Device Interoperability for Industrial IoT using Model-Driven Architecture

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is an emerging domain, converting common objects into connecting objects with ubiquitous internet access to automate industry. Due to different vendors, supporting different infrastructures, a set of communication protocols such as Zigbee, 6LowPAN, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), etc. are introduced for IIoT. Thus, a closed ecosystem for smart devices is created. Particularly, when two or more industrial IoT applications are developed using different application-layer protocols such as Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP), or MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT), devices are called heterogeneous devices and interoperability becomes a major challenge. In the existing literature, device-level interoperability using different application-layer protocols is enhanced with the help of intermediators at the network layer which includes servers, brokers, or gateways/adapters to route communication. However, these intermediators lead to several other issues such as dependency on network layer components, load balancing, single point of failure, and scalability. Therefore, the interoperability issue needs to be addressed at the application layer using a device intermediator instead of utilizing network layer components. For this purpose, Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is selected because less attention is paid to IIoT interoperable solutions development using MDE. To bridge this gap, a Model Driven Architecture (MDA) based approach is proposed that reduces the processing time and effort to develop these IIoT interoperable systems. For this purpose, (i) a metamodel, (ii) a UML profile, and (iii) transformation rules are developed to make heterogenous application-layer protocols interoperable using devices as intermediator. The initial feasibility of the proposed solution is demonstrated through a real-world case study i.e., a smart city. Results show that a complete solution for interoperability at the application layer for industrial IoT is provided using MDA. It will help the practitioners to automate industry 4.0 using model-driven based system development.