Internet of Things Architectures, Technologies, Applications, Challenges, and Future Directions for Enhanced Living Environments and Healthcare Systems: A Review

Internet of Things (IoT) is an evolution of the Internet and has been gaining increased attention from researchers in both academic and industrial environments. Successive technological enhancements make the development of intelligent systems with a high capacity for communication and data collection possible, providing several opportunities for numerous IoT applications, particularly healthcare systems. Despite all the advantages, there are still several open issues that represent the main challenges for IoT, e.g., accessibility, portability, interoperability, information security, and privacy. IoT provides important characteristics to healthcare systems, such as availability, mobility, and scalability, that o er an architectural basis for numerous high technological healthcare applications, such as real-time patient monitoring, environmental and indoor quality monitoring, and ubiquitous and pervasive information access that benefits health professionals and patients. The constant scientific innovations make it possible to develop IoT devices through countless services for sensing, data fusing, and logging capabilities that lead to several advancements for enhanced living environments (ELEs). This paper reviews the current state of the art on IoT architectures for ELEs and healthcare systems, with a focus on the technologies, applications, challenges, opportunities, open-source platforms, and operating systems. Furthermore, this document synthesizes the existing body of knowledge and identifies common threads and gaps that open up new significant and challenging future research directions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Segurança e privacidade em terminologia de rede

Security and Privacy are now at the forefront of modern concerns, and drive a significant part of the debate on digital society. One particular aspect that holds significant bearing in these two topics is the naming of resources in the network, because it directly impacts how networks work, but also affects how security mechanisms are implemented and what are the privacy implications of metadata disclosure. This issue is further exacerbated by interoperability mechanisms that imply this information is increasingly available regardless of the intended scope. This work focuses on the implications of naming with regards to security and privacy in namespaces used in network protocols. In particular on the imple- mentation of solutions that provide additional security through naming policies or increase privacy. To achieve this, different techniques are used to either embed security information in existing namespaces or to minimise privacy ex- posure. The former allows bootstraping secure transport protocols on top of insecure discovery protocols, while the later introduces privacy policies as part of name assignment and resolution. The main vehicle for implementation of these solutions are general purpose protocols and services, however there is a strong parallel with ongoing re- search topics that leverage name resolution systems for interoperability such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Information Centric Networks (ICN), where these approaches are also applicable.Segurança e Privacidade são dois topicos que marcam a agenda na discus- são sobre a sociedade digital. Um aspecto particularmente subtil nesta dis- cussão é a forma como atribuímos nomes a recursos na rede, uma escolha com consequências práticas no funcionamento dos diferentes protocols de rede, na forma como se implementam diferentes mecanismos de segurança e na privacidade das várias partes envolvidas. Este problema torna-se ainda mais significativo quando se considera que, para promover a interoperabili- dade entre diferentes redes, mecanismos autónomos tornam esta informação acessível em contextos que vão para lá do que era pretendido. Esta tese foca-se nas consequências de diferentes políticas de atribuição de nomes no contexto de diferentes protocols de rede, para efeitos de segurança e privacidade. Com base no estudo deste problema, são propostas soluções que, através de diferentes políticas de atribuição de nomes, permitem introdu- zir mecanismos de segurança adicionais ou mitigar problemas de privacidade em diferentes protocolos. Isto resulta na implementação de mecanismos de segurança sobre protocolos de descoberta inseguros, assim como na intro- dução de mecanismos de atribuiçao e resolução de nomes que se focam na protecçao da privacidade. O principal veículo para a implementação destas soluções é através de ser- viços e protocolos de rede de uso geral. No entanto, a aplicabilidade destas soluções extende-se também a outros tópicos de investigação que recorrem a mecanismos de resolução de nomes para implementar soluções de intero- perabilidade, nomedamente a Internet das Coisas (IoT) e redes centradas na informação (ICN).Programa Doutoral em Informátic

Internet of Things Strategic Research Roadmap

Internet of Things (IoT) is an integrated part of Future Internet including existing and evolving Internet and network developments and could be conceptually defined as a dynamic global network infrastructure with self configuring capabilities based on standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual “things” have identities, physical attributes, and virtual personalities, use intelligent interfaces, and are seamlessly integrated into the information network

New Waves of IoT Technologies Research – Transcending Intelligence and Senses at the Edge to Create Multi Experience Environments

The next wave of Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) brings new technological developments that incorporate radical advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), edge computing processing, new sensing capabilities, more security protection and autonomous functions accelerating progress towards the ability for IoT systems to self-develop, self-maintain and self-optimise. The emergence of hyper autonomous IoT applications with enhanced sensing, distributed intelligence, edge processing and connectivity, combined with human augmentation, has the potential to power the transformation and optimisation of industrial sectors and to change the innovation landscape. This chapter is reviewing the most recent advances in the next wave of the IoT by looking not only at the technology enabling the IoT but also at the platforms and smart data aspects that will bring intelligence, sustainability, dependability, autonomy, and will support human-centric solutions.acceptedVersio

IoT system for EV charging at shared spaces

In current work, we apply the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm to handle the electric vehicle (EV) charging process in small shared spaces, such as condominiums without requiring the intervention of an external supervision entity, being that role performed by the condominium management. A Mobile App handles the user interaction with the system, authenticating the request to initiate the EV charging process, a microcontroller connected to set of sensors and an actuator is used for measuring energy consumption and for enabling the charging process and, a Management Unit controls the process end to end, providing the required services to the Mobile App and the microcontroller unit while manages the energy sharing between the EV charging stations accordingly the condominium limitations and processes the energy measures to consolidate the EV charging energy transaction. A minimal user interface allows the users to visualise transactions, manage users' preferences, and configure the platform. Additionally, the conceptual model for a scaled solution is presented, supported on blockchain technologies to handle the financial transitions, allowing current approach to be replicated on broader EV charging scenarios, such as public charging systems in a city. The developed system was tested in a shared space with three EVs using a charging infrastructure for 3.5 months.No presente trabalho, é aplicado um paradigma de Internet Of Things (IOT) para agilizar e controlar o processo de carregamento de Veículos Elétricos (VE) em espaços partilhados de menores dimensões, como por exemplo condomínios residenciais, sem que seja necessária a intervenção (a título de prestação de serviços) de uma entidade externa, sendo todo o processo controlado pela gestão de condomínio. Uma aplicação móvel permite ao utilizador interagir com o sistema, permitindo a este autenticar-se no mesmo é condição necessária para que seja despoletado o processo de carregamento do VE. O sistema implementado com recurso a um microcontrolador encontrase ligado a um conjunto de sensores e um atuador permitindo medir a energia que esta ser consumida para carregamento do VE e simultaneamente, ligar e desligar o dispositivo de carregamento do veículo (através do controlo de um interruptor que entrega a energia entregue a este). O processo é controlado por uma unidade de gestão centralizada, que gera a distribuição de energia pelas estações de carregamento de VEs de acordo com as limitações do condomínio através do ligar e desligar destas e em simultâneo regista e processas as medições da energia consumida para consolidar as informações que constituem a transação de carregamento de VE e respetiva contraparte financeira associada à mesma. Adicionalmente, a unidade de gestão centralizada e a aplicação móvel, disponibilizam interfaces de utilizador mínimas para permitir funções como a consulta de transações, gestão e configuração da plataforma. Complementarmente, é apresentado um modelo conceptual permitindo escalar a solução proposta para espaços partilhados de maior dimensão, com recurso à utilização de tecnologias blockchain para gestão e registo das transações financeiras associadas à operação. Propondo uma abordagem, que poderá ser replicável em cenários mais amplos de utilização como por exemplo, a infraestrutura publica de carregamento de VE de uma cidade. O protótipo desenvolvido foi testado num espaço partilhado com três VE, usando uma infraestrutura de carregamento durante 3,5 meses

Development of an M-commerce security framework

Research shows how M-Commerce has managed to find its way to previously inaccessible parts of the world as a major Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tool for development due to widespread introduction of mobile phones in remote areas. M-Commerce has offered valuable advantages: anytime, anywhere, more personal, more location-aware, more context-aware, more age aware, always online and instant connectivity. But this is not without its problems, of which security is high on the list. The security issues span the whole M-Commerce spectrum, from the top to the bottom layer of the OSI network protocol stack, from machines to humans. This research proposes a threat-mitigation modular framework to help address the security issues lurking in M-Commerce systems being used by marginalised rural community members. The research commences with a literature survey carried out to establish security aspects related to M-Commerce and to determine requirements for a security framework. The framework classifies M-Commerce security threat-vulnerability-risks into four levels: human behaviour and mobile device interaction security, mobile device security, M-Commerce access channel security, wireless network access security. This is followed by a review of the supporting structures or related frameworks that the proposed framework could leverage to address security issues on M-Commerce systems as ICT4D initiatives. The proposed security framework based on the requirements discovered is then presented. As a proof-of-concept, a case study was undertaken at the Siyakhula Living Lab at Dwesa in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa in order to validate the components of the proposed framework. Following the application of the framework in a case study, it can be argued that the proposed security framework allows for secure transacting by marginalised users using M-Commerce initiatives. The security framework is therefore useful in addressing the identified security requirements of M-Commerce in ICT4D contexts

A modern teaching environment for process automation

Emergence of the new technological trends such as Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA), Industrial Ethernet, cloud computing and the 5th wireless network (5G) enabled the implementation of Cyber-physical System (CPS) with flexible, configurable, scalable and interoperable business models. This provides new opportunities for the process automation systems. On the other hand, the constant urge of industries for cost and material efficient processes demands a new automation paradigm with the latest tools and technologies which should be taken into account while teaching future automation engineers. In this thesis, the modern teaching environment for process automation is designed, implemented and described. This work explains the connections, configurations and the test of three mini plants including the Multiple Heat Exchanger, the Three-tank system and the Mixing Tank. In addition, OPC UA communication between the server and its clients has been tested. The plants are a part of the state of the art of the architecture that provides the access of ABB 800xA to the cloud services via OPC UA over the 5G test wireless network. This new paradigm changes the old automation hierarchy and enables the cross layered communication in the old architecture. This modern teaching environment prepares the students for the future automation challenges with the latest tools and merges data analytics, cloud computing and wireless network studies with process automation. It also provides the unique chance of testing the future trends together in this unique process automation setup

Cloud computing and context-awareness: A study of the adapted user experience

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Today, mobile technology is part of everyday life and activities and the mobile ecosystems are blossoming, with smartphones and tablets being the major growth drivers. The mobile phones are no longer just another device, we rely on their capabilities in work and in private. We look to our mobile phones for timely and updated information and we rely on this being provided any time of any day at any place. Nevertheless, no matter how much you trust and love your mobile phone the quality of the information and the user experience is directly associated with the sources and presentation of information. In this perspective, our activities, interactions and preferences help shape the quality of service, content and products we use. Context-aware systems use such information about end-users as input mechanisms for producing applications based on mobile, location, social, cloud and customized content services. This represents new possibilities for extracting aggregated user-centric information and includes novel sources for context-aware applications. Accordingly, a Design Research based approach has been taken to further investigate the creation, presentation and tailoring of user-centric information. Through user evaluated experiments findings show how multi-dimensional context-aware information can be used to create adaptive solutions tailoring the user experience to the users’ needs. Research findings in this work; highlight possible architectures for integration of cloud computing services in a heterogeneous mobile environment in future context-aware solutions. When it comes to combining context-aware results from local computations with those of cloud based services, the results provide findings that give users tailored and adapted experiences based on the collective efforts of the two