Modeling Technological Interdependency in IoT - A Multidimensional and Multilayer Network Model for Smart Environments

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has changed the shape of edge networks by adding various technologies to support a wide range of services from interactive and high-bit-rate to battery-operated, long-range and low-bit-rate services. While the diversity of heterogeneous technologies can be exploited to increase network resilience, a proper model is required to understand, design, and analyse the relationship between these technologies and the overall smart environment. In this paper, we propose a formal multidimensional multilayer model to describe the Internet and IoT topology from functional, geographic, and technology-level perspectives. This model is intended to capture the complexity of the smart-home and smart-city environments attached to the Internet through diverse access technologies including emerging 5G mobile networks. We analyse the resilience of diverse network technologies for smart homes using our technology interdependence graph.