324
R. Gonzalez-Usach et al.
interoperability enables cooperation actions, intelligent sharing of relevant information, service improvement and the creation of new valuable services. Thus, the interconnection of IoT Systems enabling a common understanding of information can
lead to massive technological, economic and social benefits and open up numerous
remarkable possibilities [3].
However, semantic interoperability among different IoT systems and platforms
represents a major challenge with an inherent high complexity. Typically, information
systems are created standalone using different standards, technologies and ways of
storing and communicating information, thus being unable to inter-operate, communicate and share information with other systems. In the specific field of IoT, this
situation is aggravated as far as the nature of IoT is intrinsically heterogeneous, with
no global de facto standard to follow. Each platform uses its own standards, formats,
ontologies and data models, following completely different manners of expressing
and understanding the information. Consequently, IoT systems are typically unable
to communicate correctly with each other or to interoperate [4]. Additionally, IoT
information typically flows on real-time massive streams of big data. The management and processing of these data has an inherent high complexity [5, 6]. Due to these
reasons, the achievement of semantic interoperability among IoT Systems is a very
complex endeavor. Thus, interoperability is considered one of the major challenges
and highest concerns in IoT. It has been estimated that the lack of interoperability
in IoT hampers 40% of the potential benefits of the use of IoT [7] and, therefore,
it is considered a blocking technological issue that causes major technological and
business setbacks [8]. For these reasons, the existence of a global reference standard
for IoT would be remarkably helpful in this situation, as it would enable interoperability by providing uniformity to the encoding and management of IoT information.
However, nowadays there is a lack of such a standard, which poses a relevant problem
in the design, integration or inter-connection of IoT systems [5].
Nowadays, a major concern of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to find
solutions to the need of Active and Healthy Ageing [9]. This concept refers to the
process for the development and maintenance of the functional capability for the
improvement of wellbeing in elderly population. AHA aims to optimize opportunities
regarding health, participation, and safety for the enhancement of the quality of life
for the aged population [10, 11]. The steep increase of the elderly population in
our society, in addition to the caring necessities, is a very concerting and critical
social problem [12]. The use of IoT on the AHA domain, a special field of Ambient
Assisted Living, can provide independent living for aged population, safety at home,
continuous control of medical conditions in a remote way, while always keeping
caregivers and family real-time reported of any anomaly or situation that may require
their attention [13]. Hence, the IoT has an immense potential to radically enhance
the health and quality of life of aged individuals [12]. AHA-IoT solutions will lead
elderly individuals to have longer and healthier lives, mitigation of social isolation
and pain soothing, in addition to the reduction of caring expenses. For these reasons,
the application of IoT technology in Health, AAL and AHA areas is considered
especially beneficial and promising [14].
R. Gonzalez-Usach et al.
interoperability enables cooperation actions, intelligent sharing of relevant information, service improvement and the creation of new valuable services. Thus, the interconnection of IoT Systems enabling a common understanding of information can
lead to massive technological, economic and social benefits and open up numerous
remarkable possibilities [3].
However, semantic interoperability among different IoT systems and platforms
represents a major challenge with an inherent high complexity. Typically, information
systems are created standalone using different standards, technologies and ways of
storing and communicating information, thus being unable to inter-operate, communicate and share information with other systems. In the specific field of IoT, this
situation is aggravated as far as the nature of IoT is intrinsically heterogeneous, with
no global de facto standard to follow. Each platform uses its own standards, formats,
ontologies and data models, following completely different manners of expressing
and understanding the information. Consequently, IoT systems are typically unable
to communicate correctly with each other or to interoperate [4]. Additionally, IoT
information typically flows on real-time massive streams of big data. The management and processing of these data has an inherent high complexity [5, 6]. Due to these
reasons, the achievement of semantic interoperability among IoT Systems is a very
complex endeavor. Thus, interoperability is considered one of the major challenges
and highest concerns in IoT. It has been estimated that the lack of interoperability
in IoT hampers 40% of the potential benefits of the use of IoT [7] and, therefore,
it is considered a blocking technological issue that causes major technological and
business setbacks [8]. For these reasons, the existence of a global reference standard
for IoT would be remarkably helpful in this situation, as it would enable interoperability by providing uniformity to the encoding and management of IoT information.
However, nowadays there is a lack of such a standard, which poses a relevant problem
in the design, integration or inter-connection of IoT systems [5].
Nowadays, a major concern of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to find
solutions to the need of Active and Healthy Ageing [9]. This concept refers to the
process for the development and maintenance of the functional capability for the
improvement of wellbeing in elderly population. AHA aims to optimize opportunities
regarding health, participation, and safety for the enhancement of the quality of life
for the aged population [10, 11]. The steep increase of the elderly population in
our society, in addition to the caring necessities, is a very concerting and critical
social problem [12]. The use of IoT on the AHA domain, a special field of Ambient
Assisted Living, can provide independent living for aged population, safety at home,
continuous control of medical conditions in a remote way, while always keeping
caregivers and family real-time reported of any anomaly or situation that may require
their attention [13]. Hence, the IoT has an immense potential to radically enhance
the health and quality of life of aged individuals [12]. AHA-IoT solutions will lead
elderly individuals to have longer and healthier lives, mitigation of social isolation
and pain soothing, in addition to the reduction of caring expenses. For these reasons,
the application of IoT technology in Health, AAL and AHA areas is considered
especially beneficial and promising [14].