The Internet of Things (IoT) has stepped into a new epoch. We now collaborate with so to say cyber-physical systems. These systems are physical mechanisms controlled or monitored by computer algorithms. They are also interlaced through the Internet. Such systems have pierced their way into industry. They are being deployed and used above all to manage and control industrial processes.
Jordi Cabot and Abel Gómez, two researchers from Research Lab at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) have designed an innovative new tool for automating and streamlining the creation of systems that employ asynchronous event-driven communication.
The tool is the first to use the recently published AsyncAPI specification. It standardizes work with this type of architecture. The pilot version, developed as part of the MegaMa@Rt2 project, is open-source and available for free online.
Event-driven asynchronous architecture serves to avoid collapsing within IT infrastructures. These structures with numerous devices, which are monitored and controlled by a central computer, easily confused due to a faulty component. Nevertheless, among the merits of these architectures is that a breakdown in one component does not trigger a full system crash. One of the most popular paradigms is called the publish-subscribe architecture, where messages are not sent to specific receivers.
Although these distributed architectures are scalable and flexible enough, they still no have established programming standard.
The researchers were attentive and found the solution: the AsyncAPI specification. This specification allows users to define all the relevant information needed to design and run IoT devices in these environments.
The fact is AsyncAPI is still not wide spread and the tools supporting it remain in short supply. In spite of this fact Jordi Cabot and Abel Gómez have developed a tool based on this new proposal. This instrument allows users to automate the creation of messages in the appropriate format. Moreover, it automates the sending and receiving of these messages.
Gómez says: "By adopting this new tool, we can significantly shorten the amount of time needed to develop and launch programs, which favors interoperability, improves code quality and in turn limits the number of errors in the software development life cycle."