Multi-layer Analysis of IoT-based Systems
This work provides a conceptual foundation for researchers studying large-scale techno-social cyber-physical systems, but it is primarily theoretical and lacks empirical validation.
The paper proposes a theoretical framework for analyzing IoT-based systems as self-developing reflexive-active systems, using Lefebvre's notation to model the structure of awareness across physical, information, and regulatory layers. It demonstrates the approach with an example of smart appliances stabilizing grid frequency.
This document provides a theoretical-methodological ground to sustain the idea that the IoT builds the structure of awareness of large-scale infrastructures viewed as techno-social cyber-physical systems, which are special cases of self-developing reflexive-active systems. As the last phrase already indicates, we need to go through a series of explanations before reaching the point of being capable of analyzing the dynamics of IoT-based systems, constituted by physical, information and regulatory layers. We expect through this text to clarify what is the structure of awareness by revisiting the little known Lefebvre's notation. From this standpoint, we can analytically show systemic differences that appears when agents using information about the physical system and/or about the other agents (re)act within the system itself, determining then the actually realized system dynamics. We provide an example of how to carry out this kind of research using the example of smart appliances as a form of stabilizing the grid frequency.