Perspectives and a Middleware Approach Toward 5G

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Perspectives and a Middleware Approach Toward 5G

According to [62], novel middleware architecture approaches toward 5G will not suffer major changes compared to what we have today in terms of SOA-based IoT middleware systems, and hence, the core of the architecture shown in Fig. 3 probably will be maintained. However, as mentioned in Sect. 3, IoT middleware systems will have to support the requirements imposed by 5G which will result in specific changes to allow the applications requirements demanded by 5G.

Figure 4 illustrates a possible system architecture for 5G-based IoT Middleware with two application examples: (a) a “Healthcare Monitoring application” oriented to mission-critical services in a hospital (i.e., a group of medical devices and sensors for patients monitoring that continuously route data through redundant networks to guar- antee delivery of priority data), and (b) a non-critical example focused on “Social Networks” as WhatsApp Messenger (i.e., a set of smart phones interacting through the Internet with the middleware which acts as a topic-based pub/sub server notifying users with appropriated data). An alternative example for Social Networking could be the Participatory Sensing in Smart Cities, where group of people can collabo- rate through their smart phones by providing public information regarding specific topics of the city, such as transportation, civil infrastructure monitoring, security, or urban sensing. Both examples exercise the architecture of the middleware against the middleware challenges presented in Sect. 3.3.

Many other applications for e-Health could be deployed in scenarios like Home- care and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Homecare is usually related to moni- toring systems for the elderly or post trauma patients. An application example is the automated movement monitoring systems that allows the identification of falls and notification of medical personnel without any user intervention. The combination of voice and video allows for verification and a more appropriate response in the case of alarms.

 

Fig. 4 IoT middleware as a common platform for city OS

In case of disaster relief operations or EMS, an ambulance-to-hospital based e-Health system is a good example of how 5G-based IoT technology can help save lives. In this case, by providing real-time patient information to the hospital via wireless communications, this e-Health system enables remote diagnoses and primary care, and reducing rescue response time. In both cited cases we can use IoT middleware systems to abstract the devices or medical equipments integration from a house or an ambulance, and also to allow the interaction with hospital systems. In EMS, for example, the IoT Middleware can locate the ambulance and provide the shortest path routing, so patients can be carried to the hospital as quickly as possible. In this sense, it is also important to have an effective middleware system to ensure that the response time between send and interpret data is fast enough to guarantee that all decisions of a doctor are based on the current health condition of the patient.

Regarding the core architecture illustrated in Fig. 4, one of the necessary changes is related to the “potential processing in cloud”, since 5G network will be able to transmit data in a reliable and fast manner. In this perspective, the middleware would be involved in the provision of reliable and elastic services to interact with the physical devices, allowing to abstract both the integration and interoperability of data, which potentially can be embedded in the cloud, but performing the same tasks as it does outside the cloud.

In 5G environments, the communication between objects will be faster than today. IoT middleware systems will have also to be widely more scalable than they are today in order to ensure more connections from devices and applications allowing them to communicate. To cope with this, a more interoperable middleware system will be necessary to interact with other middleware systems, and also to understand the different data types. “Interoperability and scalability” are two essential requirements that will ensure the IoT consolidation through the 5G evolution.

As the number of devices will increase drastically, IoT middleware systems will need to host “context-aware lookup services” that enable discovery and management of thousands of devices. The use of these services will ensure the context provision for applications beyond the proper management of devices. In addition, a requirement that will be present to ensure the provision of lookup services is “context- awareness”. Context is extremely important to allow the composition of services with relevant and appropriate information to the user at anytime and anyplace. Moreover, context will be used to give sense to the devices connected to the network in order to be used in the best possible way.

Finally, all middleware perspectives aimed to 5G will need a “security architecture” that should be lightweight in order to provide security in all the middleware layers, as well as to contemplate all security requirements necessary to ensure system protection against various threats that will arise, especially in communication networks.

Next we present a real example of IoT middleware platform that has been extended to reach the evolution of the IoT, and consequently, the advent of the 5G paradigm.