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ComBench: A Benchmarking Framework for Publish/Subscribe Communication Protocols Under Network Limitations

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Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools (VALUETOOLS 2021)

Abstract

Efficient and dependable communication is a highly relevant aspect for Internet of Things (IoT) systems in which tiny sensors, actuators, wearables, or other smart devices exchange messages. Various publish/subscribe protocols address the challenges of communication in IoT systems. The selection process of a suitable protocol should consider the communication behavior of the application, the protocol’s performance, the resource requirements on the end device, and the network connection quality, as IoT environments often rely on wireless networks. Benchmarking is a common approach to evaluate and compare systems, considering the performance and aspects like dependability or security. In this paper, we present our IoT communication benchmarking framework ComBench for publish/subscribe protocols focusing on constrained networks with varying quality conditions. The benchmarking framework supports system designers, software engineers, and application developers to select and investigate the behavior of communication protocols. Our benchmarking framework contributes to (i) show the impact of fluctuating network quality on communication, (ii) compare multiple protocols, protocol features, and protocol implementations, and (iii) analyze scalability, robustness, and dependability of clients, networks, and brokers in different scenarios. Our case study demonstrates the applicability of our framework to support the decision for the best-suited protocol in various scenarios.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://pypi.org/project/asyncio-mqtt/.

  2. 2.

    https://pika.readthedocs.io/.

  3. 3.

    https://github.com/chrysn/aiocoap.

  4. 4.

    https://hub.docker.com/r/descartesresearch/iot-pubsub-benchmark-controller.

  5. 5.

    https://hub.docker.com/r/descartesresearch/iot-pubsub-benchmark-client.

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Acknowledgement

This project is funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts and coordinated by the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wuerzburg, 97074, Wuerzburg, Germany

    Stefan Herrnleben, Maximilian Leidinger, Veronika Lesch, Thomas Prantl, Johannes Grohmann & Samuel Kounev

  2. University of Hohenheim, 70599, Stuttgart, Germany

    Christian Krupitzer

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  1. Stefan Herrnleben
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  2. Maximilian Leidinger
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  7. Samuel Kounev
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Correspondence to Stefan Herrnleben .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Qianchuan Zhao

  2. Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Li Xia

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Herrnleben, S. et al. (2021). ComBench: A Benchmarking Framework for Publish/Subscribe Communication Protocols Under Network Limitations. In: Zhao, Q., Xia, L. (eds) Performance Evaluation Methodologies and Tools. VALUETOOLS 2021. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 404. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92511-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92511-6_5

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-92511-6

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