Blog: AIOTI Testbeds – controlled experimentation facilities

During the IoT Week 2022, there were 18 booths and, if you were there, you had a chance to see the AIOTI Testbeds booth, where the following testbeds have been shown:

• Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Centre FutureLabs by Marcin Plociennik, Head of IoT Systems department
• Distributed Ledger Technologies testbeds by Tom De Block, chair of AIOTI Distributed Ledger Technologies Group
• Huawei Edge Computing over TSN: during the conference, Huawei officially released the Edge Computing OPC UA over TSN Smart Manufacturing Testbed 5.0. Konstantinos Alexandris, a Huawei industrial network expert, introduced the progress of Huawei TSN testbed and related technologies. He invited industry customers and partners to participate in the testbed for Plugfest and joint innovation to promote the application of TSN technology in the industrial field.

These testbeds demos were as well discussed during a presentation session on 22 June 2022, which was moderated by Charles Sturman, AIOTI Testbeds Group Chairman.

After the testbeds demos pitches, AIOTI held a roundtable with speakers from Chairs of different AIOTI Working Groups raising awareness on testbeds in their sector, moderated by Rute C. Sofia, AIOTI Testbeds Group Co-Chair.

Georgios Karagiannis introduced the AIOTI WG standardisation and debated on the relevancy of considering the application of the AIOTI IG Testbed methodology as a key element to provide support for the intersection of innovation, testbeds from members, and standardisation. Georgios mentioned that testbeds are acknowledged as a powerful tool for knowledge and technology transfer, and for the further development of emerging technologies. For standardisation, testbeds are perceived as a promising tool that speeds up the transfer of research to standardisation.

Natalie Samovich introduced the AIOTI WG Energy, explaining that members cover the whole value-chain for the vertical domain of Energy, aspect that facilitates the transfer between innovation, experimental aspects, and standardisation.

François Fischer introduced the AOTI WG Mobility and Logistics, explaining that members are more interested in the interaction via, e.g., projects, and not focused on experimental aspects – hence, testbeds are not yet a focal point in terms of innovation – experimentation – standardisation.

Ricardo Vitorino introduced the AIOTI WG Urban Society, explaining that in the WG there is a good support between end-user (e.g., municipalities), SMEs/industry and research. Ricardo mentioned that a relevant aspect for this group is the integration of living labs (end-users) and that this could perhaps be a relevant group for the IG Testbeds to pursue as future priority (integration of end-user groups).

On the role of the end-user, and the importance as well as methodology for the integration of the end-user, Natalie (Energy) mentioned that the WG currently has an adequate coverage of the value-chain and that contact with the end-user is usually performed by members, when required. Ricardo (Urban Society) mentioned that there are members with agreements with the end-user (e.g., municipalities), but that a broader integration (e.g., citizen) is still missing.

On the key challenges to be addressed, a common challenge expressed by all speakers relates with the need for a better articulation of business models cross-domain, and that this aspect may also be facilitated via the IG Testbeds, e.g., via a collection of business cases associated to member testbeds. All speakers expressed a need to debate on data business cases.

On the deployment of testbeds, and whether each AIOTI WG considers a specific methodology to follow, all speakers stated that the applicable methodology for testbed deployment, validation, testing or even exploitation is usually deployed on a case-by-case basis, e.g., based on project or provided by a specific member.

On the role of Edge computing and Edge-based services, François mentioned that there is awareness for the need to consider data closer to the end-user, e.g., car as an Edge, but that there are still some barriers for such deployment. Natalie expressed the same concern from a cross-domain perspective (e.g., energy, building management, mobility), where different data models and different adopted standards prevent the deployment of novel business models.

On the current decentralisation trend for IoT, where Edge-based services are becoming increasingly integrated with the Cloud, and on the use of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) to articulate such decentralisation across the different AIOTI WGs, Natalie mentioned that DLT is perceived as a relevant technology being the key challenge the development and deployment of business models. François stated that the key challenges relate with interoperability and regulation in terms of mobility, and therefore, DLT is not yet perceived as a key trend to consider.

Among the key takeaways of the roundtable, we can mention:

• Testbeds as a powerful tool for boosting use-cases, emerging technologies and to provide a faster contribution towards standardisation.
• AIOTI members across all WGs rely on testbeds at least for the development and support of Research and Development projects, and to test the viability of new products.
• The WGs Urban Society, Energy, Mobility and Logistics share key challenges where the use of testbeds for the analysis of business models (for data, for open and interoperable solutions, both intra and inter-domain) is a key differentiating factor for AIOTI.
• Across all WGs involved, the end-user plays a vital role; current access to the end-user is usually provided via members. AIOTI and the IG Testbeds can be a facilitator in the access to the end-user.
• Key challenges debated for IoT/Edge, where the IG Testbeds may assist, relate with:

(1) Digital twins,

(2) Green Deal,

(3) AI engineering (in particular federated learning),

(4) IoT swarm (and automated) management,

(5) IoT/Edge integration across several domains, sectors, and platforms,

(6) service/data discovery in the context of multiple and federated edges.