Context-awareness for Dependable Low-Power IoT

TL;DR

This paper introduces a context-aware protocol framework for IoT networks, leveraging situational information to improve dependability with minimal overhead, demonstrated through three practical use cases.

Contribution

It identifies four key context dimensions for IoT dependability and proposes a two-step protocol design framework incorporating these contexts.

Findings

Context awareness enhances IoT dependability.

Minimal control overhead is maintained.

Framework is validated through three use cases.

Abstract

Dependability is the ability to consistently deliver trusted and uninterrupted service in the face of operational uncertainties. Ensuring dependable operation in large-scale, energy-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) deployments is as crucial as challenging, and calls for context-aware protocols where context refers to situational or state information. In this paper, we identify four critical context dimensions for IoT networks, namely energy status, information freshness, task relevance, and physical/medium conditions, and show how each one underpins core dependability attributes. Building on these insights, we propose a two-step protocol design framework that incorporates operation-specific context fields. Through three representative use cases, we demonstrate how context awareness can significantly enhance system dependability while imposing only minimal control-plane overhead.