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Advances in the IoT and Smart Cities

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Computing and Artificial Intelligence".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2024) | Viewed by 15505

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Informatics, Frederick University, 7, Y. Frederickou Str., 1036 Nicosia, Cyprus
Interests: big data; underlying operating systems; database systems; visualization; cloud computing

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Guest Editor
Department of Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Informatics, Frederick University, 7, Y. Frederickou Str., 1036 Nicosia, Cyprus
Interests: software; web and service engineering methods for pervasive computing; IoT and smart cities

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Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus
Interests: software engineering; software reuse; open source software; privacy enhancing technologies; context-aware applications; Web of Things

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the unprecedented use of devices, sensors and actuators, and wireless communication in all kinds of cyberphysical systems. The wide use of the IoT and the view of the IoT as a silver bullet introduced a wide range of immediate challenges, but also continually surfacing opportunities. The explosion of the IoT, fueling the data deluge, has become one of the primary sources of big data, thus providing a fine-grained digital view on the physical world. With the use of data analytics, and enabling technologies such as AI, machine learning, and deep learning, the data extracted are used by smart systems to optimize the use of infrastructure and resources.

Smart cities have emerged as the realization of many applications and solutions, across all sectors of society. Smart city solutions are fueled by a combination of disruptive technologies and social innovation with the use of data and innovative technologies. Smart cities aim to make better use of services, optimize resources, and solve public and social problems, thus achieving a higher quality of life by adding intelligence to the urban world. Today, smart sustainable cities are aiming to become smarter and more sustainable, by measuring their progress and performance in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while ensuring that they meet the needs of present and future generations.

In this context, the Special Issue in Applied Sciences on the IoT and smart cities invites researchers to submit original research contributions in all major areas, which include but are not limited to the theory and fundamental research, real-world applications, software development, and engineering of the IoT and smart cities:

  • IoT architectures and cyberphysical systems (CPS);
  • IoT sensors and actuators;
  • IoT services, applications, and platforms;
  • IoT challenges in security, reliability, and privacy;
  • Smart sustainable city services, applications, and platforms.

Dr. Christos Markides
Dr. Achilleas Achilleos
Dr. Georgia Kapitsaki
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • smart sustainable cities
  • IoT and smart city platforms
  • smart city services and applications
  • smart sustainable city enabling technologies
  • intelligent infrastructure
  • smart city governance
  • big data analytics
  • data security and privacy
  • sensors and actuators

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 2418 KiB  
Article
Leveraging IoT Harmonization: An Efficacious NB-IoT Relay for Integrating 6LoWPAN Devices into Legacy IPv4 Networks
by Edgar Saavedra, Asuncion Santamaria, Guillermo del Campo and Igor Gomez
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(8), 3411; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14083411 - 18 Apr 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1540
Abstract
The burgeoning complexity and heterogeneity of IoT networks, coupled with their rapid growth, constant evolution, and new players, present significant challenges in terms of connectivity, interoperability, management, and usability. These networks, composed of a diverse array of devices, technologies and the like, demand [...] Read more.
The burgeoning complexity and heterogeneity of IoT networks, coupled with their rapid growth, constant evolution, and new players, present significant challenges in terms of connectivity, interoperability, management, and usability. These networks, composed of a diverse array of devices, technologies and the like, demand innovative solutions to bridge the gaps between different IoT technologies and communication protocols. This article presents a simple, yet efficacious communication Relay to address one of these critical gaps. This Relay uses NB-IoT to ease the integration of 6LoWPAN-based IoT devices (IPv6) into the public legacy Internet (IPv4). This device translates 6LoWPAN, IPv6 CoAP messages into Internet-standard REST requests, so that appropriate handling of devices’ data be achieved in several stages. Thus, the Relay establishes two branches of communications: (i) the local network where the 6LoWPAN gateway is placed, and (ii) the public NB-IoT network. User interaction and data analysis are achieved by virtue of Home Assistant, where former 6LoWPAN devices are now discovered and shown as proper Home Assistant entities thanks to the Relay’s ease of integration into the open-source platform. This novel approach not only ensures efficient data and network management, but it also meets the urgent necessity for advanced solutions in enhancing actual IoT interconnectivity and monitoring. The unprecedented pace at which IoT devices, players and different networks have been proliferating in recent times is not compatible with countless manufacturer-dependent platforms, applications, and proprietary protocols that the IoT field has been leading with so far, almost from its beginnings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the IoT and Smart Cities)
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16 pages, 877 KiB  
Article
Specifying Internet of Things Behaviors in Behavior-Driven Development: Concurrency Enhancement and Tool Support
by Bing-Yun Wang, Yi-Chun Yen and Yu Chin Cheng
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(2), 787; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13020787 - 5 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1718
Abstract
The Internet of Things (IoT) systems are inherently distributed with many concurrent behaviors. In order to apply behavior-driven development (BDD), a proven agile practice of software development that brings many benefits, we must ensure that the specification of sequential and concurrent behaviors is [...] Read more.
The Internet of Things (IoT) systems are inherently distributed with many concurrent behaviors. In order to apply behavior-driven development (BDD), a proven agile practice of software development that brings many benefits, we must ensure that the specification of sequential and concurrent behaviors is supported at the specification level and that tool support is in place to execute the specification. This study proposes a minimal semantic enhancement to the Gherkin language, the most popular specification language in BDD, to distinguish sequential and concurrent behaviors. At the same time, a tool called concurrentSpec is developed to support the correct execution of specifications written in the enhanced Gherkin language. With two IoT examples involving both sequential and concurrent behaviors, it is shown that the enhanced Gherkin with concurrentSpec can correctly specify and execute the specifications, while the original Gherkin with existing tools is unable to do so. Hence, the contribution of this study is to eliminate a technical impediment for the IoT development community to adopt BDD and receive its benefits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the IoT and Smart Cities)
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18 pages, 5706 KiB  
Article
Fast Real-Time Data Process Analysis Based on NoSQL for IoT Pavement Quality Management Platform
by Sung-Sam Hong, Jaekang Lee, Suwan Chung and Byungkon Kim
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(1), 658; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13010658 - 3 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2195
Abstract
The quality of road pavements is highly impacted by environmental variables, such as temperature, humidity, and weather; and construction-related variables, such as material quality and time. In this paper, an advanced data collection and analysis system based on big data/cloud was proposed for [...] Read more.
The quality of road pavements is highly impacted by environmental variables, such as temperature, humidity, and weather; and construction-related variables, such as material quality and time. In this paper, an advanced data collection and analysis system based on big data/cloud was proposed for the use of IoT location-based smart platforms for pavement quality big data at road pavement sites. For the big data platform, a relational database management system (RDBMS) for a general alphanumeric data-based infrastructure for IoT-based systems was designed based on distributed/parallel processing to enable rapid and big data collection and analysis. The structure was established based on a NoSQL-based database to enable real-time high-speed collection and analysis, and the big data platform was developed as a data collection and visualization infrastructure. When the big data system was studied using data analysis methods, the proposed system demonstrated improvements in data collection performance and analysis speed, indicating that analysis results could be derived in real time. Specifically, the data collection processing (create) speed of the NoSQL-based system (0.405 ms) was significantly higher than that of the compared existing system (21.146 ms). Real-time processing capacity was also verified based on quality big data generated on actual road pavements, and the proposed system was proven suitable for the real-time monitoring (the data collection processing) of road pavement quality big data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the IoT and Smart Cities)
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22 pages, 2701 KiB  
Article
Nexus between Building Information Modeling and Internet of Things in the Construction Industries
by Baydaa Hashim Mohammed, Hasimi Sallehuddin, Elaheh Yadegaridehkordi, Nurhizam Safie Mohd Satar, Afifuddin Husairi Bin Hussain and Shaymaa Abdelghanymohamed
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(20), 10629; https://doi.org/10.3390/app122010629 - 20 Oct 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3232
Abstract
The process of integrating building information modeling (BIM) and Internet of Things (IoT)-based data sources is a recent development. As a generalization, BIM and IoT data provide complementary perspectives on the project that complement each other’s constraints. Applying the concept of BIM-IoT in [...] Read more.
The process of integrating building information modeling (BIM) and Internet of Things (IoT)-based data sources is a recent development. As a generalization, BIM and IoT data provide complementary perspectives on the project that complement each other’s constraints. Applying the concept of BIM-IoT in the construction industries which has been termed to have a high-risk factor could offer an improvement in the overall performance of the construction industries and thereby reduce the associated risks. This study aims to examine the potential of integrating BIM-IoTs in the construction industries by examining related published literature. Literature analysis revealed that the BIM and IoT have been extensively applied individually to several aspects of construction projects such as construction safety risk assessment, construction conflict management, building construction sustainability, and onsite construction process monitoring. However, there is scanty research awareness on the possibilities of BIM-IoT integration in the construction industries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the IoT and Smart Cities)
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Review

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32 pages, 582 KiB  
Review
Collecting, Processing and Secondary Using Personal and (Pseudo)Anonymized Data in Smart Cities
by Silvio Sampaio, Patricia R. Sousa, Cristina Martins, Ana Ferreira, Luís Antunes and Ricardo Cruz-Correia
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(6), 3830; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13063830 - 16 Mar 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5043
Abstract
Smart cities, leveraging IoT technologies, are revolutionizing the quality of life for citizens. However, the massive data generated in these cities also poses significant privacy risks, particularly in de-anonymization and re-identification. This survey focuses on the privacy concerns and commonly used techniques for [...] Read more.
Smart cities, leveraging IoT technologies, are revolutionizing the quality of life for citizens. However, the massive data generated in these cities also poses significant privacy risks, particularly in de-anonymization and re-identification. This survey focuses on the privacy concerns and commonly used techniques for data protection in smart cities, specifically addressing geolocation data and video surveillance. We categorize the attacks into linking, predictive and inference, and side-channel attacks. Furthermore, we examine the most widely employed de-identification and anonymization techniques, highlighting privacy-preserving techniques and anonymization tools; while these methods can reduce the privacy risks, they are not enough to address all the challenges. In addition, we argue that de-identification must involve properties such as unlikability, selective disclosure and self-sovereignty. This paper concludes by outlining future research challenges in achieving complete de-identification in smart cities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the IoT and Smart Cities)
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