The internet of things [Guest Editorial]

The Internet has experienced a tremendous growth in the past three decades, evolving from a network of a few hundred hosts to a platform linking billions of "things" globally, including individual people as well as enterprises of various sizes, through computers and computerized devices of any conceivable size and capability and the applications running on them. The growth of the Internet shows no signs of slowing down and it steadily becomes the cause of a new pervasive paradigm in computing and communications. This new paradigm enhances the traditional Internet into a smart Internet of Things (IoT) created around intelligent interconnections of diverse objects in the physical world, such as vehicles, cell phones, habitats, and habitat occupants. It utilizes low-cost information gathering and dissemination devices, such as sensors and RFID tags, that facilitate fast-paced interactions among the objects themselves as well as the objects and persons in any place and at any time. IoT will usher in a wide range of smart applications and services to cope with many of the challenges individuals and organizations face in their everyday lives. For example, remote healthcare monitoring systems could aid in managing costs and alleviating the shortage of healthcare personnel; intelligent transportation systems could aid in reducing traffic congestion and inevitably the ills caused by it such as air pollution; smart distribution systems from utility grids to supply chains could aid in improving the quality and reducing the cost of their respective goods and services; tagged objects could result in more systematic recycling and effective waste disposal, and so on.