Architectural Considerations in Smart Object Networking
RFC 7452
Internet Architecture Board (IAB) H. Tschofenig
Request for Comments: 7452 ARM Ltd.
Category: Informational J. Arkko
ISSN: 2070-1721 D. Thaler
D. McPherson
March 2015
Architectural Considerations in Smart Object Networking
Abstract
The term "Internet of Things" (IoT) denotes a trend where a large
number of embedded devices employ communication services offered by
Internet protocols. Many of these devices, often called "smart
objects", are not directly operated by humans but exist as components
in buildings or vehicles, or are spread out in the environment.
Following the theme "Everything that can be connected will be
connected", engineers and researchers designing smart object networks
need to decide how to achieve this in practice.
This document offers guidance to engineers designing Internet-
connected smart objects.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
and represents information that the IAB has deemed valuable to
provide for permanent record. It represents the consensus of the
Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Documents approved for
publication by the IAB are not a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7452.
Tschofenig, et al. Informational [Page 1]
RFC 7452 Smart Object Architectural Considerations March 2015
Copyright Notice
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document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
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(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Smart Object Communication Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1. Device-to-Device Communication Pattern . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2. Device-to-Cloud Communication Pattern . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3. Device-to-Gateway Communication Pattern . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4. Back-End Data Sharing Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3. Reuse Internet Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4. The Deployed Internet Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
5. Design for Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7. Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
8. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Appendix A. IAB Members at the Time of Approval . . . . . . . . 23
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1. Introduction
RFC 6574 [RFC6574] refers to smart objects as devices with
constraints on energy, bandwidth, memory, size, cost, etc. This is a
fuzzy definition, as there is clearly a continuum in device
capabilities and there is no hard line to draw between devices that
can run Internet protocols and those that can't.
Interconnecting smart objects with the Internet enables exciting new
use cases and products. An increasing number of products put the
Internet Protocol Suite on smaller and smaller devices and offer the
ability to process, visualize, and gain insight from the collected
sensor data. The network effect can be increased if the data
collected from many different devices can be combined.
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RFC 7452 Smart Object Architectural Considerations March 2015
Developing embedded systems is a complex task, and designers must
make a number of design decisions such as:
o How long is the device designed to operate?
o How does it interact with the physical world? Is it a sensor or
actuator or both?
o How many "owners" does it have? One? Many? Is the owner likely
to change over the lifetime of the device?
o Is it continuously or intermittently powered? Does it sleep?
o Is it connected to a network, and if so, how?
o Will it be physically accessible for direct maintenance after
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