Process-Aware Internet of Things: A Conceptual Extension of the Internet of Things Framework and Architecture

Abstract

This paper tries to extend the conventional conceptual framework of the Internet of Things (IoT) so as to reify an advanced pervasive IoT-community collaboration concept, which is called the process-aware Internet of Things. The extended conceptual framework is embodied as a referential architecture that can be a standardized reference model supporting the conceptual integration of the Internet of Things and the process awareness. The extended referential architecture covers the full range of the architectural details from abstracting the process-aware behavioral semantics to reifying the IoT-process enactments. These extended framework and architecture ought to be the theoretical basis for implementing a process-aware IoT-community computing system supporting process-aware collaborations of Things in pervasive computing environments. In particular, we do point up that the proposed framework of the process-aware Internet of Things is revised from the Internet of Things framework announced in ITU-T SG133 Y.2060 [26] by integrating the novel concept of process awareness. We strongly believe that the extended conceptual framework and its referential architecture are able to deliver the novel and meaningful insight as a standardized platform for describing and achieving the goals of IoT-communities and societies.