Flexible Name Autoconfiguration for IoT Devices

Abstract

Internet of things (IoT) devices may be directly connected to the Internet in the future. In that case, an enormous number of addresses are required, so IPv6 address is inevitable. Therefore, when a user communicates with a device assigned IPv6 address, it is common to use a user-friendly identifier such as fully qualified domain name (FQDN) instead of an IP address. However, the current IoT device often has no function of setting the FQDN in many cases. This paper proposes flexible name autoconfiguration (FNAC) which can automatically generate FQDN without altering specification of IoT device at all. In FNAC, FQDN is automatically generated based on device information that can be acquired using the communication protocol used in each IoT device, and this function is installed in a home gateway (HGW). Additionally, by setting the information such as the installation location of the IoT devices in the HGW, a user can include a label about the location in the FQDN, or change the FQDN to a more recognizable FQDN.