An Open IoT Platform: Lessons Learned from a District Energy System

Advances in IoT technology have changed the way building operators automate monitoring, maintenance, and control. The availability of countless sensors and actuators from numerous vendors has introduced new challenges. IoT middleware platforms typically address these challenges. While there is a growing number of middleware solutions, it can be difficult to find suitable production – ready platforms that i) can be deployed with minimal effort and ii) do not lock users in with a specific vendor. Open solutions such as the FIWARE platform provide a set of pre-built, modular components and while they are designed to work out of the box, setup and integration require software development expertise. In this paper, we develop a minimalist, use-case-specific platform based on the open standards and data models the FIWARE platform is built on.