A semantic approach for providing open USN services

There are currently a large number of available middleware for (ubiquitous) sensor networks. Furthermore, ubiquitous sensor network (USN) services may utilize widely distributed sensors or sensor networks through different USN middleware. In this widely distributed environment, USN services need to know of the various USN middleware, sensors and sensor networks used, and there is no standard method for data representation and access. This paper proposes an open USN service platform to share USN resources and sensed (or semantic) data with various applications and services by supporting semantic description and providing unified access for heterogeneous USN middleware. In particular, focusing on a semantic approach for open USN services, an ontology structure and model is designed including a process flow to deduce context data. Additionally, a use case using the proposed platform for a food information service is presented.