The document discusses challenges and opportunities of data and service interoperability in the Internet of Things (IoT). It notes that interoperability is the biggest challenge currently facing the IoT. The document advocates for a sensor web vision where sensors are accessible as a service and describes efforts to develop open standards and platforms to realize this vision through service enablement and overcoming data silos. Case studies are presented that demonstrate how sensor data from multiple systems can be integrated through open standards and platforms to provide a common operating picture for various users.

1. Challenges and Opportunities of the IoT
Data and Service Interoperability
sensorweb.geomatics.ucalgary.ca
www.sensorup.com
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Dr. Steve Liang, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Associate Professor, University of Calgary
Founder and CEO, SensorUp Inc.

2. About Steve
• Associate Professor, Geomatics Engineering, Uni. Calgary
• AITF-Microsoft Industry Chair on Open Sensor Web
• Chair OGC SensorThings API Standard Working Group
• Co-Chair OGC Sensor Web Enablement Domain Working Group
• N.A. Chair, OGC University Domain Working Group
• Rapporteur, ITU-T SG12/11 on Internet of Things Test Specifications
• Editor-in-Chief, Springer Journal Open Geospatial Data, Software and
Standards
• Founder and CEO, SensorUp Inc, a University of Calgary startup (http://
www.sensorup.com)

3. Think about some Thing

4. Your Home

5. Your Shirt

6. Your Drinks
Vessyl

7. Enlighted and Phillips Hue
Your Lights

8. Fybr
Your Parking

9. Your Babies

10. Your Cat Litter

11. Your Feet

12. http://propellerhealth.com/
Your Inhaler

14. Internet of Cows

15. Citizen Sensing
Wireless Module
Temperature Humidity
Ethernet
CPU
Storage
CO
Dust
Hydrogen Gas

16. From DIY to Product
HWTrek, Elementri, Quirky, Kick2Real

17. IoT Value Chain
Sensor
and
Actuator
Smart
Things
Network
Operator
Device-
Cloud API
Data and
Analytics
APP-Cloud
API
APP and
Sales
Customers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

18. IoT
service A
IoT
service B
IoT
service C
IoT
service D
Application
A
Application
B
Application
C
Application
D
Silo A Silo B Silo C Silo D
Today’s IoT ecosystem

19. OGC
®
Location (almost always) Matters
19
Smoke Detector Emergency Evacuation

20. # of observations
sensors ranked by #observations
International and national sensor arrays (NOAA, NASA, NRCan, ESA, etc.)
# of missing sensors >> # of currently available sensors
(Currently) “missing” sensors....
Medium size sensor arrays (provincial networks)
What if we lower the barrier of publishing/finding/using sensor
data?
LongTail of Big Sensor Data
(Liang, 2010)

21. Big IoT Data = SUM(small sensor data)

22. 77% of the surveyed IoT experts
claimed that Interoperability is
the biggest challenge currently
facing the Internet of Things
(IoT Nexus, 2015)

23. Service Enablement, the real potential of
Internet of Things (system of systems)
Network Effect: The value of a
network is proportional to the
square of the number of users
of the system (n²).
Service Enablement transform
user experiences

24. Service Registry/
Search Engine
Sensor Web Vision:
Sensors as a Service
A Sensor Web Browsersensor system A :Air
sensor system B :Water
sensor system C : Smartphones
station 1
station 2
station 3
station 4
station 5

25. GeoCENS
GeoCENS
• Funded by CANARIE, Cybera,
Microsoft Research, Agriculture
and Agri-Food Canada
• An open sensor data portal
(★ ★ ★ ★ ★)
• Very easy to use
• High performance

27. • A RBC Blue Water Project
• affordable and scalable long
term groundwater monitoring
• more than 40 well owners
• data since 2008
• QA/QC by UofC Hydrologists
Rockyview Well Watch
Little, K. E., M. Hayashi, and S. H. L. Liang (2015), "Community-based groundwater monitoring
network using a citizen-science approach", Groundwater

28. http://www.geocens.ca
Project coordinator oversees all groundwater
wells (QA/QC). She is the only person has
the permission to edit and put notes for all
wells.

29. http://www.geocens.ca
CALGARY FLOOD 2013
Our data proven to be a high quality, near-real-time and complementary
data source in addition to the official monitoring wells.
near 100,000 residents were
evacuated from their home

30. http://www.geocens.ca

31. The great thing about standards is
that there are so many standards.

32. How smart is your city?
How fast can you move in the
IoT (sensing) value chain?
Friction Motion

34. Case Study #1
• A pilot project funded by Department of Homeland Security and IJIS
Institute
• Problem:
• lacking a Common Operating Picture (COP) for various first responder
groups and disaster managers
• Solution:
• SensorUp platform allows various group to access heterogeneous
sensing systems
Case Study #1

35. OGC
®
OGC Pilot on IoT for Incident Management
Information Sharing
35
• Kick-off: July 2015
• Demo: January 2016
• Pilot project sponsor:

36. OGC
®
36
wearable cam
heart beat,
breathing rate
location,
acceleration,
headings
equipment status

37. Case Study #2

38. Case Study #3

39. Case Study #4

40. Personal Sensor Dashboard
http://.../sensor/1253
Steve's School
23
c
43
%
Browse all sensor readings
http://.../browse/
Query
Analyze
Share
Different user groups able to
access, use, and understand
various sensor data within an integrated
and coherent environment
anyone, even without coding knowledge,
is able to effortlessly set-up an open
source sensing device and become part
of the community-based sensing platform
Open Source Citizen
Sensing Devices
Arctic Citizen Sensor
Cloud Services
(OGC Sensor Web
Enablement and WMS)
User Portal and Smartphone APP
Connect pan-Arctic regions
sensors to the platform
via the Arctic Sensor Web
Platform's OGC interfaces
Geospatial
data from
Arctic SDI
Geospatial
data from
Arctic SDI
Geospatial
data from
Arctic SDI
and more....

41. Conclusion
• Service Enablement
• Location always matters!
• Big IoT data = SUM(small sensor data)
• How smart is your city? Depends on how fast can you
move in the IoT value chain.
• Stop building silos!