Trends in Cloud-based IoT

Our traditional Internet is extended into the Internet of Things (IoT) by connecting physical world devices and objects (things) to it. The diversity of applications of IoT range from mission-critical applications, such as smart-grid, smart-transportation system, smart-surveillance, and smart-healthcare to business applications, such as smart-industries, smart-logistics, smart-banking, smart-insurance, etc. In the IoT revelation, with the assistance of sensors and actuators, conventional devices become smart and autonomous. In coming years, for the predicted huge evolution of the IoT, it is important to provide confidence in this enormous collection of information. Today’s advances in the technology are turning IoT revelation into a reality. However, there are still challenges to address, especially for data reliability and security. There is a necessity for inclusive support of privacy and security in IoT for its mission-critical as well as business applications. Numerous frameworks are proposed to enable trustworthiness in the IoT. Academic and industrial researchers are continuously working to propose frameworks for security and privacy in IoT. At the same time, another technology, blockchain has emerged as a key technology that transforms the way in which we share information. Since the time it emerged, this technology has shown auspicious application scenarios. Blockchain builds trust in a distributed atmosphere without the need of central authorities. From the preliminary cryptography to the current smart contracts, blockchain has been functional in many fields. Blockchain as a technological advance has the extreme potential to change many industries, and IoT can be one of them. A blockchain stores all the processed information (known as a transaction in the blockchain terminologies) in sequential order, in a set of memory blocks that are tamper-free to adversaries. All nodes share these processed transactions. The information to these transactions is published as a public ledger that cannot be modified, and every node in the network retains the same ledger. In this way, a blockchain creates a distributed trustworthiness in the network. There have been many studies on the privacy and security issues of blockchain and IoT fusion, however, there lacks a systematic framework on the fusion of blockchain and IoT for trustworthiness. In this chapter, we overview blockchain as a model for IoT trustworthiness. We propose a novel blockchain-based framework for trustworthiness in IoT-based smart-cities.

In recent decade, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and Internet of Things (IoT) techniques are broadly utilized in the cultural heritage (CH) protection oriented networks for monitoring the environment, security improvement issues, etc. WSNs, consisting of many small-sized, low-power, and low-cost intelligent sensors, are useful to collect and sense important parameters of the environment in order to monitor the CH objects in real time. Moreover, WSNs require an effective mechanism to reduce energy consumption and the communication costs for monitoring purposes. This chapter provides an overview of the use of WSNs in monitoring the CH objects. We give an overview of some technical details that depend on the WSN enabling technologies and protocols. Moreover, we provide important design factors regarding WSN-based monitoring of CH objects in order to ensure an efficient and reliable system, and acceptable level of Quality of Service (QoS). We also discuss requirements for the design and implementation of the WSN-based monitoring in the CH context and provide some open research issues and challenges that need to be carefully taken into account.

In this research contribution we have introduced a management tool for tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) in production processes. This tool can be used by executives or persons responsible for process management of a Smart Factory in a strategic manner, for defining performance targets by using Smart Production dimensions. The presented management tool allows attaching and tracking of KPIs to single tasks and activities of a business/manufacturing process modeled in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN). Additionally it allows tracking of cycle time through the process on the task level. The extended version of this chapter also includes additionally a short Internet of Things (IoT) integration scenario for our tool. In this research work, we have described the functionality of the management tool by illustrating how it can be applied in a Smart Factory by using an Industry 4.0 use case scenario. Through a simple use case, we have shown that our management tool suits well for tracking of KPIs and cycle times in intelligent manufacturing procedures where business processes, systems, and humans interact with each other.

Trust between users and Cloud Service Providers (CSP) is an important attribute in the cloud computing environment. Cloud trust is directly proportional to data security and data privacy in such a way that it affects the quality of service (QoS). Lack of control over data content and transparency in processing of data by the CSP could diminish the trust factor. In this chapter, Trust-Based Chaos Access Control (TBCAC) framework for cloud environment is proposed and evaluated through MATLAB. It is a neural network (NN) based framework that monitors, analyses, and enforces the trust requirements for data publication. The trust manager proposed in this chapter works well in a real environment and it acquires trust-related data regarding every cloud user’s transaction on the cloud server. The cloud manager used in the proposed architecture is competent for dynamically analyzing the data requesting pattern from the user through NN-based classifiers. The proposed architecture is evaluated using MATLAB environment with Amazon cloud services dataset for the demonstration purpose. The results prove that TBCAC effectively prevents the unauthorized behavior and access in the cloud computing environment.

With the dawn of 5G era worldwide NB-IoT has become an evolving technology of cellular 5G wireless communications. In particular, the mobile operators should ensure secured services and connectivity with higher range of IoT solutions. The existing cellular standards provide poor power-saving capabilities which lead to unsuitable battery requirements. Poor coverage is a major drawback for the connected things in remote areas. To satisfy the demand and to support the 5G system NB-IoT is deployed. NB-IoT comes under the category of LPWAN designed in 3GPP for wireless network operators. It is a subset of LTE standard with a narrowband of 200 KHz. It meets the challenges of stable and robust connectivity in a virtual network. This paper explains the technical aspects, design deployment, features, challenges, and applications of NB-IoT with a comparison of other technologies.

The idea behind smart city to scarcity the challenges that any city face, like lake of energy resources, healthcare system, housing problem, water and decay infrastructure (road, schools, transportation) and other challenges like emergent climate change, instability in price, give a better economic opportunity and also give social benefits on demand. Information and communication technology is a new recent advancement that classifies the cost-efficient technology and focuses on discernible and sustainable environment and application of “smart” resolutions; therefore, ICT help to implement the smart strategy that put together different information related to different users that help to find out the clear aspects of smart living in an urban area that actually link several concepts such as virtual city, wired or wireless city, intelligent city (IC), digital and information city and so on. This chapter presents a framework for the realization of green smart cities through the Internet of Things.

Cloud computing is a domain where distinctive administrations are given to clients over the Web. Task scheduling is one of the critical parts of cloud computing which enhances the execution of the cloud framework. Efficient task scheduling algorithm is one of the main challenges in cloud computing. Scheduling algorithm makes a specific task to get finished in conceivable least time. Task scheduling helps in accomplishing productive usage of resources. In this chapter, the authors generate population for Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) using the Predict Earliest Finish Time algorithm (PEFT). The authors used makespan time and cost as parameters to evaluate the results of the proposed approach. Experimental results in this study demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms the existing technique of scheduling using Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. The results in this work proved that this model consumes less cost and execution time than the other existing approaches of scheduling using Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm.

Recommender systems are machine learning based algorithms that found application in various business scenarios, e.g., video on demand or music streaming like Netflix and YouTube, products sales recommendation such as Amazon, or content recommendation such as Facebook or Twitter. Besides successful utilization by multinational companies, the recommender systems found application in small business like supermarket, cinema, restaurants, retail stores, etc. In this chapter detailed overview about the algorithms behind the recommender systems was described with focus of the application using the ML.NET open source framework for training, building, and evaluating machine learning models. Furthermore, the methodology and use case scenario for the restaurant recommendation using ML.NET were developed to provide full life-cycle management of the modern cloud based recommended system.

Recent advancements in cloud computing (CC) and the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) have tremendously revolutionized terrestrial wireless sensor networks (TWSN) communication. These have resultantly paved the way for the practical realization of underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSN) and the emergence of the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT). The need for better environmental monitoring within the context of smart cities and the recent spate of global natural disasters has further aroused research interest in IoUT which has motivated a number of UWSN innovations, such as the development of tethered remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROUVs), untethered autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), unmanned/autonomous surface vehicles (USVs/ASVs) and other smart underwater technologies. While these inventions hold promising prospects for technologically advanced countries, the same assertion cannot be made for most African countries due to challenges inherent in research and development activities into critical IoUT/UWSN projects in the region. This chapter conducts a systematic bibliometric analysis that highlights the knowledge base for core research works in UWSN globally and within the African region. This research discovered 1025 peer-reviewed articles in 5 Scopus-indexed document sources published between 2008 and July 2019. Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer science mapping software tool was used to analyse the retrieved data from Scopus repository. The bibliometric analysis was used to evaluate specific criteria, namely, major subject area, document sources, most cited and productive authors, countries, institutions, funding institutions and most used keywords. The findings of this research indicated that UWSN/IoUT research is still in its infancy in the African region. This chapter concludes by highlighting vital missing links, essential research directions and unique technical recommendations that will be of relevance in helping the successful actualization of IoUT/UWSN research projects in Africa.

Cloud computing has played a significant role in improving the management and control of information access. Healthcare institutions employ cloud computing to manage not only the data of patients but also the practitioner referencing platforms. Contemporarily, management of information systems has a challenging history with regard to loss of the practitioner and patient confidentiality following successful hacks from targeted online malware. In this regard, health informatics has been recognized within the healthcare sector as a service with three significant applications and benefits. Firstly, as a service, health informatics that use cloud computing have a general insurance of their service use. Secondly, with cloud access to information can be cross-referenced from one practitioner or institution to another. Thirdly, as an innovation in information access, cloud computing sustains the service integration of multiple practitioners allowing for better patient outcomes. Cloud computing in healthcare informatics guarantees better healthcare services such as provision of on-demand patient records. Therefore, in this work a detailed insight into the importance and implementation of healthcare informatics and the adaptation levels of healthcare informatics in cloud computing over time is herein reviewed to determine its applicability and relevance today as well as in the future.

In recent years, cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) are used to enhance and accelerate today’s technological evaluation efficiently and securely. Some issues (i.e., privacy, data security, data protection, malicious attack) are not solvable individually in cloud computing and IoT. Today, the most significant evaluation is that cloud-based Internet of Things mechanism is a very far-reaching application in the various enterprise domain. Successful implementation of CBIT is a challenging task for researchers. However, a lot of research work has been done before by the many researchers integrating IoT with cloud computing. In this book chapter, a simple description of CBIT architecture and applications has been presented. This chapter also represents various CBIT application domains and describes all the useful application domains easily. Specific improvements in a specific application domain have been shown in this chapter.