A Reference Architecture for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things requires multiple Reference Architectures which can map capabilities to specific technology domains. This is a challenge because there is no single unifying industry definition for the Internet of Things. For the purpose of this presentation it is assumed that:

  • “Things” have semantic representation in the Internet
  • “Things” can be acted upon in a structured manner (e.g., status, capabilities, location, measurements) or can report in structured data or can communicate directly with other “Things”
  • “Things” may be active (e.g., Zigbee sensor) or passive (e.g. RFID tag)
  • Different “Things” may use multiple protocols to communicate with each other and the internet

M2M Protocols

There are many different usable protocols for communication with M2M devices for the Internet of Things. Specific protocols are more appropriate for different devices (e.g. memory & power profiles) and specific protocols are more appropriate for different communication needs (e.g. State Transfer Model & Event Based Model)