A Service-oriented, Semantic Approach to Data Integration for an Internet of Things Supporting Autonomous Cooperating Logistics Processes

The core vision put forward by the Internet of Things, of networked, intelligent objects capable of taking autonomous decisions based on decentral information processing, resonates strongly with research in the field of autonomous cooperating logistics processes. The characteristics of the IT landscape underlying autonomous cooperating logistics processes pose a number of challenges towards data integration. The heterogeneity of the data sources, their highly distributed nature, along with their availability, make the application of traditional approaches problematic. The field of semantic data integration offers potential solutions to address these issues. This contribution aims to examine in what way an adequate approach towards data integration may be facilitated on that basis. It subsequently proposes a service-oriented, ontology-based mediation approach to data integration for an Internet of Things supporting autonomous cooperating logistics processes.