SI4IoT: A methodology based on models and services for the integration of IoT systems

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a technology that is growing faster every day due to the large number of platforms and end-devices that are becoming connected to each other. As part of this wide and diverse scenario, developers are now facing various challenges, such as heterogeneity, diversity of communication protocols, discovery of things, and coordination of services, among others. A paradigm that can help to tackle these issues is the model engineering since it allows different elements to be reused which can simplify the work of developers. In this paper, we propose SI4IoT (Service Integration for IoT), a methodology based on MDE (Model-Driven Engineering) for the development of IoT systems. This methodology enables automatic code generation, making it easier for developers to design sophisticated new IoT applications. We focus on a DSL (Domain-Specific Language), a graphic editor, and a set of M2T (Model-to-Text) transformations that generate code for software artifacts on Arduino, Node-Red, Ballerina, and NCL-Lua for deployment on hardware nodes, web services, and DTV (Digital TV). Our proposal consists of a model for the integration of services made up of three layers: physical, logical, and application. To validate our proposal, a Smart Home scenario has been considered, with sensors and actuators which, when combined, allow control of lights and heating. In addition, it allows the user to receive information about their home on television based on the REST services that have been created for the IoT nodes.