The 9th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications 21-23 September 2017, Bucharest, Romania On Applicability of Wireless Routers to Deployment of Smart Spaces in Internet of Things Environments Sergey A. Marchenkov, Dmitry G. Korzun Petrozavodsk State University (PetrSU) Petrozavodsk, Russia fmarchenk, [email protected] Abstract – The use of wireless technologies is now in- to extend the platform architecture with other protocols evitable in smart spaces development for Internet of Things. by adding new modules. Consequently, the use of wired A smart space is created by deploying a Semantic Informa- and wireless TCP/IP networks is inevitable in Smart-M3- tion Broker (SIB) on a host device. This paper examines the applicability of a wireless router for being a SIB host based development of smart spaces. device to deployment of smart spaces in Internet of Things Wi-Fi is the most common wireless technology to environments. CuteSIB is one of SIB implementations of interconnect different IoT-enabled devices. Almost every the Smart-M3 platform and focus is on Qt-based devices. smart space environment is equipped with a wireless We provide a technique for creating an OpenWrt-based embedded system composed of CuteSIB software compo- access point (a wireless router) to ensure interaction nents for a smart spaces deployment using a cross-compiling between SIB and agents that operate on mobile devices method. The resulting embedded system is used to deploy (e.g. smartphones, tablets). In this configuration, SIB is the SmartRoom system—a Smart-M3-based application that deployed on a dedicated host device (e.g. server machine creates a virtual shared workspace in a multimedia equipped or local computer). Deployment of smart spaces in IoT room to support collaborative activity of participants. The conducted experiments confirm that capacity of a wireless environments still faces a number of challenges. Firstly, router is satisfactory for deployment of this class of Smart- deployment of smart spaces is a complex and time- M3 applications. consuming process requiring the installation of more different participating devices and software components. Keywords – Smart Spaces; Smart-M3; Internet of Things (IoT); Embedded Systems; Wireless Router; Smart Room Secondly, there are no packaged product being an open embedded system that would be a generic solution for I. INTRODUCTION deployment of smart spaces in IoT environments. Smart spaces are gaining relevance as promising de- CuteSIB [5] is an implementation variant of Smart- ployment environments for novel classes of applications M3 SIB with the focus on a wide spectrum of Qt-based stemming from the dynamic discovery and interaction IoT devices. This paper examines the applicability of a between smart objects and resources available in their wireless router for being a CuteSIB host device to de- physical localities. The Internet of Things (IoT) supports ployment of smart spaces in IoT environments, in contrast ubiquitous connectivity property for smart spaces [1], [2]. to more common case of server hosting. Such a class The paper considers smart spaces deployed in localized of embedded devices can be evolved towards packaged resource-restricted IoT environments [3]. Such a smart product composed of Smart-M3 software components to space is typically associated with a physical spatial- advance the smart spaces deployment in the wireless and restricted place equipped with a variety of devices. resource-restricted settings of localized IoT environments, A smart space requires a software platform defined as combining in one device a wireless access point, a smart middleware, addressing interoperability across heteroge- space middleware, and part of the application system [6]. neous devices and providing multiple services. This paper Our previous work confirms that a single-board com- considers the Smart-M3 platform, which provides open puter (Raspberry Pi) capacity is enough to host both source middleware for implementation of the smart space CuteSIB and some search service operating with the concept in IoT environments [4]. The Smart-M3 platform public DBpedia service from the Internet [7]. This paper defines an SSAP interaction protocol for its main software considers a wireless router to host CuteSIB. The target components: the semantic information broker (SIB) and class of wireless routers is restricted with OpenWrt-Based agents, called knowledge processors (KPs). As a general firmware such as DD-WRT. A wireless router is designed matter, KPs run on the devices that support TCP/IP- for low cost and low power consumption. Native compil- based network transport protocol, although it is possible ing of Smart-M3 software components may require more resources than are available on this device [8]. Cross- home automation systems. A cost-effective home energy compiling can solve the above problems and provide such saving system based on a small embedded system with important compiling properties as speed, capability and remote controlling feature introduced in [15]. This system flexibility. is composed of an OpenWrt-based wireless router which The contribution of this paper consists of: 1) the tech- gives benefits of saving energy and safety through lighting nique of creating an OpenWrt-based embedded system control. composed of CuteSIB software components for a smart UniGate [16] is a modular universal wireless com- spaces deployment using a cross-compiling method, 2) the munication gateway based on a wireless router with deployment model of the SmartRoom system using a OpenWrt operating systems that enables interconnectivity wireless router to host the SIB. The obtained solutions between devices using different wireless interfaces such as was evaluated based on the SmartRoom system [9]. The WiFi, Bluetooth, WiMAX, Zigbee and USB as pluggable experiments confirm that capacity of a wireless router modules. A feature of this embedded system is to allow is satisfactory for deployment of smart space for this connected devices to share resources such as a webcam, application. hard disk, etc. that connected to the wireless router. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II The above research showed the importance of embed- overviews recent advances in the development and de- ded devices and systems for IoT environments. Recent ployment of smart spaces in IoT environments. Section III IoT application actively use embedded system such as describes our cross-compiling technique for creation of single-board computers and wireless routers to deploy the OpenWrt-based embedded system composed of Cute- IoT middleware on them, creating cost-effective sys- SIB software components. Section IV proposes the de- tems based on a small embedded devices that enable ployment model of the SmartRoom system based on a interconnectivity between different surrounding devices wireless router as a SIB host device. Section V presents and advanced control. CuteSIB, considered in this paper, the performance evaluation for the SmartRoom case study. provides such critical requirements for IoT middleware as Section VI concludes the paper. interoperability across heterogeneous devices and porta- bility on different hardware. Open hardware can open II. RELATED WORK new opportunities for IoT applications created using the In recent years, many research works have focused on Smart-M3 platform. For instance, open hardware can be the development of the IoT software platform defined evolved towards packaged product composed of Smart- as middleware. The role of the middleware for IoT was M3 software components to advance the smart spaces studied in [10], [11]. Those works showed that there exists deployment. no generic middleware which can be applicable across all possible smart environments. Support of semantic III. WIRELESS ROUTER AS SIB HOST DEVICE modeling and managing data volumes, interoperability Let us describe the technique of creating an OpenWrt- across heterogeneous devices using generic interfaces and based embedded system for smart spaces deployment. The portability on different hardware are critical requirements embedded system is composed of CuteSIB software com- of the middleware to operate in IoT environments. ponents using a cross-compiling method. The technique The importance of open hardware for deployment of consists of the following steps: the IoT middleware demonstrated in [12]. There are 1) installing the OpenWrt-based firmware on the wire- an increasing number of open embedded platforms that less router; can be used in place of proprietary commercial devices. 2) setting up the wireless router; Raspberry Pi is one of important devices, which compares 3) cross-compiling of Qt libraries; favorably to commercial devices in terms of performance, 4) cross-compiling of dependent libraries for CuteSIB; power, and cost. Using such a class of devices as a host 5) cross-compiling of CuteSIB itself; devices allows more developers to simplify deployment 6) installing the software components on the router. of IoT environments, which could result in growth in the The above steps are performed for the ASUS RT- number of IoT applications. N66U wireless router, which is the typical representative Various kinds of IoT applications based on embedded of an embedded devices. The hardware specification of systems for smart homes were studied. Main equipment the router is summarized in Table I. The router is well of smart home environment is embedded