A Digital Twin Architecture for the Provisioning, Management, and Monitoring of Heterogenous IoT Devices

Abstract

IoT devices must often be configured to be remotely managed and monitored. The configuration process is referred to as a provisioning process, where the device is configured into an operational state. This paper presents a DT architecture for provisioning, managing, and monitoring heterogeneous IoT devices. The architecture is targeted towards the device-as-a-service (DaaS) context, where the complexities involved in managing IoT devices is hidden from the user, and where the uptime of the IoT devices is critical. Device management here includes installing applications on the devices (to fulfill the functional requirements of the user) and monitoring the devices. The architecture presented here is aimed at use in a large manufacturing enterprise, such as an automotive manufacturer. A preliminary evaluation of the architecture shows its potential to dynamically handle the provisioning, managing, and monitoring of IoT devices. The preliminary evaluation shows how the architecture supports devices that use both publish-subscribe and request-response interaction methods, and even handle complex scenarios containing a human in the loop.