From the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to the Web of Things (WoT): An Overview

Abstract

In the last two decades, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are gaining more popularity, where the concept of WSN always exists when everything connects. Almost of WSN applications cover wide area and large spaces for assessing and monitoring certain phenomenon. Moreover, WSN components have been integrated in daily life objects or things (object, place, and person), so that they could be monitored and controlled. As a result, a new paradigm called the Internet of Things (IoT) connects WSN components to the Internet to be globally monitored and controlled representing the surrounding environmental events and conditions. The future IoT is called the Web of Things (WoT), which visualizes the IoT data (sensory data) using current web tools and services (HTTP, RESTful services). This paper presents an overview of the WSNs, the IoT and its future paradigm (WoT) discussing key elements, main layers, main challenges, and annotation formats.