2013 IEEE International Conference on Green Computing and Communications and IEEE Internet of Things and IEEE Cyber,

Physical and Social Computing

Mobile IMS Integration of the Internet of Things

in Ecosystem
Han-Chuan Hsieh , Jiann-Liang Chen , Ing-Yi Chen , Sy-Yen Kuo
 Department of Electrical Engineering,
National Taiwan University of Science & Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering,
National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University Dean,
College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
E-mail: D10007501@mail.ntust.edu.tw

(QoS) in ecosystems with IoT infrastructures. Since IoT is

still an emerging complex infrastructure, unexpected data rates
are inevitable. To manage data bursts, a suitable mechanism
is needed for root cause nding; it must be able to handle
numerous data bursts caused by ecosystem applications. The
IMS was originally designed to evolve mobile networks to
deliver Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia to mobile users. The
IMS has become the core component within next generation
networks [7, 8]. This study proposes a tentative architecture
that combines IMS network and IoT to provide an infrastructure for high-quality ecosystem applications.

AbstractA high-quality ecosystem plan may signify a milestone in the development of smart living. The Internet of
Things (IoT) is the key to establishing a high quality ecosystem.
This study developed an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) IoT
architecture for ecosystem applications. The proposed mechanism
groups attach request signaling by agent-based operations to
reduce network congestion and to enhance service quality. The
Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) platform
is implemented and evaluated in a eld trial. Performance
analyses of the proposed architecture conrm that it can achieve
a high-quality ecosystem in terms of power consumption and
network performance with minimal loss of communication power.
Index TermsEcosystem, Internet of Things (IoT), IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Smart Living, Electronic Product Code
Information Services (EPCIS), Quality of Service (QoS)

II. F UNDAMENTAL C ONSIDERATIONS

This section gives some supporting considerations and background information for each component in the test-bed design.

I. I NTRODUCTION
Ashton gave an apt denition about IoT If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things
using data they gathered without any help from us - we would
be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce
waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed
replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh
or past their best. The IoT has the potential to change the
world, just as the Internet did. [1]. The vision is spreading out
research and development throughout the world [2, 3]. Now
one has foreseen the current advancement of IoT technology
in developing the identication and sensing technologies to
dene a high-level interface that inferred form ecosystem.
Tansley dened an ecosystem as The whole system includes not only the organism-complex, but also the whole
complex of physical factors forming what we call the environment. [4]. Many ecosystems now developing worldwide
apply this concept to capture environmental information and
to interact with the environment by using identication and
sensing technologies [5, 6]. The IoT is an emerging architecture that generally includes an ecosystem in which objects are
embedded with sensors and RFID tags that have the ability to
sense and identify environmental things.
An important problem is improving Quality of Service
978-0-7695-5046-6/13 $26.00 2013 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/GreenCom-iThings-CPSCom.2013.347

A. Proposed IoT-IMS Architecture

This study effort is motivated according to the following
reasons:
The number of mobile device users has grown exponentially for several years. Therefore, ecosystem applications
must be embedded in mobile communication frameworks,
and mobile communication operators are the object of this
proposed approach for improving service capability when
using ecosystem applications.
The most advanced technologies have been supported in
mobile devices. For instance, the latest smart phone in the
market can now use short range communication platforms
such as RFID, Near Field Communication (NFC) and
Bluetooth. Some smart phones are also equipped with
movement sensors, which enable them to complement
human activities.
For these two reasons, IoT technology should be implemented in mobile communications infrastructures. We also
envision the use of the proposed framework as a research
test-bed. Aggregating those reasons the IoT infrastructure
framework namely IoT-IMS communication platform. The
purpose of the platform is to provide mobile devices with IoT
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Fig. 1.

subscribers. The two platforms are described further below.

EPCIS platform: The Fosstrak EPCIS platform is an
open source RFID platform developed by Christian Floerkemeier, Matthias Lampe and Christof Roduner of the
Distributed Systems Group and the Auto-ID Lab at ETH
Zurich. Here, Fosstrak EPCIS is used to enable IoT
system managers to implement EPCIS Query and Capture
interfaces, which allows users to turn their MySQL
database into an EPCIS Repository.
IMS platform: The IMS platform, which usually comprises many different Call Session Control Functions
(CSCFs), has three main functions in a packet switching
core network: providing QoS for services, providing
extensible charging mechanisms to multimedia services,
and integrating All-IP services. The IMS architecture,
which is based on the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership
Project) system, denes the QoS policy module, which
consists of Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF),
Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF), policy repository and web management interface. The PCRF
sets the QoS policy rules for synchronizing and linking
the signaling and transport layers. The PCEF in the transport layer receives the QoS policy rules for transmitting
information for different congurations.
The EPCIS platform and IMS platform comprise the IoT
Computation Layer. The two platforms are integrated in this
layer to provide mobile IoT ecosystem applications. The
unique framework designed for this platform extends the use
of IMS functions to identifying IoT objects in a standardized
operation. The platform allows QoS-distinguished treatment
for each IoT application. Figure 2 shows that, technically, the
IoT-IMS platform is implemented in a cloud computing system
by a middleware service in the Home Subscriber Service
(HSS) module of the IMS and by the Relational DataBase
Management System (RDBMS) module of the IoT.

IoT-IMS Communication Platform

B. IoT-IMS Operation

Fig. 2.

To perform the identication processes on the IMS framework, the HSS database must coordinate with the EPCIS
framework. In the generic IMS platform, the HSS contains the
user database required for the application negotiation process.
When a mobile device identies a particular object, it obtains
the Universally Unique Identier (UUID) for the object and
then queries the UUID in the EPCIS RDBMS. The HSS
associated with the user account gateway concurrently evokes
the related object UUID to the HSS table. Generally, the HSS
table stores the user proles according to the Application
Server (AS) proles. In the IoT-IMS platform, however, the
RDBMS (MSSQL, MySQL) queries the Object Name Service
(ONS) to obtain the related service and then posts the URI to
the HSS database at the eld of application service. Therefore,
whenever the IoT gateway discovers and pairs its connection
to particular objects, the related services are updated in the
HSS database.
The platform shown in Fig. 2 is the IMS capability extension, which enables the IoT object identication system to

IoT-IMS Operation

gateway functionality and to enable ecosystem providers to

use network resources optimally and efciently.
Figure 1 shows the IoT-IMS communication platform. The
lowest layer in the platform is the IoT Perception Layer,
which captures object information, including Things [ID] and
Sensing [Characteristic]. The highest layer is the IoT Application Layer, which provides the ecosystem applications. Between the Perception Layer and Application Layer is the IoT
Computation Layer, which enables the ecosystem to achieve
high-quality services over huge data sets. The main goal of
the IoT Computation Layer is to provide high-quality service
for IoT-based ecosystem applications. The IoT architecture
proposed in this study supports the EPCIS platform and the
IMS platform in providing high QoS for mobile ecosystem

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Object(s)

UE(IoT GW)

HSS

RDBMS (EPCIS)

ONS

Pairing Connection
At gateway identification

GET UUID
POST Object UUID
GET UUID
GET URI

PUT URI

Fig. 5.
Fig. 3.

OpenFlow network topology

IoT-IMS System Operation Procedures

Fig. 4.

network conditions and then proposes an adaptive QoS strategy forwarding routing ows. The Net Field Programmable
Gate Array (NetFPGA) is a low-cost open platform which is
proposed by Stanford University. Shows on Fig. 4, NetFPGA
contains an FPGA [9], four 1 Gigabit Ethernet ports, some
buffer memory (SRAM and DRAM), and a PCI interface.
The OpenFlow is an open standard which is based on an
Ethernet switch, with an internal ow-table, and a standardized
interface to add and remove ow entries in the network
environment. Imagine that if every developer wants to build
their own network in laboratory for experiments, much resource they would spend? As a result, campus network seems
to be the best solution. However, if the experiment affects
the original campus network, that may destroy the campus
network.
Network virtualization is the way to solve this problem
which not only can control the packets routing but also can
approach the load balance by sharing the load to other unused
wire, Figure 5 shows the OpenFlow implementation. Most of
the router, switch, access point (AP) are commercial products.
In order to keep their competitiveness, those companies try not
to release the inner part of the products. Although, it allows
users set the virtualized network function, but the performance
cannot reach what users estimate. The OpenFlow Consortium
proposed the concept of OpenFlow in 2008, which can easily
approach the goal of network virtualization allow researchers
to implement their creative ideas such as new protocols and
new applications on campus network and not affect the current
network. For this test-bed, OpenFlow is implemented with a
Capsulator function. The Capsulator mechanism enables IP
packets to be sent to other Capsulators. A Capsulator can
be linked through several networks. In each network, eth0 is
used as a tunnel port to communicate with other Capsulator,
while links to the Internet. When the Border Port Ethernet
packet is received, it is added to the IP packet and then
transmitted to other Capsulators; when the Tunnel Port (eth0)
IP packet is received, the rst IP packet header is removed.
After the Tag value is checked, the Ethernet packet is sent to
all Border Ports with the same Tag value. Since the operating
system is used in all segments in each terminal reorganization,

NetFPGA Platform Board

provide standardized operation and management of IoT networks. Eventually, it can provide QoS treatment for each IoT
application. The platform is implemented by integrating the
EPCIS middleware service into the HSS module of the IMS.
Therefore, the IoT gateway can discover any object at any
event, identify them and post their service to IoT application
layer. The identied object then triggers the PCRF function
based on the event classication from the IoT perception layer
to manage the IoT trafc priority based on the application
scenario. The IoT gateway functionality is embedded in the
mobile device to enable the event signature function to obtain
the ID and characteristics of the object.
Implementation of the platform in a cloud computing system
enables efcient resource allocation and platform scalability.
The resource allocation is subject to the QoS parameters used
for IoT applications and for object identication assessment
within the networks. When the identied object is classied
by the IoT perception layer, the PCRF functions of the IMS
are triggered. The PCRF parameter is then used to manage
IoT trafc priority based on each application scenario. Figure
3 shows a system platform in which the mobile device is
operated as an IoT gateway to enable event signature to
identify the object ID and its characteristics.
C. OpenFlow-based NetFPGA Platform
This section proposes an OpenFlow-based NetFPGA platform that applies the proposed QoS mechanism according to

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Fig. 6.

Capsulator OpenFlow network example

Fig. 9.

IoT-IMS Operation Procedure

III. P ROPOSED AGENT- BASED M ECHANISM

Fig. 7.

Based on the proposed IoT-IMS platform, an agent-based

mechanism for enhancing QoS is proposed. The agent-based
mechanism includes an intelligent agent and a QoS mechanism
for cooperative QoS-awareness networking. By exchanging
agent messages, the objects are grouped and triggered only
a default bearer from rst one, the reduced steps for the
remaining objects substantially reduces massive attach request
signaling.
Learning the behavior of an IoT-IMS network and its
patterns can improve the efciency of an intelligent agent
in solving network problems. Agents are software modules
with cooperative capabilities such as assisting users and other
agents. Figure 7 compares the operations between an environment and intelligent agent. One learning mode is reinforcement
learning, which is based on the intelligent agent concept.
When a learning agent performs an action during a certain
status, the environment either rewards the learning agent with
a reinforcement value or punishes it.

Intelligent Agent Operation

IV. N ETWORK I MPLEMENTATION

Fig. 8.

To enable the identication process and performance evaluation in the IMS framework, the network is implemented in
the vSphere cloud computing platform. The platform implementation consists of three Virtual Machines (VMs).

IoT-IMS Test-Bed

an Ethernet packet of any size can be given a tunnel. For

the above technique, Fig. 6 shows the numbers of links in
examples of Capsulator OpenFlow networks. Each network
has a Tunnel Port (eth0) and two Border Ports (eth1 and eth2).
The eth1 links the OpenFlow Switch and NOX Controller of
the Control Port, and eth2 links the OpenFlow Switch with
the Data Port, which may be LAN Root Switch the Data
Port. The NOX Controller can control the network in all
OpenFlow Switches; additionally, if network A and Network
B are directly linked to eth1 Port through two OpenFlow
Switches, they can communicate with each other.

A. IoT-IMS Test-Bed
The platform implementation in the IoT Medical application
scenario includes two sensor types: a blood pressure sensor
and a cardiology sensor. Both sensors are paired with the IoT
gateway through a Bluetooth network. Figure 8 shows that the
object is identied by the EPCIS mechanism, which registers
the AS (Medical Server) into IMS HSS database. When a
certain object is already identied, the AS receives data from
these sensors.

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B. Control Plane Grouping Mechanism

Figure 9 shows how the IoT-IMS test-bed achieves a high
quality ecosystem for IoT communication technology. The
rst object of a specic group that the default bearer must
establish implies that the IoT-IMS operation procedure can
skip the default bearer grouping steps. Therefore, the testbed reduces handling, utilization, and attachment time. After
the ow analysis, the CPU utilization of the test-bed is
compared between the Conventional Flow and Proposed Flow.
The Proposed Flow is the result obtained by default bearers
grouping. Conventional Flow and Proposed Flow:
(a)

O(N, T ) =

P
N 


n,p

(1)

n=1 p=1

where
O(N, T ) is the complexity of service ows for N
users
N
is the number of users
T
is the timing interval of the ow
n
is the nth user
P
is the total steps of service ow
p
is the pth step
is the delay of the pth step for the nth user
n,p
By grouping the common steps in the procedure into a single
user, the delays of the steps of the users are replaced by the
additional delays to accomplish the proposed ow. The time
consume by the N users by the proposed ow is expressed in
O(N, T ) =

P
N 


p=1

Fig. 10.
(a) Platform Utilization in basic IMS scheme, (b) Platform
Utilization in signaling grouping mechanism

Moreover, the IMS core VM CPU utilization approximates

60%, AS VM approximates 25%, and EPCIS VM approximates 70% (Fig. 10 (a)). Medical applications of the VM
CPU may increase the number of service requests from the
IMS client for IoT QoS management. The signaling grouping
mechanism reduces uctuations in platform performance, and
the IMS and EPCIS VM achieve better performance (Fig. 10
(b)). Both VMs send signaling and information queries to the
service, which causes a higher system utilization compared to
other VMs. The nal step is evaluating the CPU utilization
in IoT-IMS platform in cloud computing platform approach to
conduct general QoS management in IoT-IMS framework.

n,p

n=1 p=1
P


(b)

1,p +

N

n=2

n,p + n

(2)

where
O(N, T ) is the complexity of service ows for N
users
N
is the number of users
T
is the timing interval of the ow
n
is the nth user
P
is the total steps of service ow
p
is the pth step
is the delay of the pth step for the nth user
n,p

is the set of the necessary steps for the

proposed ow
is the delay of the proposed step for the
n
nth user

VI. C ONCLUSION
A framework for an IoT test-bed over an IMS network is
presented to improve QoS in ecosystem applications. Considering the unique QoS parameters of IoT, which emphasize
data precision and accuracy, this framework provides an agentbased scheme for managing ecosystem data according to network layer behaviors. By using this test-bed for each behavior
in an IP core network, IoT-IMS network layer data gathered
by the network agent can be used to adjust specic QoS
requirements and optimize the platform utilization. The further
work will focus on middleware CPU loading optimization by
gateway tasks scheduling of IoT-IMS network layer.

V. P ERFORMANCE A NALYSIS
Figure 10 depicts the signaling operation between IMS and
EPCIS when the object identication signals sent to applications are increased. Clearly, uctuation in the CPU utilization
of the EPCIS server and IMS core is higher than that of the AS.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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Applications, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Next
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[6] V.G. Cerf, Its the Net, Stupid, IEEE Internet Computing, Vol.16, No.3,
pp.96, 2012.
[7] 3GPP Stage 2 Specications, (www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/htmlinfo/23228.htm)), 3GPP, 23.228.
[8] J.L. Chen, H.C. Hsieh and Y.T. Larosa, Congestion Control Optimization
of M2M in LTE Networks, Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Advanced Communications Technology, pp.154-161, January
2013.
[9] J. W. Lockwood, N. McKeown, G. Watson, G. Gibb, P. Hartke, J. Naous,
R. Raghuraman, and J. Luo, NetFPGA: An Open Platform for Teaching
How to Build Gigabit-Rate Network Switches and Routers, in Proc. Int.
Conf. Microelectronic System Education, San Diego, CA, Jun. 2007.

The authors would like to thank the National Science

Council of the Republic of China, Taiwan for nancially
supporting this research under Contract No. NSC 100-2219E-011-004 and NSC 101-2219-E-011-002.
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