Integrating RFIDs and Smart Objects into a UnifiedInternet of Things Architecture

The term Internet of Things refers to the networked interconnection of objects of diverse nature, such as electronic devices, sensors, but also physical objects and beings as well as virtual data and environments. Although the basic concept of the Internet of Things sounds simple, its application is difficult and, so far, the respective existing architectural models are rather monolithic and are dominated by several limitations. The paper introduces a generic Internet of Things architecture trying to resolve the existing restrictions of current architectural models by integrating both RFID and smart object-based infrastructures, while also exploring a third parameter, i.e. the social potentialities of the Internet of Things building blocks towards shaping the “Social Internet of Things”. The proposed architecture is based on a layered lightweight and open middle-ware solution following the paradigm of Service Oriented Architecture and the Semantic Model Driven Ap-proach, which is realized at both design-time and deployment–time covering the whole service lifecycle for the corresponding services and applications provided.