A Web of Things Application Architecture

Here, we go: Vlad and I both defended our PhDs a few days, respectively weeks ago. We will certainly soon share the content of our respective written thesis (we currently look into making a book out of the two, any interested publisher out there?) but meanwhile I wanted to share the content of my final presentation (aka PhD defense).

My focus was very much on thinking about the building-blocks (or layers) required to gradually ease the development of Internet of Things applications thanks to Web (inspired) protocols, techniques and tools. The underlying question being:

How can the Web be leveraged to ease the development of Internet of Things applications and bring it closer to non-specialists?

In a nutshell, I looked at four “layers” of integration: accessibility (REST, Smart Gateways, IP for devices), findability (lightweight semantics, microformats, Google of things, local search infrastructure), sharing (social Web of Things, social networks, delegated authentication for things, etc.) and composition (physical mashups, Web composition engine, real-world composite applications, etc.). I then applied these layers to two domains: Wireless Sensor Networks and Global RFID deployments (EPC Network). The more technically inclined of yours might want to know that these layers are not strictly stacked, OSI-types of layers, but rather composed of flexible building-blocks that can be used or not depending on your application requirements.

The presentation is a short summary of these layers, their implementations and evaluations. The first 30 slides is the content that was actually presented during the defense, the rest of the slides are backups that go slightly more in depth on various building-blocks.

Enjoy, feedback is always very welcomed and, as said, stay tuned here for the written thesis.