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A gap analysis of Internet-of-Things platforms
Mineraud J., Mazhelis O., Su X., Tarkoma S. Computer Communications89 (C):5-16,2016.Type:Article
Date Reviewed: May 5 2017

Connecting the plethora of potential sensors and devices of the Internet of Things (IoT) and hosting suitable IoT applications are commonly supported by so-called (IoT) platforms, pre-integrated sets of technical and software (foremost middleware) infrastructure. Unfortunately, these platforms and their capabilities have not become standardized (yet).

Based on a qualitative analysis of 39 IoT platforms (mixed open source and commercial ones), the authors derive a six-dimensional framework (for example, how IoT platforms actually connect to sensors, how data processing and sharing is achieved, and so on). They then contrast current platform features with a plausible, but not really well described “ideal” state of affairs and find 17 major gaps. Of those, some are quite evident to an expert (for example, lacking standardization of IoT device models), some are interesting new aspects (missing billing and monetization capabilities), and some unfortunately are only true for this particular subset of investigated IoT platforms but not in general (for example, lacking real-time streaming analytics features).

Finally, the authors dedicate substantial space to a discussion of “IoT marketplaces” and also use this as basis for recommendations to IoT platform vendors--a considerably advanced, and in my view not fully relevant, aspect.

The paper is easily accessible, and contains a wealth of detailed (small) pieces of information (for example, IoT protocols) and lots of references to, and also short vignettes of, all 39 platforms. Regrettably, the actual framework is not described in sufficient detail to be reusable, and some of the inferences certainly seem to be unjustified generalizations.

Nonetheless, with a little bit of caution on the side of the reader, I can recommend it to anyone thinking of or directly engaged in IoT projects.

Reviewer:  Christoph F. Strnadl Review #: CR145245 (1707-0457)
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