Cascading permissions policy model for token-based access control in the web of things

Abstract

The merger of the Internet of Things (IoT) with cloud computing has given birth to a Web of Things (WoT) which hosts heterogeneous and rapidly varying data. Traditional access control mechanisms such as Role-Based Access schemes are no longer suitable for modelling access control on such a large and dynamic scale as the actors may also change all the time. For such a dynamic mix of applications, data and actors, a more distributed and flexible model is required. Token-Based Access Control is one such scheme which can easily model and comfortably handle interactions with big data in the cloud and enable provisioning of access to fine levels of granularity. However, simple token access models quickly become hard to manage in the face of a rapidly growing repository. This paper proposes a novel token access model based on a cascading permissions policy model which can easily control interactivity with big data without becoming a menace to manage and administer.