Dependability for the Internet of Things—from dependable networking in harsh environments to a holistic view on dependability

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) applications in several domains such as surveillance of civil infrastructure, smart grids, and smart healthcare are of utmost importance for our society and require dependable performance. Guaranteeing that application-specific dependability requirements are met is however still an open research challenge. The IoT indeed exposes highly resource-constrained computing devices to harsh environmental conditions (e.g., heat, mechanical shock, electromagnetic radiation) and physical attacks. Unfortunately, traditional methods to withstand these threats heavily rely on redundancy, a concept that is incompatible with the resource constraints of common IoT devices. In this article, we illustrate our efforts in providing methods and tools to predict, guarantee, and raise the level of dependability of the IoT. We first outline our contributions in the area of dependable wireless networking and describe a cost-effective solution allowing to guarantee that IoT applications meet specific performance requirements despite the challenging interaction of low-power wireless networks with their surrounding environment. We then argue that dependable networking alone is insufficient to guarantee the correct operation of a complex IoT system, and outline how we join different scientific disciplines in a long-term endeavor and work towards a coherent view of dependability.

A Comprehensive Technological Survey on Dependable Self-Managing CPS: The Decade of Researches on Correctness and Dependability

“…What's more, CPS is tightly embedded in the physical world and will be influenced by the environment easily. Some researchers have already started to take the environmental factors into account [261][262].…”

Quantifying the impact of resource redundancy on smart city system dependability: a model-driven approach

“…In future research, we plan to investigate the impact of different distribution types on the results, establish a more realistic baseline scenario, conduct performance analysis to evaluate the impact of availability on response time and throughput, and incorporate additional components such as onboard units of vehicles in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) to further enhance the realism of our model. The field of Internet of Things (IoT) and dependability has been enriched by several notable studies, including Silva et al [37], Ojie et al [27], Andrade et al [3], and Boano et al [8]. Silva et al [37] propose a tool for evaluating the dependability of IoT applications, considering both hardware faults and permanent link faults.…”

“…Their proposed models enable assessment of important DR measures such as system availability, cost, and recovery time objective, with a real-world healthcare IoT system used as a case study. Boano et al [8] provide methods and tools for predicting, guaranteeing, and enhancing the dependability of IoT systems. They highlight contributions in dependable wireless networking and present a cost-effective solution for ensuring IoT applications meet specific performance requirements despite challenges posed by low-power wireless networks and their environments.…”