This paper provides an overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) with emphasis on enabling technologies, protocols, and application issues. The IoT is enabled by the latest developments in RFID, smart sensors, communication technologies, and Internet protocols. The basic premise is to have smart sensors collaborate directly without human involvement to deliver a new class of applications. The current revolution in Internet, mobile, and machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies can be seen as the first phase of the IoT. In the coming years, the IoT is expected to bridge diverse technologies to enable new applications by connecting physical objects together in support of intelligent decision making. This paper starts by providing a horizontal overview of the IoT. Then, we give an overview of some technical details that pertain to the IoT enabling technologies, protocols, and applications. Compared to other survey papers in the field, our objective is to provide a more thorough summary of the most relevant protocols and application issues to enable researchers and application developers to get up to speed quickly on how the different protocols fit together to deliver desired functionalities without having to go through RFCs and the standards specifications. We also provide an overview of some of the key IoT challenges presented in the recent literature and provide a summary of related research work. Moreover, we explore the relation between the IoT and other emerging technologies including big data analytics and cloud and fog computing. We also present the need for better horizontal integration among IoT services. Finally, we present detailed service use-cases to illustrate how the different protocols presented in the paper fit together to deliver desired IoT services.

Internet of Things: A Survey on Enabling Technologies, Protocols, and Applications

A flow processing facility, which uses a set of artificial neurons for pattern recognition, such as a self-organizing map, in order to provide security and protection to a computer or computer system supports unified threat management based at least in part on patterns relevant to a variety of types of threats that relate to computer systems, including computer networks. Flow processing for switching, security, and other network applications, including a facility that processes a data flow to address patterns relevant to a variety of conditions are directed at internal network security, virtualization, and web connection security. A flow processing facility for inspecting payloads of network traffic packets detects security threats and intrusions across accessible layers of the IP-stack by applying content matching and behavioral anomaly detection techniques based on regular expression matching and self-organizing maps. Exposing threats and intrusions within packet payload at or near real-time rates enhances network security from both external and internal sources while ensuring security policy is rigorously applied to data and system resources. Intrusion Detection and Protection (IDP) is provided by a flow processing facility that processes a data flow to address patterns relevant to a variety of types of network and data integrity threats that relate to computer systems, including computer networks.

Systems and methods for processing data flows

A method and apparatus for inter-module communication is disclosed. The method includes defining a command definition, wherein the command definition comprises commands for interfacing with a multi-channel, multi-media, communication queuing system. The command definition can include, for example, driver object commands to request media type lists and command event lists, create drivers, request service, and release drivers. The command definition can also include, for example, service object commands to release service objects, notify when handling of an event is complete, invoke commands, release work items, suspend work items, resume work items, handle queued events, and cancel queued events. The command definition can also include, for example, client object commands to start a work item, release work items, save work item contexts, restore work item contexts, serialize work items, free work item storage, begin batch processing, and end batch processing.

Adaptive communication application programming interface

The Internet of Things vision: Key features, applications and open issues

A method and system for controlling a user interface presented by a web browser (104A). The web browser (104A) is not blocked waiting for the asynchronous message. The web browser (104A) presents a user interface and presents a user interface change in response to receiving the asynchronous message.

Asynchronous message push to web browser

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) pose novel challenges compared with traditional networks. To answer such challenges a new communication paradigm, data-centric communication, is emerging. One form of data-centric communication is the publish/subscribe messaging system. Compared with other data-centric variants, publish/subscribe systems are common and wide-spread in distributed computing. Thus, extending publish/subscribe systems intoWSNs will simplify the integration of sensor applications with other distributed applications. This paper describes MQTT-S [1], an extension of the open publish/subscribe protocol message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) [2] to WSNs. MQTT-S is designed in such a way that it can be run on low-end and battery-operated sensor/actuator devices and operate over bandwidth-constraint WSNs such as ZigBee-based networks. Various protocol design points are discussed and compared. MQTT-S has been implemented and is currently being tested on the IBM wireless sensor networking testbed [3]. Implementation aspects, open challenges and future work are also presented.

MQTT-S — A publish/subscribe protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

A server computer connectable to a network and having a plurality of processors (20, 30, 40) arranged to provide a service to one or more client computers connected to the network. The service Involves the provision of blocks of information to a client computer (50), and the processors have access to a data storage (120) in which data for the blocks of information is stored. Each processor in the server has block retrieval means (80), employed in response to a request from a client computer (50) for a particular block of information from that processor, to retrieve data from the data storage (120) to construct a file representing the requested block of information, the file including references to subsequent blocks of information requestable by the client (50). Additionally, load determining means (100) periodically determines activity data for the processor for inclusion In a load distribution record maintained for all of the processors of the server. Decision means (90) is then used which, for each reference to a subsequent block of information in the file constructed by the block retrieval means (80), determines, based on the load distribution record, which processor should service a request from the client computer (50) for that subsequent block of information, and includes an address for that processor in the file constructed by the block retrieval means (80). The file is then sent to the client computer (50). In preferred embodiments, the service being provided is the World Wide Web (WWW) service, and the technique Is employed on a parallel Web server providing Web pages to clients over the Internet.

Method of load balancing across the processors of a server

A name server computer and method of operating such a computer, for facilitating a connection of a program on a client computer to a server, the server consisting of a plurality of server computers with shared resources. The name server computer, the client computer, and the server computers all reside in a logical network. The name server computer receives a request from the client computer for a computer address of a server computer identified by a server computer name sent with the request, such computer address enabling a connection to be made from the client computer to that server computer via the network. A list of server computer names with their computer addresses is provided. The name server computer uses the list to convert the server computer name received from the client computer into the computer address of the server computer, and then sends the computer address to the client computer. The computer further includes decision logic for studying the server computers at predetermined intervals having regard to a predetermined test criteria, to select one of the server computers. The list is then updated by associating the computer address for the server computer selected by the decision logic with a particular server computer name contained as a generic server computer name in the list. Using this technique, when a client computer specifies the generic server computer name, it receives the computer address of the server computer identified by the decision logic.

Name server computer having a load levelling facility to spread the load from client computers across a plurality of server computers

Subscribers connected to a publish/subscribe message broker receive messages on topic names to which they have subscribed. The messages are published with respective topic names within a sequence of topic names. The subscribers initially subscribe to at least one topic in the sequence, and then await receipt of a published message on the subscribed topic. On receipt of a published message, the subscriber unsubscribes from the subscribed topic and subscribes to a previously-unsubscribed next topic in the sequence.

Control of publish/subscribe messaging

A method and system for collaborative editing of a document by an author of the document and reviewers. Program code receives from the author an identification of selected portions of the document and receives from the author: comments created by the author and an identification of at least one reviewer to which each comment is directed. The selected portions and the comments are associated with each other on a one-to-one basis. Each comment pertains to content of the selected portion that each comment is associated with. The program code parses the received comments, and utilizes the identification of the at least one reviewer to which each comment is directed, to generate a list of comments specifying for each comment the at least one reviewer to which each comment is directed. The program code makes available to each reviewer the comments on the list of comments directed to each reviewer.

Andrew James Stanford-Clark

Papers

MQTT-S — A publish/subscribe protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Method of load balancing across the processors of a server

Name server computer having a load levelling facility to spread the load from client computers across a plurality of server computers

Control of publish/subscribe messaging

Method and system for collaborative editing of a document