Importance of APIs in the Internet of Things

Importance of APIs in the Internet of Things
From Network APIs to the next big thing
Jacob Ideskog, Solution Architect
@jacobideskog
Copyright © 2013 Twobo Technologies AB. All rights reserved

Agenda
 History – this has happened before…
 The network industry
 REST
 Devices – services or APIs?
Copyright © 2013 Twobo Technologies AB. All rights reserved.

Disruptive trends
Cloud
Computing
Social
Networks
Big
Data
Copyright © 2013 Twobo Technologies AB. All rights reserved.
Mobile

The Web, networking and the Internet of things
Copyright © 2013 Twobo Technologies AB
Free
Web APIs
The
Networking
Industry
Device APIs
rpc/rmi

The Networking Idustry
From SNMP to NETCONF
Copyright © 2013 Twobo Technologies AB
Free
Web APIs
The
Networking
Industry
Device APIs
rpc/rmi

Virtualization - a game changer
 Moving a server from U.S.A. to India
 With maintained state
 What happened to the network?
Copyright © 2012 - 2013 Twobo Technologies AB

Virtualization
 Not a new problem
 Just a new focus
 Solutions popped up
vSwitch
OpenFlow
JSON REST

History again
 Let’s take one step back further
 The networking industry had this talk 10 year ago
 RFC 3535
 Content:
 How does the industry Automate network
management?
 SNMP has failed
• CLI scripting
• Proprietary drivers
• Error handling
RFC 3535
RFC 3535

History again
 The outcome of RFC 3535
 NETCONF – RFC 6241
 Two types of data with clear separation
• Operational Data
• Configurational Data
 Transactions
• Implied
 Validation of input data
• Ability to compare, even between devices
 Ease of use
 Backup / Restore

NETCONF
 Configuration
 Pre-provisioning
 Operational Data
 RPCs / Actions
 All modelled in YANG (rfc6020)
Configuration
Operational state
Action
(eg. reboot)
{ interfaces interface eth0 ip 10.0.0.1 }
{ interfaces interface eth0 rx_faults }

Web APIs
I.e. RESTful APIs
Free
Web APIs
The
Networking
Industry
Device APIs
rpc/rmi

Web APIs
 Today:
 The most commonly used API architecture is REST
 REST:
 No uniform standard
 NOT A PROTOCOL

Resource or service
Copyright © 2013 Twobo Technologies AB. All rights reserved http://martinfowler.com/articles/richardsonMaturityModel.html
Level 0: The Swamp of POX
Level 1: Resource
Level 2: HTTP Verbs
Level 3: Hypermedia Controls
Glory of Rest

Level 0 Swamp of POX
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rights reserved
POST <getBook>
POST <deleteUser>
<book ...
<ok ...
/api
XML RPC all over again

Level 1 Resources
URIs
But still XML messages as operations
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rights reserved
POST <getBook>
POST <deleteUser>
<book ...
<ok ...
/books/2
/users/24

Level 2 HTTP Verbs
Utilizes the semantics of HTTP
GET - Read a resource
HEAD – Read metadata about resource
OPTIONS – Read what operations are available
POST – Add a new resource, or run operation
PUT – Replace existing resource completely
DELETE – Remove resource
(PATCH – Update existing resource in place)
GET ?pagesize=A4
DELETE
200 OK <book ...
201 No Content
/books/2
/users/32

Level 3 The Glory of REST
 HATEOAS
 Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State
 Or simply: Hypermedia
 Let the Media Type tell you what to do
 Hyperlink, hyperlink hyperlink

Example
curl –v http://localhost/stuff
<stuff xmlns:tt=http://example.com/rest tt:rel=”/stuff">
<more-stuff tt:rel="/stuff/more-stuff"/>
<other-stuff tt:=”/stuff/other-stuff"/>
<data>
<entry>Interesting 1</entry>
<entry>Interesting 2</entry>
</stuff>
curl –v http://localhost/stuff/more-stuff
<more-stuff xmlns:tt=http://example.com/rest tt:rel=”/stuff/more-stuff">
<things tt:rel="/stuff/more-stuff/things"/>
</more-stuff>

Ring a bell?
curl –v http://localhost/v2/stuff
<html>
<div id=“stuff”>
<a href=“/stuff/more-stuff”/>
<a href=“/stuff/other-stuff/>
<ol id=“data”>
<li id=“entry1”>Interesting 1</li>
<li id=“entry2”>Interesting 2</li>
</ol>
<form action=“/stuff” >
<input type=“text” name=“value” />
</form>
</div>
</html>

Device APIs
 But a device isn’t an APP
 What you are designing isn’t a user interface
 A system can contain Thousands / Millions / Billons of devices
 The device may be placed in odd locations
 Must be replaceable

Device APIs
Letting your device
BECOME an API
Free
Web APIs
The
Networking
Industry
Device APIs
rpc/rmi

Services
 High level abstractions
 Not directly map able to a single device
SERVICE
Fuel optimization
SERVICE
Health assistance
SERVICE
Plant watering
system
CAR GPS
Stop lights
Turbo injector
Thermometer
Calendar
Medicine dosage
Weather services
Garden sensors
Water tap

Services
“Network Service Participation”

Example: Networks
 Network wide transactions
 All or nothing
 Setup VPN
 All participating Routers
must be updated
 ACID
Tail-f:
NCS
Cisco Juniper ALU Compass
Customer orders new
VPN in Web Portal
Controller calculates changes
and updates relevant devices
If one device fails to update config
all of them roll back

An API for Things
Requirements:
1. Must be consumed by machines
2. Replaceable
 Dump all settings
 Restore in other device
3. Robust

An API for Things
Requirements:
1. Must be consumed by machines
Resource based
Level 2,5
Clear separation
of Configurational
and Operational
data
What you need is a DataModel => Think of it like a Site Map with meta-data about each sub-page

An API for Things
Requirements:
2. Replaceable
 Dump all settings
 Restore in other device
Defined by data-model
No side-effects of
configuration in other
configuration

An API for Things
Requirements:
3. Robust
 All or nothing
 No unexpected states
Transactions
Cannot rely on
ordering of incoming
data

An API for Things
Make sure your device can participate in the
services that will be the Internet of Things!

Summary
 The game-changers
 Learning for Networking (NETCONF)
 REST but not necessarily Hypermedia
 Devices are volatile!

Importance of APIs in the Internet of Things

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