The Internet of Things (IoT) shall be able to incorporate transparently and seamlessly a large number of different and heterogeneous end systems, while providing open access to selected subsets of data for the development of a plethora of digital services. Building a general architecture for the IoT is hence a very complex task, mainly because of the extremely large variety of devices, link layer technologies, and services that may be involved in such a system. In this paper, we focus specifically to an urban IoT system that, while still being quite a broad category, are characterized by their specific application domain. Urban IoTs, in fact, are designed to support the Smart City vision, which aims at exploiting the most advanced communication technologies to support added-value services for the administration of the city and for the citizens. This paper hence provides a comprehensive survey of the enabling technologies, protocols, and architecture for an urban IoT. Furthermore, the paper will present and discuss the technical solutions and best-practice guidelines adopted in the Padova Smart City project, a proof-of-concept deployment of an IoT island in the city of Padova, Italy, performed in collaboration with the city municipality.

/pdf/internet-of-things-for-smart-cities-u3qvvujxy2.pdf

Internet of Things for Smart Cities

IoT security: Review, blockchain solutions, and open challenges

The IoT paradigm holds the promise to revolutionize the way we live and work by means of a wealth of new services, based on seamless interactions between a large amount of heterogeneous devices. After decades of conceptual inception of the IoT, in recent years a large variety of communication technologies has gradually emerged, reflecting a large diversity of application domains and of communication requirements. Such heterogeneity and fragmentation of the connectivity landscape is currently hampering the full realization of the IoT vision, by posing several complex integration challenges. In this context, the advent of 5G cellular systems, with the availability of a connectivity technology, which is at once truly ubiquitous, reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient, is considered as a potentially key driver for the yet-to emerge global IoT. In the present paper, we analyze in detail the potential of 5G technologies for the IoT, by considering both the technological and standardization aspects. We review the present-day IoT connectivity landscape, as well as the main 5G enablers for the IoT. Last but not least, we illustrate the massive business shifts that a tight link between IoT and 5G may cause in the operator and vendors ecosystem.

/pdf/internet-of-things-in-the-5g-era-enablers-architecture-and-4vjccjwnie.pdf

Internet of Things in the 5G Era: Enablers, Architecture, and Business Models

The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a paradigm in which objects equipped with sensors, actuators, and processors communicate with each other to serve a meaningful purpose. In this paper, we survey state-of-the-art methods, protocols, and applications in this new emerging area. This survey paper proposes a novel taxonomy for IoT technologies, highlights some of the most important technologies, and profiles some applications that have the potential to make a striking difference in human life, especially for the differently abled and the elderly. As compared to similar survey papers in the area, this paper is far more comprehensive in its coverage and exhaustively covers most major technologies spanning from sensors to applications.

/pdf/internet-of-things-architectures-protocols-and-applications-46rpfbd58i.pdf

Internet of Things: Architectures, Protocols, and Applications

The Internet of Things (IoT) is stepping out of its infancy into full maturity and establishing itself as a part of the future Internet. One of the technical challenges of having billions of devices deployed worldwide is the ability to manage them. Although access management technologies exist in IoT, they are based on centralized models which introduce a new variety of technical limitations to manage them globally. In this paper, we propose a new architecture for arbitrating roles and permissions in IoT. The new architecture is a fully distributed access control system for IoT based on blockchain technology. The architecture is backed by a proof of concept implementation and evaluated in realistic IoT scenarios. The results show that the blockchain technology could be used as access management technology in specific scalable IoT scenarios.

Blockchain Meets IoT: An Architecture for Scalable Access Management in IoT

The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is a specialized web
transfer protocol for use with constrained nodes and constrained
(e.g., low-power, lossy) networks. The nodes often have 8-bit
microcontrollers with small amounts of ROM and RAM, while constrained
networks such as IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks
(6LoWPANs) often have high packet error rates and a typical throughput
of 10s of kbit/s. The protocol is designed for machine- to-machine
(M2M) applications such as smart energy and building automation. CoAP
provides a request/response interaction model between application
endpoints, supports built-in discovery of services and resources, and
includes key concepts of the Web such as URIs and Internet media
types. CoAP is designed to easily interface with HTTP for integration
with the Web while meeting specialized requirements such as multicast
support, very low overhead, and simplicity for constrained
environments.

/pdf/the-constrained-application-protocol-coap-46201zb6oy.pdf

The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)

"It is stunningly thorough and takes readers meticulously through the design, conguration and operation of IPv6-based, low-power, potentially mobile radio-based networking" Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google This book provides a complete overview of IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Area Network (6LoWPAN) technology In this book, the authors provide an overview of the 6LoWPAN family of standards, architecture, and related wireless and Internet technology Starting with an overview of the IPv6 Internet of Things, readers are offered an insight into how these technologies fit together into a complete architecture The 6LoWPAN format and related standards are then covered in detail In addition, the authors discuss the building and operation of 6LoWPAN networks, including bootstrapping, routing, security, Internet ingration, mobility and application protocols Furthermore, implementation aspects of 6LoWPAN are covered Key Features: Demonstrates how the 6LoWPAN standard makes the latest Internet protocols available to even the most minimal embedded devices over low-rate wireless networks Provides an overview of the 6LoWPAN standard, architecture and related wireless and Internet technology, and explains the 6LoWPAN protocol format in detail Details operational topics such as bootstrapping, routing, security, Internet integration, mobility and application protocols Written by expert authors with vast experience in the field (industrial and academic) Includes an accompanying website containing tutorial slides, course material and open-source code with examples (http://6lowpannet ) 6LoWPAN: The Wireless Embedded Internet is an invaluable reference for professionals working in fields such as telecommunications, control, and embedded systems Advanced students and teachers in electrical engineering, information technology and computer science will also find this book useful

6LoWPAN: The Wireless Embedded Internet

This specification defines Web Linking using a link format for use by
constrained web servers to describe hosted resources, their
attributes, and other relationships between links. Based on the HTTP
Link Header field defined in RFC 5988, the Constrained RESTful
Environments (CoRE) Link Format is carried as a payload and is
assigned an Internet media type. "RESTful" refers to the
Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture. A well-known URI
is defined as a default entry point for requesting the links hosted by
a server. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

/pdf/constrained-restful-environments-core-link-format-12r32q3fcq.pdf

Constrained RESTful Environments (CoRE) Link Format

The Internet of Things is the next big possibility and challenge for the Internet. Extending the web architecture to this new domain of constrained wireless networks and devices will be key to achieving the flexibility and scalability needed to make it a success. Web services have proven to be indispensable in creating interoperable communications between machines on today?s Internet, but at the same time the overhead and complexity of web service technology such as SOAP, XML, and HTTP are too high for use in the constrained environments often found in machine-to-machine applications (e.g., energy monitoring, building automation, and asset management). This article first gives an overview of the web architecture, its core REST concepts, and the current state of the art in web services. Two key activities required in order to achieve efficient embedded web services are introduced: a fresh approach to a web application transfer protocol and efficient payload encoding. The article analyzes the most promising payload encoding techniques and introduces the new IETF Constrained RESTful Environments (CoRE) standardization activity.

Embedded web services

The IETF work in IPv6 over Low-power Wireless Personal Area Network
(6LoWPAN) defines 6LoWPANs such as IEEE 802.15.4. This and other
similar link technologies have limited or no usage of multicast
signaling due to energy conservation. In addition, the wireless
network may not strictly follow the traditional concept of IP subnets
and IP links. IPv6 Neighbor Discovery was not designed for non-
transitive wireless links, as its reliance on the traditional IPv6
link concept and its heavy use of multicast make it inefficient and
sometimes impractical in a low-power and lossy network. This document
describes simple optimizations to IPv6 Neighbor Discovery, its
addressing mechanisms, and duplicate address detection for Low- power
Wireless Personal Area Networks and similar networks. The document
thus updates RFC 4944 to specify the use of the optimizations defined
here. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

/pdf/neighbor-discovery-optimization-for-ipv6-over-low-power-48c5ot4ah7.pdf

Zach Shelby

Papers

The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)

6LoWPAN: The Wireless Embedded Internet

Constrained RESTful Environments (CoRE) Link Format

Embedded web services

Neighbor Discovery Optimization for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs)