Bonjour Contiki: A case study of a DNS-based discovery service for the internet of things

Abstract

With the integration of everyday objects and sensors into the Internet, users gain new possibilities to directly interact with their environment. This integration is facilitated by the development of tiny IP stacks that enable a direct Internet connection for resource constrained devices. To provide users with the same level of usability that is predominant in the current Internet infrastructure, a self-configured discovery service for sensors and objects is needed. We thus present a use case of a discovery service based on Multicast DNS and DNS Service Discovery, which we adopt for resource constrained devices and operating systems. Applications using this service can realize direct connections between resource constrained devices following the end-to-end principle of the IP-based Internet, allowing for a seamless integration of potentially millions of objects and sensors into the current Internet and facilitating the pervasive infrastructure that is envisioned by the Internet of Things. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.