Proxying Facility for Autonomous Sensor And Actuator Networks

Today the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) architectures are based on some types of centralized elements. The centralized elements are often physical servers that provide a set of functionalities for sensors and actuators in M2M networks. The provided functions can be, for example, functions that provide protocol conversion, or monitoring and controlling facilities. The goal of this work in DIEM is to create building blocks for such M2M architectures that reduce network's dependency of centralized elements. The dependency is reduced by shifting functionalities from centralized elements to sensor and actuator devices which can be considered as edge-devices in M2M networks. The resulting M2M network architecture is referred to, in this context, as autonomous M2M network. In DIEM, the functionalities that are shifted to edge-device are related to two topics: protocol conversion (proxying), and monitoring and controlling. This work is divided into two implementation-oriented deliverables, 5.10.1 and 5.10.2.

In 5.10.1, Proxying Facility for Autonomous Sensor and Actuator Network Networks, a software module for proxying in autonomous M2M networks has been designed and implemented. The proxying functionality is placed in the border of a Wireless Personal-Area Network (WPAN) and a Wireless Wide-Area Network (WWAN). It is noteworthy, that the proxy itself runs on a moderate edge device, as opposed to being run on a centralized physical server. The proxy enables communication between the devices in WPAN (e.g., ZigBee) and the devices in WWAN (e.g., 3G). One key component of the proxying functionality is the protocol conversion. In more concrete terms, the lightweight protocols (ZigBee) on the WPAN side are to be converted to more advanced protocols (SNMP and CoAP) on the WWAN side, and vice versa. The protocol conversion functionality requires novel technical approaches, because in autonomous M2M architectures one of the key functionalities of the protocols on the WWAN side is to reduce the dependence of
centralized elements (i.e., the protocols in WWAN side are not just de facto protocols).