The core IoT Domain Model Sample Clauses

The core IoT Domain Model. The generic IoT scenario can be identified with that of a generic User that needs to interact with a (possibly remote) Physical Entity (PE) of the physical world (see Figure 11). In this short description we have already introduced the two key actors of the IoT. The User is a human person or some kind of a Digital Artefact (e.g., a Service, an application, or a software agent) that has an interest in interacting with a Physical Entity. In the physical environment, interactions can happen directly (e.g., by moving a pallet from A to B manually). In the IoT though, we want to be able to interact indirectly or mediated, i.e., by calling a service that will either give information about the Physical Entity or actuate on it. When a Human User is accessing a service, he does so through a service client, i.e., some software with an accessible user interface. For simplicity reasons, the service client is not shown in Figure 12. For the scope of the domain model, the interaction is usually characterized by a goal of the user. The Physical Entity is a discrete, identifiable part of the physical environment which is of interest to the user for the completion of his goal. Physical Entities can be almost any object or environment; from humans or animals to cars; from store or logistic chain items to computers; from electronic appliances to closed or open environments. * * Physical Entity interacts with User Figure 11: Basic abstraction of an IoT interaction. Physical Entities are represented in the digital world via a Virtual Entity. This term is also referred to as „virtual counterpart“ in the literature [28], but using the same root term „entity“ in both concepts clearer shows the relationship of these concepts. There are many kinds of digital representations of Physical Entities: 3D models, avatars, data-base entries, objects (or instances of a class in an object-oriented programming language), and even a social-network account could be viewed as such a representation. However, in the IoT context, Virtual Entities have two fundamental properties: • They are Digital Artefacts. Virtual Entities are associated to a single Physical Entity that they represent. While generally there is only one Physical Entity for each Virtual Entity, it is possible that the same Physical Entity can be associated to several Virtual Entities, e.g., a different representation per application domain or per IT system. Each Virtual Entity must have one and only one ID that identifies it univoc...