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. 2020 Nov 20:274:122877.
doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122877. Epub 2020 Jul 19.

Internet of Things (IoT): Opportunities, issues and challenges towards a smart and sustainable future

Sandro Nižetić  1 , Petar Šolić  2 , Diego López-de-Ipiña González-de-Artaza  3 , Luigi Patrono  4
Affiliations

Internet of Things (IoT): Opportunities, issues and challenges towards a smart and sustainable future

Sandro Nižetić et al. J Clean Prod. .

Abstract

The rapid development and implementation of smart and IoT (Internet of Things) based technologies have allowed for various possibilities in technological advancements for different aspects of life. The main goal of IoT technologies is to simplify processes in different fields, to ensure a better efficiency of systems (technologies or specific processes) and finally to improve life quality. Sustainability has become a key issue for population where the dynamic development of IoT technologies is bringing different useful benefits, but this fast development must be carefully monitored and evaluated from an environmental point of view to limit the presence of harmful impacts and ensure the smart utilization of limited global resources. Significant research efforts are needed in the previous sense to carefully investigate the pros and cons of IoT technologies. This review editorial is partially directed on the research contributions presented at the 4th International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies held in Split and Bol, Croatia, in 2019 (SpliTech 2019) as well as on recent findings from literature. The SpliTech2019 conference was a valuable event that successfully linked different engineering professions, industrial experts and finally researchers from academia. The focus of the conference was directed towards key conference tracks such as Smart City, Energy/Environment, e-Health and Engineering Modelling. The research presented and discussed at the SpliTech2019 conference helped to understand the complex and intertwined effects of IoT technologies on societies and their potential effects on sustainability in general. Various application areas of IoT technologies were discussed as well as the progress made. Four main topical areas were discussed in the herein editorial, i.e. latest advancements in the further fields: (i) IoT technologies in Sustainable Energy and Environment, (ii) IoT enabled Smart City, (iii) E-health - Ambient assisted living systems (iv) IoT technologies in Transportation and Low Carbon Products. The main outcomes of the review introductory article contributed to the better understanding of current technological progress in IoT application areas as well as the environmental implications linked with the increased application of IoT products.

Keywords: Energy; Environment; IoT; Smart city; SpliTech2020; Sustainability.

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Conflict of interest statement

We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication in Journal of Cleaner Production (Internet of Things (IoT): Opportunities, issues and challenges towards a smart and sustainable future) and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome. We confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. We further confirm that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by all of us. We confirm that we have given due consideration to the protection of intellectual property associated with this work and that there are no impediments to publication, including the timing of publication, with respect to intellectual property. In so doing we confirm that we have followed the regulations of our institutions concerning intellectual property. We understand that the Corresponding Author is the sole contact for the Editorial process (including Editorial Manager and direct communications with the office). He is responsible for communicating with the other authors about progress, submissions of revisions and final approval of proofs. We confirm that we have provided a current, correct email address which is accessible by the Corresponding Author and which has been configured to accept email from (snizetic@fesb.hr).

Figures

Image 1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
General market structure of IoT technologies (Nižetić et al., 2019).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Expected increase in global Wi-Fi speeds in period of 2017–2022 (Zdnet, 2018),
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
General structure of IoT network and connectivity (Zhang et al., 2018).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Application areas of IoT technologies.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
General concept of IoT industrial application (Aazam et al., 2018).
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Different challenges in Smart City concept (Bhagya et al., 2018).
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Various smart home management systems (Zhou et al., 2016).
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
IoT in agricultural production from farmer’s perspective.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
IoT in smart waste management system, (Quamtra, 2020).
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Concept of smart grids (Tuballa and Lochinvar Abundo, 2016),
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
IoE architecture (Mohammadian, 2019).
Fig. 12
Fig. 12
Proposed smart power meter, (Morello et al., 2017).
Fig. 13
Fig. 13
Photo of created IoT enabled smart energy meter (Avancini et al., 2018).
Fig. 14
Fig. 14
Self-learning home management system architecture (Li et al., 2018).
Fig. 15
Fig. 15
Architecture of proposed identification and traceability system, (De Fazio et al., 2019).
Fig. 16
Fig. 16
Proposed general controlling structure (Mendes et al., 2020).
Fig. 17
Fig. 17
Experimental setup with pre-processing unit (a) and smart controller (b) (Kalair et al., 2020).
Fig. 18
Fig. 18
Concept of proposed IoT supported smart home system (Machorro-Cano et al., 2020).
Fig. 19
Fig. 19
Prototype of smart e-waste bin (Kang et al., 2020).
Fig. 20
Fig. 20
Conceptual IoT supported framework for waste processing (Ferrari et al., 2020).
Fig. 21
Fig. 21
Generalized concept of IoT enabled Smart City Architecture (Perković et al., 2020b).
Fig. 22
Fig. 22
Block scheme of standard sensing node architecture in IoT enabled Smart City.
Fig. 23
Fig. 23
Most popular sensors and their power requirements in active and power-down (i.e. sleep mode, Perković et al., 2020b).
Fig. 24
Fig. 24
Overview of technologies that can satisfy different usage scenarios (Mekki et al., 2019).
Fig. 25
Fig. 25
Overview of performances and deployment costs for different LPWAN technologies (Mekki et al., 2019).
Fig. 26
Fig. 26
Pros and cons for each of LPWAN competitors (Mekki et al., 2019).
Fig. 27
Fig. 27
Comparison of microcontroller devices.
Fig. 28
Fig. 28
IoT technology applications for AAL domain, (Maskeliunas et al., 2019).
Fig. 29
Fig. 29
Proposed modular architecture, (Dobre et al., 2018).
Fig. 30
Fig. 30
Proposed system for continuous monitoring and real time services, (Villarreal et al., 2014).
Fig. 31
Fig. 31
Virtual organization of system, (Villarrubia et al., 2014).
Fig. 32
Fig. 32
Overall logical architecture (Mainetti et al., 2017).
Fig. 33
Fig. 33
Layered architecture of proposed automation enterprise asset management system (Wang et al., 2015).
Fig. 34
Fig. 34
RFID/IoT solution architecture for steel mill (Valente et al., 2017).
Fig. 35
Fig. 35
Framework architecture, (Proto et al., 2020).
Fig. 36
Fig. 36
High-level architecture of proposed solution, (Arumugam et al., 2018).
Fig. 37
Fig. 37
Modular framework of BIFTS, (Tsang et al., 2019).
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