SOCIAL CLOUDS
34 IEEE CLOUD COMPUTING PUBLISHED BY THE IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY 2325-6095/15/$31.00 © 2015 IEEE
Social Virtual Objects
in the Edge Cloud
Ivan Farris, University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Italy
Roberto Girau, University of Cagliari, Italy
Leonardo Militano, University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Italy
Michele Nitti and Luigi Atzori, University of Cagliari, Italy
Antonio Iera, University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Italy
Giacomo Morabito, University of Catania, Italy
In the social Internet of Things, cyber counterparts
of physical objects—social virtual objects—
located at the edge of the network can help reduce
communication delays and inefficiency.
n the natural world, animals have developed sociality to ef iciently and effectively
face the threats of a complex environment. A network of relationships link individ-
uals, who form (often overlapping) communities. They play speciic roles in their
communities and rely on other members to get what they need but can’t obtain by
themselves.
This is the underlying rationale that has led to the social Internet of Things
(SIoT).
1
In the SIoT, objects establish social-like relationships with each other. The re-
sulting network of relationships is structurally navigable, enabling searches for speciic
services in effective and ef icient ways. Furthermore, by leveraging social relationships,