Virtual Network Endpoints for IoT Device Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
IoT devices often face connectivity issues due to power constraints and network resource conservation, limiting their continuous accessibility and interoperability, especially in scenarios where universal protocols and tools are lacking for connecting devices across different network segments.
Innovation Solution
Representing IoT devices as virtual network endpoints within a private cloud environment, allowing enterprise systems to interact with them as local network peers, using a service provider network with regional clusters, virtualization services, and edge nodes to manage network-layer access controls and synchronize device states, even when devices are not continuously connected.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If IoT devices conserve network resources and power by disconnecting periodically, then energy consumption is reduced, but accessibility and continuous connectivity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cloud service as an intermediary between the IoT device and enterprise systems. The cloud service maintains a persistent connection and device state information, allowing the device to disconnect periodically while remaining accessible. This mediator absorbs the disconnect/reconnect cycles, preventing them from affecting system availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining device state information and connection context in the cloud before the device actually disconnects. This allows the device to be accessed and controlled even when not physically connected, as the cloud holds the preliminary state information ready for interaction.
2Reliability
If IoT devices are represented as virtual network endpoints in the cloud, then accessibility and availability are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual representation (copy) of the IoT device in the cloud that mirrors its state and behavior. This virtual endpoint can be accessed independently of the physical device's connectivity status. The copy maintains device identity, state information, and communication interfaces, allowing enterprise systems to interact with the virtual representation as if it were the actual device.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods herein represent an IoT device as an endpoint of private cloud. A virtualization service receives an IoT identifier for an IoT device and a network address for a virtual endpoint for the IoT device. The virtual endpoint for the IoT device is included in a host cloud platform. The virtualization service maps the IoT identifier to the network address in a distributed data structure for the service provider network and provides instructions, for an edge node for the service provider network, to provide network-layer access controls based on the mapping. The edge node for the service provider network receives an access request from the IoT device, applies a network-layer access control for the IoT device based on the instructions, receive IoT data from the IoT device when the edge node permits access by the IoT device, and forwards the IoT data to the virtual endpoint.