IoTRepair: Systematically Addressing Device Faults in Commodity IoT (Extended Paper)

Abstract

IoT devices are decentralized and deployed in unstable environments, which causes them to be prone to various kinds of faults, such as device failure and network disruption. Yet, current IoT platforms require programmers to handle faults manually, a complex and error-prone task. In this paper, we present IOTREPAIR, a fault-handling system for IoT that (1) integrates a fault identification module to track faulty devices, (2) provides a library of fault-handling functions for effectively handling different fault types, (3) provides a fault handler on top of the library for autonomous IoT fault handling, with user and developer configuration as input. Through an evaluation in a simulated lab environment and with various fault injection methods, IOTREPAIR is compared with current fault-handling solutions. The fault handler reduces the incorrect states on average 50.01%, which corresponds to less unsafe and insecure device states. Overall, through a systematic design of an IoT fault handler, we provide users flexibility and convenience in handling complex IoT fault handling, allowing safer IoT environments.