A Survey of IoT Management Protocols and Frameworks

Abstract

As the complexity of Internet of Things (IoT) systems increases, a large variety of tools and technologies for IoT management are making their way into both research setups and the market. IoT management solutions must consider the resource restrictions of embedded devices, as well as their heterogeneity and network dynamics. With these in mind, the Internet Engineering Task Force developed several standards targeting the integration and interoperation of heterogeneous devices, such as the Representational State Transfer Configuration Protocol (RESTCONF) or the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) Management Interface. Concurrently, the Open Mobile Alliance developed the Lightweight Machine-to-Machine protocol, for IoT device management. This paper provides a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of IoT management technologies, frameworks and protocols. Also, it proposes a taxonomy for IoT devices management. In addition to presenting the various solutions, the paper provides comparative views, standardization timeline, and market analysis. The presented analysis ranges from traditional network management protocols, such as Simple Network Management Protocol, to the newest IoT management and configuration protocols, such as CoAP Management Interface and Lightweight Machine-to-Machine protocols. Moreover, this survey identifies remaining challenges and solutions offered by recent management protocols, not covered by previous surveys.