Smart Applications REFerence Ontology, and extensions

What is SAREF?

The Smart Applications REFerence (SAREF) ontology is a shared model of consensus that facilitates the matching of existing assets in the smart applications domain.

SAREF provides building blocks that allow separation and recombination of different parts of the ontology depending on specific needs.

Why SAREF?

SAREF explicitly specifies 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 has been created based on the following fundamental principles:

• 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

Figure 1 shows an overview of the main classes of SAREF and their relationships.