DSLs for Model Driven Development of Secure Interoperable Automation Systems with EdgeX Foundry

Abstract

Automation systems involve a range of cyber-physical system components such as sensors, actuators, control equipment, machines, robots, AGVs, etc. Seamless interoperability among these entities is a significant challenge. A well-designed Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform at the network edge can offer several services by acting as a transformation engine between these field devices and various enterprise applications. We consider the EdgeX Foundry platform as such an IIoT middleware, discuss how EdgeX can provide ready-to-use integration of IoT devices, and show how we connect it with a low-code XMDD coordination layer that interfaces with EdgeX microservices through a Native DSL mechanism. We consider this technology landscape from the point of view of a building automation system example that supports high reconfigurability and security. We show how to produce all the essential elements of a complex Web based application to control the considered building systems. We demonstrate various features of the application's data and process models, how DSLs play a role at various levels, and how to add security capabilities that go beyond the cross-layer concerns and mechanisms offered by EdgeX. To this end, we introduce a declarative policy layer to be implemented using the open source ADD-Lib in form of an additional DSL for Attribute Based Encryption, with the aim of further enriching the capabilities around the EdgeX platform.