Software-defined and value-based information processing and dissemination in IoT applications

In the near term, a multitude of IoT applications are expected, each taking advantage of heterogeneous device collections ranging from environmental sensors to smartphones. However, approaches taken in many IoT systems – based on the paradigm of Cloud computing – face challenges of both high latency and network utilization. A clear demand now exists for new paradigms to facilitate IoT application usage of computational resources at the edge of the network for data analysis purposes, as well as smart dissemination solutions to deliver information to consumers. This paper presents SPF (Sieve, Process, and Forward), a Software Defined Networking (SDN) solution for creating and managing IoT applications and services. By leveraging programmable information processors deployed at the Internet/IoT edge, the SDN approach introduced by SPF represents a promising architecture for future urban computing applications.