I- INTRODUCTION

II- IOT, IIOT AND INDUSTRY 4.0

III- STATE OF THE ART

IV- OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

REFERENCES

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging domain that promises ubiquitous connection to the Internet, turning common objects into connected devices. The IoT paradigm is changing the way people interact with things around them. It paves the way to creating pervasively connected infrastructures to support innovative services and promises better flexibility and efficiency. Such advantages are attractive not only for consumer applications, but also for the industrial domain. Over the last few years, we have been witnessing the IoT paradigm making its way into the industry marketplace with purposely designed solutions. In this paper, we clarify the concepts of IoT, Industrial IoT, and Industry 4.0. We highlight the opportunities brought in by this paradigm shift as well as the challenges for its realization. In particular, we focus on the challenges associated with the need of energy efficiency, real-time performance, coexistence, interoperability, and security and privacy. We also provide a systematic overview of the state-of-the-art research efforts and potential research directions to solve Industrial IoT challenges.

Introduction

Internet of Things (IoT) is a computing concept describing ubiquitous connection to the Internet, turning common objects into connected devices. The key idea behind the IoT concept is to deploy billions or even trillions of smart objects capable to sense the surrounding environment, transmit and process acquired data, and then feedback to the environment. It is expected that by the year 2021 there will be around 28 billion connected devices [1]. Connecting unconventional objects to the Internet will improve the sustainability and safety of industries and society, and enable efficient interaction between the physical world and its digital counterpart, i.e. what is usually addressed as a Cyber-physical System (CPS). IoT is usually depicted as the disruptive technology for solving most of present-day society issues such as smart cities, intelligent transportation, pollution monitoring, connected healthcare, to name a few. As a subset of IoT (see Fig. 1), Industrial IoT (IIoT) covers the domains of machine-to-machine (M2M) and industrial communication technologies with automation applications. IIoT paves the way to better understanding of the manufacturing process, thereby enabling efficient and sustainable production. Flexibility and scalability required by IoT communications are typically addressed using wireless links. In the past, wireless technologies in industrial applications were mostly based on ad hoc solutions, e.g. individually developed for connecting moving parts or hard-to-reach devices. Only recently, standards purposely designed for the industry (e.g., WirelessHART [2] and ISA100.11a [3]) were released. However, they face limitations in terms of scalability and coverage when very large areas need to be covered. While cellular technologies such as 3/4/5G technologies promise to connect massive devices over long distances, they require infrastructure support and licensed band [4]. IIoT applications typically require relatively small throughput per node and the capacity is not a main concern. Instead, the need of connecting a very large number of devices to the Internet at low cost, with limited hardware capabilities and energy resources (e.g. small batteries) make latency, energy efficiency, cost, reliability, and security/privacy more desired features [5]. Meeting the above mentioned requirements poses a number of key challenges on the evolution of IIoT. Addressing these challenges is critical in order to ensure a massive roll-out of IIoT technologies. In this paper, we clarify the concepts of IoT, IIoT, and the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies called Industry 4.0. We highlight the opportunities brought in by IIoT as well as the challenges for its realization.