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Internet of Things based Smart Environments: State-of-the-art, Taxonomy,

and Open Research Challenges

Article  in  IEEE Wireless Communications · October 2016

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IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 1

Internet of Things based Smart Environments:

State-of-the-art, Taxonomy, and Open Research
Challenges
Ejaz Ahmed, Student Member, IEEE, Ibrar Yaqoob, Student Member, IEEE,
Abdullah Gani, Senior Member, IEEE, Muhammad Imran, Member, IEEE, and
Mohsen Guizani, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—The rapid advancements in communication technologies and the explosive growth of Internet of Things (IoT)
have enabled the physical world to invisibly interweave with actuators, sensors, and other computational elements while
maintaining continuous network connectivity. The continuously connected physical world with computational elements
forms a smart environment. A smart environment aims to support and enhance the abilities of its dwellers in executing
their tasks, such as navigating through unfamiliar space and moving heavy objects for the elderly, to name a few.
Researchers have conducted a number of efforts to use IoT to facilitate our lives and to investigate the effect of IoT-
based smart environments on human life. This paper surveys the state-of-the-art research efforts to enable the IoT-based
smart environments. We categorize and classify the literature by devising a taxonomy based on communication enablers,
network types, technologies, local area wireless standards, objectives, and characteristics. Moreover, the paper highlights
the unprecedented opportunities brought about by IoT-based smart environments and their effect on human life. Some
reported case studies from different enterprises are also presented. Finally, we discuss open research challenges for
enabling IoT-based smart environments.

Index Terms—Internet of Things, Smart Environment, Smart Cities, Smart Grid, Smart Home, Smart Transportation

1 I NTRODUCTION making, IPv6 support, human computer in-

Immense developments and increasing minia- terfaces, and agent technologies to make the
turization of computer technology have en- dream of smart environment a reality. A smart
abled tiny sensors and processors to be in- environment is a connected small world where
tegrated into everyday objects. This advance- sensor-enabled connected devices work collab-
ment is further supported by tremendous de- oratively to make the lives of dwellers comfort-
velopments in areas such as portable appli- able. The term smart refers to the ability to au-
ances and devices, pervasive computing, wire- tonomously obtain and apply knowledge, and
less sensor networking, wireless mobile com- the term environment refers to the surroundings.
munications, machine learning-based decision Therefore, a smart environment is one that is
capable of obtaining knowledge and applying
• E. Ahmed, I. Yaqoob, and A. Gani are with the Department of it to adapt according to its inhabitants’ needs
Computer System & Technology, University of Malaya, 50603 to ameliorate their experience of that environ-
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (E-mail: {ejazahmed, mr.ibrar.yaqoob,
abdullahgani}@ieee.org) ment.
• M. Imran is working with the College of Computer and Infor- The functional capabilities of smart objects
mation Sciences, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. (Email: are further enhanced by interconnecting them
[email protected])
• Mohsen Guizani is working with the Department of Electrical with other objects using different wireless tech-
and Computer Engineering, University of Idaho, USA. (Email: nologies [1]. In this context, IPv6 plays a vi-
[email protected])
tal role because of several features, including
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 2

Smart Transport
Smart Building
IoT-based
Smart Smart Health
Environments

Smart City

Smart Industry

Smart Home
Smart Grid

Fig. 1: IoT-based Smart Environments

better security mechanisms, scalability in case wide will increase from 23 million in 2013 to 152
of billion of connected devices, and the elimi- million in 20204 . The forecast of such significant
nation of NAT barriers1 . This concept of con- growth shows that IoT will become the fabric of
necting smart objects with the Internet was first modern societies to realize the vision of smart
coined by Kevin Ashton as “Internet of Things” environments.
(IoT). Nowadays, IoT is receiving attention in a Several research efforts have been con-
number of fields such as healthcare, transport, ducted to integrate IoT with smart environ-
and industry, among others [2]. ments. The integration of IoT with a smart
Cisco reports that 50 billion objects and de- environment extends the capabilities of smart
vices will be connected to the Internet by 20202 . objects by enabling the user to monitor the
However, more than 99% of today’s available environment from remote sites. IoT can be
things in the world still remain unconnected. integrated with different smart environments
According to the Navigant research report, the based on the application requirements. The
number of installed smart meters around the work on IoT-based smart environments can
world will grow to 1.1 billion by 20223 . Another generally be classified into the following areas:
report from Automotive News states that the a) smart cities, b) smart homes, c) smart grid,
number of cars connected to the Internet world- d) smart buildings, e) smart transportation, f)
smart health, and g) smart industry. Figure 1
1. http://iot6.eu/ipv6 advantages for iot illustrates the IoT-based smart environments.
2. http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/trends/iot/portfolio
.html
3. http://www.navigantresearch.com/newsroom/the- 4. http://www.autonews.com/article/20140110/OEM06/
installed-base-of-smart-meters-will-surpass-1-billion-by-2022 301109910/the-race-to-market-the-connected-car
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 3

The contributions of the survey are mani- web service-based IoT architecture, link layer
fold. technologies, and devices suitable for the urban
• Firstly, we investigate, categorize and IoT. A proof-of-concept implementation as a
classify the state-of-the-art research ef- relevant example, a set of technical solutions,
forts carried out in the domain of IoT- best practices and guidelines followed in the
based smart environments. Padova smart city project were also presented.
• We devise a taxonomy of IoT-based A generic top-down IoT architecture for
smart environments based on the con- smart cities was proposed in [4] to enable var-
ducted survey. ious IoT applications. The core element of the
• We present the potential opportunities architecture is the integrated information center
that the integration of IoT with smart run by the IoT service provider. The informa-
environments can contribute to human tion center is connected to a set of services,
society. such as electrical energy, water, central and gas
• Few notable ongoing case studies of IoT- supply, provided in smart cities. The architec-
based smart environments are outlined. ture facilitates IoT co-building, openness, and
• Finally, we discuss open challenges in convergence of several technologies that are
realizing the vision of IoT integration essential for the realization of smart cities.
with various smart environments as fu-
ture research directions. 2.2 Smart Homes
The remainder of this paper is organized A cloud-based home solution for detecting a
as follows. We present the state-of-the-art IoT- fault in the SDN-based smart home environ-
based smart environment solutions in Sec- ment was proposed in [5]. The authors defined
tion 2. Section 3 discusses the devised taxon- four social relationships, namely, IoTphysical
omy of IoT-based smart environment solutions. space, IoTService, IoTNetwork, and IoTIoT, in
Section 4 presents the potential opportunities an IoT-based smart home environment to find
that can emerge because of the integration of the faulty location. An SDN controller collects
IoT with smart environments. Notable ongoing information from the packets passing through
case studies of IoT-based smart environments SDN switches and makes a status graph that
are outlined in Section 5. Section 6 discusses contains information on each home IoT de-
open challenges in integrating IoT with various vice. An SDN-based home cloud automatically
smart environments. Finally, we provide con- generates the four relationships that reduce
clusion in Section 7. the burden on users and service providers.
The authors stored the device information in
2 I OT- BASED S MART E NVIRONMENTS RDF/XML format to provide support for a se-
mantic query. The proposed solution is benefi-
In this section, we present the state-of-the-art
cial for both users and home service providers.
IoT-based smart systems that are categorized
The researchers in [6] proposed a proac-
and classified according to application domain.
tive architecture that implements the eventcon-
The main categories are as follows: a) smart
ditionaction method to manage the heteroge-
cities, b) smart homes, c) smart grid, d) smart
neous IoT-based smart homes. The proposed
building, e) smart transport, f) smart health,
architecture has multiple tiers, such as core
and g) smart industry.
layer and service layer, that are involved in
decision making. The core layer comprises web-
2.1 Smart Cities based services that couple the system to its
The authors in [3] presented a comprehensive services. A home gateway in IoT-based smart
survey on the architectures, protocols, and en- homes enables access to external networks. To
abling technologies for urban IoT. They dis- add new IoT systems or services, device API
cussed an urban IoT architecture by describing and device stub modules are introduced to
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 4

resolve the dependencies. Web-based services authorization mechanisms for service access
use stateless protocol and are not made for long protection. The authors proposed to utilize the
term sessions. available localization data to implement the
access control for services provided inside a
2.3 Smart Grid typical smart building. The proposed frame-
work is implemented on a service management
Q. Ou et al. [7] proposed an IoT-based real-
platform, a city explorer that implements the
time monitoring system for power transmission
key security aspects.
lines to avoid disasters. The proposed system
visually displays the operational parameters
of the tower and power transmission lines, 2.5 Smart Transportation
such as wind deviation, conductor galloping, The concept of IoT can be applied to all aspects
icing, conductor temperature, and tower lean- of transportation, such as collection of data
ing, at the monitoring center. Therefore, real- related to passenger counting, geo services,
time monitoring and early warnings of disaster smart ticketing, and communication. Eurotech
can be implemented to minimize the smart grid [11] provides IT solutions that can assist in
damage caused by natural disasters. connecting every public transport element and
Y. F. Wang et al. [8] classified IoT-based furnishes the technical tools to connect sensors
smart grid applications into three types: a) key and other devices to IT infrastructure. Similarly,
equipment state monitoring, b) information col- the Kapsch Group [12] investigated how Inter-
lection, and c) smart grid control. The authors net technologies can be leveraged to ameliorate
also highlighted the characteristics and types the traffic conditions in cities.
of IoT-based smart grids. Based on the char-
acteristics, a reference architecture for smart 2.6 Smart Health
grid IoT was proposed. The reference architec-
A system architecture based on IoT was pro-
ture has three layers: perception layer, transport
posed in [13] to monitor, collect and transmit
layer, and application layer. A secure access
remote healthcare data. The IEEE 802.15.4 stan-
control system for security protection of IoT-
dard was used to transfer data to a gateway.
based smart grids is also proposed to ensure
Moreover, two rule engines, namely, static and
that IoT-based smart grid devices can securely
adaptive, were developed. These engine rules
access the Internet.
are involved in the decision making process
while transmitting data based on important pa-
2.4 Smart Buildings rameters extracted from the collected data. The
K. Akkaya et al. [9] analyzed the existing oc- results show that the developed rule engines
cupancy monitoring approaches with respect help in saving energy consumption and and
to issues of cost, accuracy, intrusiveness, and minimizing network traffic.
privacy. They used multi-modal data fusion for The authors in [14] presented a smart e-
improving the occupancy detection accuracy Health gateway based on IoT that could help in
in a smart building. The information fusion solving many issues such as reliability, perfor-
techniques filter noisy measurements generated mance, interoperability, scalability, energy ef-
from IoT devices and predict the occupancy ficiency, and security. The smart gateway can
status. The authors also investigated how data address these issues by taking responsibility of
fusion techniques could be used with occu- handling the burden of sensor networks im-
pancy monitoring techniques to reduce the en- plemented in the remote healthcare center. By
ergy consumption of the smart building. presenting a case study called UTGATE, the
The framework proposed in [10] helps to authors demonstrated that the smart e-Health
extend the security functionalities stated by gateway could also provide services such as
the architectural reference model from the EU storage, fast data processing, and embedded
FP7 IoT, a project to devise authentication and data mining.
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 5

TABLE 1: Comparison of Communication Technologies Used in Smart Environments

Technology Frequency Data Rate Range Power Application
Consumption
Bluetooth 2.4GHz 25Mbps 10m Low Smart Home
433MHz
DASH7 55.5Kbps, 1000m Low Smart Cities, Smart Building, Smart Home, Smart Transport,
(Europe)
200Kbps Smart Health
2.4GHz,
ZigBee 915MHz, 250Kbps Upto 100m Low Smart Homes, Smart Health
868MHz
2.4GHz, 140m
WiFi 54Mbps, Medium Smart Cities, Smart Home, Smart Building, Smart Transport,
5GHz 100m
6.75Gbps Smart Industry, Smart Grid
3G 850MHz 24.8Mbps 1-5mi High Smart Cities, Smart Transport, Smart Industry, Smart Grid
700MHz,
750MHz,
4G 800MHz, 800Mbps 1-6mi High Smart Cities, Smart Transport, Smart Industry, Smart Grid
1900MHz,
2500MHz

2.7 Smart Industry 3.2 Network Types

F. Shrouf et al. [15] presented an architecture for IoT-based smart environments rely on differ-
a IoT-based smart factory and defined the key ent types of networks to perform the collab-
characteristics, such as flexibility, optimized de- orative tasks for making the lives of inhabi-
cision making, mass customization, and remote tants more comfortable. The main networks are
monitoring, with respect to energy manage- wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless
ment. The proposed mechanism improves en- personal area networks (WPANs), wide area
ergy consumption in a smart factory by incor- networks (WANs), metropolitan area networks
porating energy data into production manage- (MANs), and wireless regional area networks
ment. (WRANs). These networks have different char-
acteristics in terms of size, data transfer, and
supported reachability.
3 TAXONOMY
Figure 2 illustrates the taxonomy of the IoT- 3.3 Technologies
based smart environment. The devised taxon- IoT-based smart environments leverage various
omy is based on the following parameters: com- technologies to form a comfortable and suit-
munication enablers, network types, technolo- able ecosystem. These technologies are include
gies, wireless standards, objectives, and charac-sensing, communication, data fusion, emerging
teristics. computing, and information security. Sensing
technologies are commonly used to acquire
3.1 Communication Enablers data from various locations and transmit it
Communication enablers refer to wireless tech- using communication technologies to a central
nologies used to communicate across the In- location. The emerging computing technolo-
ternet. The key wireless Internet technologies gies, such as cloud computing and fog com-
are WiFi, 3G, 4G, and satellite. WiFi is mainly puting, deployed in the central location, lever-
used in smart homes, smart cities, smart trans- age the data fusion technologies for integrating
portation, smart industries, and smart building the data coming from heterogeneous resources.
environments; whereas, 3G and 4G are mainly In addition, smart environments also use in-
used in smart cities and smart grid environ- formation security technologies to ensure data
ments. Satellites are used in smart transporta- integrity and user privacy.
tion, smart cities, and smart grid environments.
Table 1 presents the comparative summary of 3.4 Local Area Wireless Standards
the communication technologies used in IoT- The commonly used local area wireless stan-
based smart environments. dards in IoT-based smart environments are
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 6

IoT-based Smart Environment Taxonomy

Communication Network Local Area

Enablers Technologies Wireless Objectives Characteristics
Types Standards

WLAN Sensing Cost Prediction

WiFi Technologies IEEE802.11 Reduction Capabilities

Communication IEEE Improve New

3G WPAN Utilization Enhanced
Technologies 802.15.1 Services

4G Data Fusion IEEE Proactive Remote

WAN Technologies 802.15.4 Maintenance Monitoring

Emerging Minimal Decision

Satellite MAN Computing User Making
Technologies Interaction Capabilities

Information
WRAN Security
Technologies

Fig. 2: IoT-based Smart Environments Taxonomy

IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.1, and IEEE 802.15.4. prediction capabilities, newly enhanced ser-
These standard technologies are used inside vices, remote monitoring, and decision making
the smart environment to transfer the collected capabilities. The prediction capabilities can be
data among different devices. IEEE 802.11 is beneficial in smart buildings, where predicting
used in smart homes, smart buildings, and the air quality in varying conditions is highly
smart cities. IEEE 802.15.1 and IEEE 802.15.4 valuable. The predicted information can be uti-
have relatively shorter coverage than IEEE lized for evaluating the alternative methods of
802.11 and are used mainly in sensors and other clean air provision.
objects deployed in the smart environments. The integration of IoT with smart environ-
ments can bring opportunities for several new
enhanced services such as the smart transport
3.5 Objectives systems, which can utilize the information col-
IoT-based smart environments are deployed to lected by multiple connected cars and road-
facilitate the inhabitants’ lives in different situ- side infrastructure for enabling better traffic
ations, such as elderly monitoring and facilitat- coordination. It can also enable remote access
ing, while travelling in the form of geo service and monitoring of smart environments such as
provisioning and smart ticketing. Based on the homes, buildings and appliances within them.
requirements and implemented functionalities, Moreover, it can collect a variety of data from
smart environments have different predefined different sources and apply data fusion and
objectives. The key objectives of the IoT-based mining techniques to make intelligent deci-
smart environment are cost reduction, utiliza- sions.
tion improvement, proactive maintenance, and
minimal user interaction.
4 O PPORTUNITIES
3.6 Characteristics
The integration of IoT with smart environments
IoT-based smart environments have some has brought about unprecedented opportuni-
unique characteristics that make them differ- ties. This section highlights the main opportu-
ent from conventional. These characteristics are nities offered by such an environment.
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 7

4.1 Cost-effective cloud-based applica- 5 C ASE S TUDIES ON I OT- BASED

tions S MART E NVIRONMENT
Cost-effective, secure, and flexible cloud-based This section describes a number of reported
applications can transform a smart environ- case studies provided by different enterprises
ment into a decision making platform by col- that deployed IoT environments in their busi-
lecting data from the environment and trans- nesses. The summaries of these case studies are
ferring them to the cloud through IoT. The provided in Table 2.
analysis of the collected data, decision making,
and prediction of environment parameters are
the key tasks performed in the cloud server. 5.1 Rio Operations Center5
The deployment of IoT in the “Rio Operation
4.2 New Business Models Center” has enabled the Rio de Janeiro City
IoT enables companies to build new business to rise as one of the official smart cities in the
models and revenue streams that can create world. Cisco, IBM, and Samsung were involved
many new business opportunities. IoT has the in this project. The goal of the project was to
capability to alter the way consumers and busi- facilitate the residents in many aspects of qual-
nesses approach the world. Accordingly, con- ity life, such as safety, fast emergency response
sumers and businesses will require new ser- time, and better traffic control and communi-
vices that can assist them to explore this ultra- cation among agencies. For this purpose, the
connected, changing landscape. technology partners established an operation
center for timely and better decision making
based on data collected through sensors and
4.3 Real-time Information
other devices from all the cities. The results
In an IoT-based smart environment, organiza- show that the deployment of IoT improved 20%
tions can collect data about products and pro- of response times and facilitated 6.3 million
cesses for analysis in a real time manner and residents of the city in terms of quality of life.
provide the analyzed information for making In addition, IoT improved the security services
appropriate decisions. The smart environment during events organized in the city such as the
can rapidly adapt based on the decisions taken World Cup and the Olympics.
and improve operational efficiency that results
in higher customer satisfaction.
5.2 SK Solutions6
4.4 Diversification of revenue streams To ensure the safety of construction sites, a
IoT can enable companies to create new rev- Dubai-based company called SK Solutions de-
enue streams and services on top of traditional ployed an IoT environment which is built on
services. For example, vending machine ven- SAP Hana. SK solutions collects information
dors offering inventory management to those from different sensors deployed in the machin-
who supply the goods in the machine. ery throughout the customers’ site. Collected
information is analyzed in a real time environ-
ment to obtain the contextual details of activi-
4.5 Intelligent Operations
ties, such as the machinery’s weight, position,
With rapid growth in IoT devices, the data movement, temperature, and speed at different
produced by the IoT also grow exponentially. locations. By using this dataset, SK Solutions
The management of such large amounts of data developed a software suite that enables mobile
will be a challenge in terms of performance. devices to obtain actionable data details. SK
Designing intelligent cloud operation manage-
ment solutions that can ensure the working of 5. http://www.networkworld.com/article/2848714/cisco-
subnet/10-enterprise-internet-of-things-deployments-with-
a cloud infrastructure at an optimal level will actual-results.html
also be necessary. 6. http://www.sk-group.fr/en/
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 8

Solutions claimed that their customers have 6.1 Precision

seen significant benefits, such as worker safety,In many smart IoT environments such as
improved construction time, and 30% reduced healthcare, transportation, and unmanned
downtime. aerial vehicular networks, where devices and
systems are connected globally, precision is one
of the most important challenges that need
5.3 Yellow River Conservancy Commission to be addressed. When dealing with preci-
(YRCC)7 sion machines that can fail if timing is off
by a millisecond, adhering to strict require-
An IoT environment was deployed by YRCC to
ments becomes pivotal to the health and safety
monitor the infrastructure stability of the Yel-
of the machine operators, machines, and re-
low River in China. The YRCC built an applica-
lated businesses. Network latency and avail-
tion called Flood Early Warning System based on
able bandwidth are the key factors that can
AGTs IoT platform that captures and analyzes
affect the precision of distributed IoT delay-
the information generated from the sensors.
sensitive mission-critical environments. There-
The real-time dashboard is used to show the
fore, these parameters need to be considered
status of water and alarming information in any
when deploying IoT in a smart environment.
unusual activity. The YRCC claimed that the
For example, in the case of vehicle-to-vehicle
deployed IoT-based application enables them
communication in smart transportation envi-
to predict water flood level and assists them
ronments, longer network latencies can cause
in minimizing damage costs. Furthermore, the
delays in applying car brakes, which can be
application helps in the maintenance of infras-
very dangerous. High-precision systems should
tructure efficiency.
be developed to make IoT deployment success-
ful in smart environments.

5.4 BC Hydro8
6.2 Big IoT Data
To improve meter efficiency and grid stabil-
IoT is one of the largest sources of collecting
ity, BC Hydro deployed an IoT-based plat-
large amounts of data (i.e., big data). As men-
form across seven Canadian provinces for air
tioned earlier, more than 50 billion devices will
firmware updates and remote monitoring. BC
be connected with each other by 2020 that can
Hydro invested $900 million for this project.
lead to big data production. Special attention
Many companies, such as Cisco, Itron, Cap
should be given to storage, access, and pro-
Gemini, and Accenture, were involved in com-
cessing of such big data generated by devices
pleting this project. BC Hydro claimed that the
forming an IoT environment. The performance
solution reduced theft by 75%, which translated
of most of the IoT applications depends on the
to savings $330 million in meter readings and
data management services. Therefore, IoT data
$224 million saved in self-service tools.
require highly scalable computing platforms
that can manage the big IoT data in terms of
processing, access, and storage without affect-
6 O PEN R ESEARCH C HALLENGES ing the performance of the application.

This section highlights the open research chal-

6.3 Compatibility
lenges in the integration of IoT with smart envi-
ronments. This discussion aims to give research Compatibility is one of the greatest challenges
directions to new researchers in the domain. in an IoT smart environment, where different
products are connected with each other. Most
7. http://www.icewarm.com.au/page.php?pId=307 of the products are unable to connect with
8. https://www.bchydro.com/index.html each other because of the unavailability of a
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 9

TABLE 2: Comparison of Case Studies

Case study Devices/ Sensors Business needs Solution Assessment Company Country
Involved
Rio Operations IP cameras, wearable To help residents in IoT-based Success Rio Tinto, Cisco Brazil
Center devices, traffic monitoring many aspects of quality Smart City
systems life

SK Solutions Light sensor switches, hour To ensure construction IoT-based Success SAP Dubai
meters, IP cameras, IP site safety Smart Cranes
switches

Yellow River Smart water sensors, level To monitor the infras- IoT-based Early Success AGT China
Conservancy pressure sensors, Doppler tructure stability of the Warning Flood
Commission velocity meters Yellow River System

BC Hydro Smart meters, smart trans- To improve meter effi- IoT-based Success Cisco, Itron, Canada
formers, capacitor banks ciency and grid stability Smart Grid Cap Gemini

universal language, thus leading to compatibil- high security and privacy because users do not
ity issues. Connecting devices with each other want to reveal their information to others. New
requires collaboration among enterprises, such technology that enables users to dynamically
as Samsung, Philips, and LG. The collaboration verify whether the company obeys their service
among these companies can enable develop- level agreement or not in terms of security,
ers to obtain the infrastructure information of privacy, and governance rules is required. Re-
each product and design a universal coding searchers have already warned industries about
language accordingly. Otherwise, people will “smart home hacking” which is a realistic threat
be frustrated if they are only capable of using to the IoT community in the future.
one brand. The solution of compatibility issues
can ensure the success of IoT. 7 C ONCLUSIONS
Momentous developments in wireless tech-
6.4 Investment
nologies have paved the way for realizing the
Deploying an industrial IoT environment re- vision of deploying IoT in smart environments.
quires massive investment. The investment de- In this paper, we provided a review of research
cision in such a scenario where things are efforts made to integrate IoT with smart envi-
not open and interoperable in terms of hard- ronments. A discussion on state-of-the-art IoT-
ware and software makes it difficult for indus- based smart environments was presented to
tries to adopt this technology. For deployment help readers understand the recent efforts in
in industries, open and integrated hardware this direction. We also devised a thematic tax-
and software-based IoT solutions should be onomy considering communication enablers,
built. Moreover, the solutions should be flex- network types, technologies, local area wire-
ible enough to enable industries to evolve and less standards, objectives, and characteristics.
adapt to changes instead of replacing them with Moreover, we presented reported case studies
new systems. Generating innovation within ex- and discussed the unprecedented opportuni-
isting hardware and software architectures re- ties brought about by the integration of IoT
quires expertise and investment. with smart environments. Furthermore, we dis-
cussed the open research challenges as future
6.5 Security and Privacy research directions. Finally, we concluded that
Despite limitless opportunities and merits of the deployment of IoT could be one of the fu-
IoT in smart environments, security and pri- ture platforms to enable the objects of the phys-
vacy are always key concerns. Only small ical world to communicate with each other by
amounts of data can be stored within a device ensuring high functionality, energy efficiency,
because of the limited storage capacity of mem- rich interactivity, and crisp responsiveness in a
ory cards. Storing data in other sites demands dynamic manner.
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 10

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS [12] Kapsch. (2015, Accessed on: 28 September) Driving

the future. powered by kapsch. [Online]. Available:
This work is supported in part by the https://www.kapsch.net/
Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education under [13] M. Kiran, P. Rajalakshmi, K. Bharadwaj, and A. Acharyya,
“Adaptive rule engine based IoT enabled remote health
the University of Malaya High Impact Research care data acquisition and smart transmission system,” in
Grant UM.C/625/1/HIR/MOE/FCSIT/03, the IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT’14), March
Bright Spark Unit, University of Malaya, 2014, pp. 253–258.
[14] A.-M. Rahmani, N. Thanigaivelan, T. N. Gia, J. Granados,
Malaysia and Imran’s work is supported by the B. Negash, P. Liljeberg, and H. Tenhunen, “Smart e-health
Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud gateway: Bringing intelligence to internet-of-things based
ubiquitous healthcare systems,” in Consumer Communica-
University through Research group No. (RG tions and Networking Conference (CCNC), 2015 12th Annual
1435-051). IEEE, Jan 2015, pp. 826–834.
[15] F. Shrouf, J. Ordieres, and G. Miragliotta, “Smart factories
in industry 4.0: A review of the concept and of energy
R EFERENCES management approached in production based on the In-
[1] T. Hayajneh, G. Almashaqbeh, S. Ullah, and A. V. Vasi- ternet of Things paradigm,” in IEEE International Confer-
lakos, “A survey of wireless technologies coexistence in ence on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
WBAN: analysis and open research issues,” Wireless Net- (IEEM). IEEE, 2014, pp. 697–701.
works, vol. 20, no. 8, pp. 2165–2199, 2014.
[2] G. Almashaqbeh, T. Hayajneh, A. V. Vasilakos, and
B. J. Mohd, “QoS-aware health monitoring system using
cloud-based WBANs,” Journal of medical systems, vol. 38,
no. 10, pp. 1–20, 2014.
Ejaz Ahmed (S’13) Ejaz Ahmed is a Se-
[3] A. Zanella, N. Bui, A. Castellani, L. Vangelista, and
nior Researcher in High Impact Research
M. Zorzi, “Internet of things for smart cities,” IEEE Internet
project at Centre for Mobile Cloud Com-
of Things Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 22–32, 2014.
puting Research (C4MCCR), University of
[4] I. Ganchev, Z. Ji, and M. O’Droma, “A generic IoT ar-
Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before
chitecture for smart cities,” in 25th IET Irish Signals &
that, he has worked as Research Associate
Systems Conference 2014 and 2014 China-Ireland International
in CogNet (Cognitive Radio Network) Re-
Conference on Information and Communications Technologies
search Lab SEECS, NUST Islamabad from
(ISSC’14/CIICT’14). IET, 2014, p. 196199.
December 2009 to September 2012, and
[5] Y. Kim and Y. Lee, “Automatic generation of social rela-
in CoReNet (Center of Research in Networks and Telecom),
tionships between internet of things in smart home using
MAJU, Islamabad, from January 2008 to December 2009. His
sdn-based home cloud,” in IEEE 29th International Confer-
research experience spans over more than nine years. He is as-
ence on Advanced Information Networking and Applications
sociate editor in IEEE Communication Magazine, IEEE Access,
Workshops (WAINA), 2015, pp. 662–667.
and Wiley Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing. He
[6] T. Perumal, M. N. Sulaiman, N. Mustapha, A. Shahi,
is also serving as a Lead Guest Editor/ Guest Editor of Elsevier
and R. Thinaharan, “Proactive architecture for internet of
Future Generation Computer Systems journal, Elsevier Com-
things (IoTs) management in smart homes,” in IEEE 3rd
puters Electrical Engineering journal, IEEE Communications
Global Conference on Consumer Electronics (GCCE). IEEE,
Magazine, IEEE Access, and Elsevier Information Systems. His
2014, pp. 16–17.
areas of interest include Mobile Cloud Computing, Mobile Edge
[7] Q. Ou, Y. Zhen, X. Li, Y. Zhang, and L. Zeng, “Application
Computing, Internet of Things, Cognitive Radio Networks, and
of internet of things in smart grid power transmission,” in
Smart Cities. He has successfully published his research work
Third FTRA International Conference on Mobile, Ubiquitous,
in more than thirty international journals and conferences.
and Intelligent Computing (MUSIC). IEEE, 2012, pp. 96–
100.
[8] Y. Wang, W. Lin, T. Zhang, and Y. Ma, “Research on
application and security protection of internet of things
in smart grid,” pp. 1–5, Dec 2012.
[9] K. Akkaya, I. Guvenc, R. Aygun, N. Pala, and A. Kadri, Ibrar Yaqoob received BS (Hons.) degree
“IoT-based occupancy monitoring techniques for energy- in Information Technology from the Uni-
efficient smart buildings,” in IEEE Wireless Communications versity of the Punjab, Gujranwala cam-
and Networking Conference Workshops (WCNCW). IEEE, pus, Pakistan in 2012. Currently, he is pur-
2015, pp. 58–63. suing his Ph.D. degree in computer sci-
[10] J. L. Hernández-Ramos, M. V. Moreno, J. B. Bernabé, ence at the University of Malaya, Malaysia
D. G. Carrillo, and A. F. Skarmeta, “Safir: Secure access since November 2013. He won the schol-
framework for IoT-enabled services on smart buildings,” arship for his Ph.D. and also working as a
Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 2014. Bright Spark Program research assistant.
[11] EuroTech. (2015, Accessed on 28 September) Smart His research interests include Mobile Ad-hoc Cloud, Internet of
Mobility with IoT/M2M Solutions. [Online]. Available: Things, Cloud Computing, Wireless Networks, and Big Data.
https://www.eurotech.com/en/
IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 11

Abdullah Gani (M’01, SM’12) is an As- Mohsen Guizani (S’85-M’89-SM’99-F’09)

soc. Prof. at the Dept of Computer Sys- received all of his degrees from Syracuse
tem and Technology, University of Malaya, University, Syracuse, NY, USA, in 1984,
Malaysia. His academic qualifications were 1986, 1987, and 1990, respectively. He is
obtained from UK’s universities - bachelor currently a Professor and the ECE Depart-
and master degrees from the University ment Chair at the University of Idaho. He
of Hull, and Ph.D from the University of served in a number of academic positions
Sheffield. He has vast teaching experience in the USA. His research interests include
due to having worked in various educa- wireless communications, mobile comput-
tional institutions locally and abroad - schools, teaching col- ing, computer networks, cloud computing, IoT, security, and
lege, ministry of education, and universities. His interest in re- smart grid. He currently serves on the editorial boards of sev-
search started in 1983 when he was chosen to attend Scientific eral international technical journals and the Founder and the
Research course in RECSAM by the Ministry of Education, Editor-in-Chief of Wireless Communications and Mobile Com-
Malaysia. More than 100 academic papers have been published puting journal (Wiley). He is the author of nine books and more
in conferences and respectable journals. He actively supervises than 400 publications in refereed journals and conferences.
many students at all level of study - Bachelor, Master and He guest edited a number of special issues in IEEE journals
PhD. His interest of research includes self-organized system, and magazines. He also served as a member, Chair, and the
reinforcement learning and wireless-related networks. He is now General Chair of a number of international conferences. He was
working on mobile cloud computing with High Impact Research selected as the Best Teaching Assistant for two consecutive
Grant of 1.5 M for the period of 2011-2016. years at Syracuse University. He was the Chair of the IEEE
Communications Society Wireless Technical Committee and the
Chair of the TAOS Technical Committee. He served as the IEEE
Computer Society Distinguished Speaker from 2003 to 2005. He
is a Fellow of IEEE and a senior member of ACM.
Muhammad Imran is working as Assistant
Professor in the College of Computer and
Information Science, King Saud University
(KSU). His research interest includes mo-
bile ad hoc and sensor networks, WBANs,
IoT, M2M, Multihop wireless networks and
fault tolerant computing. He has published
number of research papers in peer re-
viewed international journals and confer-
ences. His research is financially supported by several grants.
Recently, European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) has appointed
him as a Co-Editor in Chief for EAI Transactions on Pervasive
Health and Technology. He also serves as an associate edi-
tor for Wireless Communication and Mobile Computing Jour-
nal (Wiley), Inderscience International Journal of Autonomous
and Adaptive Communications Systems (IJAACS), Wireless
Sensor Systems (IET) and International Journal of Information
Technology and Electrical Engineering. He served/serving as
a guest editor for IEEE Communications Magazine, IJAACS
and International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks. He
has been involved in number of conferences and workshops in
various capacities such as a program co-chair, track chair/co-
chair and technical program committee member. These include
IEEE Globecom, ICC, AINA, LCN, IWCMC, IFIP WWIC and
BWCCA. He has received number of awards such as Asia
Pacific Advanced Network fellowship.

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