In this paper, we: (i) present the IoT-FED architectural approach to enable the automated formation and enactment of ECs. IoT-FED exploits heterogeneous and independently developed things, IoT services, and applications which are modeled as Domain Objects (DOs), a service-based formalism. Additionally, we (ii) discuss the prototype we developed and the experiments run in our IoT lab, for validation purposes

1. Distributed Adaptive Systems (DAS) Unit
Enacting Emergent Configurations in the IoT
through Domain Objects
Fahed Alkhabbas*, Martina De Sanctis#, Romina Spalazzese*,
Antonio Bucchiarone#, Paul Davidsson*, Annapaola Marconi#
Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento – Italy
bucchiarone@fbk.eu
# *
HANGZHOU, ZHEJIANG, CHINA - November 15, 2018

2. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 2
Introduction
Ø The Internet of Things (IoT) pervades more and more aspects of
our lives and often involves many types of smart connected
objects and devices.
Ø The IoT environment is dynamic and heterogeneous.
Ø Mobility of the users and devices.
[1] F. Alkhabbas, R. Spalazzese, and P. Davidsson. Architecting Emergent Configurations
in the Internet of Things. IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture (ICSA 2017) ,
pages 221–224. 2017.
Emergent Configuration (ECs) [1]
Set of things that connect and cooperate temporarily through their
functionalities, applications and services, to achieve a user goal.

3. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 3
IoT-FED
Ø IoT-FED: an approach for Forming and enacting Emergent
configuration through Domain Objects in the IoT.
Domain Objects: a service-based formalism used to
model things, IoT Services, and Applications.
IoT-FED: a Process and Architecture
realizing Emergent Configurations.
A prototype for validation purposes.
1
3
2

4. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 4
The Adjust Light Scenario
Adjust Light (AL) application:
Ø Each room (e.g., hotel, office rooms) is equipped with several
IoT things (e.g., light sensors, connected curtains and lights).
Ø Users requests as goal to increase/decrease the light level by
using an application running on their smartphone.
Ø “An Emergent Configuration of things (e.g., user’s smartphone,
a light sensor, connected curtain and light) is formed and
enacted to achieve the user goal”.

5. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 5
Research Challenges
Ø High heterogeneity of services/things dynamically available in
different and often unknown places (e.g., sensors, actuators, things
APIs).
Ø High complexity and variability of the system behavior.
Ø It is not feasible to define a priori all the possible combinations of
things to reach specific user goals (e.g., adjust light, adjust
temperature).
Ø Users can fully benefit from the IoT only when they can effortlessly
interact with the dynamically available things to satisfy their goals.
Ø Highly open and highly dynamic environment.

6. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 6
Assumptions
ECs are formed and enacted within well-defined
spatial boundaries (e.g., room, a building).
ECs achieve non-time critical user goals: formation
and enactment within the time scale of seconds.
ECs can be successfully formed and enacted:
adaptation is out of the scope of this paper.

7. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 7
IoT-FED
Ø IoT-FED: an approach for Forming and enacting Emergent
configuration through Domain Objects in the IoT.
Domain Objects: a service-based formalism used to model
things, IoT Services, and Applications.
IoT-FED: a Process and Architecture
realizing Emergent Configurations.
A prototype for validation purposes.
1
3
2

8. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 8
The Design for Adaptation Approach
Ø It is based on two distinct but correlated models – the Domain
model and the Domain Object model.
Ø It allows for the separation of concerns – application (the what)
vs. adaptation (the how) logic (design-time vs. runtime).
Ø It provides support for the runtime and automatic services
selection, composition and re-configuration.
A. Bucchiarone, M. De Sanctis, A. Marconi, M. Pistore, P. Traverso: Design for Adaptation of Distributed
Service-Based Systems. ICSOC 2015.
A. Bucchiarone, M. De Sanctis, A. Marconi, M. Pistore, P. Traverso: Incremental Composition for
Adaptive By-Design Service Based Systems. ICWS 2016.

9. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 9
Domain Objects
Ø A design for adaptation framework based on Domain Objects
supporting:
Ø the design, development and operation of systems operating in
highly dynamic environments;
Ø the application of advanced techniques for dynamic and
incremental service composition and re-configuration.
FRAGMENTSCORE PROCESS
I/O msg
Fragment1
Fragment2
Fragment3
Goal Goal
Goal
Goal
DP2 DP3 DP4
External Domain Knowledge
(required concepts / functionalities)
Internal Domain Knowledge
(own concept / functionalities)
DP1

10. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 10
Domain Objects
Ø A design for adaptation framework based on Domain Objects
supporting:
Ø the design, development and operation of systems operating in
highly dynamic environments;
Ø the application of advanced techniques for dynamic and
incremental service composition and re-configuration.

11. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 11
IoT-FED
Ø IoT-FED: an approach for Forming and enacting Emergent
configuration through Domain Objects in the IoT.
Domain Objects: a service-based formalism used to model
things, IoT Services, and Applications.
IoT-FED: a Process and Architecture
realizing Emergent Configurations.
A prototype for validation purposes.
1
3
2

12. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 12
IoT-FED Process
Ø The user expresses her/his goal via an application running on
one of the available smart device (e.g., her/his smartphone) in
a specific spatial boundaries.
Ø e.g., adjust light level in the Lara’s Office.

13. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 13
IoT-FED Process
Ø The core process of the Domain Object corresponding to the
specified goal type is loaded and its simulation starts.

14. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 14
IoT-FED Process
Ø The goal is achievable if all
abstract activities in the
core process can be refined
successfully.
Ø Composition of fragments
to refine an abstract
activity.

15. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 15
IoT-FED Process
Ø The formed EC can then be enacted by instantiating the Domain
Objects forming it.

16. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 16
IoT-FED Architecture
Ø Parsing the user goal and starting the EC formation.
Ø Loading the DO process corresponding to the specified goal type.
Ø Refinement of abstract activities in the loaded process using AI
planning techniques.

17. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 17
IoT-FED Architecture
Ø Managing available IoT things and DOs.
Ø Answering queries about available IoT things.
Ø Instantiating needed DOs and handling their co-relations.

18. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 18
IoT-FED Architecture
Ø Simulating, forming and enacting the EC.
Ø Injection of the plans received by the Planner in place of
abstract activities.

19. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 19
IoT-FED Architecture
Ø Maintaining the system knowledge.
Ø Retrieving data from the KB
Ø Parsing receiving context from the Execution Engine and
passing it to the KB (i.e., KB update).

20. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 20
IoT-FED Architecture
Ø Internal system knowledge
Ø Things states
Ø Device capabilities
Ø Domain object models

21. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 21
IoT-FED Architecture
Ø Management and Interaction with things through the
Amazon AWS-IoT platform.

22. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 22
IoT-FED
Ø IoT-FED: an approach for Forming and enacting Emergent
configuration through Domain Objects in the IoT.
Domain Objects: a service-based formalism used to model
things, IoT Services, and Applications.
IoT-FED: a Process and Architecture
realizing Emergent Configurations.
A prototype for validation purposes.
1
3
2

23. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 23
Adjust Light - Prototype
Prototype developed in the IoTaP lab:
http://iotap.mah.se/lab/

24. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 24
Preliminary Results - I
Frequency of the formed ECs after
100 runs of the AL-app.
AL-hotel room:
Ø 6 devices + user’s smartphone
Ø 14 different ECs in 100 runs
AL-hotel room
Ø EC1 = <Smartphone;DayLight;HS-422-ServoMotor; IkeaLamp>.
Ø It occurs 9 times over the 100 runs.

25. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 25
Preliminary Results - II
Frequency of the formed ECs after
100 runs of the AL-app.
AL-office room:
Ø 8 devices + user’s smartphone
Ø 32 different ECs in 100 runs
AL-office room
Ø EC2 = <Smartphone; LightMeter; HS-422-ServoMotor; PhilipsHueLight>.
Ø It occurs 5 times over the 100 runs.

26. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 26
Preliminary Results - II
ECs execution time.
Ø Average time (in secs) for forming and enacting ECs over the
100 runs of the AL app.

27. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 27
Conclusion
Ø IoT-FED: an architectural approach enabling the automated
and runtime formation and enactment of ECs in dynamic
environments.
Ø DO model and its technologies in the context of IoT.
Ø Process and Architecture of the IoT-FED approach.
Ø Prototype and initial experiments.

28. A. Bucchiarone IoT-FED @ ICSOC 2018 - 28
Future Work
• Adaptation
mechanisms and
strategies
proposed by
DOs.
Adaptation of ECs
at runtime
• Multiple and
competing ECs.
Case Studies
• Selection and
composition of
things based on
non-functional
aspects.
Non-Functional

29. Distributed Adaptive Systems (DAS) Unit
Enacting Emergent Configurations in the IoT
through Domain Objects
Fahed Alkhabbas*, Martina De Sanctis#, Romina Spalazzese*,
Antonio Bucchiarone#, Paul Davidsson*, Annapaola Marconi#
Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento – Italy
bucchiarone@fbk.eu
# *
HANGZHOU, ZHEJIANG, CHINA - November 15, 2018