The Internet of Things: An overview and new perspectives in systems design

The Internet of Things (IoT) describes a future world of interconnected physical objects, with several applications in the areas of smart buildings, smart cities, and smart objects. As physical objects around us are able to communicate with one another, the need for human intervention in their operation is reduced. The fulfillment of this concept requires research in the areas of low-power integrated circuits, embedded systems design, network protocols, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and control theory, among others. There has been much advancement in these areas, and the realization of IoT is becoming increasingly probable. In this paper, we discuss new perspectives in systems design under IoT, covering the following key topics: IoT enablers, existing and novel IoT applications, and current challenges in IoT. We first discuss the core technology enablers that have brought us this far in IoT, focusing on the hardware and networking advancements in recent years. Next, we discuss some novel IoT applications that leverage on the technology that is currently available. Finally, we explore some of the potential challenges ahead in IoT. Our discussion seeks to define the IoT foundation that can be built upon for future research in this domain.