Smart service system(SSS): A novel architecture enabling coordination of heterogeneous networking technologies and devices for Internet of Things

Abstract

In Internet of Things (IoT), the devices or terminals are connected with each other, which can be very diverse over the wireless networks. Unfortunately, the current devices are not designed to communicate with the collocated devices which employ different communication technologies. Consequently, the communication between these devices will be realized only by using the gateway nodes. This will cause the inefficient use of wireless resources. Therefore, in this paper, a smart service system(SSS) architecture is proposed, which consists of smart service terminal (SST), and smart service network (SSN), to realize the IoT in a general environment with diverse communication networks, devices, and services. The proposed architecture has the following advantages: i) the devices in this architecture cover multiple types of terminals and sensor-actuator devices; ii) the communications network therein is a converged network, and will coordinate multiple kinds of existing and emerging networks. This converged network offers ubiquitous access for various sensors and terminals; iii) the architecture has services and applications covering all smart service areas. It also provides the adaptability to new services and applications. A SSS architecture-based smart campus system was developed and deployed. Evaluation experiments of the proposed smart campus system demonstrate the SSS's advantages over the existing counterparts, and verify the effectiveness of the proposed architecture.