=Paper= {{Paper |id=Vol-2404/paper08 |storemode=property |title=Towards the Internet of Safe and Intelligent Postal+ Things |pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2404/paper08.pdf |volume=Vol-2404 |authors=Massimo Ancona,Viviana Mascardi,Nicoletta Noceti,Francesca Odone,Waqas Ahsen,Antonino Scribellito |dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/woa/AnconaMNOAS19 }} ==Towards the Internet of Safe and Intelligent Postal+ Things== https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2404/paper08.pdf
                                       Workshop "From Objects to Agents" (WOA 2019)


                            Towards the Internet of
                      Safe and Intelligent Postal+ Things
                    Massimo Ancona           Viviana Mascardi                Nicoletta Noceti             Francesca Odone
                                           DIBRIS, University of Genova, Genova, Italy
                                                 name.surname@unige.it

                                             Waqas Ahsen              Antonino Scribellito
                                      PostEurop, Brussels, Belgium
               europeanprojects@posteurop.org, antonino.scribellito@posteurop.org


   Abstract—SAFEPOST is an FP7 European project which                      infrastructure (vehicles, mailboxes, machines, letter carriers
was active from April 2012 to July 2016 aimed at the “reuse                etc.) for bringing data management to the next level. In
and development of Security Knowledge assets for International             almost the same years, the notion of Internet of Intelligent
Postal supply chains”, as its full title explains. SAFEPOST
addressed threats to postal security by designing and experiment-          Things [5], [18] as a network of “intelligent devices that are
ing a sensor network detection system including gas, radiation,            capable of communicating with each other, making certain
Raman spectroscopy and image-based sensors. In 2015, while                 decisions based on local information, and taking autonomous
SAFEPOST was running, the US Postal Service and IBM                        and coordinated actions”, to quote [18], was born. In the
suggested the idea of applying sensors to the postal infrastructure        community working on agents and multiagent systems (MAS),
components to bring the acquired data to the next supply chain
level and optimize efficiency and costs, leading to an Internet of         such intelligent devices would be named “agents”, and a
Postal Things. Merging the SAFEPOST and Internet of Postal                 network consisting of them, would be named “MAS”. And in
Things approaches and applying the result of their merge to                fact, even if using a different terminology, the idea of making
supply chains involving not only postal items, but also logistic           IoT smarter and more intelligent by exploiting methodologies
infrastructures and business processes, paves the way to an                and approaches coming from the agent community, also started
Internet of Safe Postal+ Things, IoSP+ T. The IoSP+ T can be
further enriched and made smarter, more flexible, and intelligent,         to flourish in those years [15], [26], [27], leading to many
by adding agents below, inside, and on top of it.                          initiatives including the special session on “Internet of Things
   In this paper we provide our vision of the Internet of Safe and         and Internet of Agents (ITIA)” at the IDC 2019 conference
Intelligent Postal+ Things, IoSIP+ T, highlighting challenges and          [30], and the explicit reference to IoT as a topic of interest in
opportunities.                                                             the PRIMA 2019 call for papers [7].
   Index Terms—Agents, Multiagent Systems, Internet of Intel-
ligent Things, Internet of Postal Things, Safety, Supply Chain                Despite intelligence on board of the interconnected devices,
                                                                           a wide adoption of Internet and IoT, with a consequent
                                                                           widespread dissemination of sensors, greatly amplifies secu-
                       I. I NTRODUCTION                                    rity and efficiency problems. In such a context, the expe-
                                                                           rience gathered in recent EU projects provides fundamental
   As observed by [19], [32], [33] among many others, Postal               insights for future developments of e-logistic projects based
Services are reporting mounting deficits every year all over               on Machine-To-Machine (M2M) and IoT. On this respect we
the world: in order to survive, they need to redesign their                mention three recent EU e-logistics projects, SAFEPOST1 ,
business. In particular, first-class mail undergoes e-mail, sms,           iCargo2 , and e-Freight3 which aimed at developing frame-
chat and other forms of electronic replacements. “The worse                works, reference models, and demonstrators to improve, via
news is the Postal Service expects first-class mail volume to              technologies at the state of the art, a safe and efficient
continue dropping by nearly 50% over the next decade” [19].                transport of, respectively, postal items, cargo, and containers,
If they want to survive, they must exploit the most recent                 throughout the EU. When in Europe these three projects were
technological advances: sensors within the Internet of Things              still active or just closed, in the US, USPS and IBM envisioned
[6], Cloud Computing [51], Big Data technologies [73] and,                 the Internet of Postal Things. By generalizing USPS vision,
above all, Artificial Intelligence. Based on these observations,           we might consider the “Internet of Safe Postal+ Things”
the US Postal Service (USPS) and IBM recently proposed to                  (IoSP+ T), where by “Postal+ ” we mean Postal items and
take advantage of the dramatic decline of the cost of sensors
and wireless data connectivity, and push the Internet of Things              1 https://www.posteurop.org/SAFEPOST,          start:    01/04/2012;      end:
(IoT) into the postal domain.                                              30/07/2016.
                                                                             2 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/100869/factsheet/en, start: 01/11/2011;
   In 2015, the USPS RARC Report [69] and Marsh and
                                                                           end: 30/04/2015.
Piscioneri [49] presented the Internet of Postal Things (IoPT)               3 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/94475/factsheet/en, start: 01/01/2010;
vision: applying sensors to the various component of the Postal            end: 30/06/2013.




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                                        Fig. 1. The layered architecture of the SAFEPOST project.



components together with more general logistic processes and                (CPSS); (iii) the application layer, composed by the e-
infrastructural architectures. And by exploiting agents, IoSP+ T            logistic (service oriented) optimization code.
could move towards the IoSIP+ T, namely, the “Internet of Safe            • The treatment of security performed in each architectural
and Intelligent Postal+ Things”.                                            layer.
   SAFEPOST, iCargo, and e-Freight could naturally evolve                  The layered architecture shown in Figure 1 simplifies the
into IoSIP+ T projects.                                                 development of certified code while providing high levels of
   In the IoSIP+ T context, safety and security are so closely          assurance, and makes this process practical and affordable. It
intertwined to be no longer considered two separate concerns:           also simplifies code and artefact reuse to leverage investments.
any system interfaced with the outside world has the potential          A Postal Security Stamp (PSS) connects the SAFEPOST
to expose security vulnerabilities. In particular, systems con-         components together. It identifies postal items and associates
nected to the Internet and the IoT need to be protected against         place of origin, destination, content information, screening
specialized targeted malware attacks and against a whole world          history, image comparison data, track and trace mechanisms
of hackers. This paper deals with safe and secure IoSIP+ T,             with them. The information can be traced in real time by
grounding its root into the authors’ experience in SAFEPOST             authorized stakeholders.
and in Artificial Intelligence in general, and agents and MAS
                                                                           SAFEPOST implementation is centered on a D2D (Door-
in particular. After presenting the state of the art in postal
                                                                        To-Door) delivery mechanism completely controlled by human
security - mainly represented by the results achieved by
                                                                        operators performing H2M (Human-To-Machine) & M2H
SAFEPOST - in Section II, we analyse new research directions
                                                                        (Machine-To-Human) communication. Replacing (part of) a
towards intelligent, dependable and resilient supply chains
                                                                        H2M mechanism by a direct M2M communication in an
development with the adoption of agents together with IoT
                                                                        IoT environment, besides optimizing efficiency and costs of
and cloud computing in Section III. Section IV is left to
                                                                        delivery, remarkably increases security problems. This is why
conclusions and final remarks.
                                                                        SAFEPOST has been conceived to be secure by design:
 II. SAFEPOST AND THE S TATE OF THE A RT IN P OSTAL                     SAFEPOST implements a security level able to satisfy evolv-
                   S ECURITY                                            ing international regulations and standards while efficiently
                                                                        supporting the complexity of postal services market across Eu-
   “SAFEPOST: reuse and development of Security Knowl-                  rope, without increasing costs. Also, and more important for its
edge assets for International Postal supply chains” is an FP7           implications in the development of an IoSIP+ T, SAFEPOST
European project which spanned the period from April 2012               could be adopted as the minimum kernel in the development
to July 2016, involving 20 partners for a total cost of nearly          of future safe and dependable intelligent supply chain systems.
15 million euros. Its main design principles are:
   • The introduction of safety sensors, i.e. sensors expressly
                                                                        A. The Screening System and Safety Sensors
     designed for augmenting knowledge about safety and
     security information on parcels.                                      The SAFEPOST Screening System is a hardware-software
   • A well defined hierarchical organization based on (i)              infrastructure consisting of D-Tube, Raman and Radiak sen-
     the sensing layer, implemented by the Targeting and                sors, and an image recognition system4 .
     Threat Handling component and devoted to the safety
     sensors management and data acquisition; (ii) the network            4 The information related to some sensors is confidential so just a short
     layer, implemented by the Common Postal Security Space             overview of their specifications and functionalities can be published.




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   1) The D-Tube: The D-tube is used for detecting explosives
or narcotics in real time; the prototype developed within
the SAFEPOST project uses a multi-element detector for
the generation of the chemical profiles and is suitable for
integration into the sorting facility conveyor belt flow. It
operates in near real time with high precision and specificity
by examining vapor substances. The system also takes into
account the varying background vapors ubiquitously present
in the air. This D-Tube system consists of three different sub-
systems:
  • The Breathing Sub-system
  • The Air Supply Sub-system
  • The eNose Gas Sensor Sub-system
                                                                                        Fig. 2. The image recognition system.
The Breathing Sub-system is positioned over the conveyor
belt. It uses a device to compress the packages in order to
press out air from the inside of the packages. This procedure
makes packages emit as much of the enclosed molecules as
possible for further detection. This “active breathing” is key to
make the system work consistently on a wide range of different
packaging types. The Breathing System is designed to stay
within the envelope of specifications for proper handling of
the packages.
   The Air Supply System is a “sniffer” system positioned after
the breathing device to “sniff” any molecules being emitted
from the packages. It consists of several silicon hoses and acts
as a “vacuum cleaner” to vacuum the packages on its side and
                                                                                         Fig. 3. Package handling work-flow.
on the top. This is being done just after the breathing system
has compressed the package. The hoses in the “sniffer” system
are then connected and lead the air flow to the Gas Sensor Sub-
system, also called the eNose. The eNose chamber consists of             B. The Targeting and Threat Handling Reasoning System
18 separate electronic sensors (“noses”) capable of detecting               The Targeting & Threat Handling Reasoning System is a
different molecules such as explosives and narcotics.                    high level decision support system which combines informa-
   2) Radiak and Raman Sensors: The radiation sensor is                  tion from both the SAFEPOST sensors and other sources to
based on a semiconductor detector of High Purity germanium               conduct risk assessments. Risk assessment is driven by the
(HPGe detector) which measures ionizing radiation by means               work-flow of the package handling represented, in a simplified
of the number of charge carriers set free in the detector                way, in Figure 3. Information gathered from sensors and from
material, which is arranged between two electrodes, by the               the stakeholders involved in the process is used to assess
radiation. Ionizing radiation produces free electrons and holes.         the risk that a parcel is a potential threat throughout the
Under the influence of an electric field, electrons and holes            entire D2D postal delivery supply chain. The system discovers
travel to the electrodes, where they result in a pulse that can          potential threats in real-time and assesses those not detectable
be measured in an outer circuit.                                         by physical screening. When a threat is detected, the system
   3) Image Recognition System: The role of the Image                    helps users decide on which plan to follow based upon the
Recognition System in SAFEPOST (see a sketch in Figure                   threat, time and resources available. The Targeting and Treat
2) is to allow postal operators to screen the exterior of the            Handling Reasoning System operates at the intermediate level
parcels in order to detect damages and signs of tampering                and performs different fusion services onto data in the CPSS
[58]. The Image Recognition System provides information to               to address different phases of the risk management process as
the CPSS as well as to the human postal operator. Information            follows:
sent to the CPSS can be integrated with the results of other                • A risk assessment sub-system fuses all available informa-
sensors or with previous scans of the same parcel in order to                 tion regarding letters and parcels to determine which parts
compare if and how the parcel changed over time and better                    of the sorting facility convey or belts should be subject
evaluate its tampering risk. At the same time, as the system                  to additional screening on top of the mandated ones. This
performs the parcel analysis on the fly, human operators can                  step of the process uses available information from, e.g.,
be immediately informed of suspicious parcel’s features and                   alert levels set by security agencies, intelligence data-
can intervene on the parcel, according to the risk management                 bases, information from cargo operators and customs, be-
policies implemented by the postal operator.                                  sides the information coming from SAFEPOST sensors.




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  •   The results of the detection are combined with other               E. Related Work in Postal Security
      available data to determine what should be done with the
      suspicious parcels. In particular, using information about           After the Yemen bomb plot in 20106 , the postal security
      the uncertainties in the detection result and combining            management entered its biggest reform in modern times. In
      these with other available information enables the system          2012 the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the United Nations
      to choose different handling strategies (with associated           (UN) organization coordinating global postal policies, issued
      different delays in cycle time) for different risks.               two postal security standards binding all of its 192 members
                                                                         countries:
                                                                            • S58, Postal Security Standards - General Security Mea-
                                                                              sures which defines the minimum physical and process
                                                                              security requirements available to critical facilities within
                                                                              the postal network;
                                                                            • S59, Postal Security Standards - Office of Exchange and
                                                                              International Airmail Security which defines minimum
                                                                              requirements for security operations relating to the air
                                                                              transport of international mail.
                                                                         Besides regional legislation in the transportation sector, which
                                                                         have been rapidly evolving as well over the past few years
                                                                         with major implications on postal security7 , also academic
                                                                         literature on security in the supply chain has become huge
                                                                         after September 11, 2001: as observed by Männistö in [50],
                                                                         “The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 raised major
                                                                         concerns about the vulnerability of global transportation sys-
                                                                         tems to transnational crime and terrorism. Although the attacks
              Fig. 4. The Common Postal Security Space.                  occurred in the context of passenger transport, they spurred
                                                                         unprecedented academic research on supply chain security
                                                                         (SCS)”. Männistö defines a supply chain crime taxonomy,
                                                                         carries out a deep literature review showing that the SCS
C. The Common Postal Security Space (CPSS)                               discipline is more empirically grounded and diverse than the
   The CPSS is shown in Figure 4 and is based on the PostEu-             previous literature reviews suggest, and discusses a case study
rop framework5 as operating model, which aligns EU Policy                in the international postal service from the Swiss perspective.
and Legislation with IT security management and industry                 To the best of our knowledge, that work is one of the
wide best practice processes, through a shared network. The              more recent and complete academic documents dealing with
CPSS is integrated with the screening systems, target and                safety and security in the supply chain in general, and in
threat handling reasoning and information sharing via the                the postal sector in particular. Compared to SAFEPOST8 it
universally trusted Postal Security Stamp.                               complements its practical results with a strong theoretical
                                                                         underpinning by providing a taxonomy which can serve as a
D. The Optimization Component                                            unifying framework in the supply chain crime area, and which
                                                                         can be generalized and adapted to other domains. Although
   This component consists of a real-time logistics optimiza-
                                                                         Männistö’s work also includes a practical component, leading
tion system that automatically reads GPS tracking data and
                                                                         to concrete suggestions to the Swiss Post and Swiss authorities
updates the logistics plan accordingly. This is more than
                                                                         based on the results of the case analysis, it cannot compete
simply updating the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) of a
                                                                         with the practical solutions to threat handling proposed within
vehicle, as the system automatically fixes resulting logistics
                                                                         such a large project as SAFEPOST.
problems using intelligent optimization algorithms. For exam-
                                                                            Given that the SAFEPOST approach is fully compliant with
ple, if a vehicle is delayed so that it will not arrive at its
                                                                         the most recent regional and UPU standards, and that the
destination in time to undertake the next planned work, the
                                                                         academic literature we are aware of in the postal safety and
optimization component automatically reassigns the work to
                                                                         security areas is connected and complementary to the project,
the next best resource available. The real-time rescheduling
                                                                         we can assess that SAFEPOST findings are the state of the art
means that the logistics plan is constantly updated (working
                                                                         in postal security.
within operational constraints and rules) so that at any point
in time the system “knows” what should be happening next,
                                                                           6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo planes bomb plot
even if this is now different from the original plan at the start          7 https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/security/legislation en;https:
of the day.                                                              //www.faa.gov/regulations policies/faa regulations/
                                                                            8 Männistö’s Ph. D. Thesis is not fully disjoint from SAFEPOST: he received
  5 http://www.posteurop.org/VisionandMission                            funding from SAFEPOST, as stated in his thesis acknowledgments.




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     III. B EYOND SAFEPOST: TOWARDS AN I O SIP+ T                          for obtaining an immediate reaction to unpredictable events
                                                                           through smart organizations: both resiliency and dependability
   As discussed in Section II, SAFEPOST is a layered, dis-
                                                                           imply safety and security requiring advanced forms of context-
tributed architecture with sophisticated sensors at the lowest
                                                                           awareness. The meaning of context depends on the application
level, organizations that must protect their data and privacy on
                                                                           domain and may involve many aspects, including location,
the one hand, and must collaborate to reach a safer manage-
                                                                           time of day, emotional state of the user, orientation, and even
ment of postal items on the other, complex interactions among
                                                                           the preferences or identities of people within an environment.
the parties involved, reasoning and optimization systems at
                                                                           In an IoSIP+ T, the context is also represented by data coming
the top of the architecture. The holonic MAS metaphor [64]
                                                                           from advanced physical sensors. In order to be useful, sensory
is extremely suitable to describe SAFEPOST: some sensors
                                                                           data need to be located, described, measured, and analysed on
like the image recognition system depicted in Figure 2 are
                                                                           the fly in real-time, which requires sophisticated approaches to
so sophisticated, that may be seen as MASs themselves. The
                                                                           sensor fusion. SAFEPOST already provides a first answer to
same holds for the different providers of postal services, which
                                                                           the need of dependability, resilience and context awareness; in
could be seen as individual agents if we analyze the high level
                                                                           its current setting, context- and self-awareness are supported
interactions among them, taking place within the CPSS, but
                                                                           by the specific safety sensors discussed in Section II-A whose
can also be seen as MASs due to the many components they
                                                                           outputs are fused within the targeting and threat handling
consist of, and their complex dynamics.
                                                                           reasoning system discussed in Section II-B.
   More intelligence can be added to SAFEPOST’s architec-
                                                                              In a more general IoSIP+ T perspective, SAFEPOST could
ture, both at the sensor level – by making sensors smarter –,
                                                                           be extended to integrate other sensors into a single MAS made
and at the global architecture level – by making it more flexible
                                                                           secure by design [31] and supporting different levels of aware-
and adaptable, and by improving the existing optimization
                                                                           ness operated in an IoT, within a Cloud environment. In the
component, which could be based on agents [8], [29], [61],
                                                                           following we discuss approaches, methods and techniques that
[70]. The reasoning component could take advantage of agents
                                                                           could be integrated within the existing SAFEPOST framework,
as well, along the lines of some recent proposals for agent-
                                                                           to transform it into an IoSIP+ T.
based distributed reasoning including [9], [38], [54].
   But the “SAFEPOST of the future”, besides intelligent, must
                                                                           A. CPS, Spimes and Smart Objects
also be resilient.
   Resilience is the capacity to quickly recover from difficul-               SAFEPOST safety sensors operate in real-time and are de-
ties; in a supply chain context, it can be seen as the ability             signed with the dependable and resilient architecture of fully-
to react in a timely fashion to unexpected external events                 protected Cyber Physical System (CPS). Safety and security
including delayed delivery, reduced exchange of information                are design dimensions of a CPS: safety is aimed at protecting
with other companies in the chain, hardware/software failures,             the systems from accidental events while security is limited to
but also more disruptive ones such as floods, earthquakes,                 hostile actions, and both share the goal of protecting a CPS
acts of terrorism. Dependability of a system reflects the user’s           from failures. As pointed out in [62] when safety and security
degree of trust in that system: it measures the numerical                  are aligned, namely when actions performed for enforcing
extent of the user’s confidence that the system will operate               safety do not contrast with actions performed for enforcing
as expected. Implementing dependable and resilient supply                  security, they make the enclosing CPS almost inviolable. A
chains is a strategic choice for mitigating the risks [35]. The            theoretical concept which has recently emerged as an evolution
notion of dependability9 , together with responsiveness, agility,          of CPS and sensors in the direction of real time and context-
cost, and assets, is one of the five Standard Strategic Metrics            aware tracking, is that of the spime11 a uniquely identifiable
of the Supply Chain Operations Reference model, SCOR10 .                   object whose real-time attributes can be continuously tracked.
Delivery dependability, also known as delivery reliability [63]            Smart objects [39], namely computers equipped with sensors
is the ability, for supply chains,“to exactly meet quoted or               and/or actuators, and a communication device, are examples
anticipated delivery dates and quantities” [72]. Specific sensors          of spimes. They are described as the building blocks for
and relative fusion algorithms can help extracting several kinds           the IoT [43] and can be embedded in cars, light switches,
of contextual data, raising the system context awareness which             thermometers, billboards, or machinery. The gap between a
represents a key ingredient of the IoT. Quoting [53], “...smart            smart object and an intelligent software agent is very small: the
connectivity with existing networks and context-aware com-                 smarter the object, the closer to an agent [60]. The integration
putation using network resources is an indispensable part of               of smart objects in SAFEPOST would definitely increase not
IoT. With the growing presence of WiFi and 4G-LTE wireless                 only its context awareness, but also its ability to self-adapt and
Internet access, the evolution towards ubiquitous information              self-repair thanks to the smart objects actuators which can play
and communication networks is already evident”. Today’s                    an active role, differently from traditional, passive sensors. The
companies are already adopting resilience and dependability                ability to manage itself is a “must” for the SAFEPOST of
                                                                           the future, given that SAFEPOST should be able to survive
  9 Named “reliability” and meaning “Perfect Order Fulfillment”.
  10 http://www.apics.org/apics-for-business/products-and-services/          11 Spime is a neologism introduced by B. Sterling (2005) as the contraction
apics-scc-frameworks/scor                                                  of space and time.




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to disasters, to continue keeping the infrastructure as safe as           to increase its dependability, in particular when boosted by
possible. The opportunities to increase SAFEPOST reliability              agents [46]. A challenging research direction is “real-time
thanks to self* approaches are huge: self-adaptive and self-              weak signal detection mining”, and its integration with the
organizing MASs [1], [28], [55], [65] are very close to                   results obtained by a more traditional mining of IoT data.
autonomic computing systems, namely systems that “manage                  In fact, a really safe logistic system, should also take weak
themselves according to an administrators goals. New compo-               signals of threats coming from news, social networks, the
nents integrate as effortlessly as a new cell establishes itself          web, into account. As observed in [14], “Lone wolf terrorists
in the human body” [41]. An “autonomic SAFEPOST” would                    pose a large threat to modern society. The current ability to
give many advantages, but would also raise many challenges.               identify and stop these kinds of terrorists before they commit
In particular, autonomy in self-adapting, self-organizing and             a terror act is limited since they are hard to detect using
self-repairing should balance compliance to existing technical,           traditional methods. However, these individuals often make use
legal, and even ethical constraints. To reach this goal, designers        of Internet to spread their beliefs and opinions, and to obtain
should be able to verify in advance (at design time, when                 information and knowledge to plan an attack. Therefore there
the system is still under test) as many properties of the                 is a good possibility that they leave digital traces in the form
“autonomic SAFEPOST” as possible via traditional techniques               of weak signals that can be gathered, fused, and analyzed”.
based on model-checking. At runtime, when the system has                  An agent-based approach might turn useful to tackle the last
been deployed, it should undergo a continuous monitoring to               tasks, as discussed for example in [57], [76].
early detect those anomalies that static verification techniques
could not capture, and report them to a human controller.                 C. Integrating IoT and Cloud Computing for Logistics
While these problems are far to be solved, in particular for                 Although IoT and cloud computing are different paradigms,
large and complex systems as an “autonomic SAFEPOST”                      they play complementary roles in tackling emerging needs of
would be, some results achieved within the MAS community                  the current world, and both are recognized as being extremely
seem to go in the right direction. Model checking MASs                    suitable to supply chain management. While the IoT mainly
has a long tradition which dates back to the beginning of                 consists of device connections via the Internet, the role of
the millenium [11], [12], [47], [74] and, although not scaling            the cloud is to deliver data, applications, streams, images,
well to large systems, could be used for the design-time static           and other digital objects in a distributed context. The huge
verfication. Recently, runtime verification mechanisms suitable           implications of IoT for logistics have been explored by Cisco
for MASs in particular, and for distributed system in general,            and DHL [48] among the others and are raising more and
have been proposed [2], [4], [23]. Attempts to integrate static           more attention [40], [52], [66], mainly when combined with
and runtime verification techniques in the MAS domain are                 big data management [42]. A similar or maybe even greater
discussed in [3] and in [24], [25]: while the first work                  interest can be observed for the adoption of cloud computing
deals with the relationships between Linear Temporal Logic                for logistics and supply chain management, which - besides
and the trace expression formalism used for MAS runtime                   many scientific and popular articles (see for instance the recent
verification, the last ones address the problem of validating an          works [16], [67]) - also lead to patents [36]. The integration of
abstract environment designed for model checking purposes,                IoT with cloud computing [13] offers an additional potential
at runtime.                                                               benefit to significantly reduce costs on a pay-per-use base and
                                                                          with an improved customer service based on rationalization
B. Real-Time Data Mining                                                  of operations, through optimization and increased operating
   A real-time management of threats, like in SAFEPOST’s                  and economic efficiencies and supporting the development of
Targeting and Threat Handling Reasoning System, requires                  new services and business models. Several postal and logistic
a real-time analysis of the acquired data and new forms of                companies are already offering their service from the cloud
dependable data mining algorithms. As observed in [68], “data             and the combination of IoT with intelligent CPSs makes them
mining has typically been applied to non-real-time analyti-               accessible anytime and anywhere. This combination will be a
cal applications. Many applications, especially for counter-              key enabler of the IoSIP+ T, and agents will play a relevant role
terrorism and national security, need to handle real-time                 to add intelligence, security, and flexibility to it, as discussed
threats. [...] This means that the data mining algorithms have            for example in [45], [75], [77].
to have the ability to recover from faults as well as main-
tain security, and meet real-time constraints all in the same                       IV. C ONCLUSIONS AND F UTURE W ORK
program.” Real time data mining is a hot research topic, as                  In its most recent mobility report, Ericsson forecasts that
witnessed by many existing tools [10], [56], papers [22], [37],           around 29 billion connected devices will be available by 2022,
[44], [71], and even patents [20]. In the same way as massive             of which around 18 billion related to IoT. Connected IoT
data generated by the IoT can be analysed and managed with                devices will include cars, machines, meters, sensors, point-
data mining techniques adapted to cope with big data and                  of-sales terminals, consumer electronics and wearable [34].
data streams [17], existing data mining algorithms operating              Between 2016 and 2022, IoT devices are expected to increase
in real-time could be adopted to manage data generated by                 at a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent, driven by new
an IoSIP+ T system, in order to cope with its complexity and              use cases. In [21] the author discusses seven ways the IoT will




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