A systematic review on semantic interoperability in the IoE-enabled smart cities

Abstract

Smart cities have emerged as a result of smart interconnections of people, processes, data, and things, representing an excellent case study of the Internet of Everything (IoE) paradigm. One of the main challenges in realizing the smart city vision is how to provide seamless interoperability between the IoE entities. In this paper we conduct a systematic literature review on the use of semantic technologies to support interoperability between IoE entities in smart cities, with the goal of identifying the main trends and challenges in adopting semantic interoperability solutions for sustainable, green, and resilient smart cities. To this end, we have extracted data from selected primary studies over the last decade that address semantic interoperability issues in smart cities through related technologies and techniques such as ontologies, linked open data, knowledge graphs, ontology alignment/matching methods, and automated reasoning mechanisms. We have analyzed the maturity of this research area by exploring three research questions that focus on: i) the importance of semantic interoperability in the smart city domain; ii) the identification of semantic technologies and tools applied in the smart city domain to promote semantic interoperability; and iii) the identification of smart city application areas where semantic technologies are used to efficiently deliver smart services. The analysis provided research insights, including the introduction of a new evaluation framework that assesses semantic interoperability solutions on four maturity levels. The framework includes specific evaluation criteria for attributes such as modeling, scalability, and availability. Finally, an elaborated list of strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats of semantic interoperability solutions in smart cities is provided, along with a discussion of open challenges and future work in this domain.