Vision: The Case for Symbiosis in the Internet of Things

Abstract

Smart devices are becoming more powerful with faster processors, larger storage, and different types of communication modalities (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular). In the predominant view of Internet of Things (IoT) architecture, all smart devices are expected to communicate with cloud services and/or user-held mobile devices for processing, storage, and user interaction. This architecture heavily taxes Internet bandwidth by moving large volumes of data from the edge to the cloud, and presumes the availability of low-cost, high-performance cloud services that satisfy all user needs. We envision a new approach where all devices within the same network are 1) logically mesh connected either directly through Bluetooth or indirectly through WiFi, and 2) cooperate in a symbiotic fashion to perform different tasks. We consider instantiating this vision in a system we call SymbIoT. We first present the design goals that need to be satisfied in SymbIoT. We then discuss a strawman system's architecture that allows devices to assume different roles based on their capabilities (e.g., processing, storage, and UI). Finally, we show that it is, indeed, feasible to use low-end smart device capabilities in a cooperative manner to meet application requirements.