On Searching the Internet of Things: Requirements and Challenges

Internet of Things (IoT) data services are designed to be available to devices and users on request at any time and at any location. Quality, latency, trust, availability, reliability, and continuity are among the key parameters that impact efficient access and use of IoT data and services. However, current data and service search, discovery, and access methods and solutions are more suited for fewer and/or static (or stored) data and service resources. IoT resources differ in terms of the number of resources and the complexity and amount of data. Efficient discovery, ranking, selection, access, integration, and interpretation and understanding of the data and services requires coordinated efforts among network, data/service provider resources, and core IoT components. This article describes some of the requirements and discusses the key challenges to build scalable and efficient search and discovery mechanisms for the IoT.