Enhanced Web of Things connects diverse IoT ecosystems

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https://www.w3.org/ - 5 December 2023 - The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced today that Web of Things (WoT) Architecture 1.1, Web of Things (WoT) Thing Description 1.1, and Web of Things (WoT) Discovery are now official W3C Recommendations. Without breaking compatibility with the first release in 2020, these new W3C Recommendations improve and expand the scope of the Web of Things and add significant new functionality. In addition, two supporting W3C Notes have been updated, the Web of Things (WoT) Binding Templates and the Web of Things (WoT) Scripting API.

WoT addresses the IoT fragmentation problem

Currently, Internet of Things (IoT) systems suffer from lack of interoperability and fragmentation. Customers want to be able to choose devices from multiple vendors without redesign. The Web of Things (WoT) extends the IoT with web technology to address this issue. In particular, the WoT recommendations provide a format for standardized descriptive information, the WoT Thing Description, to allow easy integration of IoT devices and services. This includes IoT systems that have already been released and use different IoT communication protocols and data standards. In short, the WoT uses web technology to harmonize access to diverse IoT devices and breaks silo walls. This allows WoT applications to be written on top of a single, portable interaction abstraction.

Significant improvements and functionality

These new Recommendations were revised to improve the usability of the previous release and address new use cases. Significant new features were also defined, including Thing Models and Discovery. Thing Models provide a way to describe classes of things, such as sensor devices or product lines from particular vendors, and support modularity by allowing a parameterized model to be built from reusable components.

A Thing Model can be used to generate a Thing Description by providing the appropriate parameters. Discovery provides easy access to Thing Descriptions, while controlling access appropriately to preserve privacy. It does not replace other existing discovery mechanisms but builds upon and applies them to the distribution of Thing Descriptions.

WoT Discovery can be applied both within a local-area network (LAN), and at scale across the entire internet. It can also be used for both self-describing IoT devices and externally described devices. A searchable Thing Description Directory service is defined supporting semantic search.

Widely adopted and supported

Many software packages and open-source projects now support WoT, including tools for Thing Description validation and construction as well as support for Thing runtimes and Thing Description directories supporting discovery.

Market adoption of the Web of Things is gaining momentum, with notable products such as SayWoT! and Desigo CC from Siemens and the Building Communication System from Takenaka. Interesting products from startups are also appearing like MONAS and Agorà from VAIMEE for creating digital twins of cast-resin transformers, and in the agricultural domain for crops and terrains; and Krellian Cloud, which provides real-time data analytics for smart buildings. Additionally, the Web of Things has either been adopted or is under consideration for adoption by several standards organizations, including ECHONET, Conexxus, the OPC Foundation (OPC UA Web-of-Things Connectivity), IPA Digital Architecture Design Center, and Industrial Digital Twin Association (Asset Interfaces Description).

The growing WoT user community is supported by multiple WoT Community Groups, which hold regular meetings to share information on WoT and its applications in both English and Japanese.

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