Communication

Existing architectures for smart products focus on making individual products smart without addressing the specific communication needs of SmartProducts. The SmartProducts platform architecture takes care of this by introducing a Communication Middleware module that can be used by other higher-level services, e.g., context recognition and user interaction. The Communication Middleware module can leverage existing IP stacks. Its role is to enable flexible product-to-product, product-to-interaction-device and product-to-back-end system communication. One important aspect of communication is the ability to contact web services via the web service bridge. The developer of a smart product can program product specific modules that make use of the Communication Middleware, e.g., by calling a company web service.

     Components

• Product Discovery The product discovery module establishes a reliable registration and discovery mechanism on top of the underlying publish subscribe communication system.

• CommunicationMiddleware The SmartProducts platform architecture takes care of communication by introducing a Communication Middleware module it can be used by other higher-level services, e.g., context recognition and user interaction