Middleware Solutions For The Internet Of Things

After a brief introduction and contextualization on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Web of Things (WoT) paradigms, this timely new book describes one of the first research initiatives aimed at tackling the several challenges involved in building a middleware-layer infrastructure capable of realizing the WoT vision: the SmartSensor infrastructure. It is based on current standardization efforts and designed to manage a specific type of physical devices, those organized to shape a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), where sensors work collaboratively, extracting data and transmitting it to external networks to be further analysed and processed. Middleware Solutions for the Internet of Things describes this infrastructure and its RESTful-based programming model that allows developers create applications without having specific knowledge about physical devices or networking environments. It is also shown, step by step, how to create a Web Mashup application using SmartSensor.

The proliferation of powerful but cheap devices, together with the availability of a plethora of wireless technologies, has pushed for the spread of the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT), which is typically much more heterogeneous, dynamic, and general-purpose if compared with the traditional IoT. The WIoT is characterized by the dynamic interaction of traditional infrastructure-side devices, e.g., sensors and actuators, provided by municipalities in Smart City infrastructures, and other portable and more opportunistic ones, such as mobile smartphones, opportunistically integrated to dynamically extend and enhance the WIoT environment. A key enabler of this vision is the advancement of software and middleware technologies in various mobile-related sectors, ranging from the effective synergic management of wireless communications to mobility/adaptivity support in operating systems and differentiated integration and management of devices with heterogeneous capabilities in middleware, from horizontal support to crowdsourcing in different application domains to dynamic offloading to cloud resources, only to mention a few. The book presents state-of-the-art contributions in the articulated WIoT area by providing novel insights about the development and adoption of middleware solutions to enable the WIoT vision in a wide spectrum of heterogeneous scenarios, ranging from industrial environments to educational devices. The presented solutions provide readers with differentiated point of views, by demonstrating how the WIoT vision can be applied to several aspects of our daily life in a pervasive manner.

Although the Internet of Things (IoT) is a vast and dynamic territory that is evolving rapidly, there has been a need for a book that offers a holistic view of the technologies and applications of the entire IoT spectrum. Filling this void, The Internet of Things in the Cloud: A Middleware Perspective provides a comprehensive introduction to the IoT and its development worldwide. It gives you a panoramic view of the IoT landscape—focusing on the overall technological architecture and design of a tentatively unified IoT framework underpinned by Cloud computing from a middleware perspective. Organized into three sections, it: Describes the many facets of Internet of Things—including the four pillars of IoT and the three layer value chain of IoT Focuses on middleware, the glue and building blocks of a holistic IoT system on every layer of the architecture Explores Cloud computing and IoT as well as their synergy based on the common background of distributed processing The book is based on the author’s two previous bestselling books (in Chinese) on IoT and Cloud computing and more than two decades of hands-on software/middleware programming and architecting experience at organizations such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, IBM, BEA Systems, and Silicon Valley startup Doubletwist. Tapping into this wealth of knowledge, the book categorizes the many facets of the IoT and proposes a number of paradigms and classifications about Internet of Things' mass and niche markets and technologies.

The proliferation of powerful but cheap devices, together with the availability of a plethora of wireless technologies, has pushed for the spread of the Wireless Internet of Things (WIoT), which is typically much more heterogeneous, dynamic, and general-purpose if compared with the traditional IoT. The WIoT is characterized by the dynamic interaction of traditional infrastructure-side devices, e.g., sensors and actuators, provided by municipalities in Smart City infrastructures, and other portable and more opportunistic ones, such as mobile smartphones, opportunistically integrated to dynamically extend and enhance the WIoT environment. A key enabler of this vision is the advancement of software and middleware technologies in various mobile-related sectors, ranging from the effective synergic management of wireless communications to mobility/adaptivity support in operating systems and differentiated integration and management of devices with heterogeneous capabilities in middleware, from horizontal support to crowdsourcing in different application domains to dynamic offloading to cloud resources, only to mention a few. The book presents state-of-the-art contributions in the articulated WIoT area by providing novel insights about the development and adoption of middleware solutions to enable the WIoT vision in a wide spectrum of heterogeneous scenarios, ranging from industrial environments to educational devices. The presented solutions provide readers with differentiated point of views, by demonstrating how the WIoT vision can be applied to several aspects of our daily life in a pervasive manner.

Over the past years, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, towards the development of basic technology as well as innovative applications for the Internet of Things. Adaptive Middleware for the Internet of Things introduces a scalable, interoperable and privacy-preserving approach to realize IoT applications and discusses abstractions and mechanisms at the middleware level that simplify the realization of services that can adapt autonomously to the behavior of their users. Technical topics discussed in the book include:Behavior-driven Autonomous ServicesGAMBAS Middleware ArchitectureGeneric and Efficient Data AcquisitionInteroperable and Scalable Data ProcessingAutomated Privacy PreservationAdaptive Middleware for the Internet of Things summarizes the results of the GAMBAS research project funded by the European Commission under Framework Programme 7. It provides an in-depth description of the middleware system developed by the project consortium. In addition, the book describes several innovative mobility and monitoring applications that have been built, deployed and operated to evaluate the middleware under realistic conditions with a large number of users. Adaptive Middleware for the Internet of Things is ideal for personnel in the computer and communication industries as well as academic staff and research students in computer science interested in the development of systems and applications for the Internet of Things.

Middleware refers to the intermediate software layer that bridges the gap between the heterogeneous hardware platforms and the backend applications requirements. It allows providing common services and programming abstractions and hiding the low-level management of the connected hardware. With the recent advances in distributed systems and enabling technologies, such as RFID, WSNs, IoT, IoE, cloud computing, context-aware pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing, etc., middleware design and development has become a necessity, taking increasing importance. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the different design patterns and reference models used in middleware architectures in general, followed by a description of specific middleware architectures dedicated to the use of the different emerging technologies, such as IoT, cloud computing, IEEE 802.11, etc. This book intends therefore to bring together in one place up-to-date contributions and remaining challenges in this fast-moving research area for the benefit of middleware systems’ designers and applications developers.

This book constitutes the proceedings from the 20th Tyrrhenian Workshop on Digital Communications, held September 2009 in Pula, Sardinia, Italy and focused on the "Internet of Things."