smart inter-connect architecture rev.1 - socionext inc.€¦ · · 2016-06-01functionalities....

Socionext Inc. Edited Connected Imaging Business Unit AD04-00095-1E May 2016 http://www.socionext.com/

Copyright 2016

White paper Smart Inter-connect Architecture

Rev.1.0

Socionext Inc.

http://www.socionext.com/


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What is this? In recent years, a wide variety of equipment has been connected to the Internet.

As the connectivity to the Internet is getting commonplace for any equipment, the next requirement is to connect a set of equipment mutually and orchestrate its functionalities.

This paper proposes how to realize aforementioned requests.

Basic Concepts

You can enjoy many kinds of services in the Internet with your PC or Smartphones, where you (HUMAN) use client software such as web browsers requesting to a Server (THING) which is providing relevant services.

Any connected THINGs have been getting smaller in size and power consumption, which enables the connectivity of various devices. Since information at endpoint is handled and stored in a certain remote servers, THINGs can be smaller while retaining the advanced functionalities. The THINGs connect to the Internet and request services such as handling data and storing them to a Server.

If the THINGs can provide its functionality as services to each other, they (THINGs) can work together in a concerted way. The HUMAN can also receive the THING’s functionality as a service as well.


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Policies

In order to achieve the orchestration between those THINGs, we have adopted the following policy.

Firstly, we adopt HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and its peripheral standards

for such as encryption and authentication as the mutual communication protocol. Although HTTP is not very effective in terms of communication cost, it has the advantages that we can utilize the existing network structure as it is, where the robust network security is available, which has been evolving continuously. It is the crucial point that communication protocol should be ready-to-use and of high security.

Secondly, each device should be workable independently irrespective of network conditions. In the Internet, communications may not always complete in a normal condition. Besides, THINGs such as home appliances may sometimes be powered-off or put in a bad condition for the network. Therefore, it is mandatory that each device should not affected by the conditions of other devices in the network (so-called “distributed”), and each device is workable independent on the network and other devices (so-called “stand-alone”). In order to realize this scheme, we let each device retains the software to control itself and the intrinsic information. This can omit the deployment of central servers that collect device information and orchestrate the system functionality, evading the issue of privacy relating to the excessive information collection.

Finally, the system should be simple and easy to use. In order to be installed on various THINGs, its software should be as small and simple as possible. Since the prevailing protocol in the Internet is adopted for the communication between THINGs, you don’t need to acquire new knowledge. Regarding the cooperative work


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among THINGs, they use only several data in text format and the software is compact in size and executed by using a simple script on HTML5 and Javascript. You can set up the configuration for the connection between THINGs with a terminal display, where you can access to THINGs and arrange them by graphical and intuitive interface.

Device

We define a hardware linkable in the Internet as a device. A device has no less than one communication ports called terminal in order to provide its functionality as a service. The entity of the terminal is CGI (Common Gateway Interface). When a command is sent to the URI (Uniform Resource Locator) of the terminal, the functionality is executed.


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Command

A device can execute various operations by sending a piece of information defined as a command to the URI of the terminal. The entity of a command is text data in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format.

Currently, five commands have been specified: - PROF: to read profile from a device - LINK: to connect and disconnect to a terminal - SEND: to notify to send data - RECV: to request to send data - NULL: to do nothing

Profile

Profile is device intrinsic information which describe the device and terminals, and their status. Since this specific data is stored in each device “distributedly”, the independency of each device is guaranteed.

The profile can be obtained by sending a PROF command to any terminals. In order to obtain a profile, you must have the administrator’s authority for the device.

LINK

We call link as to associate two terminals with each other. Each terminal has its attributes in the profile, which indicates what kind of data and how it can handle. For example, a terminal with “able to output audio data” attribute can be linked to a terminal with “able to input audio data” attribute.

A link is established by sending LINK commands requesting “link” to relevant two terminals. Likewise, the link is terminated by sending LINK commands requesting “un-link”.

In order to establish link or un-link, you(owner) must have the administrator’s authority for the both devices.


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Data

When two devices communicate, each device sends commands such as SEND and RECV to the associated (linked) terminal. Usable data are of primitive type (Boolean, String, Number) and its dataset expressed in JSON, or MIME type and URI which indicates the entity of the data. This means that each command does not carry huge data (e.g., binary data for video), reducing the communication load on HTTP. The command format is common irrespective of data format, unlike XML which holds different structure depending on data kinds, not requiring specific data format (DOM).

SEND command is to notify to send data to the linked terminal in the unilateral direction. RECV command, on the other hand, is to request the linked terminal to send the data, expecting to receive the data as the response to the command.


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A device can make the counterpart device operate its functionality via CGI by read

and write on the terminal. In general, electronic equipment works in the designated way by read and write on I/O registers and I/O ports. In our terminology, you just replace I/O registers, bus, bus protocol and data in electric equipment, to terminals, network, command and data, respectively. By adopting this primitive method which simply specifies the protocol of read/write data for the communication between devices, you can deal with various conventional and upcoming (unknown) devices in the future.


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Security

In the Internet, it is mandatory to prevent malicious outsiders from utilizing devices and their functionalities illegally. One of the framework for the authorization is called as authentication. Up to now, passwords or electrical keys has been used mainly between HUMAN and THING. In the future, however, authentication between a THING and a THING is necessary as well. Since it is common for personal devices that the administrator and the owner is identical, we call the authentication between a HUMAN and a THING as owner authentication. On the other hand, we call the authentication between a THING and a THING as device authentication for distinction.

The owner authentication is to obtain the administrator’s authority for the device, where allowance is granted to the owner for reading the profile or arrangement of links, etc. Some devices for public use, e.g., a display device which should be available for anyone, may be utilized without owner authentication.

The device authentication is done at the time of link establishment, where authentication information is set for each device and stored in the database isolated from the network of the counterpart device. When a command is sent to a terminal, it is determined to accept it or not depending on the stored authentication information. Since these procedures for device authentication is automatic, no specific operation is not necessary.


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In order to prevent leakage of communication data, encrypted communication is necessary. Encryption technology has been updated day-by-day in the Internet. Since the communication between devices are on HTPPS, it can catch up the leading-edge technologies.

One issue to be addressed is the CORS (CrossOrigin Resource Sharing) which is specific for HTML5 and Javascript. HTML5 and Javascript is guarded by the rigid sandbox structure. When you try to make communication between these devices, the communication is sometimes refused. By considering these issues in advance during the implementation of each device, you can realize the device to device communication.

Easy to use

In order to realize cooperative work among devices, you need to make association between terminals and to configure them. The relevant application software for this purpose is equipped on each device.

When you access to a device by using a web browser on a PC or smartphones, a web application is executed on the browser, letting you do many kinds operation intuitively. You do not need to install any specific application software on the smartphone.

As an demonstration, you can use an interface where devices and terminals are expressed as 2D icons. In case you establish a link, it can be realized by drawing a line from one terminal to its counterpart.

As it is getting easier to associate various device functions with each other,

innovative idea about using THINGs will be emerged.


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Warranty and Disclaimer The Products and product specifications described in this document are subject to change without notice for modification and/or improvement. At the final stage of your design, purchasing, or use of the products, therefore, ask for the most up-to-date Product Standards in advance to make sure that the latest specifications satisfy your requirements. All company names, brand names and trademarks herein are property of their respective owners.

smart inter-connect architecture rev.1 - socionext inc.€¦ · · 2016-06-01functionalities....

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