Flexible Semantic-based Data Networking for IoT Domains

Abstract

The rapid adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) as a means for digital transformation is sketching a new landscape of heterogeneous data and distributed, machine learning-based, applications. The intertwine of the two combined with the varying availability of data, generated in different parts of the domain, raises the need to exchange bulks of relevant data on demand across application(s) points. Data relevance escalates the role of semantics in identifying and locating suitable data; particularly at the network layer, to provide efficient mapping of data supply and demand. This paper proposes a semantic-based data networking framework, for managed IoT domains, embracing principles of information-centric networking without restrictions on the routing function. Managed semantics are used to provide flexible (label-based) data addressing scheme and a scalable semantic locator function, designed as an overlay network of distributed instances that can be realized on top of any routing or forwarding solution. Nonetheless, we outline different routing solutions and their suitability to such scenarios, to then draw a recommendation of the most suitable underlying routing fabric. We evaluate our framework over an example IoT domain of the Pervasive Nation (PN), Ireland national IoT network. Through our example, we show that the number of managed semantics in such a domain can be vastly smaller than that expected on an Internet scale. We analyze our semantic aggregation scheme over the example PN network, and show the high flexibility in mapping data while maintaining a small state in the semantic locator function.