Establishing groups of internet of things (IOT) devices and enabling communication among the groups of IOT devices

An apparatus, comprising:

• means for forming multiple Internet of Things (IoT) devices into multiple IoT groups according to one or more group criteria and one or more attributes associated with the multiple IoT devices;
• and
• means for defining one or more hierarchies to rank the IoT devices within each IoT group according to the one or more group criteria and the one or more attributes associated with the IoT devices in each IoT group, wherein the one or more hierarchies designate a group owner in each IoT group to control:
• intra-group communication in which the ranked IoT devices within each respective IoT group communicate with one another over a shared local channel dedicated to intra-group communications associated with a group identifier that corresponds to the respective IoT group, and
• inter-group communication in which only the designated group owners associated with the multiple IoT groups communicate with one another.

A device for organizing an Internet of Things (IoT) network, comprising:

• a memory configured to store one or more group criteria;
• and
• one or more processors configured to form multiple IoT devices into multiple IoT groups according to the one or more group criteria and one or more attributes associated with the multiple IoT devices and define one or more hierarchies to rank the IoT devices within each IoT group according to the one or more group criteria and the one or more attributes associated with the IoT devices in each IoT group, wherein the one or more hierarchies designate a group owner in each IoT group to control:
• intra-group communication in which the ranked IoT devices within each respective IoT group communicate with one another over a shared local channel dedicated to intra-group communications associated with a group identifier that corresponds to the respective IoT group, and
• inter-group communication in which only the designated group owners associated with the multiple IoT groups communicate with one another.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions recorded thereon, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on one or more processors causes the one or more processors to:

• form multiple Internet of Things (IoT) devices into multiple IoT groups according to one or more group criteria and one or more attributes associated with the multiple IoT devices;
• and
• define one or more hierarchies to rank the IoT devices within each IoT group according to the one or more group criteria and the one or more attributes associated with the IoT devices in each IoT group, wherein the one or more hierarchies designate a group owner in each IoT group to control:
• intra-group communication in which the ranked IoT devices within each respective IoT group communicate with one another over a shared local channel dedicated to intra-group communications associated with a group identifier that corresponds to the respective IoT group, and
• inter-group communication in which only the designated group owners associated with the multiple IoT groups communicate with one another.