The communication paradigm of the related art used to be centered on human beings, but now the era of Internet of things (IoT) is emerging where things participate in communication as the main subjects. Such development of the IoT environment not only enables changes in social infrastructure and industry as a whole, but also in smart services customized to individuals. For such changes and services, an ecosystem has been suggested that is capable of activating IoT services by approaching various objects to a unified IoT interface.
In the past, services were provided to numerous devices connected to one central server. Each device would process a generated fact, that is information on occurrence of an event, and transmit the generated information to the central server, and perform a command of commanding in the central server. Herein, the fact may be information generated by adding information such as time to the event information. The central server is a server grade device having a high computing power, and all the rules to be processed. The central server receives all the facts from the devices, determines the rules to be performed by a rule engine, and performs related services.
Furthermore, in the technology of writing a rule according to the related art, a trigger-oriented rule writing service is provided. Thus, a rule writing service is provided where a user is made to select a device and a trigger of “if˜”, and then a “make ˜do˜” that is suitable to the trigger.
Furthermore, in the technology of the related art, an additional hub device is provided to support a low specification device so that the hub device may communicate with a central server instead of the low specification devices.
However, the technology of the related art causes a problem of performance in the entire system due to load generated by the centralized structure. All the rules are processed and managed by one central server that has a rule engine, and thus the more devices are connected, the more load is generated by the central server, causing the problem of performance in the entire system. That is, since all the devices transmit generated facts to the central server, excessive traffic is concentrated in the central server, thereby causing the entire system to operate inefficiently.
Furthermore, when the central server fails its operation, the entire system does not operate. Even if the connected devices are normal, when an operation of the central server fails, the entire system does not operate.
Meanwhile, the technology of the related art is not intuitive in the perspective of the user due to the trigger-oriented rule writing method. Trigger-oriented rule writing demands the user to think the cause and effect relationship first. That is, it forces the user to think the trigger “if˜” first rather than a desired action. However, it is more intuitive and natural for the user to think the action “want to˜” first. For example, the user tends to determine the action “want to turn on the television (TV)” first than “if I sit on the sofa” when writing a rule. Therefore, the trigger-oriented rule writing method is not intuitive to the user.
Furthermore, too many operations when writing a rule cause inconvenience to the user. In order to write a rule, the user has to go through a total of six operations of: selecting a trigger device, selecting a trigger, selecting a condition for the trigger, selecting an execution device, selecting an action, and selecting an action trigger. Such numerous operations cause inconvenience and difficulty to the user when writing a rule.
Furthermore, there needs to be an additional device for the hub function. In order to make a low specification device operate in an interlocked manner with the server, there needs to be a separate device for the hub functions. This causes additional costs.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.