The VIRTUS Middleware: an XMPP based architecture for secure IoT communications

Before a wider adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) vision occurs, many urgent technological and social challenging issues still need to be addressed, including device interoperability, systems autonomy, privacy and security concerns, which could have a significant impact on several aspects of everyday-life or potential end-user. Due to the very large number of technologies normally in place within the IoT paradigm, some type of middleware layer is employed to enforce seamless integration of devices and data within the same information network. Within such middleware, data must be exchanged respecting strict protection constraints. Both the networking and security issues have driven the design and the development of the VIRTUS Middleware, an IoT middleware relying on the open XMPP protocol to provide secure event-driven communications within an IoT scenario. Leveraging the standard security features provided by XMPP, the middleware offers a reliable and secure communication channel for distributed applications, protected with both authentication (through TLS protocol) and encryption (SASL protocol) mechanisms. The proposed architecture provides the possibility to isolate an instance of VIRTUS, allowing the exchange of data only within a private network. This paper presents an overview of VIRTUS, providing an overall platform description and details regarding its security features.