Semantics-empowered middleware implementation for home ecosystem gateway

To support rapid prototype development and integration of emerging smart home applications, we discuss a flexible and modular middleware framework implementation for home gateway system. The suggested implementation allows for uniting all heterogeneous networked resources with the gateway and publishes semantic enhancement of the cues being triggered by network resources to be processed in a meaningful way by applications responsible for autonomic management and control of home ecosystem. The fundamental building blocks of middleware framework includes (i) a communication middleware that aims for disguising the networked infrastructure heterogeneity, and for facilitating auto-commissioning or auto-registration of disparate resources (sensors, actuators, appliances, meters etc.) (ii) a semantic middleware built on unified ontological model for semantic uplifting of networked resource descriptions and measurements with metadata (i.e., resource capabilities, observed phenomena, spatial properties, etc.) with reasoning ability to deduce temporal situations in home environment at high-level abstraction. These inferred situations are subsequently exposed to an array of applications agents. The integrated middleware framework is implemented using OSGi (open system gateway infrastructure) based service-oriented architecture and its functionality has been validated for number of scenarios realized on real test bed made-up of heterogeneous networked resources from different manufactures.