Observing IoT Resources over ICN

TL;DR

This paper explores how integrating Information-Centric Networking (ICN) with CoAP observe can improve IoT resource monitoring by reducing state management and communication overhead, without requiring changes to CoAP applications.

Contribution

It presents the design and implementation of CoAP observe over ICN, demonstrating benefits for network providers and IoT applications.

Findings

Reduced state management at CoAP endpoints

Simplified implementation of CoAP observe

Lower communication overhead in the network

Abstract

The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is an HTTP-like protocol for RESTful applications intended to run on constrained devices, typically part of the Internet of Things. CoAP observe is an extension to the CoAP specification that allows CoAP clients to observe a resource through a simple publish/subscribe mechanism. In this paper we leverage Information-Centric Networking (ICN), transparently deployed within the domain of a network provider, to provide enhanced CoAP services. We present the design and the implementation of CoAP observe over ICN and we discuss how ICN can provide benefits to both network providers and CoAP applications, even though the latter are not aware of the existence of ICN. In particular, the use of ICN results in smaller state management and simpler implementation at CoAP endpoints, and less communication overhead in the network.