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.

Electronic downloads

• LohstrohLee_IAforIoT.pdf · application/pdf · 400 kbytes. (Camera Ready Version)
• https://www.src.org/library/publication/p084454/. (Link to SRC website)
• http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22969-0_2. (Software Engineering and Formal Methods Volume 9276 of the series Lecture Notes in Computer Science pp 20-34)
• http://escholarship.org/uc/item/62d598qd. (Link to eScholarship site)

• 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.