arXiv subjects

Massimo Vecchio

Publications and source records attributed to Massimo Vecchio.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Envisioning Tool Support for Designing Privacy-Aware Internet of Thing Applications

The design and development process for Internet of Things (IoT) applications is more complicated than for desktop, mobile, or web applications. IoT applications require both software and hardware to work together across multiple different types of nodes (e.g., microcontrollers, system-on-chips, mobile phones, miniaturised single-board computers, and cloud platforms) with different capabilities under different conditions. IoT applications typically collect and analyse personal data that can be used to derive sensitive information about individuals. Without proper privacy protections in place, IoT applications could lead to serious privacy violations. Thus far, privacy concerns have not been explicitly considered in software engineering processes when designing and developing IoT applications, partly due to a lack of tools, technologies, and guidance. This paper presents a research vision that argues the importance of developing a privacy-aware IoT application design tool to address the challenges mentioned above. This tool should not only transform IoT application designs into privacy-aware application designs but also validate and verify them. First, we outline how this proposed tool should work in practice and its core functionalities. Then, we identify research challenges and potential directions towards developing the proposed tool. We anticipate that this proposed tool will save many engineering hours which engineers would otherwise need to spend on developing privacy expertise and applying it. We also highlight the usefulness of this tool towards privacy education and privacy compliance.

cs.SE↗

arXiv2019

The Internet of Things: a Survey and Outlook

The recent history has witnessed disruptive advances in disciplines related to information and communication technologies that have laid a rich technological ecosystem for the growth and maturity of latent paradigms in this domain. Among them, sensor networks have evolved from the originally conceived set-up where hundreds of nodes with sensing and actuating functionalities were deployed to capture information from their environment and act accordingly (coining the so-called wireless sensor network concept) to the provision of such functionalities embedded in quotidian objects that communicate and work together to collaboratively accomplish complex tasks based on the information they acquire by sensing the environment. This is nowadays a reality, embracing the original idea of an Internet of things (IoT) forged in the late twentieth century, yet featuring unprecedented scales, capabilities and applications ignited by new radio interfaces, communication protocols and intelligent data-based models. This chapter examines the latest findings reported in the literature around these topics, with a clear focus on IoT communications, protocols and platforms, towards ultimately identifying opportunities and trends that will be at the forefront of IoT-related research in the near future.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2019

Fog Computing Architectures: a Reference for Practitioners

Soon after realizing that Cloud Computing could indeed help several industries overcome classical product-centric approaches in favor of more affordable service-oriented business models, we are witnessing the rise of a new disruptive computing paradigm, namely Fog Computing. Essentially, Fog Computing can be considered as an evolution of Cloud Computing, in the sense that the former extends the latter to the edge of the network (that is, where the connected devices -- the things -- are) without discontinuity, realizing the so-called "cloud-to-thing continuum". Since its infancy, Fog Computing has been considered as a necessity within several Internet of Things (IoT) domains (one for all: Industrial IoT) and, more generally, wherever embedded artificial intelligence and/or more advanced distributed capabilities were required. Fog Computing cannot be considered only a fancy buzzword: according to separate, authoritative analyses its global market will reach $18 billion by 2022, while nearly 45% of the world's data will be moved to the network edge by 2025. In this paper, we take stock of the situation, summarizing the most modern and mature Fog Computing initiatives from standardization, commercial, and open-source communities perspectives.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2019

Crowdsourced Peer Learning Activity for Internet of Things Education: A Case Study

Computing devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones have become part of our daily lives. End users increasingly know more and more information about these devices. Further, more technically savvy end users know how such devices are being built and know how to choose one over the others. However, we cannot say the same about the Internet of Things (IoT) products. Due to its infancy nature of the marketplace, end users have very little idea about IoT products. To address this issue, we developed a method, a crowdsourced peer learning activity, supported by an online platform (OLYMPUS) to enable a group of learners to learn IoT products space better. We conducted two different user studies to validate that our tool enables better IoT education. Our method guide learners to think more deeply about IoT products and their design decisions. The learning platform we developed is open source and available for the community.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2019

Designing Sensing as a Service (S2aaS) Ecosystem for Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) envisions the creation of an environment where everyday objects (e.g. microwaves, fridges, cars, coffee machines, etc.) are connected to the internet and make users' lives more productive, efficient, and convenient. During this process, everyday objects capture a vast amount of data that can be used to understand individuals and their behaviours. In the current IoT ecosystems, such data is collected and used only by the respective IoT solutions. There is no formal way to share data with external entities. We believe this is very efficient and unfair for users. We believe that users, as data owners, should be able to control, manage, and share data about them in any way that they choose and make or gain value out of them. To achieve this, we proposed the Sensing as a Service (S2aaS) model. In this paper, we discuss the Sensing as a Service ecosystem in terms of its architecture, components and related user interaction designs. This paper aims to highlight the weaknesses of the current IoT ecosystem and to explain how S2aaS would eliminate those weaknesses. We also discuss how an everyday user may engage with the S2aaS ecosystem and design challenges.

cs.NI↗