Internet-of-Things object model

Background: With the advancement of communication technology and advanced sensors, there are massive demands for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications in buildings, communities, factories, parks, etc. Accessing IoT devices provides convenience for scene management and monitoring, ameliorating production and life intelligently. However, due to the lack of a unified model for IoT devices, data is often skipped over IoT platforms and transmitted to applications directly. This leads to the fact that each manufacturer needs to produce its devices and develop its customized software, which hugely increases the development cycle. On the other hand, it is difficult to convey information between different systems, limiting cross- system control. Moreover, digital twin relies on large amounts of heterogeneous data, and it is impracticable to provide enough data without a unified model for device description. Methods: First, we illustrate the motivation, design goals, and design principles for creating the Internet-of-Things Object Model (IoT-OM). Then we propose a unified description to define IoT devices. The proposed concept has been accepted by several companies, and we analyse one platform that adopts the model. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the model, we introduce two projects based on the platform. One project is an intelligent fire protection system, and another project is an intelligent air quality monitoring system. Results: We measured the time taken by five companies when developing IoT devices and their applications, including the development cycle duration without utilizing the proposed model and the duration using the model at China Mobile’s OneNET platform. The results prove that the proposed model can significantly shorten the development cycle. Conclusions: This paper proposes a model for IoT devices, which helps to unify heterogeneous data among different manufacturers and helps to shorten the development cycles for developers.