III. REFERENCE MODELS AND ARCHITECTURES
In the Internet of Things framework we can find the
following basic elements from a high level perspective, also
if more specific taxonomies of each component can be found
elsewhere [10-12]. There are three main enabler components
in Internet of Things paradigm which allow ubiquitous
computing: (a) Hardware —made up of sensors, actuators
and embedded communication hardware (b) Middleware —
on demand storage and computing tools for data analytics
and (c) Presentation — novel easy to understand
visualization and interpretation tools which can be widely
accessed on different platforms and which can be designed
for different applications. In this section, we discuss a few
enabling technologies in these categories which will make up
the three components stated above. There are two mainly
changes that the Internet of things are bringing in our life.
First of all, things are becoming able to be part of the
processes thanks to new generations of sensor that make
them able to generate useful information for such processes.
Also, things can even receive and use information thanks to
new generations of micro intelligence applications and
actuators. There are some technologies that could improve
drastically such evolution trends [5] like: Nanotechnologies,
Micro Electronics, Biotechnologies, New Materials,
Photonics.
Figure 1. IoT enabler technologies [6]
Simultaneously, the Internet connections are widely
spreading mostly thanks to the evolution of wireless
technologies. As for Sensors and actuators, even in that field
there are technologies are leading the evolutions. For
example, LTE and ARM processors are two of the most
important of them. Beyond Sensors and Communications
technologies, there are other several technology trends that
could speed up the development of Internet of Things. The
European Community calls them “enabling technologies”
[6], IERC face issues and challenges for the Internet of
things, by providing a vision and a roadmap through
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. Hence, Things
are becoming active and fundamental part of the most
common activities and processes in our life as shown in the
fig. 2 below.