Proactive Device Management for the Internet of Things

IoT ecosystems are rapidly expanding, and device management is emerging as a key challenge due to the scale, complexity, and dynamism of IoT systems. The adoption of autonomous techniques shows promise to alleviate key issues including maintaining organisational security when large volumes of IoT devices are being added and removed from a telecommunications network. Here we propose a proactive IoT device management approach that addresses the need to control network access in a risk-based manner. The proposed system comprises of two novel core components, a Management Platform for IoT (MP-IoT) component and an Intent-Based Microsegmentation (IBMS) component. The MP-IoT component carries out a risk management role and combines with IBMS to provide risk-based network segmentation. The two components work together to proactively manage risks by migrating devices between isolated network segments according to a dynamic assessment of the risk to the system from an individual device. Self-healing techniques may then be used to mitigate risks associated with a device and consequently change the network segment that it resides in. Here we present the key challenges associated with typical IoT environments and demonstrate how they are addressed by the proposed Proactive IoT Device Management architecture. A prototype implementation is also presented to validate the operation of the proposed architecture.