Architectural Blueprints of a Unified Sensing Platform for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is understood as a major embodiment of the convergence between device-oriented sensor networks and data-oriented applications that is facilitated through the Internet portfolio of technologies. From an architecture perspective, the wide range of operational parameters entailed by multiple application domains myriads of combinations of sensors and applications is the most significant challenge brought on by the IoT vision. To this end, the design blueprint of a platform that enables the seamless integration of multiple dissimilar devices and their efficient use by independently contributed applications is an essential architecture concern. Herein we address this concern by introducing a Unified Sensing Platform (USP) designed to accommodate an open set of sensor types and to expose their functional capabilities to applications in an efficient, reusable and context-aware way.