Ontologies in Cloud Computing - Review and Future Directions

Cloud computing as a technology has the capacity to enhance cooperation, scalability, accessibility, and offers discount prospects using improved and effective computing, and this capability helps organizations to stay focused. Ontologies are used to model knowledge. Once knowledge is modeled, knowledge management systems can be used to search, match, visualize knowledge, and also infer new knowledge. Ontologies use semantic analysis to define information within an environment with interconnecting relationships between heterogeneous sets. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the existing literature on ontology in cloud computing and defines the state of the art. We applied the systematic literature review (SLR) approach and identified 400 articles; 58 of the articles were selected after further selection based on set selection criteria, and 35 articles were considered relevant to the study. The study shows that four predominant areas of cloud computing—cloud security, cloud interoperability, cloud resources and service description, and cloud services discovery and selection—have attracted the attention of researchers as dominant areas where cloud ontologies have made great impact. The proposed methods in the literature applied 30 ontologies in the cloud domain, and five of the methods are still practiced in the legacy computing environment. From the analysis, it was found that several challenges exist, including those related to the application of ontologies to enhance business operations in the cloud and multi-cloud. Based on this review, the study summarizes some unresolved challenges and possible future directions for cloud ontology researchers.publishedVersio

SafeCity: Toward Safe and Secured Data Management Design for IoT-Enabled Smart City Planning

The interaction among different Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and devices become massive and insecure over the Internet as we probe to smart cities. These heterogeneous devices produce an enormous amount of data that is vulnerable to various malicious threats. The generated data need to be processed and analyzed in a secure fashion to make smart decisions. The smart urban planning is becoming a reality through the mass information generated by the Internet of Things (IoT). This paper exhibits a novel architecture, SafeCity, that limelight the ecosystem of smart cities consists of cameras, sensors, and other real-world physical devices. SafeCity is a three-layer architecture, i.e., a data security layer, a data computational layer, and a decision-making layer. At the first layer, payload-based symmetric encryption is used to secure the data from intruders by exchanging only the authentic data among the physical devices. The second layer is used for the computation of secured data. Finally, the third layer extracts visions from data. The secured exchange of data is ensured by using Raspberry Pi boards while the computation of data is tested on trustworthy datasets, using the Hadoop platform. The assessments disclose that SafeCity presents precious insights into a secured smart city in the context of sensors based IoT environment

Edge Computing for Internet of Things

The Internet-of-Things is becoming an established technology, with devices being deployed in homes, workplaces, and public areas at an increasingly rapid rate. IoT devices are the core technology of smart-homes, smart-cities, intelligent transport systems, and promise to optimise travel, reduce energy usage and improve quality of life. With the IoT prevalence, the problem of how to manage the vast volumes of data, wide variety and type of data generated, and erratic generation patterns is becoming increasingly clear and challenging. This Special Issue focuses on solving this problem through the use of edge computing. Edge computing offers a solution to managing IoT data through the processing of IoT data close to the location where the data is being generated. Edge computing allows computation to be performed locally, thus reducing the volume of data that needs to be transmitted to remote data centres and Cloud storage. It also allows decisions to be made locally without having to wait for Cloud servers to respond

State of the Art, Trends and Future of Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication and Visible Light Communication in the Development of Smart Cities

The current social impact of new technologies has produced major changes in all areas of society, creating the concept of a smart city supported by an electronic infrastructure, telecommunications and information technology. This paper presents a review of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Near Field Communication (NFC) and Visible Light Communication (VLC) and their use and influence within different areas of the development of the smart city. The document also presents a review of Big Data Solutions for the management of information and the extraction of knowledge in an environment where things are connected by an “Internet of Things” (IoT) network. Lastly, we present how these technologies can be combined together to benefit the development of the smart city

Sistema cooperativo de planificación de demanda de electricidad agregada: Comunidades sostenibles que optimizan el consumo de renovables

Hoy en día, la eficiencia energética aparece como eje fundamental para combatir el cambio climático y reducir nuestra huella de carbono. En este sentido, el rol del ciudadano y las decisiones de los consumidores con respecto a su estilo de vida, como el uso de vehículos híbridos o eléctricos, el consumo de alimentos procedentes de agricultura sostenible y una gestión eficiente de la energía en hogares son piezas claves para promover una nueva realidad de energía sostenible. Instituciones públicas están prestando programas de ayuda para la modernización de equipamiento, y financiando reformas hacia una mayor eficiencia energética en hogares, instalaciones públicas y edificios residenciales. Por su parte, Red Eléctrica promueve un nuevo modelo energético, estimulado por Directivas Europeas, en el que la gestión de la flexibilidad de demanda, el fomento de autoconsumo y almacenamiento procedente de fuentes renovables, así como la integración del consumidor en servicios de balanceo son iniciativas reales. La conocida como comunidad inteligente surge como evolución del paradigma de las ciudades inteligentes y supone un enfoque centrado en las personas en el que los ciudadanos aspiran a lograr objetivos comunes. Este paradigma, junto con los electrodomésticos inteligentes y otros dispositivos conectados en la Internet de las cosas, han aumentado las expectativas en las tecnologías TIC para la consecución y mayor aceptación de programas de eficiencia energética como la Respuesta de Demanda. Estos programas buscan balancear suministro y demanda energética, reducir emisiones, promover la integración de las energías renovables y fomentar un cambio en el comportamiento del consumidor. Esta tesis doctoral surge de la necesidad de diseñar, desarrollar, implantar y medir los beneficios derivados de la gestión de la demanda mediante una solución tecnológica que ayude a los consumidores a administrar su demanda y su flexibilidad. Para ello, se diseña un algoritmo de planificación de la demanda agregada de electricidad en una comunidad de consumidores y un controlador de sus electrodomésticos conectados. Esta agregación se optimiza gracias a una función objetivo que se alimenta con la oferta disponible de energía renovable. La solución se implementa en plataformas ligeras y económicas, y se valida en entornos de laboratorio cumpliendo estrictos requisitos de rendimiento, fiabilidad, calidad de servicio y seguridad. Escenarios emulados en prototipos ofrecen resultados muy eficientes y realistas y permiten reconocer un conjunto de tres patrones de comportamiento en comunidades de consumidores construidas sobre un conjunto de datos de consumo real. La flexibilidad, el volumen y curva de demanda son factores determinantes para una planificación más efectiva y eficiente de la demanda total de la comunidad. La identificación, por experto y por aprendizaje automático, de estos patrones ayuda a definir y predecir una mejor estrategia en el desarrollo de programas de gestión de demanda y de agregación en comunidades reales que busquen cooperativamente maximizar el aprovechamiento de fuentes renovables además de fomentar un cambio en el comportamiento del consumidor hacia un consumo más sostenible y eficiente

Branding The Muisca-Self: Indigenous Sincerity Amidst Colombian Multicultural Coloniality

This dissertation has two aims. First, it explores the historical, political and legal apparatuses that have facilitated the formation of contemporary indigenous groups in the proximity of Bogota, Colombia and their recent transformation into branded products of indigenous spirituality. With this framework, it then focuses on how group members attempt to produce indigenous personas who seem to comply with the expectations of their branded form while remaining true to their indigenous-selves; which I found out can be partially revealed as glimpses of sincerity. The two indigenous groups under study are the officially recognized Muisca of the locality of Bosa, an impoverished area in the outskirts of the city of Bogota, and the Muisca of the town of Sesquile, located 45km north of Bogota. Despite the program of ethnic and cultural assimilation towards mestizaje that took place alongside the independence of the country in 1810, the members of these groups have recently claimed to be descendants of the Muisca people who inhabited the area in the pre-Hispanic period, gaining recognition on the basis of an already diluted cultural alterity. Hence, appearing “different enough” from the mestizo majorities to deserve special treatment from a state that embraces multiculturalism has become their priority, and indigenous spirituality has served this purpose by becoming the widely accepted, branded expression of Muisca alterity. Through fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, during which I engaged in dialogical interactions and shared affect-charged experiences with Muisca members, I have retrieved various moments of indigenous sincerity and analysed them from a decolonial perspective that uses well-known theoretical frameworks as border theories. By doing so, I have been able to unveil, on the one hand, the apparatuses of colonial domination behind the Colombian multicultural policy towards indigenous people and, on the other, the multiple Muisca-selves that remain concealed behind the brand, and which are constantly re-shaped as members navigate the contradictions between a recently incorporated spirituality and their own approach to indigeneity