and the results of these three activities developed in the first stage of the INTER-IoT project: market analysis, stakeholders analysis, and requirements analysis. This task was done for the five different products defined in the project: INTER-LAYER, INTER-FW, INTER-METH, INTER-LogP, and INTER-Health. These tasks have been made using the VOLERE methodology, which is an excellent methodology to extract conclusions and provide results following a systematic approach.

The number and diversity of IoT platforms is huge, causing an unsustainable ecosystem fragmentation. INTER-IoT proposes a solution to bridge heterogeneous IoT platforms, promoting interoperability at different abstraction layers. Modeling is a key engineering mechanism to abstract existing platforms requirements and functionalities, to capture common, reusable properties, so to realize general approaches that are capable of addressing different degrees of interoperability. Based on the significant results of the IoT-A EU funded project, INTER-IoT has therefore defined a Reference Model for IoT Platforms Interoperability, a Reference Architecture, and a complete interoperability system.

A interoperability layer is fundamental to provide a global continuum interoperability among IoT platforms. To address this layer, the following activities have been carried out: (i) design of device-to-device interaction based on multiprotocol/access mechanisms; (ii) design of software defined interoperable modules for mobility and routing; (iii) development of an open management framework for smart objects; (iv) design and implementation of smart IoT application service gateway and virtualization; and (v) definition of a common ontology which will facilitate access to the heterogeneous data, data that will be collected and managed by integrated IoT platforms.

INTER-Framework solution provides a way to homogenize the use of the interoperability layered infrastructure. By using INTER-FW, any IoT platform can be made interoperable with respect to its device, network, middleware and service layer. This tool offers a complete visual framework to configure and manage in a secure way and to develop new software applications leveraging data from multiple IoT heterogeneous platforms. It facilitates the creation of an ecosystem of interoperable and open IoT platforms. Thus, the development time of novel IoT services and applications can be shortened, and these services can be provided atop interoperable IoT platforms. It is reflected in lower development effort and economical costs for product owners, users, developers and platform integrators. The framework includes components to address several requirements like security, API management, data visualization, scalability and extensibility. INTER-FW also contains the identity and authorization mechanisms of INTER-IoT. In addition, it contains INTER-API, a gateway of the APIs from the different layers. INTER-API is managed and configured within INTER-FW using the API Manager and the Identity Server.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a jeopardized ecosystem in which heterogeneity is intrinsic at all levels, from physical devices to communication protocols till high-level application semantics. The absence of IoT standards increases the complexity of integration and interoperability among heterogeneous platforms. This generates a strong demand for proper methodologies in order to fully support the development of heterogeneous, yet interoperable, IoT systems. To fill this gap, in this chapter the INTER-METH engineering methodology is presented. Developed in the context of the European H2020 INTER-IoT project, INTER-METH supports the integration of heterogeneous IoT platforms from the analysis to the maintenance phase. Its abstract and instantiated process schema are described, with particular focus on the analysis and design phases that are fundamental drivers of the whole integration process. Relevant interoperability design patterns, the building blocks of the design phase, will be discussed. The chapter also presents the INTER-CASE tool associated to the methodology which is useful to guide integrator designers in properly following the INTER-METH workflow. Finally, the chapter shows the proposed methodology and its tool in action, with the practical integration of BodyCloud and UniversAAL platforms adopted in the INTER-Health pilot of the INTER-IoT project.

This chapter describes INTER-HEALTH use case, a real application of the INTER-IoT framework in a healthcare environment. INTER-HEALTH provides a solution that allows health experts to prevent and reduce obesity, which is one of the main causes of chronic diseases. Through INTER-IoT, two different platforms are able to interoperate to exchange information and so, to provide aggregated information to health experts. The results show a clear improvement in the health of the participants compared with those that did not use INTER-HEALTH solution.

In the transport chain there are involved several public and private companies including ports, terminals, hauliers companies, shipping lines, freight forwarders, customs, etc. The transport activity requires the exchange of data and documentation between these companies. However, each of them has its own system and it is not easy to share data. This data can be used to provide better services to their clients. This chapter presents the demonstration of the INTER-IoT components in a real environment in the port and logistic domain. Three of the main actors in the transport chain are sharing data in the port of Valencia. With the data provided, we defined three different scenarios focused on access control and traffic, dynamic lighting, and wind gusts detection. With this pilot we have shown the benefits of sharing data in the port and logistic sector using INTER-IoT.

A main obstacle for building the emerging IoT ecosystem is the current lack of standardized infrastructure and thus interoperability, hampering IoT platforms to inter-operate among them and causing a massive proliferation of vertical silos. Since interoperability is a critical feature for the creation of IoT ecosystems, the novel open interoperability solutions provided by the H2020 INTER-IoT project can very significantly promote the creation and expansion of IoT interoperable ecosystems, especially across domains. The road towards INTER-IoT ecosystem building is described in this chapter, noting the different IoT solutions and domains already addressed.