QoS-by-Design in reconfigurable IoT ecosystems

Attractive Internet-of-Things (IoT) ecosystems need to cope with fast edge hardware evolutions. Offering flexibility to IoT infrastructure owners when disrupted or broken sensors and actuators need to be replaced is of major importance. It must be possible to plug in commercial-of-the-shelf alternatives that are probably more reliable and/or cheaper at a given time. Decoupling the application from the underlying infrastructure during software design increases flexibility and reconfigurability. Application developers no longer create applications tailored to one specific sensor or actuator. However, quality concerns imposed by the application may restrict feasible paths that can be taken by infrastructure providers. Hasty decisions can result in improperly functioning IoT ecosystems. This paper proposes a structured approach to embed Quality-of-Service (QoS) challenges in the development and operations cycle of advanced IoT environments, thereby incorporating clear separation-of-concerns between app developers and infrastructure providers. Its practicality is demonstrated by means of a smart office case.