Modeling Actuation Constraints for IoT Applications

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes the importance of systematically modeling actuation constraints in IoT systems, using a home heating example to highlight challenges in enforcing constraints within system architecture.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic approach to modeling constraints in IoT actuation applications, addressing challenges in enforcement and integration.

Findings

Constraints include physical laws, legal policies, and user preferences.

Modeling constraints is essential for reliable actuation in IoT.

Challenges in enforcing constraints are demonstrated through a home heating example.

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) promises to bring ease of monitoring, better efficiency and innovative services across many domains with connected devices around us. With information from critical parts of infrastructure and powerful cloud-based data analytics, many applications can be developed to gain insights about IoT systems as well as transform their capabilities. Actuation applications form an essential part of these IoT systems, as they enable automation as well as fast low-level decision making. However, modern IoT systems are designed for data acquisition, and actuation applications are implemented in an ad-hoc manner. We identify modeling constraints in a systematic manner as indispensable to support actuation applications because constraints encompass high-level policies dictated by laws of physics, legal policies, user preferences. We explore data models for constraints inIoT system with the example of a home heating system and illustrate the challenges in enforcing these constraints in theIoT system architecture.