A Middleware Infrastructure for Utility-Based Provisioning of IoT Cloud Systems

Recently, we have witnessed numerous benefits of exploiting Cloud Computing models and technologies in the context of the Internet of Things and Edge Computing. However, utility-based provisioning paradigm, one of the most important properties of Cloud Computing, is yet to be realized in emerging IoT Cloud systems. In this paper, we introduce a novel middleware, which provides comprehensive support for multi-level provisioning of IoT Cloud systems. The main features of our middleware include: i) A generic, light-weight resource abstraction mechanism, which enables application-specific customization of Edge devices; ii) Support for automated provisioning of Edge resources and application components in a logically centralized manner, via dynamically managed APIs; and iii) Flexible provisioning models that enable self-service, on-demand consumption of the Edge resources. We evaluate our middleware using real-life applications in the domain of building management systems.