EcoCIT: A Scalable Platform for the Development of IoT Applications
Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Scalability, Middleware
The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm encompasses a hardware and software infrastructure that connects physical devices, known as things, to the digital world. It is estimated that in 2020 there will be nearly 100 billion of connected IoT devices whose data and services will be used for building a myriad of applications. However, developing applications in the IoT context is not a trivial task. Given the large number and variety of devices involved, these applications need to be built and executed in a scalable way to support a large number of connected devices as well as to store and process the huge amount of data they produce. Additionally, applications in this context also need to deal with several different protocols. In this context, middleware platforms have emerged as promising solutions to facilitate application development. These platforms offer standardized interfaces for access to devices, abstracting the developers of details of communication via network, protocols and data formats used by various devices. In this perspective, this work presents the EcoCIT platform, a scalable middleware platform that provides support for the integration of IoT devices to the Internet, as well as the development and execution of IoT applications with scalability requirements through the use of scalable technologies and on-demand computing services provided by cloud computing platforms.