The emerging application space for Smart Objects requires scalable and interoperable communication mechanisms that support future innovation as the application space
grows.
IP has proven itself a long-lived, stable, and highly scalable communication technology that supports both a wide range of applications, devices, and underlying communication
technologies.
The IP stack is lightweight and runs on tiny, battery operated embedded devices. IP therefore has all the qualities to make "The Internet of Things" a reality, connecting
billions of communicating devices.
White Papers
Why ip? (344 downloads)
The emerging application space for smart objects requires scalable and
interoperable communication mechanisms that support future innovation
as the application space grows. IP has proven itself a long-lived,
stable, and highly scalable communication technology that supports
both a wide range of applications, devices, and underlying
communication technologies. The IP stack is lightweight and runs on
tiny, battery operated embedded devices. IP therefore has all the
qualities to make "The Internet of Things" a reality, connecting
billions of communicating devices.
Lightweight OS (320 downloads)
Historically, smart objects have used a plethora of communication
technologies, both at the physical and medium access control layers,
and at upper layers. The upper layers of the communication stack
remain either proprietary or specified by exclusive alliances. This
plethora of solutions renders interoperability between different
sensor networks difficult. It also makes the seamless integration of
sensor networks with existing IP networks impossible. IP is an ideal
solution to this end-to-end interoperability issue. However, the
adoption of IP as the Layer-3 protocol to connect wireless or wired
smart objects has been impaired by the common belief that IP is not
well-suited for the memory and energy constraints of such devices. In
this white paper we give insights on key implementation aspects, based
on the experience of three interoperable IPv6 stacks.
6LoWPAN (409 downloads)
IP for Smart Objects seeks to extend the use of IP networking into
resource-constrained devices over a wide range of low-power link
technologies - IEEE 802.15.4 represents one such link. Extending IP to
low-power, wireless personal area networks (LoWPANs) was once
considered impractical because these networks are highly constrained
and must operate unattended for multiyear lifetimes on modest
batteries. Many vendors embraced proprietary protocols, assuming that
IP was too resource-intensive to be scaled down to operate on the
microcontrollers and low-power wireless links used in LoWPAN settings.
However, 6LoWPAN radically alters the calculation by introducing an
adaptation layer that enables efficient IPv6 communication over IEEE
802.15.4 LoWPAN links.
Neighbor Discovery (460 downloads)
Given that smart objects are large in number, the easy way to assign
address to them and connect them with each other in today’s Internet
technology is to use IPv6. The core of IPv6 protocol functionality is
the Neighbor Discovery Protocol which is mainly used for address
resolution, address autoconfiguration, router discovery and neighbor
reachability. The IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Protocol is based on
multicast control messages. This document discusses several
optimization mechanisms to the IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Protocol for
the efficient usage of IPv6 in lowpower networks that may or may not
support multicast at the linklayer such as 6LoWPAN.
Security Introduction (165 downloads)
Security is as important in smart object networks as it is in
traditional comput er networks, if not more so. By leveraging
well-established security mechanisms and networking standards, and
adapting them appropriately for resource-constrain ed environments, we
can enhance the security of smart objects, their data and th e
networks in which they participate. In this white paper we discuss
smart objec t applications and relevant threats, evaluate various
approaches to securing aga inst specific threats, offer some practical
guidelines for building security int o smart object networks, and
finally tackle some common misconceptions about sec uring these
devices.
