Cloud of things based on linked data

Abstract

At present, interest in the fourth industrial revolution based on information and communications technology is increasing. The topics of the fourth industrial revolution, including connectivity, intelligence, automation, and the IoT (Internet of Things), AI (artificial intelligence), robotics, and big data, are being considered as technologies that can realize these goals. The Internet of Things is one of the most remarkable technologies, and it can serve as the by which to realize the fourth industrial revolution. However, due to the distributed environment of different sensors, devices, and actuators, the IoT is constantly experiencing heterogeneity problems given the use of different protocols. Moreover, there is a need for a method capable of intelligently and meaningfully utilizing the big data produced by the rapidly increasing use of IoT devices. In this paper, we propose a method to virtualize various IoT devices into what is termed a Cloud of Things based on linked data. Virtualized devices in the cloud using metadata from real-world devices are used to solve heterogeneity problems and organize virtualized objects into linked data forms to form device meshes that connect many objects. This enables autonomous intelligence, such as ensuring connectivity through a linked-data-based device mesh and deriving meaningful analytical results through the linking of big data. We illustrate how this study can be utilized through scenarios for the Cloud of Things based on linked data.