Digital Object Architecture for IoT Networks

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a recent technology, which implies the union of objects, “things”, into a single worldwide network. This promising para-digm faces many design challenges associated with the dramatic increase in the number of end-devices. Device identification is one of these challenges that becomes complicated with the increase of network devices. Despite this, there is still no universally accepted method of identifying things that would satisfy all requirements of the existing IoT devices and applications. In this regard, one of the most important problems is choosing an identification system for all IoT devices connected to the public communication networks. Many unique software and hardware solutions are used as a unique global identifier; however, such solutions have many limitations. This article proposes a novel solution, based on the Digital Object Architecture (DOA), that meets the requirements of identifying devices and applications of the IoT. This work analyzes the benefits of using the DOA as an identification platform in modern telecommunication networks. We propose a model of an identification system based on the architecture of digital objects, which differs from the well-known ones. The proposed model ensures an acceptable quality of service (QoS) in the common architecture of the existing public communication networks. A novel interaction architecture is developed by introducing a Middle Handle Register (MHR) between the global register, i.e., Global Handle Register (GHR), and local register, i.e., Local Handle Register (LHR). The aspects of the network interaction and the compatibility of IoT end-devices with the integrated DOA identifiers in heterogeneous communication networks are presented. The developed model is simulated for a wide-area network with allocated registers, and the results are introduced and discussed.