Hypercat RDF: Semantic enrichment for IoT

Abstract

The rapid growth of sensor networks and smart devices has led to the generation of an increasing amount of information. Such information typically originates from various sources and is published in different formats. One of the key prerequisites for the Internet of Things (IoT) is interoperability. The Hypercat specification defines a lightweight JSON-based hypermedia catalogue, and is tailored towards the existing needs of industry. In this work, we propose a semantic enrichment of Hypercat, defining an RDF-based catalogue. We propose an ontology that captures the core of the Hypercat RDF specification and provides a mapping mechanism between existing JSON and proposed RDF properties. Finally, we propose a new type of search, called Semantic Search, which allows SPARQL-like queries on top of semantically enriched Hypercat catalogues and discuss how this semantic approach offers advantages over what was previously available.