April 2015
15
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munication is vital too and there are many
established ways of achieving this. Another
consideration to overall security is to ensure
that when a network or edge node is removed
that all the data contained in that device is
either encrypted or removed. Disposal of a
device gives the ability for the security keys to
be retrieved.
Any gateway would not be complete without
being able to support APIs. APIs provide a
means of controlling data communication
from the edge node to the cloud to allow some
degree of local control. For example, consider
a very simple temperature sensor used for
controlling a heating system as the edge node.
You can collect temperature readings and
decide whether to aggregate them and store
locally or pass it straight to the cloud appli-
cation. Now it might be the cloud application
that decides that when, say, the temperature
has gone below a pre-de ned threshold it will
turn on the boiler and heating pump. How-
ever, an API could put that intelligence into
the gateway. But while the provisioning of an
API into a gateway might appear straightfor-
ward there are security and maintenance con-
siderations. API development tends to focus
on using Java Open Service Gateway Initia-
tive (OSGI)-based run-time environments
or scripting languages such as Python, Node.
js and LUA. Use of C/C++ complied objects
tend not to be favored due to potential secu-
rity breaches.
Building an extensible gateway dictates
building in provision for adding, updating
and deleting APIs. Clearly, performing this
in a secure manner is important. Managing
the edge nodes and their communication
routes to other edge nodes and the cloud is
also key. Use of management standards, such
as OMA-DM, LWM2M and TR68, for use
in a multi-agent architecture that covers all
aspects of device management, over the air
updates, post-deployment of applications,
resource provisioning through the use of con-
guration les is preferred.
When faced with the daunting challenge
of building an open yet secure IoT gate-
way, developers might consider basing their
design on a readily available platform in
order to speed their application into the mar-
ket. Already mentioned in this article is Wind
River Intelligent Device Platform. is is a
scalable, sustainable, and secure development
environment that simpli es the development,
integration, and deployment of gateways for
the IoT. Based on Wind River standards-com-
pliant operating systems, the platform pro-
vides device security, smart connectivity, rich
network options, and device management.
It includes ready-to-use components built
exclusively for developing IoT applications.
Figure 2. Connectivity examples for IoT
Figure 3. Wind River Intelligent Device Platform XT is key component of secure IoT solution
Figure 4. End-to-end system based on safety and security requirements
