Towards a Methodology for creating Internet of Things (IoT) Applications based on Microservices

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the new industrial revolution, in which physical and virtual objects are interconnected. On the other hand, microservices architectures have broken the monolithic and centralized way to build software, and provide systems with high-quality characteristics (e.g., resilience, availability, modularity, and portability). Therefore, the idea of merging those technologies can constitute a powerful strategy to be applied in environments that demand the distribution and management of many IoT devices using high-quality software. In this context, several studies that integrate IoT with microservices solutions have been analyzed. However, most of these studies aim to satisfy the functional requirements related to software and hardware, without taking into account software engineering methodologies and good practices that allow the creation of software for IoT devices considering their distributed nature. Thus, this paper presents the first approach to an agile methodology that i) contemplates the main characteristics of the IoT and ii) guides the development of appropriate software solutions based on microservices architectures to manage IoT environments acknowledging the serious difficulties that microservices imply.