Claims:CLAIMS
I/We Claim:
1. A method of securing a Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure (104), wherein the method comprising steps of:
developing a lightweight blockchain network (112) for the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure (104);
accommodating Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices (102a-102n) of variable configurations in the developed lightweight blockchain network (112);
enabling the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices (102a-102n) to perform data transactions through a Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol; and
implementing a decentralized authentication scheme for each of the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices (102a-102n) for securing the data transactions in the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure (104).
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the lightweight blockchain network (112) is an Ethereum blockchain network.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of implementing a trusted publisher-subscriber model for each of the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices (102a-102n).
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of enabling a smart contract (116) to be executed on the lightweight blockchain network (112).
5. The method as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a step of storing the smart contract (116) in a lightweight database (118).
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of collecting a private information of Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) entities by using Internet of Things (IoT) probing.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of receiving the data transactions from the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices (102a-102n) by a cloud server (122) for securing the data transactions.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of enabling the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices (102a-102n) to use blocks by approaching one of nodes selected from one of, a light weight node or a heavy weight node in the lightweight blockchain network (112).
9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices (102a-102n) are resource constrained Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices.
10. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a step of validating a testbed (120) by comparing the testbed (120) with pre-existing testbeds.
Date: 23 March, 2021
Place: Noida
Dr. Keerti Gupta
Agent for the Applicant
(IN/PA-1529)

, Description:FORM 2

THE PATENT ACT 1970
(39 of 1970)
&

THE PATENTS RULES, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10, and rule 13)

METHOD OF SECURING NEXT GENERATION INTERNET OF THINGS INFRASTRUCTURE

APPLICANT(S)
NAME: DR. D. KOTHANDARAMAN
NATIONALITY: INDIAN
ADDRESS: S R ENGINEERING COLLEGE, ANANTHASAGAR (V), HASANPARTHY (M), WARANGAL, TELANGANA 506371

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed
BACKGROUND
Field of Invention
[001] Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) security system and particularly to a method of securing a NGIoT infrastructure by using a decentralized blockchain technology.
Description of Related Art
[002] Internet of Things (IoT) plays a vital role in improving a next generation quality of life. The IoT is experiencing an exponential growth in research and industries, but it still suffers from privacy and security issues. As an application of the IoT is expanded, the security issues such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, a Mirai botnet, a wireless vulnerability exploitation, and so forth arises in real time applications such as, smart cities, an online banking, a smart agriculture, a monitoring environment, an energy management, a smart retail, smart logistics, an automation industry, and so forth. Further, it has also been observed that IoT devices that are connected to a communication network such as the Internet, has reached approximately 15.41 billion devices in 2015 and expected to grow to 75.44 billion devices in 2025 (as shown in FIG. 1A). However, a rapid increase in the connected IoT devices also led to greater security issues. Also, an adoption of digital transformation services and an increasing implementation of a closed centralized IoT in cloud platforms for collecting and exchanging data lacks in a security and poses a threat for a market. As a consequence, while accessing the data or store from a publisher to a subscriber through various IoT layer protocols, it is more vulnerable to layer wise threats.
[003] Since there are lot of IoT security risks, as everything can be hacked, connected devices are always under a potential attack. Moreover, an IoT infrastructure have the different hardware configuration IoT devices and the IoT devices with enough hardware may involve in a mining process. However, if a greater number of similar hardware configuration IoT devices involves in the mining process, then approximately 51% or more hash power will be with such IoT devices, which in turn leads to an integrity issue. Traditionally available security and privacy approaches tend to be inapplicable for the IoT devices, due to its decentralized topology and resource-constraints of the majority of the IoT devices. To overcome the security and privacy issues, various approaches have been proposed.
[004] In one of a conventional approach, a new heterogenous identity-based authentication scheme has been proposed that applies a concept of a Software Defined Networking (SDN) on the IoT devices. The SDN can be deployed using fog-distributed nodes. Each set of the IoT devices is communicating with gateways that can support an authentication for things. These gateways are also connected to a central controller that has access to a central data. The authentication process has to go through the gateways and the central controller in order to give an access to the data. However, an experimental evaluation shows that the proposed approach is immune to a masquerade attack, a man-in-the-middle attack, and a replay attack, as a result, a centralized authentication technique is not suitable for the future IoT infrastructure due to constrained IoT devices.
[005] In another conventional approach, an algorithm was proposed to defend against the DDoS attacks by considering a network composed of four group of nodes such as a working node, a monitoring node, a legitimate user node, and an attacker node. The DDoS attacks are hazardous because of a large number of the IoT devices connected to the communication network and a perpetrator seeks to make a machine or a network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the communication network. However, such approach is only limited to address the DDoS security attacks in the network. Yet another conventional approach, a device attacks in four distinct types such as a physical, the network, a software and encryption attacks has been proposed which can be done by a side channel, cryptanalysis, and the man-in-the middle attacks. However, such types of security techniques are not suitable solution for the IoT devices because of two main limitations such as, a battery capacity and a computing power.
[006] Further, in yet another conventional approach, two security requirements such as, a device authentication and a secure communication has been implemented, where the secure communication is achieved by the device authentication. However, in such approach, a digital certificate is required for each of the IoT devices that is not possible due to cost and other factors. Further, a blockchain technology has been introduced for various purposes such as, achieving the security in identification applications, securing a communication, storing access control data in a decentralized manner, and so forth. In another conventional approach, a combination of the IoT and the blockchain has been used. However, the blockchain technique used in a cryptocurrency is very complex and will not fit for the IoT until and unless it is made lightweight.
[007] In yet another conventional approach, a distributed IoT network has been proposed. However, a rapid increase in a number and a diversity of smart devices connected to the communication network has raised issues of a flexibility, an efficiency, an availability, a security, a scalability within the current IoT network. Further, an attribute-based access control scheme using the blockchain technology has been proposed to improve an access management for billions of resource constrained devices in the IoT. Such approach solves a problem of a lack of trust and made a system more robust. Moreover, in such approach, a new type of transactions which record an authorization of attributes has been defined. The IoT devices in a design are independent to a consensus process of blockchain network which significantly decreases an overall computation and a communication overhead. In yet another conventional approach, key management strategies have been proposed for future Internet that are based on a trusted third party that requires a full trust of a key generation centre or a central authority. However, centralized cloud centres are unable to deliver satisfactory services to customers as there is too much trust in third parties; therefore, such centres do not apply to user privacy-oriented scenarios.
[008] Further, a centralized security model (as shown in FIG. 1B) has been implemented to provide security to the IoT infrastructure. However, the centralized security model has some security issues such as, an authentication, an access control, a confidentiality, a privacy, a trust, a mobile security, a policy enforcement and a secure middleware. Moreover, there is a lack of computation resource scarcity in the IoT infrastructure due to limited battery capacity and a computing power. Also, centralized security model provides security to limited number of IoT devices.
[009] There is thus a need for an advanced and more-effective method of securing the NGIoT infrastructure that can administer the drawbacks faced by conventional methods.
SUMMARY
[0010] Embodiments in accordance with the present invention provide a method of securing a Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure, wherein the method comprising steps of: developing a lightweight blockchain network for the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure; accommodating Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices of variable configurations in the developed lightweight blockchain network; enabling the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices to perform data transactions through a Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol; and implementing a decentralized authentication scheme for each of the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices for securing the data transactions in the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure.
[0011] Embodiments of the present invention may provide a number of advantages depending on its particular configuration. First, embodiments of the present application provide a secure distributed decentralized immutability digital ledger transaction for a NGIoT infrastructure to achieve a scalability, a reduced latency, a secure reliable transaction, a fast downloading and/or uploading through multi-blockchains operations in a cloud to achieve a cross domain access. Next, embodiments of the present invention provide an open source decentralized NGIoT testbed for testing implementation of real time applications. Next, embodiments of the present invention provide a secure NGIoT infrastructure based on a light blockchain network to satisfy a decentralization, a fine-grained auditability, a high scalability, extensible requirements and privacy preserving principles for a hierarchical access control in the NGIoT.
[0012] Next, embodiments of the present invention provide a light weight implementation of the blockchain network that can be used in any type of NGIoT applications without a need of a human intervention. Next, embodiments of the present invention provide a universal solution for all potential type of attacks using a decentralized cloud for the NGIoT infrastructure. Next, embodiments of the present invention provide a free of cost service to a society with a secure and a reliable NGIoT testbed for all type of environment without a third-party approval, thereby increases a transaction speed and reduces a cyber risk.
[0013] These and other advantages will be apparent from the present application of the embodiments described herein.
[0014] The preceding is a simplified summary to provide an understanding of some embodiments of the present invention. This summary is neither an extensive nor exhaustive overview of the present invention and its various embodiments. The summary presents selected concepts of the embodiments of the present invention in a simplified form as an introduction to the more detailed description presented below. As will be appreciated, other embodiments of the present invention are possible utilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features set forth above or described in detail below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] The above and still further features and advantages of embodiments of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description of embodiments thereof, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and wherein:
[0016] FIG. 1A illustrates a first prior art;
[0017] FIG. 1B illustrates a second prior art;
[0018] FIG. 1C illustrates a peer-to-peer decentralized communication model, according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0019] FIG. 1D illustrates a Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure, according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0020] FIG. 1E illustrates a block diagram of a blockchain based Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) system, according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
[0021] FIG. 2 depicts a flowchart of a method of securing the NGIoT infrastructure, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0022] The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including but not limited to. To facilitate understanding, like reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate like elements common to the figures. Optional portions of the figures may be illustrated using dashed or dotted lines, unless the context of usage indicates otherwise.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0023] The following description includes the preferred best mode of one embodiment of the present invention. It will be clear from this description of the invention that the invention is not limited to these illustrated embodiments but that the invention also includes a variety of modifications and embodiments thereto. Therefore, the present description should be seen as illustrative and not limiting. While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative constructions, it should be understood, that there is no intention to limit the invention to the specific form disclosed, but, on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, alternative constructions, and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims.
[0024] In any embodiment described herein, the open-ended terms "comprising," "comprises,” and the like (which are synonymous with "including," "having” and "characterized by") may be replaced by the respective partially closed phrases "consisting essentially of," consists essentially of," and the like or the respective closed phrases "consisting of," "consists of, the like.
[0025] As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” designate both the singular and the plural, unless expressly stated to designate the singular only.
[0026] FIG. 1C illustrates a peer-to-peer decentralized communication model 100, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The peer-to-peer decentralized communication model 100 may enable a secure communication between Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102a-102n (hereinafter referred to as the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102) to process billions of data transactions (hereinafter referred to as the data transactions) between the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102, thereby reducing a cost associated with installing and maintaining large centralized data centers. The Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIOT) devices 102 may be, but not limited to, smart watches, smart appliances, autonomous cars, smart cameras, and so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102 including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. Further, the peer-to-peer decentralized communication model 100 may provide computation resources and storage resources to the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102 for processing and storing the data transactions.
[0027] FIG. 1D illustrates a block diagram of a Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure 104, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure 104 may comprise a Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) platform 106, the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102, and a network 108. The NGIoT platform 106 may be, but not limited to, a Cloud platform, a Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) connectivity platform, a Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) device platform, an analytics platform, and so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) platform 106 including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. In an embodiment of the present invention, the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) platform 106 may be provided to collect data from the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102 over different protocols through the network 108. The protocols may be, but not limited to, a Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), a Zigbee, a Bluetooth, and so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the protocols including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. The network 108 may be a wired network or a wireless network. In an embodiment of the present invention, the wired network may be, but not limited to, a fiber optic cable, a coaxial cable, a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the wired network including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. In another embodiment of the present invention, the wireless network may be, but not limited to, a cellular network, a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), and alike. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the wireless network may be a gateway. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the wireless network including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies.
[0028] The Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102 may be deployed on a remote location, in an embodiment of the present invention. In another embodiment of the present invention, the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102 may be deployed locally for performing tasks such as, but not limited to, exchanging messages, making orders, completing the data transactions, and so forth by using the peer-to-peer decentralized communication model 100 (as shown in the FIG. 1C). The peer-to-peer decentralized communication model 100 may offer a greater security and eliminates a need of intermediaries for performing the tasks. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the tasks to be performed by the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102. In an embodiment of the present invention, the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure 104 may be capable of collecting a private information of NGIoT entities such as, clouds, users, NGIoT devices 102, and so forth by using an Internet of Things (IoT) probing. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the NGIoT entities. The Internet of Things (IoT) probing may be a public ledger-based investigation framework to collect the private information of the NGIoT entities. Further, the Internet of Things (IoT) probing may be capable to securely store the collected private information as the data transaction in a lightweight blockchain network 112 (as shown in FIG. 1E).
[0029] According to embodiments of the present invention, the NGIoT infrastructure 104 may be secured by using the lightweight blockchain network 112 (as shown in the FIG. 1E). Various factors such as, but not limited to, a reliability, a scalability, a performance, an availability, an adaptability, and so forth may be achieved in order to secure the NGIoT infrastructure 104. The reliability may be an overall performance that may be achieved in all environment conditions of a time and a space complexity. Further, the scalability may be achieved as the scalability provides a flexibility to extend a network support from an unexpected service to a new NGIoT device of the NGIoT devices 102 in the NGIoT infrastructure 104. The performance may be achieved over a large scale distributed decentralized architecture. The availability and a fault tolerance may be achieved to control a system and a detection of failures. Further, the adaptability may be achieved for improving end user services.
[0030] FIG. 1E illustrates a block diagram of a blockchain based NGIoT system 110, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may comprise a lightweight blockchain network 112. The lightweight blockchain network 112 may be developed for securing the NGIoT infrastructure 104 (as shown in the FIG. 1D). The lightweight blockchain network 112 may be, a public blockchain network, in an embodiment of the present invention. The public blockchain network may be an Ethereum blockchain network, in an embodiment of the present invention. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the lightweight blockchain network 112 including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. The lightweight blockchain network 112 may be capable to accommodate the NGIoT devices 102, to extend a battery life of the NGIoT devices 102. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the NGIoT devices 102 may be resource constraint NGIoT devices. As used herein, the term “resource constraint NGIoT devices” are devices that may be having a limited processing and storage capabilities. In an embodiment of the present invention, the NGIoT devices 102 may be considered as NGIoT nodes in the lightweight blockchain network 112. The NGIoT nodes may be, but not limited to, miner nodes, full nodes, light nodes, and so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the NGIoT nodes in the lightweight blockchain network 112 including known, related art, and/or later developed NGIoT nodes. In an exemplary scenario, the minor nodes may create blocks by computing a Proof of work and committing records for a decentralized authentication. In an embodiment of the present invention, the NGIoT devices 102 that may perform a mining operation with a minimum hardware may act as the minor nodes.
[0031] In an embodiment of the present invention, the lightweight blockchain network 112 may enable the NGIoT devices 102 to use the blocks by approaching one of, heavy weight nodes or light weight nodes that may be capable to download and verify a validity of a header of the blocks. The light nodes may be enabled to run in limited hardware environments such as, but not limited to, a laptop, a mobile phone, and so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the hardware environment including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. In an embodiment of the present invention, the lightweight blockchain network 112 may be provided to enable the data transaction between the NGIoT devices 102 and an external environment, and consequently eliminates a need of a human intervention.
[0032] The lightweight blockchain network 112 may comprise distributed ledgers 114a-114m (hereinafter referred to as the distributed ledgers 114) that may be associated with the corresponding NGIoT devices 102. In an embodiment of the present invention, each of the distributed ledgers 114 may be an immutable decentralized digital ledger. The distributed ledgers 114 may be defined as a ledger of the transactions that may be maintained in a decentralized form across different locations. The lightweight blockchain network 112 may further comprise a smart contract 116 that may be a program to be executed on the lightweight blockchain network 112. According to embodiments of the present invention, the lightweight blockchain network 112 may comprise a lightweight database 118 to store the smart contract 116 that may be executed on the lightweight blockchain network 112. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the lightweight database 118 may be a level database (LDB) that may be efficient in write operations and sequential order read operations. According to embodiments of the present invention, the lightweight database 118 may be supported in light weight NGIoT devices of the NGIoT devices 102.
[0033] The lightweight blockchain network 112 may further comprise a testbed 120 that may be created with various hardware configuration NGIoT devices 102 that may further be suitable for all types of environment. The testbed 120 may also be capable to identify a minimum hardware requirement for the lightweight blockchain network 112. In an exemplary scenario, the hardware requirement may be two laptops, a blade server with an open-source Operating System (OS).
[0034] In an embodiment of the present invention, the testbed 120 may be made up of layers such as, but not limited to, the NGIoT devices 102, connectors, the network 108 (as shown in the FIG. 1D), external services, and so forth. The connectors may be wired connectors or wireless connectors. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the connectors including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the external services may be Cloud services. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the external services including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. The lightweight blockchain network 112 may further comprise a cloud server 122 to receive the data transactions from the NGIoT devices 102 for securing the data transactions through a secure communication channel. In an embodiment of the present invention, the cloud server 122 may be a distributed decentralized peer to peer cloud server. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the cloud server 122 including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies.
[0035] According to embodiments of the present invention, the blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may be configured to enable experts to build and deploy decentralized NGIoT applications on the lightweight blockchain network 112. The experts may be, but not limited to, developers, technical users, and so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the experts. The NGIoT applications may be, but not limited to, an electronic governance, a medical record management system, and so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the NGIoT applications including known, related art, and/or later developed technologies. The blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may be configured to enable the NGIoT devices 102 to perform the data transactions through the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol. The blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may also be configured to implement a decentralized authentication scheme for each of the NGIoT devices 102 for securing the data transactions in the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure 104 (as shown in the FIG. 1D).
[0036] In an embodiment of the present invention, the blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may also be configured to enable the experts to create the smart contract 116, a private blockchain (not shown) and the testbed 120. The blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may be configured to store the created smart contract 116 in the lightweight database 118. The blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may be configured to validate the created testbed 120 by comparing the testbed 120 with pre-stored testbeds. In an embodiment of the present invention, the blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may be configured to enable entities to test methodologies associated with the NGIoT applications on the validated testbed 120. The entities may be, a government, private organizations, researchers, and so forth. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to include or otherwise cover any type of the entities. In another embodiment of the present invention, the blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may be configured to enable the entities to test prototypes associated with the NGIoT applications on the validated testbed 120 by executing test cases before deploying the NGIoT applications in a real time environment, thereby ensures the secure NGIoT infrastructure 104. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the blockchain based NGIoT system 110 may be configured to enable the entities to design, develop, deploy and test the NGIoT applications on the validated testbed 120.
[0037] FIG. 2 depicts a method 200 of securing the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure 104 by using the lightweight blockchain network 112, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0038] At step 202, the lightweight blockchain network 112 may be developed for the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure 104.
[0039] At step 204, the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102 of variable configurations may be accommodated in the developed lightweight blockchain network 112.
[0040] At step 206, the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102 may be enabled to perform the data transactions through the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol.
[0041] At step 208, a decentralized authentication scheme may be implemented for each of the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102 for securing the data transactions in the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) infrastructure 104.
[0042] At step 210, a trusted publisher-subscriber model may be implemented for each of the Next Generation Internet of Things (NGIoT) devices 102.
[0043] At step 212, the testbed 120 may be validated by comparing the testbed 120 with pre-existing testbeds.
[0044] Embodiments of the invention are described above with reference to block diagrams and schematic illustrations of methods and systems according to embodiments of the invention. While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and various embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
[0045] This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope the invention is defined in the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements within substantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.