Architecting and Deploying IoT Smart Applications: A Performance–Oriented Approach

Layered internet of things (IoT) architectures have been proposed over the last years as they facilitate understanding the roles of different networking, hardware, and software components of smart applications. These are inherently distributed, spanning from devices installed in the field up to a cloud datacenter and further to a user smartphone, passing by intermediary stages at different levels of fog computing infrastructure. However, IoT architectures provide almost no hints on where components should be deployed. IoT Software Platforms derived from the layered architectures are expected to adapt to scenarios with different characteristics, requirements, and constraints from stakeholders and applications. In such a complex environment, a one-size-fits-all approach does not adapt well to varying demands and may hinder the adoption of IoT Smart Applications. In this paper, we propose a 5-layer IoT Architecture and a 5-stage IoT Computing Continuum, as well as provide insights on the mapping of software components of the former into physical locations of the latter. Also, we conduct a performance analysis study with six configurations where components are deployed into different stages. Our results show that different deployment configurations of layered components into staged locations generate bottlenecks that affect system performance and scalability. Based on that, policies for static deployment and dynamic migration of layered components into staged locations can be identified.