Distributed Algorithms on IoT Devices: Bully Leader Election

We present in this paper the implementation of a well-known coordination algorithm on specific and low-performance IoT (Internet of Thing) devices. The implementation of the bully algorithm for leader election is achieved in a two-stage process: a) an IoT independent implementation, made in a high level progamming language (Java, in particular), and b) the implementation on the IoT devices, where several limitations and characteristics have to be taken into account. We have used this algorithm for coordination of a set of small cars. Beyond the specific implementation, this work has two main underlying contributions: a) show that it is possible to take advantage of many algorithms and results already proven to be useful in the area of distributed computing, and b) show that IoT devices limitations (e.g. in computing power and storage) do not necessarily imply that useful algorithms cannot be used.