International Conference on Intelligent Control and Information Processing

August 13-15, 2010 - Dalian, China

Descriptive Models for Internet of Things

Yinghui Huang, Guanyu Li

AbstractFrom a semantic analysis for Internet of things, a

conclusion is drawn that the word thing here indicates actually
the things information and the Internet here is actually the
Internet application. Internet of Things is a new type of Internet
application which makes the things information be shared on a
global scale. Internet of Things has two attributes: being an
Internet application and dealing with things information, and
four differential features: only for things information, coded by
UID or EPC, stored in RFID electronic tag, uploaded by
non-contact reading with RFID reader. The descriptive models
for Internet of Things are introduced based on the basic
attributes and the differential features. The graphical model of
Internet of Things shows that the two main tasks of constructing
Internet of Things are the preprocessing of things information
before uploaded into Internet and the building of a RFID
system. The set expression model of Internet of Things stresses
the common character all Internet applications have (namely an
Internet application is essentially a set of information), so the
development processes and the technical methods of other
Internet applications could be referenced and reused for
building Internet of Things.

I. INTRODUCTION

NTERNET of Things is a new project which is promoted

originally with the electronic product code (EPC)
technology developed by Auto-ID Center of MIT [1] [2]
and the research reports wrote by International
Telecommunication Union [3] [4]. In order to accept a new
concept, people usually think about two theoretical questions:
(1) Which sites it should be placed in the existing human
activity system? In other words, which human activities does
it closely relate to? Namely to analyze the similarity and
difference between it and these related human activities,
which is to sum up its differential features different from
others in order to support it can exist as a new type of object;
(2) Which model to describe it? A model is a formal
abstraction of an objective thing, it also indicates that human
have deep cognition about this thing. A descriptive model, on
the one hand leads to a further theoretical research on every
element of the model, on the other hand directs the
technology activities and engineering practices which
produce the new thing.
This paper tries to answer the two basic questions: (1) the
differential features of Internet of Things; (2) the descriptive
models of Internet of Things. The detailed discussion goes in
Manuscript received July 10, 2010. This work was supported in part by
the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 60972090.
Yinghui Huang is with the Information Science and Technology College,
Dalian Maritime University, Dalian Liaoning 116026, China (phone:
+86-0411-84724515; fax: +86-0411-84724515; e-mail: hyh6599@163.
com).
Guanyu Li is with the Information Science and Technology College,
Dalian Maritime University, Dalian Liaoning 116026, China (e-mail:
rabitlee@ 163.com).

c
978-1-4244-7050-1/10/$26.00 2010
IEEE

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four steps. Firstly explicates the semantic meaning of term

Internet of things. Secondly analyzes the basic attributes of
Internet of Things. Thirdly summarizes the differential
features defining Internet of Things. Lastly introduces two
descriptive models about Internet of Things.
II. SEMANTIC MEANING OF INTERNET OF THINGS
The phrase Internet of things is a noun phrase that the
prepositional phrase of things as restrictive attribute decorates
the noun Internet. Generally for the noun phrase with
construction of noun1+of+noun2, the two nouns in it
usually have an affiliation relation or an apposition relation.
But the Internet of things is an exception, the relationship
between the two nouns is not affiliated or equivalent, rather
than related, a more exact understanding is the Internet
relating to things.
The essential function of Internet as its name said is to
interconnect, that is to use some dielectric materials such as
cable, fiber-optical or microwave to connect the computer
terminals all around the world. But the objects remotely
transmitted in form of electric signals or optical signals cannot
be things as material entities, only the information as
immaterial ones. So the real meaning of the word things in
Internet of things is the information about things.
From the above, the semantic meaning of Internet of things
is the Internet relating to information of things, and the
relating to in it is to say things information flows
rationally and orderly on the Internet, for being shared on a
global scale.
Language is always conventionalized. For expressing an
objective existence, only if the word is generally accepted by
users, it is no matter to choose an existing word or to create a
new one. Now we have already accustomed to the appellation
Internet of things, so there is no need to amend it, but must
understand it correctly when using the term: the things in it
are only the immaterial information related to the material
articles.
III. BASIC ATTRIBUTES OF INTERNET OF THINGS
Language is a reflection of the existence, and word is a
signifiant to the entity. The real meaning of pharse Internet of
things corresponds to the basic attributes of entity Internet of
Things. The semantic meaning Internet of things
information points out the two basic attributes of the entity
that it denotes: the one is being an Internet, the other is
relating to things information.
A. A New Type of Internet Application
Every entity is composed of a structure layer and a function
layer. The structure is a base supporting the function, and the
function is implemented on the structure. According to

different context, an entitys name designates its structure, or

its function, or both of them. The structure of Internet is a
physical system composed of many computers that linked
each other by some transmission medium; the function of
Internet is to transmit information supplied by some agents for
hoping to communicate with others. The term Internet denotes
not only the computer network system which connects the
whole world but also the form of information sharing which is
realized on the physical network, namely is Internet
application. Obviously the term Internet in the phrase
Internet of things is actually to denote a kind of Internet
application.
An Internet application is a form of global sharing
information based on Internet. Today the main types having
inseparable relations with human living are E-mail, Instant
Message, BBS, FTP, Podcast, Blog, Web, Semantic Web,
Web Service, Semantic Web Service, and so on. Internet of
Things is only a new type of Internet application.
B. Things Information as Object
Things including substances and products are the base of
human living, those main characters are two: large quantity
and various types; relative fixed material entity. The former
demands an effective management to the things information,
the latter explains that the things information can be shown in
relative fixed form, so it can be recorded on some material
medium, and adhered to the things entity. The things
information and the things entity are combined into one.
Since the things entity is of paramount importance and the
things information has features different from humans
information and affairs information, a global network taking
the things information as object should be specially built up.
By the way of sharing things information, the benefit-related
agents are able to execute the affective storage, procession,
distribution and application to the things entity. This is the
derivation of Internet of Things.
IV. DIFFERENTIAL FEATURES OF INTERNET OF THINGS
To define an objective entity on scientific significance, the
category + differentia method put forward by ancient Greek
philosopher Aristotle [5] is usually adopted. So there is the
Internet of Things = Internet application + things
information, the items on the right side of this equation are
just the two basic attributes of Internet of Things as above
mentioned. But, this is only to say Internet of Things has the
two attributes, cannot be understood as One having the two
attributes is Internet of Things, because there are several
Internet applications being able to transfer the things
information on a global scale such as FTP or Web. This
differential things information must have some
particularities making Internet of Things become a new type
of Internet application.
The working process of Internet application as a form of
sharing information in worldwide is usually divided into three
parts: the information uploading, the information transmitting,
and the information downloading. The particularity of Internet
of Things is that the information as the object of the
information uploading (called uploaded information as
follows) has some features different from other Internet

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applications. These features are analyzed in detail as follows.

A. Service: Only Things Information
As above description, Internet of Things emerges as the
times require, one reason is urgently needed, another is easily
realized (by contrast, so-called Internet of Persons or
Internet of Affairs is very difficult to built practically).
Although the service of other Internet applications such as
Web could be the things information, but only the uploaded
information of Internet of Things is just for the things
information.
The things information is the specialized orientation of
Internet of Things. By intelligently processing and globalized
managing to the things information, Internet of Things can
realize the maximum utilizations of things entities which are
scarce resources in nature, and thereby increase the human
welfare.
B. Expression: Standard Code
For increasing efficiency, especially to help the
information uploading, the information transmitting, and the
information downloading being completed automatically
with some machines, a standard expression of the information
uploaded is very necessary.
To describe the information about a things entity is related
to two kinds of selections: what information items (sentences
or words) are chosen, and what terms (words) are selected to
express the items. Consistent with this, the standardization of
things information description are related to two aspcets
which are the format standardization and the term
standardization.
Standardization is to formulate some criterions, and all
users abide by them. The format standardization is easy to
realize. The Internet of Things standardization organization
such as ISO/IEC formulates the information items which a
electronic tag must contain and makes the demands on the
name, the content, the format of the information items. Up to
now the major achievement is embodied in standardization of
RFID coding, the universal identification UID recommended
strongly by Japan and the electronic product code EPC
suggested keenly by Western countries [6] [7].
The term standardization is not so optimistic. Term can be
expressed only by some words. As there are many kinds of
languages used in human society and the phenomena of
polysemy often appeared in speech communication, it is not
reasonable, feasible and efficient at all that an English word is
designated to express a thing, an article, or a product in
existence. It becomes a practical alternative that to
dispersedly choose words (of under constraint of standard) for
expressing + to intensively confirm the semantic meaning of
the words (based on the relations of words).
The format standardization can be achieved in the manner
of mandatory standards, while the term standardization only
can be implemented step by step in the form of recommended
standards. This strategy considers not only the multiformity
and complexity of human languages but also the
disequilibrium among levels of product manufacture and
management in different countries. The to dispersedly choose
words (of under constraint of standard) for expressing means
to choose what the words suggested by the (various kinds and
levels of) recommended standards as possible.

C. Storage: Electronic tag

A things information is only the description about the
property, function and structure of a things entity. The
things entity is always circulated and varied due to humans
production, exchange and consumption. It is needed that the
information about the thing should be attached on the things
entity, namely two in one. So the things information must
have two characters: (1) small and light in physical form in
order not to increase the weight of the things entity; (2)
simple and concise in expressive form in order to be read
efficiently. Electronic tag emerges as required.
An electronic tag is a piece of electronic media with small
shape. It can record a things information in itself, and is
attached on or embedded in this things entity [8]. Now there
are two main kinds of electronic tag widely used in industry
and business. They are the bar code and the RFID electronic
tag. The latter has some obvious advantages such as a long
operating life, accepting remote reading, and supporting
information rewriting [9], but the former shall exist for a long
time because of cost constraint. Several new types of
electronic tag such as HIP tag [10] [11] are being improved
and promoted.
D. Uploading: Non-contact Machine Reading
The information uploading forms of Internet applications
we used to knowing are usually that the users manually input
the uploaded information directly, for example the hypertext
pages in Web and the files in FTP. By contrast, the uploaded
information in Internet of Things is not to be input by
somebody but to be read by some machine, namely some
readers obtain the things information directly from the
things entity. Up to the present, the main way suggested is
that the RFID readers read by non-contact scanning the
things information expressed with electronic signals or
optical signals in the RFID electronic tag attached to the
things entity. The greatest advantage of the non-contact
reading is to significantly shorten the time of uploading the
things information into Internet.
V. DESCRIPTIVE MODEL OF INTERNET OF THINGS
A. Model Expressed as a Graph
From the above-mentioned the basic attributes of Internet
of Things (an Internet application taking the things
information as its object) and the differential features of
Internet of Things (processing only things information,
expressed by UID or EPC code, stored in RFID electronic tag,
and read by non-contact form with RFID reader), an integral
architecture of Internet of Things can be established, as
shown in Fig.1.

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Fig.1. An integral architecture of Internet of Things

Fig.1 can visually explain the Internet of things working

process: a things information acorrding with its things entity
is written in UID or EPC code, then embeded into a RFID
electronic tag; a RFID reader reads the things information
from the RFID electronic tag by non-contact form, thus the
things information is uploaded into Internet; the users over
the world can real-timely share the things information.
The descriptive model as Fig.1 shown is visual and plain
rather than brief and compact so that it is not convenient to do
the comparative analysis with other applications. It is
necessary to abstract it to a mathematical model.
B. Abstraction Expression of Internet Application
An Internet application is a set of information in nature,
and the information in it not only can be stored in an
application end of Internet, but also can be transmitted among
some application ends. It can be abstracted to an expression
by the method of set theory, as shown below.
IA={Info|Info stored and transmitted on Internet} (1)
Here, IA is Internet application; Info is information.
The right side of (1) has three key points: the information,
the stored, and the transmitted. As long as one of them has a
specific constraint condition, a type of Internet application
can be formed. For example, if the information form is
application program, then the Web Service; if the information
is stored in a HTML page, then the Web; if the information
transmitting is point-to-point and non real-time, then the
E-mail. Each of them also can be expressed in a set of
information similar to (1), see below equations which only
list the individual character but omit the common ones.
Web Service={Info|Info form is application program} (2)
Web={Info|Info stored in HTML page}
(3)
E-mail={Info|Info transmitted in P2P and non real-time}(4)
C. Model Expressed as a Set
Internet of Things is a type of Internet application making
the things information shared over the world, namely a set of
things information based on Internet. From the basic
attributes and the differential features of Internet of Things as
stated above, it is easy to see that Internet of Things is
different from other Internet applications on the information
and the storage of three key points in (1), namely the content
of information is limited to the things information; the
expression of information must depend on some standardized
code (usually UID or EPC); the storage of information is to
use some electronic tag (usually RFID electronic tag); the

upload of information is to adopt the form of non-contact

reading into Internet by a machine (usually RFID reader).
Based on the contrast and analysis as above, Internet of
Things could be described as a set of things information. The
model similar to the equations presented in part B shown as
below.
IoT={tInfo |
tInfo expressed in UID/EPC
tInfo embedded in RFID electronic tag
tInfo uploaded by non-contact machine reading} (5)
Here, IoT is the Internet of Things; tInfo is the things
information.
D. Recognition on Characteristics of Internet of Things
The conclusions extracted from Fig.1 and (5) are that the
Internet of Things as a new type of Internet application has
some special characters on two aspects of the information
preprocessing before the information uploaded into Internet
and the uploading form of information uploaded into Internet.
The former is related to the three manual operations (or
machine processing under manual commands) which are to
limit the information into only things information; to write
the information in UID or EPC code; to set the information
into the RFID electronic tags. The latter is to say the
information is uploaded into Internet by the RFIDs
non-contact reading form. The RFID electronic tags and the
RFID readers compose a RFID system. Once the information
is uploaded into Internet, there is no significant difference
between the Internet of Things and other Internet applications.
In this sense, it can be said that to build the Internet of Things
has two main basic tasks, the one is to preprocess all things
information uploaded into Internet, and the other is to develop
a perfect RFID system.
VI. CONCLUSION
The word thing in the Internet of Things denotes actually
the things information. The semantic meaning of the Internet
of Things is an Internet application sharing the things
information in the whole world.
The basic attributes of an object accounts for what is it, the
differential features of an object explains what differences it
has from other objects. The basic attributes of Internet of
Things are derived from the semantic meaning of Internet of
Things: an Internet application and the things information. In
the meantime Internet of Things has four differential features:
only for the things information, coded by UID/EPC, stored in
RFID electronic tag, and uploaded with non-contact reading of
RFID reader.
An Internet application is a form of sharing information
based on Internet, as a process it can be described as three
stages: the pre-processing of information before uploaded into
Internet, the storing and transmitting of information after
uploaded into Internet, and the using of information
downloaded on clients. This process can be described visually
by a graphical model as a flowchart. The graphical model of
Internet of Things stresses in a visualized form that Internet of
Things is an Internet application whose particularities are the
four differential features on the front end of the working
process. The set expression model of Internet of Things
emphasizes in an abstraction form that Internet of Tings is a

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set of things information in nature, thus this viewpoint is

beneficial to make a comparative analysis between the Internet
of Things and other Internet applications.
Besides the general tasks to develop an Internet application,
the two special works of building the Internet of Things are the
information preprocessing (select the things information,
code in UID or EPC, and embed into RFID electronic tags)
and the RFID system developing (mostly the RFID electronic
tags and the RFID readers).
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