WoT is web of things in order to understand WoT we should know about the IoT
What is the internet of things?
We all know that IoT is utilized to connect several devices to the internet and thereby we can control all these devices by utilizing electronic devices such as a smartphone. By utilizing the IoT we would be able to monitor, control, or interact with several devices in our homes or other places. In this type of communication, many networking interfaces would be utilized such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc. The connected device would be composed of a sensor, actuator, and communication interfaces. We will be able to do several computations on this device too.
We can utilize the IoT to connect the everyday device that we utilize. We can also send and receive data from these devices. So basically the IoT can be described as a network of items consisting of several sensors and these devices would be connected to the internet. This connected device would have IP addresses too.
What is a web of things?
We can consider WoT as an advanced IoT. The device which is connected to the IoT can be called a smart device. The devices in the WoT would be connected to the web while in the case of the IoT it would only be connected to a network. Because of this, the devices in WoT can be easily communicated with each other.
WoT is an architecture and programming pattern which is utilized to connect household objects to the world wide web. The entire process of the IoT would be simplified by the WoT. We can connect several devices to the web really easily with the help of WoT. WoT provides a proper framework to connect all these smart devices to the web.
In case you are utilizing the IoT to control several devices in your home several applications would be required to do that. Your mobile would be loaded with many applications and if you need to add some other device to the IoT then it would also be a difficult process. This is where we can utilize the web of things and we won’t require several applications to monitor or control the connected device. We would be able to interact with the devices by utilizing the web with the help of several web protocols such as HTTP, JSON, etc.
The advantage of utilizing the web to monitor our devices is that we don’t need to bother about the communication protocols which the device is using. Because of this, we can connect several devices to the web regardless of the protocols that they are utilizing.
In IoT, the scalability is really low but in case of the WoT, it has good scalability. Communication protocols would be standardized in the WoT. We can consider WoT as the updated form of the IoT.
How does the WoT operate?
There are several sections in WoT the first section is the Access section. In this section of WoT, it would connect several devices to the web. So we can convert everyday objects or devices to the web of things. The web of things would be able to interact with HTTP requests.
The second section of the WoT is the Finding section. This section would allow the connected device to be used by other HTTP clients. In this section, WoT can also be used by other WoT applications.
The third section of the WoT is the sharing section. In this section of the WoT, the things which are connected to the internet would be able to transfer the data in a secure way. In this section, the WoT determines the data generated by the connected things and this data can be transmitted in a secure way over the web.
The last section of WoT is the composed section, its purpose is to utilize the different varieties of smart things in a vast environment. This environment would consist of several web tools.
Developers would utilize several protocol bindings such as Modbus, HTTP, browser, etc to create the IoT solutions. We can utilize this to connect several devices and also it would provide a better user interface. The implementation costs of the IoT are really high due to the integration of several devices. Several data models and protocols of the devices are required to be integrated to carry out the IoT operation and this can be easily done with the help of WoT.
While utilizing WoT to create the IoT solution we can save a lot of money and this is one of the major features of WoT. We can connect our devices to the web and because of this, we would be able to access the device by browsing.
In the Web of things, we would be able to interact with the device by utilizing the API. We would be able to interact with or control the device by utilizing the API. With the help of WoT, we would be able to read the data from the device or a sensor. We can add new devices to the WoT network and also we can remove the device according to our requirements.
The device which is connected would have a description and this description is called a thing description. This description of the device or the thing would have interfaces and due to this, the thing can be communicated with another device easily. This is the major advantage of WoT when compared to the IoT. WoT would utilize several web protocols to do the communication between the devices and also with the user.
What are the primary tools and frameworks that are utilized to carry out WoT operations?
WoT is a W3 standard that is utilized by web developers to become IoT developers.
Tools and frameworks which is utilized to carry out the WoT process
- JSON
- JS
- Typescript
- Node-Red
- Node-JS
- REACT
- VUE
- HTML
What are the advantages of WoT?
- We can connect several devices to the web
- Advanced connectivity than the IoT
- Portability to several vendors and devices would be easily done
- Easily operatable
- Development and maintenance costs can be decreased
- It can be used to save time and money
- We can create intelligent devices by utilizing the WoT
- Integration can be easily done
- Many devices can be connected together in a vast environment
What are the disadvantages of WoT?
- Data security is one of the major problems that can arise in WoT
- In order to be connected to a network all these devices should be connected to power most of the time.
- The devices which are connected would be always online and because of this the chances of attack would be high
Author – Ashlin A J
