The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released a document that offers information on a distributed computing-based model designed to help researchers understand the “Internet of Things” and related security risks.
Jeff Voas, a computer scientist at NIST, created the “Network of Things” model based on the four fundamental components of IoT such as computing, sensing, actuation and communication, NIST said Thursday.
The document also details the five basic components or “primitives†of a NoT that include the sensor, aggregator, communication channel, external utility and the decision trigger.
NIST said the sensor works to measure data, while the communication channel delivers sensor-derived data to an aggregator primitive or software.
An aggregator component uses an external utility or eutility primitive such as a cloud platform or laptop computer to process and transmit sensor-based data to the decision-trigger primitive, which helps determine whether to execute a specific action.
“The vocabulary and science of the Network of Things will help researchers understand how the components of IoT interoperate, and compare the security risks and reliability tradeoffs,†Voas said.
The publication also describes geographic location, environment, unique device ID and the other three elements of the model that help determine the Network of Things’ reliability.
