Thing Relation Modeling in the Internet of Things

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) technologies enable connections among things with wider ranges. The development of such technologies in cyberspace promotes the convergence of physical space and cyberspace. The research on social attributes (e.g., relationships and social existence) that currently exist and on interactive behavior of physical things from the convergence of those two spaces can help to efficiently address certain social problems such as food safety, medicine source tracking, and traffic adjustments. This research on social attributes can also help to improve the serviceability of the IoT. At present, research on social attributes in the IoT has not modeled the relations of things in the IoT. In this paper, we formulate social attributes of thing, analyze the role of relations that is one of important social attributes in the IoT, and use super network architecture to present the complex relations among physical things. Based on these relations and relation architecture, we use an ontology-based approach to model the relations of things. Finally, we use a case to interpret the concrete application process of relations in smart home.