CORECONF, NETCONF, and RESTCONF: Benchmarking Network Orchestration in Constrained IIoT Devices

Industry 4.0 promises to unlock the new capabilities for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) by transforming a rigid hierarchical automation pyramid into a flatter networked system. IEEE Time-Sensitive Networking, chosen as one of the Industry 4.0 pillars on the network level, offers mechanisms for deterministic data exchange and high reliability for such systems. Yet, to ensure a flexible and reliable service, a flat networked system requires a more sophisticated orchestration. Consecutively, such orchestration requires certain memory and CPU capacity from the IIoT devices, and the state of the art discusses the three candidate protocols, namely: 1) NETCONF; 2) RESTCONF; and 3) CORECONF. This article analyzes these protocols with a focus on resource-constrained IIoT devices. To compare the parameters a prototype implementation of CORECONF is developed, and extensively benchmarked against other protocols. Results suggest that CORECONF could be an ideal candidate in terms of time, power, and memory characteristics for resource-constrained devices.