Interconnecting smart objects through an overlay networking architecture

Network characteristics in the Internet of Things (large scale networks, more dynamic and more heterogeneous) increase the complexity in the design and provision of advanced services, making the traditional approaches inefficient or even inappropriate. This paper focuses on the design of a novel and open overlay network architecture for the end-to-end interconnection of networked (physical or virtual) objects, the support of distributed information fusion and the provision of advanced services in challenging (e.g. large scale, heterogeneous, resource constrained, etc.) environments. The proposed architecture follows a layered-approach and aims at the provision of a generic framework that will facilitate the design and development of autonomic and decentralized services in Internet of Things deployments.