Ontologies for Scalable Services-Based Ubiquitous Computing

Abstract

This chapter discusses scalability problems and solutions to services-based ubiquitous computing applications in real time enterprises. The scalability problems are (1) identifying relevant services for deployment, (2) verifying a composition by a logical rule framework, and (3) enabling the mapping of required services to the “best” available device. We argue that ontologies can help to counter these challenges. Subsequently, we provide a detailed introduction to ontologies. We focus on the ontology languages emerging from the corresponding W3C Semantic Web activity. The W3C recommendations have a high impact on future tools and the interoperability of ontology-based applications. We contrast the pros and cons of ontologies at a general level and demonstrate the benefits and challenges in our concrete smart items middleware.