Collaborative Research: CNS Core: Medium: Towards Understanding and Handling Problems Due to Coexistence of Multiple IoT Platforms

There are over one hundred Internet-of-Things (IoT) platforms. Each has its own strengths and limitations. To get the best of each, a smart environment may use multiple IoT platforms.

However, when multiple IoT platforms coexist in the same physical space, many unique problems arise, which are referred to as Multi-Platform Coexistence (MPC) problems. The objectives of the project are systematically to describe, categorize and measure MPC problems and design and build effective solutions to address them.

Multiple platforms for a smart environment do not necessarily share consistent observations about IoT device states. As a result, automation applications installed on these platforms may issue incorrect and even conflicting commands. In addition, the assumption made by existing work that a single platform has a complete view and control of all IoT devices does not hold true.

Thus, the project is to uncover, measure, and formalize unique problems due to coexistence and interaction of multiple IoT platforms in the same physical space, and propose novel designs, techniques, algorithms and build systems to resolve them.

The project can benefit numerous smart-environment users and related industries by revealing and handling MPC problems and supporting harmonious coexistence of IoT platforms. The proposed research will be integrated into curriculum development. These efforts will meet the growing national need for professionals in IoT.

The project will promote the participation of students from underrepresented groups in IoT research. Furthermore, it will involve collaboration with professionals from IoT industries for assessment of the systems and technology transfer.

Data, code, system designs, documentations, and experiment results will be released through a publicly accessible GitHub repository: https://quz105.github.io/MPC/. The repository will be maintained for at least five years after the project ends.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.