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tributed Ledgers and Decentralized WoT Architectures
Michael Mrissa1, Aleksandar Tošić2, Jernej Vičič3, Michael Burnard4
1 InnoRenew CoE / University of Primorska, FAMNIT, michael.mrissa@innorenew.eu
2 InnoRenew CoE / University of Primorska, FAMNIT, aleksandar.tosic@innorenew.eu
3 University of Primorska, FAMNIT, jernej.vicic@upr.si
4 InnoRenew CoE / University of Primorska, IAM, mike.burnard@innorenew.eu
Collecting sensor data in buildings raises several challenges, such as handling sensor hardware
and platform heterogeneity, the distributed nature of sensors, network vulnerability to
disconnections, and optimization of resource usage (network, processing power, etc.).
Typical solutions rely on container management tools like Docker (Anderson, 2015) to abstract the
heterogeneity of IoT devices and run applications on the edge, harvesting the processing power
that recent sensors and middleware devices offer. In such a distributed setup, optimization of
device usage becomes a major concern. Existing solutions use orchestration tools like Kubernetes
(Hightower, 2017) to allocate applications to the most relevant device on the network. However,
these orchestrated solutions remain centralized, which means that they create a single point of
failure (SPOF), thus reducing the reliability and security of the whole architecture.
In our work, we designed a fully decentralized architecture that features choreography (Peltz,
2003), rather than orchestration, capabilities while remaining free from SPOF. To do so, we
jointly exploit the advantages of consensus algorithms, distributed ledgers, and the Docker API
to implement a choreographed solution. Our experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of
optimizing computing resources on the edge. Using a distributed ledger presents the advantage
to make the choreography verifiable, which means that anyone can go back in time and observe
that the behavior of the solution was optimal.
We validated and evaluated our solution with a proof-of-concept implementation in a national
cultural heritage building. Our prototype provides optimal application migration at run-time
and tolerates device disconnection. These advances open research opportunities to improve
fault tolerance in a distributed system.
Keywords: edge computing, distributed ledger, consensus algorithms, sensor networks
Acknowledgements: The authors gratefully acknowledge the European Commission for funding
the InnoRenew project (Grant Agreement #739574) under the Horizon2020 Widespread-Teaming
program and the Republic of Slovenia (investment funding from the Republic of Slovenia and
the European Union's European Regional Development Fund).
REFERENCES
Anderson, C.: Docker [software engineering]. IEEE Software 32 (3), 102–c3 (2015)
Hightower, K., Burns, B., Beda, J.: Kubernetes: Up and Running: Dive Into the Future of Infrastructure.
O’Reilly Media, Inc. (2017)
Peltz, C.: Web services orchestration and choreography. Computer 36 (10), 46–52 (Oct 2003)
INTEGRATING SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTH IN BUILDINGS THROUGH RENEWABLE MATERIALS
39
Michael Mrissa1, Aleksandar Tošić2, Jernej Vičič3, Michael Burnard4
1 InnoRenew CoE / University of Primorska, FAMNIT, michael.mrissa@innorenew.eu
2 InnoRenew CoE / University of Primorska, FAMNIT, aleksandar.tosic@innorenew.eu
3 University of Primorska, FAMNIT, jernej.vicic@upr.si
4 InnoRenew CoE / University of Primorska, IAM, mike.burnard@innorenew.eu
Collecting sensor data in buildings raises several challenges, such as handling sensor hardware
and platform heterogeneity, the distributed nature of sensors, network vulnerability to
disconnections, and optimization of resource usage (network, processing power, etc.).
Typical solutions rely on container management tools like Docker (Anderson, 2015) to abstract the
heterogeneity of IoT devices and run applications on the edge, harvesting the processing power
that recent sensors and middleware devices offer. In such a distributed setup, optimization of
device usage becomes a major concern. Existing solutions use orchestration tools like Kubernetes
(Hightower, 2017) to allocate applications to the most relevant device on the network. However,
these orchestrated solutions remain centralized, which means that they create a single point of
failure (SPOF), thus reducing the reliability and security of the whole architecture.
In our work, we designed a fully decentralized architecture that features choreography (Peltz,
2003), rather than orchestration, capabilities while remaining free from SPOF. To do so, we
jointly exploit the advantages of consensus algorithms, distributed ledgers, and the Docker API
to implement a choreographed solution. Our experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of
optimizing computing resources on the edge. Using a distributed ledger presents the advantage
to make the choreography verifiable, which means that anyone can go back in time and observe
that the behavior of the solution was optimal.
We validated and evaluated our solution with a proof-of-concept implementation in a national
cultural heritage building. Our prototype provides optimal application migration at run-time
and tolerates device disconnection. These advances open research opportunities to improve
fault tolerance in a distributed system.
Keywords: edge computing, distributed ledger, consensus algorithms, sensor networks
Acknowledgements: The authors gratefully acknowledge the European Commission for funding
the InnoRenew project (Grant Agreement #739574) under the Horizon2020 Widespread-Teaming
program and the Republic of Slovenia (investment funding from the Republic of Slovenia and
the European Union's European Regional Development Fund).
REFERENCES
Anderson, C.: Docker [software engineering]. IEEE Software 32 (3), 102–c3 (2015)
Hightower, K., Burns, B., Beda, J.: Kubernetes: Up and Running: Dive Into the Future of Infrastructure.
O’Reilly Media, Inc. (2017)
Peltz, C.: Web services orchestration and choreography. Computer 36 (10), 46–52 (Oct 2003)
INTEGRATING SUSTAINABILITY AND HEALTH IN BUILDINGS THROUGH RENEWABLE MATERIALS
39
