Interoperability for IoT devices

Wireless solutions for interoperable IoT devices

Internet of Things (IoT) is an ever-growing network of physical devices embedded with sensors, actuators,and wire-less connectivity to communicate and share their informationamong themselves. The application of IoT is in diverse areas such as agriculture, poultry and farming, smart city, and health care, where a sensor node must support heterogeneous sensors/actuators, and varying types of wireless connectivity. Interoperability is the ability of two or more devices, systems, platforms or networks to work in conjucntion. Interoperability enables communication between heterogeneous devices or system in order to achieve a common goal. However, the current devices and systems are fragmented with respect to the communication technologies, protocols, and data formats. This diversity makes it difficult for devices and systems in the IoT network to communicate and share their data with one another. The utility of IoT network is limited by the lack of interoperability.

We work towards achieving and implementing interoperability in IoT-based systems and environment. We propose solutions to enable seamless integration of peripheral with IoT device towards building a global IoT network of heterogeneous sensors and actuators. We study and analyze dynamic integration of heterogeneous devices in IoT environment.

 

Interoperable Sensor Nodes for WSN

In this paper, we present the design of a new sensor node, named Multipurpose EnerGy-efficient Adaptable low-cost sensor Node (MEGAN), with all the desired features such as reconfigurability, flexibility, energy efficiency, and low-cost required to build the Internet of Things (IoT). Apart from the ability to interface a maximum of 32 different sensors and actuators, MEGAN allows a user to choose the desired communication module, depending on the required range of communication. We design a power management circuit to extend the lifetime of the resource-constrained sensor node. Additionally, it has an integrated recharging circuit on board, which can use the energy harvested from any unregulated energy source. MEGAN combats a major drawback of application-specific sensor nodes, because of the integration of switches and a programming port. The flexibility of MEGAN, with respect to the integration of any sensor or actuator, makes it a multipurpose adaptable sensor node. The analysis of the lifetime, received signal strength indicator, packet delivery ratio, adaptability, and reliability of MEGAN under different operating conditions establish the energy efficiency and superiority of its hardware design.

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SensPnP: Seamless Integration of Heterogeneous Sensors With IoT Devices

The increasing growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications induces the need for easy integration of third-party peripherals, which is restricted in present IoT devices. In this paper, we present a novel plug-and-play (PnP) solution for the above stated problem. The proposed PnP solution, named SensPnP, is the combination of embedded hardware and firmware that has the capability of integrating third-party embedded sensors with the IoT devices without any prior information about the sensors and the Internet. We present an architecture of a PnP-enabled IoT device, which supports heterogeneous embedded peripheral communication protocols. A novel embedded protocol detection approach for enabling seamless integration of sensor with IoT device is proposed. To enable sensor communication, we propose an algorithm for automatic driver management of the connected sensor with an IoT device. This is achieved through a low-cost and low power switching and identification hardware with a light-weight identification and driver management firmware stack. To show the effectiveness of the proposed solution, we practically implemented a prototype in a real test-bed. The analysis of the PnP time, protocol identification time, the memory footprint, lifetime, and overall cost of the proposed PnP solution under different operating conditions establishes superiority of its circuitry and firmware. Experimental results show that SensPnP requires minimal memory footprint, reduced energy consumption, and reduced PnP time compared to the existing solutions. Additionally, the overall cost analysis shows that the cost of SensPnP is noticeably less compared to existing solutions. Thus, the cost-efficiency of SensPnP makes it more acceptable to the consumers when compared with existing solutions.

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xDIoT: Leveraging Reliable Cross-domain Communication Across IoT Networks

The increasing growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications induces the need for easy integration of third-party peripherals, which is restricted in present IoT devices. In this paper, we present a novel plug-and-play (PnP) solution for the above stated problem. The proposed PnP solution, named SensPnP, is the combination of embedded hardware and firmware that has the capability of integrating third-party embedded sensors with the IoT devices without any prior information about the sensors and the Internet. We present an architecture of a PnP-enabled IoT device, which supports heterogeneous embedded peripheral communication protocols. A novel embedded protocol detection approach for enabling seamless integration of sensor with IoT device is proposed. To enable sensor communication, we propose an algorithm for automatic driver management of the connected sensor with an IoT device. This is achieved through a low-cost and low power switching and identification hardware with a light-weight identification and driver management firmware stack. To show the effectiveness of the proposed solution, we practically implemented a prototype in a real test-bed. The analysis of the PnP time, protocol identification time, the memory footprint, lifetime, and overall cost of the proposed PnP solution under different operating conditions establishes superiority of its circuitry and firmware. Experimental results show that SensPnP requires minimal memory footprint, reduced energy consumption, and reduced PnP time compared to the existing solutions. Additionally, the overall cost analysis shows that the cost of SensPnP is noticeably less compared to existing solutions. Thus, the cost-efficiency of SensPnP makes it more acceptable to the consumers when compared with existing solutions.

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Interoperability in Healthcare IoT

HeDI: Healthcare Device Interoperability for IoT-Based e-Health Platforms

In this work, we propose and develop HeDI (Healthcare Device Interoperability) – a system to enable device interoperability in IoT-enabled in-home healthcare monitoring platforms. The system is scalable and dynamically accommodates multiple sensors without any predefined ontologies at the edge device.

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Reconfigure and Reuse: Interoperable Wearables for Healthcare IoT

In this work, we propose Over-The-Air (OTA)-based reconfigurable IoT health-monitoring wearables, which tether wirelessly to a low-power and portable central processing and communication hub (CPH). This hub is responsible for the proper packetization and transmission of the physiological data received from the individual sensors connected to each wearable to a remote server. Each wearable consists of a sensor, a communication adapter, and its power module. We introduce low-power adapters with each sensor, which facilitates the sensor-CPH linkups and on-demand network parameter reconfigurations. The newly introduced adapter supports the interoperability of heterogeneous sensors by eradicating the need for sensor-specific modules through OTA-based reconfiguration. The reconfiguration feature allows for new sensors to connect to an existing adapter, without changing the hardware units or any external interface. The proposed system is scalable and enables multiple sensors to connect in a network and work in synchronization with the CPH to achieve semantic and device interoperability among the sensors. We test the implementation in real-time using three different health-monitoring sensor types - temperature, pulse oximeter, and ECG. The results of our real-time system evaluation depict that the proposed system is reliable and responsive in terms of the achieved packet delivery ratio, received signal strength, and energy consumption.

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