WhichWay - IoT-Middleware Plattforms as Enabler for innovative Energy Services

Concepts for future, sustainable energy systems are characterized by a radical change in the entire system. Future intelligent energy systems will merge into an integrated overall system that must intelligently connect different sectors, (decentralized) generation plants and energy storage with each other. The growing availability of various energy-related data holds great potential for operating existing systems more economically and ecologically. This requires an infrastructure in which energy and information are transmitted seamlessly in real time to enable a reliable and economically viable energy supply. Furthermore, innovative solutions based on artificial intelligence, statistical methods and traditional physical modeling are required for the generation, provision and evaluation of these large amounts of data. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are the backbone and an enabler of these intelligent systems. The IoT is a network of uniquely identifiable entities that exchange data and commands with minimal human intervention. Universal standards and IoT middleware platforms Many entities in the IoT are only compatible with those from the same provider. This results in a central difficulty in the IoT. Successful machine-to-machine communication requires that the collaborators use a common language. There are two ways to achieve interoperability: (i) establishing a universal standard, or (ii) using middleware as a translator. Universal standards are difficult to define and enforce. An example is sockets: for a century, different regions have had different standards. Middleware sits between entities and mediates between incompatible devices and applications. In the literature, IoT middleware is also referred to as an IoT middleware platform, IoT data platform or IoT platform. security and privacy The data generated in IoT applications not only includes control and control data, but potentially also personal data. This requires measures to ensure IT security (security) and privacy protection (privacy). In existing technologies, these points are often insufficiently addressed. There is currently a lack of analyzes that analyze measures that anchor security and privacy in the form of "security by design" and "privacy by design" directly in the middleware. In addition, it must be examined whether the data processing steps of the middleware can be abstracted to such an extent that sensitive data can be reliably identified as such in the middleware, regardless of the selected use cases, in order to be able to implement the corresponding methods for privacy and security.