...
- draft 0.01 Ingo.Friese@telekom.de
- draft 0.02 Jeff Stollman
- draft 0.03 Scott Shorter
- draft 0.04 Ingo.Friese@telekom.de
##################################
Addresses are not Identifier
There is a fundamental difference between addresses and identifier of devices. Addresses determine the communication endpoint within a certain system. For example in the Internet Protocol an IP address is needed to establish a socket, a connection between devices. Identifiers can be understood as a dedicated, publicly known attribute or name for an identity, a person or a device. Typically, identifiers are valid within a specific domain.
In the classic Web we have a Domain Name Service (DNS) mapping human readable Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to IP-addresses. A browser for example resolves a website URI www.telekom.com first. The actual connection between the browser and the Web server is then established by using the returned IP-address.
There are several advantages in separating addresses and identifier. An IoT system or any kind of communication software could use addresses directly in theory but software updates become necessary if network interfaces or sensors break and need to be replaced.
A mapping between identifier and addresses allows also a layer of indirection. This enables configurations like many identifiers pointing to one address. The address is only resolved when a certain condition is fulfilled.
####################################################
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to describe identity concepts in the Internet of Things. Identity mechanisms in the Internet of Things are different from those in the classic web.
Furthermore this paper proposes a terminology for Identity management in the Internet of Things. This should help to facilitate discussions and work in this area without the need to define basic terms again.
...