Solving Interoperability within the Smart Building: A Real Test-Bed

Internet of Things (IoT) is a key pillar in various smart-* domains, including smart home, smart building, intelligent transportation systems, industrial Internet, to name a few. Its potential in terms of value creation is extraordinary, according to economic estimates from many market sectors. At the same time, there are some technical challenges to face, which could refrain IoT adoption. In this study, the attention is focused on interoperability and data quality issues from a pragmatic standpoint. In particular, a real smart building testbed has been set-up by integrating two different IoT platforms: TLSensing and NetwOrked Smart Object (NOS). The former has been developed to enable the quick deployment of a IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE 802.15.4e (6tisch) IoT network and to expose the data gathered from sensors through a web interface. The latter is a middleware that handles heterogeneous data sources and offers a unifying view to users. The resulting IoT system is able to: (i) gather data from multiple sources, including multimedia ones; (ii) expose network resources to user through a common interface; (iii) enforce security and data quality checks. The performance of this system has been experimentally analyzed to demonstrate a satisfactory responsiveness and ability to meet the aforementioned requirements.