An Analysis of Reference Architectures for the Internet of Things

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a paradigm in which smart objects actively collaborate with other physical and virtual resources available in the Internet. IoT environments are characterized by a high degree of heterogeneity, encompass- ing devices with di erent capabilities, functionalities, and network protocols. To address such a heterogeneity, some platforms have been proposed aiming at abstracting away the speci cities of such devices and promoting interoperabil- ity among them. Nevertheless, the lack of standardization in IoT makes these platforms to often not properly address sev- eral important requirements in this context. In this context, reference architectures can de ne an initial set of building blocks for IoT environments and to provide a solid foun- dation for leveraging its wide adoption. In this paper, we introduce two recent reference architectures for IoT, namely the IoT Architectural Reference Model and the architecture proposed by WSO2. By analyzing the characteristics of these architectures, we intend to shed light on important issues for future research on reference architectures for IoT.