<div class="alert-warning">NOTE: The text in this section is extracted from ETSI TS 103 264 (V3.2.1) <a href="#[0]">[0]</a>, and therefore falls inside the <a href="https://www.etsi.org/intellectual-property-rights">ETSI IPR Policy</a></div> 


The Smart Applications REFerence ontology (SAREF) is intended to enable interoperability between solutions from different providers and among various activity sectors from the Internet of Things (IoT), thus contributing to the development of the global digital market.

SAREF explicitly specifies the recurring core concepts in the Smart Applications domain, the main relationships between these concepts, and axioms to constrain the usage of these concepts and relationships. SAREF is based on the fundamental ontology engineering principles of **reuse and alignment** of concepts and relationships that are defined in existing assets, **modularity** to allow separation and recombination of different parts of the ontology depending on specific needs, **extensibility** to allow further growth of the ontology, **maintainability** to facilitate the process of identifying and correcting defects, accommodate new requirements, and cope with changes in (parts of) SAREF. In addition, a principle of **generic versus specific entity distinction** ensures that SAREF can be useful both for editors of online catalogues, taxonomies, and vocabularies, and developers of smart applications. 

Mappings to other concepts used by different semantic assets allow translation from the reference ontology to specific assets, reducing the effort of translating from one asset to another, since the reference ontology requires one set of mappings to each asset, instead of a dedicated set of mappings for each pair of assets. Figure 1 shows the role of the reference ontology in the mapping by means of sample assets. The mappings of SAREF to various assets are available in [[i.4]](#[i.4]).

<figure>
  <img src="diagrams/SAREF_to_assets.png" alt="The role of SAREF in the mapping among different assets"/>
  <figcaption id="Figure_1">Figure 1: The role of SAREF in the mapping among different assets</figcaption>
</figure>
<div class="alert-info">NOTE 1: Bluetooth® Low Energy, Matter™, EnOcean® are examples of suitable products available commercially. This information is given for the convenience of users of the present document and does not constitute an endorsement by ETSI of these products.</div> 
<div class="alert-info">NOTE 2: EnOcean®, EnOcean Alliance logo, EnOcean Alliance technology and promoter/member logo are registered trademarks of EnOcean GmbH and EnOcean Alliance Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.</div> 
<div class="alert-info">NOTE 3: Matter™ is developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance™. This brand, related logos, and marks are trademarks of the Alliance, all rights reserved.</div> 
