Communication Technologies and Protocol Architectures for the Internet of Things: Challenges and Prospects

Dear Colleagues, 

The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a revolutionary paradigm that connects objects and devices in our physical world to the digital realm, enabling seamless communication and data exchange. The IoT offers tremendous potential for applications in diverse domains, such as industry, healthcare, agriculture, environmental monitoring, and smart cities. Also, a plethora of connectivity technologies and protocol stacks have been, and continue to be, developed for IoT devices, from short-range to long-range solutions, including satellite-based connectivity. Some options support the use of the Internet Protocol (IP) for IoT devices, whereas others rely on translation elements when Internet connectivity is required. However, the widespread deployment and utilization of IoT devices and networks brings forth numerous challenges (including low energy consumption, scalability, reliability, low latency, etc.) that need to be addressed to fully realize these systems’ prospects.

This Special Issue aims to explore the challenges and prospects associated with current and future IoT communication technologies and protocol architectures, providing insights into the advancements and considerations required to unlock their full potential. We invite both original research papers and review articles that showcase significant developments in these fields. Potential areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Short-range technologies and their evolution. Examples include IEEE 802.15.4, Bluetooth Low Energy, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC), etc.
• Long-range technologies and their evolution. Examples include LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, Sigfox, etc.
• Multihop solutions for IoT networks.
• Cellular solutions for IoT (e.g., 4G, 5G, 6G proposals).
• Energy harvesting, battery-less IoT, zero energy, ambient IoT.
• Optical communication technologies and solutions for IoT.
• IP-based IoT: 6LoWPAN, 6Lo, 6TiSCH, Thread, IETF LPWAN, SCHC, RPL, CoAP, Matter, etc.
• Non-IP-based IoT.
• Time-sensitive and deterministic networking for IoT.
• IoT solutions in the context of application domains: smart cities, smart homes, smart buildings, smart industry, smart health, smart agriculture, smart grid, etc.
• IoT communication solutions to support Extended Reality (XR): Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR).

Prof. Dr. Carles Gomez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• long-range technologies
• communication
• IP-based IoT