A Translator as Virtual Network Function for Network Level Interoperability of Different IoT Technologies

Research output: Contribution to book/conference proceedings/anthology/reportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Sisay Tadesse Arzo - , University of Trento, University of New Mexico School of Engineering (Author)
  • Francesco Zambotto - , University of Trento, University of New Mexico School of Engineering (Author)
  • Fabrizio Granelli - , University of Trento (Author)
  • Riccardo Bassoli - , Deutsche Telekom Chair of Communication Networks (Author)
  • Michael Devetsikiotis - , University of New Mexico School of Engineering (Author)
  • Frank H.P. Fitzek - , Deutsche Telekom Chair of Communication Networks (Author)

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) network is dominating both the research and industry. There are numerous emerging IoT connectivity Technologies such as Sigfox, LoRa, NB-IoT, LTEM. However, these IoT connectivity technologies have different protocols and packet/message formatting. Thus, IoT devices are usually not able to interact with one another, causing interoper-ability challenges. This is creating the so-called network island or silos. Interoperability between different IoT networks needs to be achieved to fully exploit IoT potential. This is required at each level of the network. Different solutions have been proposed to tackle the interoperability problem at different levels reducing the difficulty in defining a solution breaching the vertical silos barrier. In this article, we focus on addressing network-level interoperability. We provide a network format translator in a virtualized environment as a flexible and lightweight deployment. As a proof of concept, a testbed is developed implementing the proposed translator using NS3. Using the testbed, we can communicate with different IoT technologies sending packets between each device in each type of IoT network. For example, sending a LoRaWAN packet to Wi-Fi and 6LoWPAN and visa-versa. Finally, we have measured the latency introduced by the translator.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2021 IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization
EditorsKohei Shiomoto, Young-Tak Kim, Christian Esteve Rothenberg, Barbara Martini, Eiji Oki, Baek-Young Choi, Noriaki Kamiyama, Stefano Secci
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages416-422
Number of pages7
ISBN (electronic)9781665405225
Publication statusPublished - 28 Jun 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

Title7th IEEE International Conference on Network Softwarization, NetSoft 2021
Duration28 June - 2 July 2021
CityVirtual, Online

Keywords

Keywords

  • Container, IoT Interoperability, Network Function Virtualization, Software Defined Networking