Internet of Things (IoT) is a buzzword that is widely used in different domains. This talk explains the current state of the art in IoT (from a technological and research perspective), mainly in Europe. The future of IoT is promising and the trends in terms of number of devices and money involved show significant growth. There are still challenges in technical, business and social areas and some of them will be addressed in the talk.

1. @MarioKusek
mario.kusek@fer.hr
University of Zagreb,
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
Department of Telecommunications
IoT Laboratory
Internet of Things:
state of the art
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art 1

2. 4/1/2021 2
• What is IoT?
• Architecture
• Standards
• Technologies and protocols
• Open issues and projects
IoT: state of the art
Outline

3. What is ”thing"?
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art
• Object from physical world (physical object with build in sensors
and/or actuators) or virtual object
• Internet Connected Object (ICO)
• Has unique identifier and is connected to the Internet
• Communicates and generate data (reading from environment)
• Can receive data/commands from network
• Can execute commands – actuate (electrical or mechanical)
• Can receive data from other ICO, process them and send for
processing to cloud
3

4. Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices
installed base worldwide from 2015 to 2025 (in
billions)
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art
Source: Statista
4
15.41
17.68
20.35
23.14
26.66
30.73
35.82
42.62
51.11
62.12
75.44
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Connected
devices
in
billions

5. Applications (industrial verticals)
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IoT: state of the art
Smart Home Smart Lighting
Smart Appliances
Intrusion Detection
Smoke/Gas Detectors
Energy Management
Infotainment
Smart City Smart Parking
Waste Management
Smart Lighting
Emergency Response
Metering
Environment Weather Monitoring
Air Pollution Monitoring
Noise Pollution Monitoring
Forest Fire Detection
Retail Inventory Management
Smart Vending Machines
Smart Payments
Logistics Fleet Tracking, Shipment Monitoring
Remote Vehicle Diagnostics
Route Generation and Scheduling
Industry
4.0 (IIOT)
Machine Diagnosis
Object Tracking
Process Automation
Agriculture Smart Irrigation
Crop Monitoring
Treatment recommendation
Health Remote patient monitoring
Mobile health
Telecare

6. Architecture
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art
User
IoT
Platform
Gateway
IoT
Application
Smart space
Cloud
User
6

7. How to integrate „things” and provide user
applications?
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art
• IoT platforms integrates „things” and continuously acquire
data
• Large distributed system
• Processing large amount of data (often in real time)
• Integrates and saves data from different sources
• For application developers offer:
• Searching for things (sensors/actuators)
• Access to data/actuation
• There are more then 400 platforms
• Mostly specialised for one area
7

8. Platform types
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IoT: state of the art
Local Smart Space
Platform
Core
Platform devices
Local user
Cloud
Cloud front-end
Remote user
Lightweight
adapter
Local Smart Space
Lightweight
gateway
Platform devices
Local user
Cloud
Platform Core
Cloud front-end
Remote user
Fully local
platform
Fully cloud-based
platform

9. Cloud platforms
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IoT: state of the art
Paid
• Amazon AWS IoT:
https://aws.amazon.com/iot/
• Microsoft Azure IoT:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-
in/services/iot-hub/
• Google IoT cloud:
https://cloud.google.com/solutions/iot
• Cumulocity:
https://www.softwareag.cloud/site/product/cu
mulocity-iot.html#/
• Bosch IoT Suite: https://www.bosch-iot-
suite.com/
• IBM Watson IoT Platform:
https://www.ibm.com/cloud/watson-iot-
platform
Open source
• ThingSpeak:
https://thingspeak.com/
(IoT Analytics, MathWorks)
• Kaa: https://www.kaaproject.org/
• Ecplise Kapua:
https://www.eclipse.org/kapua/
• Eclipse Hono:
https://www.eclipse.org/hono/
Have paid
versions

10. Value chain
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IoT: state of the art
CO
C
M
TX
Device
provider
Infrastructure
provider
IoT platform provider IoT service
integrator IoT user
End user
IoT connectivity
provider
Application and
service developer
Source: Weber, M.; Podnar Žarko, I. A Regulatory View on Smart City
Services. Sensors 2019, 19, 415. https://www.mdpi.com/1424-
8220/19/2/415

11. Global smart systems, services and IoT platform
market size from 2017 to 2023, by region (in billion
U.S. dollars)
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IoT: state of the art
20
27
33
42
52
65
82
23
29
38
49
61
76
94
21
28
38
51
66
86
110
9
12
15
20
26
33
41
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
2017* 2018* 2019* 2020* 2021* 2022* 2023*
Market
size
in
billion
U.S.
dollars
North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest-of-world
Source: Statista

12. Standardisation
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art
• Lots of standardisation bodies
• Some of the most important standardisation bodies:
• IETF – Internet protocols (TCP, UDP, HTTP, CoAP, …)
• 3GPP – public mobile network (2G, 3G, 4G, LTE, NB-IoT, LTE-M, 5G,
…)
• IEEE – wireless communication (WiFi, 802.15.4, …)
• OMA – managing programs on devices (OTA)
• oneM2M – platform standardisation
• OGC – SensorThings API
• W3C – Web of Things
• …
12

13. Technologies for connecting things
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IoT: state of the art
• WiFi
• Ethernet (copper)
• Fiber
• Public mobile network (2G/3G/4G/LTE/LTE-M/NB-IOT/5G)
Thing directly connected to IP
• IEEE 802.15.4
• ZigBee
• Z-Wave
• 6LoWPAN
• Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
• LoRa / LoRaWAN
• Sigfox
Thing connected to gateway

14. Protocols
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IoT: state of the art
• HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• MQTT – Message Queue Telemetry Transport
TCP
• CoAP – Constrained Application Protocol
• MQTT-SN – MQTT for Sensor Network
UDP

15. Fog computing
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IoT: state of the art
• Some tasks are moved from
cloud to network elements and
computing resources near IoT
device (original proposal, 2012,
Bonomi)
• Tasks running on the edge of cloud
• Use computing resources between
cloud and end IoT devices (cloud-
to-thing computing continuum)
• Data processing and storage,
device management, intelligent
decisions, context tracking can be
run “near” smart space
• Advantage: lower latency, lower
amount of data transferred in the
network
• Standardisation body: Industrial
Internet Consortium (IIC), in
January 2019 merged with
OpenFog Consortium

16. Edge computing
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IoT: state of the art
• Similar definition to fog computing –
OpenEdge Computing Initiative
https://www.openedgecomputing.or
g/
• Processing on the network edge by
using server near user (device)
• Integrates IoT devices with cloud
by:
• Data filtering
• Data preprocessing
• Intelligent aggregation
• The edge is 1 hop from end IoT
device (e.g. gateway, router, local
server)
• What is the difference between fog
and edge?
• It depends who you ask

17. Resource placement
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IoT: state of the art
cloud-to-thing
computing
continuum
broad range of equipment
and networks

18. Open issues (1)
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IoT: state of the art
Heterogeneous
devices
• Data sources
• Protocols
• Uniform data
access
Security
• Comparing
2016 and 2017
 600 times
more attacks
• Security
should be
considered on
all levels from
the beginning
• OWASP IoT
Privacy
• GDPR
• Who is owner
of data from
thing?
• Who can see
in search
specific
things?
Scalability
• Large number
of devices
• Everything can
not be in cloud
• Processing
near source:
• Fog
computing
• Edge
computing

19. Open Issues (2)
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IoT: state of the art
• How long is life of mobile phone or computer?
• How long is the life of dish washer, house, curtains?
• What is guaranty for working and supporting product in ICT
domain comparing to non ICT?
Long term
maintenance
• Current business models are in early stage?
• What is the value chain?
Business
models
• Data, semantics, measurements, data structure,
data format?
Interoperability
• Where to process data (learning, executing)?
• Implementing digital twin (predictions, simulations)
AI

20. IoT Laboratory @ FER –
http://www.iot.fer.hr/
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art
• Projects:
• Communication Challenges in Machine-to-Machine Communications, Ericsson
Nikola Tesla (2011 – still on going)
• Pogled u budućnost 2020, HAKOM, (2011-2018)
• Energy Efficient M2M Device Communication, FTW (2012-2015)
• OpenIoT - Open Source blueprint for large scale self-organizing cloud environments for
IoT applications, FP7 (2013-2015)
• Sustav za telemetrijsko mjerenje temperature rotacijskih pogonskih elemenata, PoC5 –
HAMAG/BICRO (2014-2015)
• ICTGEN: ICT for generic and energy-efficient communication solutions with application
in e-/m-health, Europski fond za regionalni razvoj (2014-2016)
• HUTS: Human-centric Communications in Smart Networks, HRZZ (2014-2017)
• symbIoTe: Symbiosis of smart objects across IoT environments, H2020 (2016-2018)
20

21. HELM Smart Grid (HSG)
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IoT: state of the art
• research project funded by European Structural and Investment Funds
project leader: Prof. Igor Čavrak, PhD (09/2018 – 09/2021)
• Application of LPWAN technologies for smart metering data collection:
• NB-IoT,
• LoRa
• Wireless communication alternative to widely utilized G3-PLC and GPRS
communication in smart electricity meters
• Efficient data storage and real-time consumption data user interface
• Functional requirements:
• 2.5 million smart meters
• Consumption data transmission each 15 minutes

22. HELM Smart Grid (HSG)
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IoT: state of the art
• Current research results
• LPWAN communication
• LoRa FUOTA (Firmware-Over-The-Air) performance analysis
• Autonomus network management (network optimization based on the number of
end-devices and gateways)
• Data management system
• Efficient data reception and user-interface implementation
• Utilized third-party technologies: InfluxDB, Apache Kafka, Spring Boot, JWT
• Results published in: P. Krivic, E. Guberovic, I. Podnar Zarko, and I. Cavrak. 2020. Evaluation of selected
technologies for the implementation of meter data management system. In Proceedings of the 10th
International Conference on the Internet of Things (IoT '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York,
NY, USA, Article 19, 1–8. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3410992.3410999

23. Human-centric smart services in interoperable
and decentralised IoT environments (IoT4us)
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IoT: state of the art
• research project No. 1986 funded by Croatian Science
Foundation
project leader: Prof. Ivana Podnar Žarko, PhD (2020 -2023)
https://iot4us.fer.hr/iot4us/en
• IoT connects People with their Environment via many different
Things!

24. IoT4us: Research areas (1/2)
24
Large-scale interoperable IoT
solutions
next-generation IoT architectures for heterogeneous, dynamic,
secure and privacy-preserving IoT environments
Edge intelligence for IoT
solutions
edge/fog computing and optimal use of available resources
according to application requirements
autonomous and cognitive IoT services in smart spaces to
orchestrate context-based and ad hoc interactions between
devices and people
Distributed Ledger Technology
(DLT) for IoT
decentralized and scalable architectures to identify viable
solutions for DLT usage within a large-scale interoperable IoT
ecosystem
use case: IoT-enabled peer-to-peer markets for the energy
sector
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art

25. IoT4us: Research areas (2/2)
25
Novel communication protocols
for complex IoT environments
efficient data collection and/or dissemination in densely-
populated and high-traffic-volume IoT systems
adaptive, self-organizing and self-healing communication
protocols for complex IoT environments
Security & privacy
guidelines and policies to protect IoT services according to
their category
secure IoT devices in heterogeneous environments in terms
of data, software, firmware and administration interfaces
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art

26. IoT4us: Expected results
1. Setup an interoperable, decentralized and dynamic IoT
ecosystem across various IoT platforms (IoT4us ecosystem);
2. Propose and evaluate novel adaptive communication
protocols for IoT environments;
3. Design, implement and evaluate human-centric and non-
intrusive services based on cognitive principles within the
IoT4us ecosystem;
4. Explore and propose novel algorithms and methods for DLT
scalability to demonstrate the usability of DLT solutions in the IoT
context;
5. Propose a framework for securing heterogeneous IoT
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27. IoT-field: An Ecosystem of Networked Devices
and Services for IoT Solutions Applied in
Agriculture
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IoT: state of the art
• research project funded by European Structural and Investment
Funds
project leader: Prof. Ivana Podnar Žarko, PhD (03/2020 –
02/2023)
https://iot-polje.fer.hr/iot-polje/en
• Partners:
• An Ecosystem of Networked Devices and Services for IoT
Solutions Applied in Agriculture

28. IoT-field: motivation
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• Assess the impact of climate change on corn crop
production
• Offer novel IoT solutions (software and hardware) for
dense monitoring of microclimate conditions and
physiological status of plants
• Integrate all available data sources into an
interoperable IoT ecosystem for precision agriculture
• Offer low-cost solutions for small farms

29. Project goals
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IoT: state of the art
• Implement an ecosystem that integrates
relevant microclimate and agronomic data
to evaluate physiological condition of crops
based on chlorophyll fluorescence
• Support farmers in making daily decisions
and assessing the condition of the crop
• Predict corn yield based on measured
indicators
• Optimize fertilization
• Document performed agro-technical and
phytomedical measures to control compliance
with legal directives using blockchain
technology

30. IoT-field: big data solution
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IoT: state of the art
Data
Data
Data
Pinova Meteo, in
situ measurements
Satellite
images
(multispectral)
Get data
visualization
Visualized
data
Query
Result
Chrongraf InfluxDB
Grafana
Web-application

31. IoT field: WSN for crop monitoring
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IoT: state of the art
• Design and deployment of a
secure and energy-efficient
WSN to monitor
environmental parameters
and plant status
• dense monitoring of
microclimate conditions
and physiological status of
plants
• networked sensor for
assessing the
physiological state of crops
based on chlorophyll
fluorescence
Air temperature 
Air moisture 
Leaf temperature 
Ground temperature 
Ground moisture 
Global radiation 
Maximum wind speed 
Wind speed
Air pressure 
Precipitation 
Dew point 
chlorophyll
fluorescence

32. Pinova: Agrometeorological platform
and IoT network and device
development
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IoT: state of the art
• research project funded by European Structural and Investment
Funds
project leader: Prof. Mario Kušek, PhD (08/2020 – 08/2023)

33. Instead of conclusion
4/1/2021 IoT: state of the art
http://www.iot.fer.hr/
33