Enhancing the Microservices Architecture for the Internet of Things

Collecting data from smart Internet of Things (IoT) devices is becoming an increasingly essential part of many of the existing industrial applications. The importance of this data collection relies on the fact that it can uncover valuable insights and enable smarter, faster decision making. This enables organizations to quickly adapt to changes in the workflows, reduce downtime and expand the production capacity and enhance the overall operating efficiency. The problem, however, is that many of these Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications can considerably be influenced by the composition of RESTFul APIs and the microservices architecture they integrate. In addition, IIoT applications do not take into consideration the dynamism of service-based environments and requirements. To overcome these challenges, it is essential to consider the Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics of RESTful APIs and microservices particularly that these properties may fluctuate during their lifecycle. In this paper, we introduce a quality-aware microservices' architecture that continuously monitors the behavior of these services in delivering the required functionality. This paper presents experimental validation results and analysis of the presented ideas.