CloudThings: a Common Architecture for Integrating the Internet of Things

with Cloud Computing

INTRODUCTION

In late 90's Kevin Ashton brought the idea of the Internet of Things, in which objects are connected
and can interact with servers and each other as well over Internet. Nicholas Negroponte (head of the
Media Lab at MIT) claimed that the Internet of Things is about embedding intelligence so that things
become smarter and do more than they did before. This paper mainly focuses on a common
approach to integrate the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing under the name of Cloud
Things architecture. Internet of Things can be useful in many aspects, e.g. - intelligent transportation
system to reduce traffic jams and avoid accidents, e-health to increase efficiency in medical system.
However, there are several challenges in IOT such as scalability, data storage, energy efficiency.
Cloud computing can be really helpful in IOT as it creates a new way of designing, developing,
testing, deploying, running and maintaining applications on the Internet.

THE CLOUD-BASED INTERNET OF THINGS: A REVIEW

Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store,
manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer. With cloud-base tools a
user has the flexibility to program from anywhere that has an Internet connection. In the proposed
Cloud-based model, the Cloud connects devices such as PCs, smart phones, embedded
development platforms to Cloud-based programming tools. These tools can include sales databases,
or Integrated Development Environments (IDE), and can compile resources hosted by Cloud
computing platforms such as Amazon.com. A great advantage of the Cloud model is the flexibility of
implementation. Few examples of cloud based applications are given below:
In RFID application development a cloud based approach has been used in which Amazon Web
Service platform and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) services has been applied. The EC2 service
allows the creation and management of virtual machines that can then be deployed on demand onto a
pool of machines that are hosted, managed, and configured by Amazon. The benefit of this approach
is that the server-side hardware maintenance is delegated to the Cloud provider. Another example,
Nimbits is built on Cloud computing architecture that provides connectivity between the Internet of
Things using data points. Nimbits can be used to record and share sensor data on the Cloud freely.

THINGS-ENABLED SMART HOME SCENARIO: USE CASE STUDY

Let us take an example of a smart home:

Dr. Gupta wakes up early morning at 6am as the music in the bedroom gently rises, and the curtain
slowly opens. When Dr. Gupta sits at the kitchen table, the TV in the kitchen automatically comes on
and tunes to a previously set program. When he stands up to leave, the TV screen presents his
memoranda, schedule, and reminder notes for the day. When he leaves for the office, the TV and air
conditioning automatically turn off, and the anti-theft systems such as magnetic door locks and
infrared microwave detectors start working. By 9 a.m., the outdoor temperature sensors, light sensors,
and raindrop sensors determine it will be a sunny day. The windows open automatically to bring fresh
air into the house. The temperature drops, around 4pm and the windows automatically close. At 6:30
p.m., Dr. Gupta arrives home and at 7 p.m. he begins to prepare for dinner. His favourite light music
automatically starts in the kitchen. When he steps into the bedroom at 10pm, the lights there slowly
come on, while the lights in the living room, the TV, and the stereo speakers all turn off. We can
realize that above scenario involves lot of challenges. e.g.- Integrated computing, Data storage,
Hardware infrastructure management, security and privacy.

THINGS FEATURES AND THINGS APPLICATION CHARACTERISTICS

CLOUDTHINGS ARCHITECTURE: CLOUD-BASED INTERNET OF THINGS PLATFORM

Cloud-based Internet of Things has the ability to develop, deploy, run, and manage Things
applications online via the Cloud which makes it different from than conventional Internet of Things.
Fig. 1 illustrates the main features of the Cloud-based IoT platform (i.e. CloudThings architecture)
Let us understand the Cloud-based IoT platform and their interaction with the three Cloud computing
models of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service
(SaaS).
a. The CloudThings service platform for Things is a set of Cloud services (IaaS), allowing users to run
any applications on Cloud hardware. It communicates directly with devices and provides storage to
collect Things data and transmit Things events.
b. The CloudThings Developer Suite for Things is a set of Cloud service tools (PaaS) for Things
application development. These tools include open Web service application programming interfaces
(APIs), which provide complete development and deployment capabilities to Things developers.
c. The CloudThings Operating Portal for Things is a set of Cloud services (SaaS) that support
deployment and handle or support specialized processing services including service subscription
management, community coordination, Things connection, Things discovery, data intelligence, and
Things composition.
-Interact with Things Using Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) : CoAP provides a request/
response interaction model between application end-points. This protocol is designed for machine-to-
machine (M2M) applications such as smart energy and building automation.
-Networking with Things Using 6LoWPAN: 6LoWPAN is used which defines message frame formats,
fragmentation methods, and header compression techniques required to fit Ipv6/UDP data grams in
the very limited IEEE 802.15.4 frame size.
-Integration with the Cloud Using RESTful Web Services: The RESTful protocol is HTTP, which uses
HTTP-similar standardized methods (e.g. GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, etc.) to deal with resources.

IMPLEMENTATION

This section presents two related prototypes:

1. Smart home application based on a Cloud infrastructure
2. Cloud architecture to accelerate service composition and rapid application development.

Fig. 2 depicts the smart home application based on a Cloud infrastructure. In smart home application,
from Arduino-enabled IoT things, sensors read the home temperature and luminosity, storage and
visualization is done using cloud application so that the user can view them anywhere, anytime using
Internet connection. Specifically-
LM35 temparature sensor - to sense home temperature
LDR (light dependent resistor) - to sense the home light luminosity
Ethernet cable - to connect Arduino to the Internet
HTTP- to send data between Arduino-enabled IoT things and the Cloud application
Cloud service –Google App Engine to host the Cloud application that stores sensor readings and
visualizes them
Cloud-based IoT service – Paraimpu to connect Arduino-enabled sensors, and to share the sensor
readings with friends.

Fig.3 presents the Cloud architecture to accelerate service composition and rapid application
development. Special “Composition as a Service” layer has been inserted for dynamic service
composition. The CM4SC middleware encapsulates sets of fundamental services for executing the
users’ service requests (process planning, service discovery, process generation, reasoning engine
service, process execution, and monitoring.)

CONCLUSION

The integration of Cloud computing into the Internet of Things presents a viable approach to facilitate
Things application development. This paper studies a Things-enabled scenario, and designs a Cloud-
based Internet of Things platform – the CloudThings architecture, which accommodates IaaS, PaaS,
and SaaS for developing, deploying, running, and composing Things applications.