An Interface Theory for the Internet of Things
Marten Lohstroh, Edward A. Lee

Citation
Marten Lohstroh, Edward A. Lee. "An Interface Theory for the Internet of Things". Software Engineering and Formal Methods, 20-34, 21, August, 2015.

Abstract
This paper uses interface automata to develop an interface theory for a component architecture for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Specifically, it examines an architecture for IoT applications where so-called "accessors" provide an actor-oriented proxy for devices ("things") and services. Following the principles of actor models, an accessor reacts to input stimuli and produces outputs that can stimulate reactions in other accessors or actors. The paper focuses on a specialized form of actor models where inputs and outputs to accessors and actors are time-stamped events, enabling timing-sensitive IoT applications. The interaction between accessors and actors via time-stamped events forms a "horizontal contract," formalized in this paper as an interface automaton. The interaction between an accessor and the thing or service for which it is a proxy is a "vertical contract," also formalized as an interface automaton. Following common practice in network programming, our vertical contract uses an asynchronous atomic callback (AAC) pattern. The formal composition of these interface automata allows us to reason about the combination of a timed actor model and the AAC pattern, enabling careful evaluation of design choices for IoT systems.

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Citation formats  
  • HTML
    Marten Lohstroh, Edward A. Lee. <a
    href="http://www.terraswarm.org/pubs/588.html"
    >An Interface Theory for the Internet of
    Things</a>, Software Engineering and Formal Methods,
    20-34, 21, August, 2015.
  • Plain text
    Marten Lohstroh, Edward A. Lee. "An Interface Theory
    for the Internet of Things". Software Engineering and
    Formal Methods, 20-34, 21, August, 2015.
  • BibTeX
    @inproceedings{LohstrohLee15_InterfaceTheoryForInternetOfThings,
        author = {Marten Lohstroh and Edward A. Lee},
        title = {An Interface Theory for the Internet of Things},
        booktitle = {Software Engineering and Formal Methods},
        pages = {20-34},
        day = {21},
        month = {August},
        year = {2015},
        abstract = {This paper uses interface automata to develop an
                  interface theory for a component architecture for
                  Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
                  Specifically, it examines an architecture for IoT
                  applications where so-called "accessors" provide
                  an actor-oriented proxy for devices ("things") and
                  services. Following the principles of actor
                  models, an accessor reacts to input stimuli and
                  produces outputs that can stimulate reactions in
                  other accessors or actors. The paper focuses on a
                  specialized form of actor models where inputs and
                  outputs to accessors and actors are time-stamped
                  events, enabling timing-sensitive IoT
                  applications. The interaction between accessors
                  and actors via time-stamped events forms a
                  "horizontal contract," formalized in this paper as
                  an interface automaton. The interaction between an
                  accessor and the thing or service for which it is
                  a proxy is a "vertical contract," also formalized
                  as an interface automaton. Following common
                  practice in network programming, our vertical
                  contract uses an asynchronous atomic callback
                  (AAC) pattern. The formal composition of these
                  interface automata allows us to reason about the
                  combination of a timed actor model and the AAC
                  pattern, enabling careful evaluation of design
                  choices for IoT systems.},
        URL = {http://terraswarm.org/pubs/588.html}
    }
    

Posted by Marten Lohstroh on 21 Jun 2015.

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