The Design and Implementation in Python of Aspects of a Service Orchestration Engine for a Smart Port Ecosystem

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to expand its reach. To support the interconnection between moving entities, the Internet of Moving Things (IoMT) has emerged. As IoMT and IoT applications continue to expand in their capability, it is crucial to ensure that services are reliable and efficient, which is where Service Level Agreement (SLA) fulfillment comes into play. An Orchestrator can support the achievement of the SLA made available between customers and a network provider and help to avoid any circumstances of compensation needing to be paid—the Orchestrator is a critical block in an IoT ecosystem, which coordinates and manages devices, sensors and actuators, network infrastructures, services and applications. When a customer moves around within an ecosystem, both the customer and ecosystem may need to adapt to the real-time conditions for continued fulfillment of the SLA. In emergency situations, prioritizing human safety takes precedence, potentially diverting resources away from maintaining agreed-upon service levels. The challenge of this is further compounded by the fact that there are multiple stakeholders within a domain, such as end-users, network operators, service providers, and regulatory bodies, each of which have varying network demands. In this paper, the design and implementation of aspects of an IoT Orchestrator supporting SLA achievement are discussed, with a port ecosystem used as a case study. We demonstrate the impact of the Orchestrator in several simulated maritime port use case scenarios, utilizing a custom-built simulator to evaluate the solution’s effectiveness.