A Lightweight Software Stack for IoT Interoperability within the Computing Continuum

With the rapid advancement in the next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) and the ever-expanding virtual representation of devices, novel techniques and definitions are key to accommodate emerging paradigms to transform our world. In the quest of achieving the coveted convergence of IoT technologies with the Cloud-Edge computing continuum and the seamless interaction of IoT devices and hyper-distributed applications, we enhance the concept of Virtual Objects (VOs) for the virtualization of IoT devices in the wake of recent works. We introduce a software stack, called VOStack, to enable interoperability and convergence between the physical IoT devices layer and the Edge/Cloud virtualized infrastructure. The VOStack facilitates interoperability with IoT devices and provides a unified way for their control, enables smooth lifecycle management of the VOs, and allows the development of modern distributed applications by offering on-demand capabilities to support IoT application operations. The necessary interactions of the VOs are presented along with the essential core functionalities for the development of the VOStack. Finally, an overview of different deployment models aligned with the state of practice of infrastructure providers is detailed.