Cutting a Path Through the IoT Ontology Jungle - A Meta-Survey

Interoperability of Internet-of-Things(IoT) applications, being characterized by massive heterogeneity of “things”, has become a key challenge in IoT research due to the omnipresence of smart devices. In order to achieve adequate interoperability levels, semantic technologies in terms of ontologies are a promising paradigm. Due to the plethora of IoT ontologies available, one gets, however, easily lost in the ontology jungle due to the lack of an overall and up-to-date view on the IoT ontology landscape. In this respect, the aim of this paper is to act as an umbrella across several up-to-date IoT ontology survey papers in terms of a meta-survey comprising a threefold contribution: Firstly, addressing the survey landscape, we provide insight into commonalities and differences regarding the scope of eight survey papers and their rationale behind. Secondly, addressing the IoT ontology landscape, we analyze the IoT ontologies discussed in the survey papers on basis of quantitative and qualitative aspects. Thirdly, addressing the state-of-research of ontologies for IoT, we identify commonalities and differences regarding conclusions and lessons learned of the survey papers.