Flex-request: Library to make remote changes in the communication of IoT devices

Abstract

In recent years, Internet of Things (IoT) systems have changed the way we live, work and do businesses in many areas, even those that until recently seemed unlikely. Some areas that can benefit from their application are, among others, healthcare, smart cities, industrial automation, smart agriculture, intelligent transportation systems, smart logistics, and emergency response. This research work proposes a novel alternative that allows the creation of IoT systems capable of making remote changes in devices' communication in a fast and agile manner. Our proposal gives way to some of the most common changes in communication made during the development and maintenance phase in IoT systems, like changing the destination of data transmission, sending the data to multiple destinations, and changing the frequency of sending data. Our solution, which is used in the programs, is loaded on the device. When the device starts, it connects to a configuration server in the background and listens for changes. The changes are sent to the configuration server using specified commands. When a change is detected, the command is processed, and the change in communication is applied without stopping the running program. We designed experiments to evaluate the complexity of the programs developed using our proposal and the actions needed to make a change.