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Abstract:

COVID-19 has disrupted normal life and has enforced a substantial change in the policies, priorities and activities of individuals, organisations and governments. These changes are proving to be a catalyst for technology and innovation. In this paper, we discuss the pandemic’s potential impact on the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in various broad sectors, namely healthcare, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, transportation and industrial IoT. Our perspective and forecast of this impact on IoT adoption is based on a thorough research literature review, a careful examination of reports from leading consulting firms and interactions with several industry experts. For each of these sectors, we also provide the details of notable IoT initiatives taken in the wake of COVID-19. We also highlight the challenges that need to be addressed and important research directions that will facilitate accelerated IoT adoption.

1. Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) is envisioned as a network of billions of devices that can sense, communicate and share data which can then be analyzed to unlock a wealth of intelligence useful for planning, management and decision making [1]. IoT promises huge benefits for a variety of domains such as healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, telecommunication and transportation. Despite the popularity of the IoT concept and its promised benefits, its adoption has been significantly slower than expected [2,3]. Some of the major reasons behind this include: (1) security, privacy, policy and trust issues [3–5]; (2) organisational inertia, long capital cycles and shortage of specialist workforce needed to successfully implement IoT [2,5]; and (3) lack of convincing use cases with clear return on investment (ROI) in some sectors.

COVID-19 has impacted all walks of life so much that we may never return to the old normal. This pandemic is proving to be a catalyst for digital transformation because COVID19 has created or expanded applications and use cases of digital technologies [6–8]. It has also forced governments, organisations and individuals to change/adapt their priorities, their views on societal/ethical issues, and the way they operate. In many cases, this has addressed or mitigated many of the above mentioned reasons behind the slower-thanexpected adoption of IoT across many verticals. For example, governments have invested huge amounts of resources in IoT and other technologies to combat COVID-19. Lifestyle changes brought about by COVID-19 such as work/study from home have also provided new use cases of IoT with clear ROI such as remote asset control, workforce tracking and remote employee collaboration [9]. Consequently, many organisations have increased investment in IoT and the pace of their IoT projects [10,11]. The fight against COVID-19 has resulted in a less strict stance on privacy issues, higher trust in technology and fasttracked approval procedures. This is also paving the way for accelerated adoption of IoT in various verticals. Furthermore, regulatory changes such as stricter cleaning and tracking requirements for businesses are also accelerating the IoT adoption in smart buildings.

Introduction

Increasing individual use of connected smart devices, rapid growth of worldwide urban population, gradual aging of society in many countries as well as the rising demand for sustainable energy resources have given momentum to the emergence of smart cities and smart spaces [1]. Smart city services span a wide spectrum of applications ranging from smart utilities, to smart health, smart transportation, smart governance, and smart environment [2], which Utilize real-time sens- ing, knowledge engineering, and presentation of the analyzed data in an interpretable format. To fulfill the requirements of diverse applications and services, a smart city architecture consists of five planes as illustrated in Fig. 1 in a minimalist manner. The application plane provides services to the end users for any relevant application such as smart utilities, energy, transportation, health, environment and safety. Serving mobile, home, and corporate sectors, these applications rely on an underlying substrate, which encompasses sensing, communication, data, and security planes as the core of a smart city architecture [3]. The data acquisition (sensing) networks—implemented by utilizing either hard sensors or soft sensors—form the sensing and actuation plane; whereas processing, analysis, and storage of data shape the main functionality of the data plane. These two planes are bridged by the communication and aggregation plane. Addressing users’ growing cognizance about smart city cybersecurity, each component shown in Fig. 1 calls for security and privacy assurance mechanisms. The challenging task of satisfying these requirements is relegated to the security and privacy plane. As shown in Fig. 1, a comprehensive and effective security and privacy plane must be implemented adjacent to every individual building block of this architecture. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a major enabler for diverse smart applications that involve massive data acquisition and intelligent decision making [4]. Therefore, in the realization of smart cities, the IoT is a bridging component between the sensing devices and the data plane [5, 6]. Indeed, in order for the IoT concept to operate thoroughly, its interface with the local wireless networks, backhaul networks, as well as local wired networks needs to be addressed properly. Furthermore, protocols for reliable and efficient data acquisition methodologies for fusing data are of paramount importance particularly to ensure a robust communication back-end in a smart city infrastructure. In a smart city architecture, communication back-end is one of the most crucial components, which is responsible for pre-processing and aggregation of the sensory data. Reliability, usefulness and trustworthiness of the data acquired by the communication back-end depends on the effectiveness of the sensing plane. As studied in [2], sensors in a smart city setting can be deployed in either a dedicated or non-dedicated manner; each deployment strategy has its own pros and cons. Based on the observations above, in this paper, we present a smart city architecture by briefly introducing its building blocks (termed planes), namely the application, communication, sensing, data, and security planes. Upon brief introduction of the architectural building blocks, we move to our main foci, which are the sensing, communication and security planes. In the study of the sensing plane, we present the dedicated and nondedicated sensing paradigms from the standpoint of various smart city applications. We thoroughly investigate the sensor types, problems experienced by the corresponding smart city applications, existing solutions and the communication technologies used by the sensors. Sensing plane is followed by the communication plane, which is studied in terms of the requirements, implications, and common solutions. We partition the communication plane into several sub-planes to study the communication infrastructure and protocol design for a smart city with fine granularity.

Introduction

Nowadays, smart city services are becoming more widespread than ever as cities are growing and becoming increasingly crowded as a result of urbanization and world population growth[1]. The term “smart city” in [2] refers to the use of information and communication technologies to sense, analyze and integrate 5 key information from core systems in operating cities. At the same time, smart city services can make intelligent responses to different kinds of needs in terms of daily livelihood, environmental protection, and public safety, as well as the city’s facilities and industrial and commercial activities. As smart city — related technologies develop rapidly (for example, the spread of IoT devices), more things become measurable. As a result, we have more and more usable data about the ecosystem of our cities. 10 Among the various notable goals of smart cities, construction of smart transportation systems and smart urban management systems are two of the key aims, which could significantly influence the lives of residents in future cities. Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMSs) and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) integrate information, communication, and other technologies and apply them in the field of transportation to build an integrated system of people, roads, and vehicles. These systems constitute 15 a large, fully-functioning, real-time, accurate, and efficient transportation management framework [3]. In ATMSs and ITSs, it is a fundamental challenge to predict the next possible states of traffic with high precision, because this information helps to prevent unfortunate events like traffic jams or other anomalies on roads. The literature often refers to traffic as a flow, because it has similar properties to fluids. Thus when we speak about traffic flow prediction, we wish to predict the next state (it can be the 20 volume, speed, density, or behavior) of the traffic flow based on historic and real-time data. The rapid progress of urbanization has modernized many people’s lives, but also brought remarkable challenges like traffic congestion [4] that can lead to increased energy/fuel consumption [5] and enormous emission of pollutants [6]. These phenomena have a great impact on the health and quality of life of citydwellers. According to [7], laboratory studies indicate that transport-related air pollution may increase 25 the risk of developing allergies and can exacerbate symptoms, particularly in susceptible subgroups; cohereas [8] showed that traffic jams increase the risk of heart attack. Intelligent management systems (such as ATMS and ITS) can help overcome or significantly reduce the impact of such negative effects on city-dwellers. Forecasts can also support traffic control centers in managing the road network and allocating resources systematically, such as opening/closing lanes, 30 dynamic parking pricing [9], or adaptive traffic lights [10] with a high level of automation [11]. When driving, knowledge of traffic forecasts for different routes is advantageous [12], and devices will be able to calculate more efficient routes and reduce travel time. Insight into vehicular flows within the smart city could make searching for parking spaces [13] much easier and faster. Moreover, it could be a useful source of information for emerging V2X-based traffic control systems [14], which could play an 35 important role in the route planning of self-driving cars.

1- Introduction

2- Energy efficiency approaches

3- Use of heat pumps and other HVAC systems

4- Integration of renewable energies

5- Conclusions

References

Abstract

The need to achieve energy efficiency standards in new and existing buildings has triggered both research and design practice aimed at reducing their carbon footprint and improving their indoor comfort and functionality conditions. In this view, a dedicated scientific effort has to be spent while dealing with historical architectures needing to preserve their key testimonial knowledge into the society. Therefore, tailored retrofit strategies have been investigated and implemented without compromising their architectural value, especially when new uses are foreseen in those buildings. This review classifies different examples of the use of energy efficiency approaches and the integration of renewable energies in historical buildings, including solar and geothermal energy, and the use of heat pumps and other high-efficiency heating ventilation and air conditioning systems.

Introduction

Buildings account for almost a third of final energy consumption globally and are an equally important source of CO2 emissions [1]. Currently, both space heating and cooling as well as hot water production are estimated to account for roughly half of global energy consumption in buildings. These end-uses represent significant opportunities to reduce energy consumption, improve energy security, and reduce CO2 emissions due to the fact that space and water-heating provision is dominated by fossil fuels while cooling demand is growing rapidly in countries with very carbon-intensive electricity systems. Building heating and cooling systems are used to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures through the generation and/or transfer of heat. There are four main technical approaches to reduce the heating or cooling load of a building: 1. Reducing the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors by adopting Adaptive Thermal Comfort principles – an indoor temperature that is closer to the outdoor temperature (as far as possible). 2. Improving the building envelope. 3. Increasing the efficiency of heating and cooling equipment. 4. Replacing the building with a new construction. Related to this third point, low/zero-carbon and energy-efficient heating and cooling technologies for buildings have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2 Gt and save 710 Mtoe of energy by 2050. Most of these technologies – which include solar thermal, combined heat and power (CHP), heat pumps, and thermal energy storage – are commercially available today. The potential of these technologies presents, nevertheless, several barriers in order to increase the roll-out in the market [1], such as higher initial cost, market risks for new technologies, imperfect information, and uncertainty (technical, regulatory, policy, etc.). On the other hand, historical buildings (defined as those built before 1945), which are usually low-performance buildings by definition (as shown for the Netherlands by van Krugten et al. [2]), represent almost 30–40% of the whole building stock in European countries [3]. Historical buildings often contribute to townscape character. They create the urban spaces that are enjoyed by residents and attract tourist visitors. They may be protected by law from alteration not only limited to their visual appearance preservation, but also concerning materials and construction techniques to be integrated into original architectures. According to Fabbri and Pretelli [4], a heritage building is a historical building which, for their immense value, is subject to legal preservation. In Italy, for instance, heritage buildings built before 1919 are around 19% of the total, and buildings built between 1919 and 1945 are about 12% of the total [5]. In UK, it has been estimated that approximately 1% of the existing buildings can be considered heritage ones [6]. According to Fabbri [7], historical buildings can be classified into three categories as monuments and buildings of special architectural interest, buildings built before an established historical date (i.e., historical threshold), and buildings that show unique constructive and technological systems. In the EU27, the 14% of buildings were erected before the 1919 and the 26% has been built before the 1945.

Abstract

By leveraging advancements in information and communications technology (ICT), Smart Cities offer many potential benefits like improved energy efficiency, management and personal security. However, this dependence on ICT also makes smart cities prone to cyber attacks. In this paper, we investigate the topic of cybersecurity for smart cities. We show how the specific characteristics of smart cities give rise to cybersecurity challenges, and review the different threats faced. Finally, we review some of the more important cybersecurity solutions for smart cities that have been proposed.

Introduction

Rapid advances in ICT have been exploited to streamline the design, operation and management of urban environments in a variety of ways. For example, it is now possible to monitor and manage energy consumption patterns in real time with smart meters, use this information to coordinate generation and distribution resources via the smart grid, continuously track traffic congestion and road hazards and communicate this automatically to vehicles and commuters. Progress in these areas have helped to cut costs, increase efficiency, bring about greater safety and convenience, and reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

1. Introduction

Due to urbanization and industrialization, China has been the biggest contributor to emissions since 2007 [1]. Industry, transportation and buildings are the three main fields of energy consumption in China, and consumption in the building sector in China has occupied more than 33% of the national energy consumption [2]. Currently, the total building area in China is near 40 billion m2 , and by 2020, the total building area will reach 70 billion m2 [2]. Meanwhile, more than 90% of existing buildings are high energy consumption, thus making China’s existing building energy consumption per unit area approximately 2 times that of developed countries in same environmental conditions [3]. Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit (BEER) provides excellent opportunities to reduce energy consumption in buildings and encourages the implementations of other sustainability practices, such as environmental protection, rational resource use, and occupants’ healthcare [4]. Building Energy Efficiency Retrofit (BEER) is a process to reduce buildings’ operational energy use by applying certain approaches of the building envelope and mechanical systems improvements while keeping the buildings’ indoor environment and comfort [5]. Thus, China should accelerate the energy efficiency improvements of existing buildings. The Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) industry, a recently emergent industry, provides a market mechanism called energy performance contracting (EPC) to deliver energy efficiency projects. EPC is a financing package that includes energy savings guarantees, associated designs and installation services for energy efficiency retrofit projects [6–9]. EPC was introduced to China in 1996 in partnership with the World Bank and the Global Environment Fund. The program aims to introduce EPC, improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and protect the environment in China. In 1998, three pilot ESCOs were created: the Beijing ESCO, the Liaoning ESCO, and the Shandong ESCO [8]. In 2004, The Energy Management Company Association (EMCA) was created to facilitate the operation of EPC and development of the ESCOs industry in China. From then on, the number of ESCOs experienced a rapid growth period. The numbers of ESCOs, investments and production have increased over all these years (Figs. 1 and 2). There has surely been a significant average annual growth rate of 34.91% in the number of ESCOs from 2004 to 2013. In this millennium, the Chinese government has established a series of policies to support the application of EPC and the development of ESCOs. Obviously, the government’s attention brings huge developmental opportunities for ESCOs. However, such a number cannot represent a healthy energy service market since there are some inevitable obstacles leading to a difficult situation for ESCOs, especially in building sector [10]. Most of the ESCOs in China remain small. According to the EMCA, the financial capacity of Chinese ESCOs is limited: 60% of the ESCOs have less than 10 million RMB of registration capital; 20% have more than 50 million RMB of registration capital; and approximately 50% of ESCOs have less than 100 employees [11]. Moreover, in China, it is difficult for small companies with little capital to obtain loans or other financial support, thereby making it difficult for ESCOs to obtain financing [12–14].