The IoT can be seen as a combination of sensors and actuators providing and receiving information that is digitalized and placed into bidirectional networks able to transmit all data to be used by a lot of different services and final users [4].
Multiple sensors can be attached to an object or device in order to measure a broad range of physical variables or phenomena and then transmit all data to the cloud. The sensing can be understood as a service model.
Sensor Classification |
|
Sensor Data Providers |
Business entities that deploy and manage sensors by themselves. |
Organizations |
Public or Private. Public infrastructures. Commercial organizations. Private corporations: Technology and services providers. |
Personal and Households |
Mobile phones, smart watches, gyroscopes, cameras, GPS, accelerometers microphones, laptops, food items and household items, such as televisions, cameras, freezers, microwave furnaces, washing machines, smart appliances etc |
Nowadays, state of the art devices such as conventional house items as refrigerators or televisions comprise communication and sensing capabilities. These capabilities will be constantly increasing by incorporating smarter communication and sensing tools.
Smart connected products capabilities |
|
Monitoring |
The external environment. The product’s condition, operations and usage. |
Control |
Product functions control. Personalization of the user experience. Programing. |
Optimization |
Predictive diagnostics. Product performance optimization. Costs reduction. |
Autonomy |
Autonomous product enhancement and personalization. Self-diagnosis and repair. Coordination operation with other products |
Efficient decision making process. |
Real-time data for decision making. |
The architecture of IoT systems can be divided into four layers: Object sensing layer, data exchange layer, information integration layer, and application service layer [5].
Smart devices can be already connected through traditional Internet. However, the IoT incorporates the sensing layer which reduces the requirements on the capability of those devices and enables the interconnection among them. Sensor data consumers communicate with sensors or sensor owner’s through the information integration layer that is responsible of all the communication and transactions. Meanwhile, new requirements and challenges to data exchange, information filtering and integration, definition of new services to users, as well as the complexity of the network architecture Moreover, the use of cloud technologies is exponentially growing. New infrastructure platforms and software applications are offered in the frame of the IoT. Some of the major advantages and benefits of the IoT will be the creation of innovative services with improved performance and value added solutions along with the reduction of data acquisition costs of existing services and the opportunity to create new revenue streams in a context of a sustainable business model. These applications can be oriented to consumers, business, commercials, and survey activities, industrial and scientific community by harnessing the application developers.
Four-layer architecture of IoT |
|
Object Sensing Layer |
Sensing the physical objects and obtaining data. |
Data Exchange Layer |
Transparent transmission of data through communication networks. |
Information Integration Layer |
Processing of the uncertain information acquired from the networks, filtering undesired data and integratation of main information into usable knowledge for services and final users. |
Application Service Layer |
Provides content services to users. |