building a web of things talk at lugano

Building a Scalable and Open World Wide Web of ThingsUniversity of Lugano

26 March 2009Vlad Trifa and Dominique Guinard

Thursday, March 26, 2009 Vlad Trifa - SAP/ETH Zurich - www.webofthings.com

Outline

‣ Introduction‣ Web of Things‣ REST on devices‣ Gateways ‣ Goodies


From barcodes...

‣ Growing trend to connect physical objects to the Web

‣ Barcodes do that well


To RFID tags...

‣ With RFID tags more things are possible‣ Each object has an ID‣ Read at a distance‣ New interaction modes‣ ...

Image courtesy of Timo Arnall - http://www.elasticspaces.com

http://www.elasticspaces.com

http://www.elasticspaces.com


To microprocessors...

‣ Web connectivity: cheap & ubiquitous

‣ Emergence of the physical Web‣ Beyond Websites and browsers‣ Soon more devices than humans

‣ And real-time Web‣ RSS/ATOM, Twitter, etc..


The Challenge

How to integrate such a wide range of devices as part of distributed applications (without a PhD in Computer science)?

‣ Devices with different capabilities/functions‣ Tons of networking protocols‣ Many incompatible applications/middlewares‣ Proprietary solutions are rigid and difficult to customize

‣ Need for a common ground for devices!‣ Maximizes interoperability, scalability, and evolvability‣ Emphasizes reuse and sharing‣ Easy to use‣ Flexible


Sounds very much like the Web...

‣ Web makes applications cheaper to develop ‣ 1.5 billion people use it and it is simple‣ It is scalable, loosely-coupled, and evolvable ‣ Integrate and share real-time device data‣ Devices and their properties become browsable

‣ Web becomes a collection of devices that can be recombined at runtime to build applications

Reuse the Web standards to develop applications for networked objects.


REpresentational State Transfer (REST)

‣ Architectural style behind the Web (NOT a standard)

‣ Information unit is a resource identified by URI

‣ Uniform interface ‣ Self-described messages

(MIME types)‣ Stateless

HTTP CRUD

POST Create

GET Read

PUT Update

DELETE Delete


REST on devices

‣ Devices and their properties are RESTful resources

‣ Three possibilities to do that‣ Full REST (HTTP) - Ideally!!‣ Full customized solution with a gateway‣ A mix of both

‣ But most devices can’t always have full REST...‣ Low-power‣ No HTTP or no IP support‣ Proprietary protocols or API

GET device/sensors/temperaturePOST device/sensor/LED


Gateways

‣ Enable RESTful access to devices

‣ Any computer that runs Java (NAS, routers, etc...)

‣ Fully Web compliant


Smart Gateways

‣ Augment functionality (& perf) of devices and leverage all what is available for the Web

‣ Not just a Web page/interface for device data‣ Layering ‣ Caching of data‣ Failure masking

‣ Complex functionalities not feasible on devices‣ Complex decision processes‣ Energy consumption optimization‣ Localized access control and security


Thanks!!!!!

www.webofthings.com

http://www.webofthings.com

http://www.webofthings.com

building a web of things talk at lugano

Technology