Exploring major architectural aspects of the web of things

Abstract

A number of technological research lines around the feasibility and applicability of the Internet of Things are currently under discussion. Some of those research issues are dealing with the deployment of friendly smart spaces made of smart objects which are digitally augmented by means of RFID tags or embedded wireless sensor and actuator devices. The advantages of deploying heterogeneous ecosystems of smart things through web technologies have lead to the so called Web of Things paradigm, that relays on the Internet of Things principles. The opportunity of developing to develop new services and applications has driven research towards proposals that integrate isolate islands of networks based on the Internet of Things into the Web. In this context, the contribution of this chapter is twofold. On the one hand, it aims at detailing a Web of Things Open Platform for deploying and integrating smart things networks into the Web. The purpose of this platform is to expose the functionalities of sensor and actuator devices and their involved information model as a set of RESTful services to be retrieved from the Web. On the other hand, the Chapter describes a Resource-Oriented and Ontology-Driven development methodology, which enables easier the development and deployment of smart spaces. The feasibility of this holistic approach is demonstrated through a fully-implemented case study.