# What Is an Open IoT Platform?
## 4 Discussion
### Defining Openness of IoT Platforms? Another result of our study is that there are no clear definitions related to the openness of IoT platforms. One of the papers attempts to define the platform aspects only [33], another paper categorizes the openness dimensions of platforms [34], and a final study categorizes some open-source platforms but without providing a definition [35]. Thus, none of them explicitly define what an open IoT platform is. Moreover, in our study we were also interested to identify the openness types of IoT platforms. Our results suggest that the most common openness types of most IoT platforms are related to open-source. Other types identified are open standards, open APIs, open data and open layer-based platforms. However, to further investigate the openness types of IoT platforms we believe it is important to look from a stakeholder view, as identified above [34; 52]. Thus, it is essential to further analyze _how important these openness types are from different IoT stakeholder perspectives_. Some of the most prominent key stakeholders within the IoT ecosystem are categorized as platform providers, application providers, device providers, system integrators and operators [52]. _Platform providers_ deliver IoT products and services including IoT enabling capabilities, integration \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{p{113.8 pt} p{113.8 pt} p{113.8 pt}} \hline \hline
**Platforms** & **Original Description** & **Availability Requirement**[32] \\ \hline NodeMCU & An open-source firmware and development kit that helps you to prototype your IoT product within a few Lua script lines & Yes \\ ThingSpeak & Open IoT platform with MATLAB analytics (https:// thingspeak.com) & Yes \\ Mobius & Open-source IoT server platform based on the oneM2M standard. IoT server platform based on Node.js (http:// developers.iotocean.org/archives/module/mobius) & Yes \\ FIWARE & Open-source platform for our smart digital future (https:// www.fiware.org) & Yes \\ KAA & The most flexible IoT platform for your business (https:// www.kaaproject.org) & Yes \\ OpenIoT & Open-source middleware for getting information from sensor clouds, without having to worry about what exact sensors are used ([[http://www.openiot.eu](http://www.openiot.eu)]([http://www.openiot.eu](http://www.openiot.eu))) & No \\ ThingsBoard & Open-source IoT platform for data collection, processing, visualization, and device management ([[https://thingsboard.io](https://thingsboard.io)]([https://thingsboard.io](https://thingsboard.io))) & Yes \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Comparison of the actual definition of the mostly used open IoT platforms. with third-party devices or applications, analytics and so on. _Application providers_ usually provide more domain-specific solutions and applications. _System integrators_ support end-to-end integration as well as testing. _Device providers_ offer embedded devices, sensors, smart devices and appliances and so on [52]. Finally, _operators_ provide the network infrastructure and connectivity. Based on our study results, presented in Tables 2 and 3, several IoT platforms are considered open from different openness types, and this result expresses that the open IoT platform definition indirectly is affected from the different perspectives. We believe that the definition of open IoT platform mainly depends on how the stakeholders use the platform itself with their main concerns. Below we list several insights regarding this issue. **Platform providers**: often need to develop their own IoT platform based on existing open ones, and open-source is highly beneficial to develop such a platform with full source code-level control, e.g., the famous mobile platform Android [53] is a very good example that is derived from a previous open-source Linux platform and is widely used among different stakeholders and users. Open standards on the other hand do not offer the source code-level implementation.