A Small-Scale Intra-IoT Network Prototype for Centralized Monitoring of CPS/IoT Devices on Isolated Intranets

This paper presents a new method to collect and display sensor data at a centralized monitoring center from multiple sensor-mesh networks deployed over two isolated intranets within an organization. Between the isolated intranets, the routing of all/any Internet/Intranet traffic from each other was strictly prohibited due to the security policies put in place by the organization for legitimate reasons, while there was a need to collect data from all mesh network nodes. Establishing local wireless links among the gateway nodes of the mesh networks was not feasible due to the limited transmit power at the gateway nodes and the physical distance between the buildings where the sensor mesh networks were deployed. Our proposed method to overcome these challenges utilizes a network drive legitimately available on the both isolated intranets to all users of the organization, and is implemented in an open-source Internet-of-Things (IoT) simulator that can integrate real sensor nodes in network simulations. We demonstrate a successful operation of our method in a small-scale IoT network prototype that employs two different types of sensor nodes attached to laboratory instruments.