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Internet of things

The internet of things and M2M systems in general are characterized by:
  • A huge number of
  • Autonomous
  • Reliable devices
  • With simple functionnalities
  • And a lot of interactions
In order to properly specify an IoT system two main aspects must be addressed:
  1. Static interface
    ASN.1 is a standardized and proven notation to describe static interfaces. It has been successfully and industrially used in telecommunications and banking applications for years.
  2. Dynamic interface
    Interactions are key to IoT and M2M systems. The dynamic of the exchange of information must be particularly well described so that no ambiguities are left. SDL for specification and TTCN-3 for test descriptions are both the perfect choice to describe interactions.
PragmaDev set of tools are dedicated to the support of ASN.1, SDL, and TTCN-3 technologies with editors, simulators, code generators, deployment simulator, performance analyzer, and model checking.

ETSI M2M recommendation

The following is an excerpt of ETSI web site:

A wide range of technologies work together to connect things in the Internet of Things (IoT). ETSI is involved in standardizing many of these technologies:

  • ETSI is a member of oneM2M, the global partnership initiative which aims to provide a standardized M2M interface. This will enable different devices to be connected in the IoT, irrespective of the underlying network.
  • The work of oneM2M builds on the activities of ETSI own committee, TC SmartM2M, which has developed, and now maintains, specifications for a standardized platform covering:
    • Requirements (ETSI TS 102 689)
    • Functional architecture (ETSI TS 102 690)
    • Interface descriptions (ETSI TS 102 921)
    TC SmartM2M is also addressing IoT standardization gaps identified in European Commission Large Scale Pilot projects.
An increasing number of everyday machines and objects are now embedded with sensors or actuators and have the ability to communicate over the Internet. Collectively they make up the Internet of Things (IoT).

Individual devices are connected through Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications interfaces.

Potential applications and services in the IoT include:

  • smart devices
  • smart cities
  • smart grids
  • the connected car
  • eHealth
  • home automation and energy management
  • remote industrial process control
ETSI recommended technologies for specification, interfaces, and test are the ones implemented in PragmaDev Studio.

Deployment Simulator

Mobile communication, M2M, and the Internet of Things deploy thousands or millions instances of small systems to build up a large system of system. PragmaDev Deployment Simulator aims at verifying such a topology works correctly. The communication network is characterized to take into account the distance between nodes and potential time bottleneck, an overall scenario describing the interactions of each instance is defined. Graphical traces can be obtained on-line or replayed off-line with the ability to step back and forth. The deployment simulator can execute a huge number of instances as a part of the system and check the overall behavior remains correct.

Mihal Brumbulli from PragmaDev presents his work around the deployment simulator of connected objects during the CSD&M 2015 conference. Paper - Slides.

SDL - The IoT Language

Paper by Edel Sherratt, Pau Fonseca i Casas, Finn Kristoffersen, Ilean Ober & Emmanuel Gaudin at 17th SDL Forum, October 2015.

Interconnected smart devices constitute a large and rapidly growing element of the contemporary Internet. A smart thing can be as simple as a web-enabled device that collects and transmits sensor data to a repository for analysis, or as complex as a web-enabled system to monitor and manage a smart home. Smart things present marvellous opportunities, but when they participate in complex systems, they challenge our ability to manage risk and ensure reliability. SDL, the ITU Standard Specification and Description Language, provides many advantages for modelling and simulating communicating agents – such as smart things – before they are deployed. The potential for SDL to enhance reliability and safety is explored with respect to existing smart things below. But SDL must advance if it is to become the language of choice for developing the next generation of smart things. In particular, it must target emerging IoT platforms, it must support simulation of interactions between pre-existing smart things and new smart things, and it must facilitate deployment of large numbers of similar things. Moreover, awareness of the potential benefits of SDL must be raised if those benefits are to be realized in the current and future Internet of Things.

Edel Sherratt from Aberystwyth University explains why SDL is the perfect language to describe internet of things systems. This presentation was held during the SDL Forum in Berlin on Oct 12, 2015.