Dependability Evaluation of an IoT System: A Hierarchical Modelling Approach

Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical objects equipped with embedded technology, sensors, and connection to the network (e.g. vehicles, buildings, and others). These physical objects are able to collect data that will be used by various applications. Currently, there are already various applications in IoT such as smart agriculture and smart parking. These applications are composed by a set of heterogeneous components, so tasks such as resource management and maintenance of these systems become complex. Therefore, this paper presents a modeling strategy based on hierarchical models using Stochastic Petri Net (SPN) and Reliability Block Diagram (RBD). In order to evaluate the dependability in an IoT system, a case study was carried out based on a specific scenario considering a smart building. The proposed models enable to estimate measures such as steady-state availability and annual downtime.