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The Internet of Things: A Survey

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DOI: 10.1016/j.comnet.2010.05.010 Source: DBLP

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1

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Computer Networks
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comnet

2 The Internet of Things: A survey


3 Luigi Atzori a, Antonio Iera b, Giacomo Morabito c,*
4 a
DIEE, University of Cagliari, Italy
5 b
University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Italy
6 c
University of Catania, Italy

7
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
9
2 1
10 Article history: This paper addresses the Internet of Things. Main enabling factor of this promising para- 22
11 Received 10 December 2009 digm is the integration of several technologies and communications solutions. Identica- 23
12 Received in revised form 27 April 2010 tion and tracking technologies, wired and wireless sensor and actuator networks, 24
13 Accepted 14 May 2010
enhanced communication protocols (shared with the Next Generation Internet), and dis- 25
14 Available online xxxx
15 Responsible Editor: E. Ekici
tributed intelligence for smart objects are just the most relevant. As one can easily imagine, 26
any serious contribution to the advance of the Internet of Things must necessarily be the 27
result of synergetic activities conducted in different elds of knowledge, such as telecom- 28
16 Keywords:
17 Internet of Things
munications, informatics, electronics and social science. In such a complex scenario, this 29
18 Pervasive computing survey is directed to those who want to approach this complex discipline and contribute 30
19 RFID systems to its development. Different visions of this Internet of Things paradigm are reported 31
20 and enabling technologies reviewed. What emerges is that still major issues shall be faced 32
by the research community. The most relevant among them are addressed in details. 33
2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. 34

35
36
37 1. Introduction leading role in the near future. Similarly, from the perspec- 55
tive of business users, the most apparent consequences 56
38 The Internet of Things (IoT) is a novel paradigm that is will be equally visible in elds such as, automation and 57
39 rapidly gaining ground in the scenario of modern wireless industrial manufacturing, logistics, business/process man- 58
40 telecommunications. The basic idea of this concept is the agement, intelligent transportation of people and goods. 59
41 pervasive presence around us of a variety of things or By starting from the considerations above, it should not 60
42 objects such as Radio-Frequency IDentication (RFID) be surprising that IoT is included by the US National Intel- 61
43 tags, sensors, actuators, mobile phones, etc. which, ligence Council in the list of six Disruptive Civil Technol- 62
44 through unique addressing schemes, are able to interact ogies with potential impacts on US national power [2]. 63
45 with each other and cooperate with their neighbors to NIC foresees that by 2025 Internet nodes may reside in 64
46 reach common goals [1]. everyday things food packages, furniture, paper docu- 65
47 Unquestionably, the main strength of the IoT idea is the ments, and more. It highlights future opportunities that 66
48 high impact it will have on several aspects of everyday-life will arise, starting from the idea that popular demand 67
49 and behavior of potential users. From the point of view of a combined with technology advances could drive wide- 68
50 private user, the most obvious effects of the IoT introduc- spread diffusion of an Internet of Things (IoT) that could, 69
51 tion will be visible in both working and domestic elds. like the present Internet, contribute invaluably to eco- 70
52 In this context, domotics, assisted living, e-health, en- nomic development. The possible threats deriving from 71
53 hanced learning are only a few examples of possible appli- a widespread adoption of such a technology are also 72
54 cation scenarios in which the new paradigm will play a stressed. Indeed, it is emphasized that to the extent that 73
everyday objects become information security risks, the 74
Q1 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 095 7382355; fax: +39 095 7382397. IoT could distribute those risks far more widely than the 75
E-mail addresses: l.atzori@diee.unica.it (L. Atzori), antonio.iera@unirc. Internet has to date. 76
it (A. Iera), giacomo.morabito@diit.unict.it (G. Morabito).

1389-1286/$ - see front matter 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.


doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2010.05.010

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77 Actually, many challenging issues still need to be ad- itself, which syntactically is composed of two terms. The 133
78 dressed and both technological as well as social knots have rst one pushes towards a network oriented vision of IoT, 134
79 to be untied before the IoT idea being widely accepted. while the second one moves the focus on generic objects 135
80 Central issues are making a full interoperability of inter- to be integrated into a common framework. 136
81 connected devices possible, providing them with an always Differences, sometimes substantial, in the IoT visions 137
82 higher degree of smartness by enabling their adaptation and raise from the fact that stakeholders, business alliances, re- 138
83 autonomous behavior, while guaranteeing trust, privacy, search and standardization bodies start approaching the is- 139
84 and security. Also, the IoT idea poses several new problems sue from either an Internet oriented or a Things 140
85 concerning the networking aspects. In fact, the things com- oriented perspective, depending on their specic inter- 141
86 posing the IoT will be characterized by low resources in ests, nalities and backgrounds. 142
87 terms of both computation and energy capacity. Accord- It shall not be forgotten, anyway, that the words Inter- 143
88 ingly, the proposed solutions need to pay special attention net and Things, when put together, assume a meaning 144
89 to resource efciency besides the obvious scalability which introduces a disruptive level of innovation into to- 145
90 problems. day ICT world. In fact, Internet of Things semantically 146
91 Several industrial, standardization and research bodies means a world-wide network of interconnected objects 147
92 are currently involved in the activity of development of uniquely addressable, based on standard communication 148
93 solutions to fulll the highlighted technological require- protocols [3]. This implies a huge number of (heteroge- 149
94 ments. This survey gives a picture of the current state of neous) objects involved in the process. 150
95 the art on the IoT. More specically, it: The object unique addressing and the representation 151
and storing of the exchanged information become the most 152
96  provides the readers with a description of the different challenging issues, bringing directly to a third, Semantic 153
97 visions of the Internet of Things paradigm coming from oriented, perspective of IoT. 154
98 different scientic communities; In Fig. 1, the main concepts, technologies and standards 155
99  reviews the enabling technologies and illustrates which are highlighted and classied with reference to the IoT vi- 156
100 are the major benets of spread of this paradigm in sion/s they contribute to characterize best. From such an 157
101 everyday-life; illustration, it clearly appears that the IoT paradigm shall 158
102  offers an analysis of the major research issues the scien- be the result of the convergence of the three main visions 159
103 tic community still has to face. addressed above. 160
The very rst denition of IoT derives from a Things 161
104 The main objective is to give the reader the opportunity of oriented perspective; the considered things were very 162
105 understanding what has been done (protocols, algorithms, simple items: Radio-Frequency IDentication (RFID) tags. 163
106 proposed solutions) and what still remains to be The terms Internet of Things is, in fact, attributed to 164
107 addressed, as well as which are the enabling factors of this The Auto-ID Labs [4], a world-wide network of academic 165
108 evolutionary process and what are its weaknesses and risk research laboratories in the eld of networked RFID and 166
109 factors. emerging sensing technologies. These institutions, since 167
110 The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In their establishment, have been targeted to architect the 168
111 Section 2, we introduce and compare the different visions IoT, together with EPCglobal [5]. Their focus has primar- 169
112 of the IoT paradigm, which are available from the litera- ily been on the development of the Electronic Product 170
113 ture. The IoT main enabling technologies are the subject Code (EPC) to support the spread use of RFID in 171
114 of Section 3, while the description of the principal applica- world-wide modern trading networks, and to create 172
115 tions, which in the future will benet from the full deploy- the industry-driven global standards for the EPCglobal 173
116 ment of the IoT idea, are addressed in Section 4. Section 5 Network. These standards are mainly designed to im- 174
117 gives a glance at the open issues on which research should prove object visibility (i.e. the traceability of an object 175
118 focus more, by stressing topics such as addressing, net- and the awareness of its status, current location, etc.). 176
119 working, security, privacy, and standardization efforts. This is undoubtedly a key component of the path to 177
120 Conclusions and future research hints are given in Section the full deployment of the IoT vision; but it is not the 178
121 6. only one. 179
In a broader sense, IoT cannot be just a global EPC sys- 180
tem in which the only objects are RFIDs; they are just a 181
122 2. One paradigm, many visions part of the full story! And the same holds for the alterna- 182
tive Unique/Universal/Ubiquitous IDentier (uID) architec- 183
123 Manifold denitions of Internet of Things traceable with- ture [6], whose main idea is still the development of 184
124 in the research community testify to the strong interest in (middleware based) solutions for a global visibility of ob- 185
125 the IoT issue and to the vivacity of the debates on it. By jects in an IoT vision. It is the authors opinion that, starting 186
126 browsing the literature, an interested reader might experi- from RFID centric solutions may be positive as the main as- 187
127 ence a real difculty in understanding what IoT really pects stressed by RFID technology, namely item traceabil- 188
128 means, which basic ideas stand behind this concept, and ity and addressability, shall denitely be addressed also 189
129 which social, economical and technical implications the by the IoT. Notwithstanding, alternative, and somehow 190
130 full deployment of IoT will have. more complete, IoT visions recognize that the term IoT im- 191
131 The reason of today apparent fuzziness around this plies a much wider vision than the idea of a mere objects 192
132 term is a consequence of the name Internet of Things identication. 193

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Things-
oriented visions
RFID
Everyday
UID NFC objects
Spimes
Wireless
Smart Items Sensorsand WISP
Actuators

Connectivity
for anything

Communicating
things
INTERNET
IPSO (IP for OF Semantic
Smart Technologies
Objects)
THINGS

Internet 0
Reasoning
over data
Web of Smart
Things Semantic Semantic execution
Middleware environments

Internet-oriented Semantic
-oriented
visions visions

Fig. 1. Internet of Things paradigm as a result of the convergence of different visions.

194 According to the authors of [7], RFID still stands at the equipped with usual wireless communication, memory, 227
195 forefront of the technologies driving the vision. This a con- and elaboration capabilities, but also with new poten- 228
196 sequence of the RFID maturity, low cost, and strong sup- tials. Autonomous and proactive behavior, context 229
197 port from the business community. However, they state awareness, collaborative communications and elabora- 230
198 that a wide portfolio of device, network, and service tech- tion are just some required capabilities. 231
199 nologies will eventually build up the IoT. Near Field Com- The denitions above paved the way to the ITU vision of 232
200 munications (NFC) and Wireless Sensor and Actuator the IoT, according to which: from anytime, anyplace con- 233
201 Networks (WSAN) together with RFID are recognized as nectivity for anyone, we will now have connectivity for 234
202 the atomic components that will link the real world with anything [10]. A similar vision is available from docu- 235
203 the digital world. It is also worth recalling that major pro- ments and communications of the European Commission, 236
204 jects are being carried out with the aim of developing rel- in which the most recurrent denition of IoT involves 237
205 evant platforms, such as the WISP (Wireless Identication Things having identities and virtual personalities operat- 238
206 and Sensing Platforms) project. ing in smart spaces using intelligent interfaces to connect 239
207 The one in [7] is not the only Things oriented vision and communicate within social, environmental, and user 240
208 clearly speaking of something going beyond RFID. Another contexts [3]. 241
209 one has been proposed by the United Nations, which, dur- An IoT vision statement, which goes well beyond a mere 242
210 ing the 2005 Tunis meeting, predicted the advent of IoT. A RFID centric approach, is also proposed by the consor- 243
211 UN Report states that a new era of ubiquity is coming tium CASAGRAS [11]. Its members focus on a world where 244
212 where humans may become the minority as generators things can automatically communicate to computers and 245
213 and receivers of trafc and changes brought about by the each other providing services to the benet of the human 246
214 Internet will be dwarfed by those prompted by the net- kind. CASAGRAS consortium (i) proposes a vision of IoT 247
215 working of everyday objects [8]. as a global infrastructure which connects both virtual 248
216 Similarly, other relevant institutions have stressed the and physical generic objects and (ii) highlights the impor- 249
217 concept that IoT has primarily to be focused on the tance of including existing and evolving Internet and net- 250
218 Things and that the road to its full deployment has work developments in this vision. In this sense, IoT 251
219 to start from the augmentation in the Things intelli- becomes the natural enabling architecture for the deploy- 252
220 gence. This is why a concept that emerged aside IoT is ment of independent federated services and applications, 253
221 the spime, dened as an object that can be tracked characterized by a high degree of autonomous data cap- 254
222 through space and time throughout its lifetime and that ture, event transfer, network connectivity and 255
223 will be sustainable, enhanceable, and uniquely identi- interoperability. 256
224 able [9]. Although quite theoretical, the spime denition This denition plays the role of trait dunion between 257
225 nds some real-world implementations in so called what we referred to as a Things oriented vision and an 258
226 Smart Items. These are a sort of sensors not only Internet oriented vision. 259

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260 Within the latter category falls the IoT vision of the IPSO However, the reduction in terms of size, weight, energy 316
261 (IP for Smart Objects) Alliance [11], a forum formed in Sep- consumption, and cost of the radio can take us to a new era 317
262 tember 2008 by 25 founding companies to promote the where the above ratio increases of orders of magnitude. 318
263 Internet Protocol as the network technology for connecting This will allow us to integrate radios in almost all objects 319
264 Smart Objects around the world. According to the IPSO vi- and thus, to add the world anything to the above vision, 320
265 sion, the IP stack is a light protocol that already connects a which leads to the IoT concept. 321
266 huge amount of communicating devices and runs on tiny In this context, key components of the IoT will be RFID 322
267 and battery operated embedded devices. This guarantees systems [20], which are composed of one or more reader(s) 323
268 that IP has all the qualities to make IoT a reality. By reading and several RFID tags. Tags are characterized by a unique 324
269 IPSO whitepapers, it seems that through a wise IP adapta- identier and are applied to objects (even persons or ani- 325
270 tion and by incorporating IEEE 802.15.4 into the IP archi- mals). Readers trigger the tag transmission by generating 326
271 tecture, in the view of 6LoWPAN [12], the full an appropriate signal, which represents a query for the 327
272 deployment of the IoT paradigm will be automatically possible presence of tags in the surrounding area and for 328
273 enabled. the reception of their IDs. Accordingly, RFID systems can 329
274 Internet [13] follows a similar approach of reducing be used to monitor objects in real-time, without the need 330
275 the complexity of the IP stack to achieve a protocol de- of being in line-of-sight; this allows for mapping the real 331
276 signed to route IP over anything. In some forums this is world into the virtual world. Therefore, they can be used 332
277 looked at as the wisest way to move from the Internet of in an incredibly wide range of application scenarios, span- 333
278 Devices to the Internet of Things. According to both the ning from logistics to e-health and security. 334
279 IPSO and Internet approaches, the IoT will be deployed From a physical point of view a RFID tag is a small 335
280 by means of a sort of simplication of the current IP to microchip1 attached to an antenna (that is used for both 336
281 adapt it to any object and make those objects addressable receiving the reader signal and transmitting the tag ID) in 337
282 and reachable from any location. a package which usually is similar to an adhesive sticker 338
283 As said before, it is worth noticing that Semantic ori- [21]. Dimensions can be very low: Hitachi has developed a 339
284 ented IoT visions are available in the literature [1417]. tag with dimensions 0.4 mm  0.4 mm  0.15 mm. 340
285 The idea behind them is that the number of items involved Usually, RFID tags are passive, i.e., they do not have on- 341
286 in the Future Internet is destined to become extremely board power supplies and harvest the energy required for 342
287 high. Therefore, issues related to how to represent, store, transmitting their ID from the query signal transmitted 343
288 interconnect, search, and organize information generated by a RFID reader in the proximity. In fact, this signal gener- 344
289 by the IoT will become very challenging. In this context, ates a current into the tag antenna by induction and such a 345
290 semantic technologies could play a key role. In fact, these current is utilized to supply the microchip which will 346
291 can exploit appropriate modeling solutions for things transmit the tag ID. Usually, the gain (power of the signal 347
292 description, reasoning over data generated by IoT, seman- received by the reader divided by the power of the signal 348
293 tic execution environments and architectures that accom- transmitted by the same reader) characterizing such sys- 349
294 modate IoT requirements and scalable storing and tems is very low. However, thanks to the highly directive 350
295 communication infrastructure [14]. antennas utilized by the readers, tags ID can be correctly 351
296 A further vision correlated with the IoT is the so called received within a radio range that can be as long as a 352
297 Web of Things [18], according to which Web standards few meters. Transmission may occur in several frequency 353
298 are re-used to connect and integrate into the Web every- bands spanning from low frequencies (LF) at 124 354
299 day-life objects that contain an embedded device or 135 kHz up to ultra high frequencies (UHF) at 860 355
300 computer. 960 MHz that have the longest range. 356
Nevertheless, there are also RFID tags getting power 357
supply by batteries. In this case we can distinguish semi- 358
301 3. Enabling technologies
passive from active RFID tags. In semi-passive RFIDs batter- 359
ies power the microchip while receiving the signal from 360
302 Actualization of the IoT concept into the real world is
the reader (the radio is powered with the energy harvested 361
303 possible through the integration of several enabling tech-
by the reader signal). Differently, in active RFIDs the bat- 362
304 nologies. In this section we discuss the most relevant ones.
tery powers the transmission of the signal as well. Obvi- 363
305 Note that it is not our purpose to provide a comprehensive
ously the radio coverage is the highest for active tags 364
306 survey of each technology. Our major aim is to provide a
even if this is achieved at the expenses of higher produc- 365
307 picture of the role they will likely play in the IoT. Interested
tion costs. 366
308 readers will nd references to technical publications for
Sensor networks will also play a crucial role in the IoT. 367
309 each specic technology.
In fact, they can cooperate with RFID systems to better 368
track the status of things, i.e., their location, temperature, 369
310 3.1. Identication, sensing and communication technologies movements, etc. As such, they can augment the awareness 370
of a certain environment and, thus, act as a further bridge 371
311 Anytime, anywhere, anymedia has been for a long between physical and digital world. Usage of sensor net- 372
312 time the vision pushing forward the advances in communi-
313 cation technologies. In this context, wireless technologies
314 have played a key role and today the ratio between radios 1
New RFID tags, named chipless tags, are under study which do not use
315 and humans is nearing the 1 to 1 value [19]. microchips so as to decrease production cost [Ted09]. Q2

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373 works has been proposed in several application scenarios, Sensing RFID systems will allow to build RFID sensor 424
374 such as environmental monitoring, e-health, intelligent networks [26], which consist of small, RFID-based sensing 425
375 transportation systems, military, and industrial plant and computing devices, and RFID readers, which are the 426
376 monitoring. sinks of the data generated by the sensing RFID tags and 427
377 Sensor networks consist of a certain number (which can provide the power for the network operation. 428
378 be very high) of sensing nodes communicating in a wire- Table 1 compares the characteristics of RFID systems 429
379 less multi-hop fashion. Usually nodes report the results (RFID), wireless sensor networks (WSN), and RFID sensor 430
380 of their sensing to a small number (in most cases, only networks (RSN) [26]. Observe that the major advantages 431
381 one) of special nodes called sinks. A large scientic litera- of: 432
382 ture has been produced on sensor networks in the recent
383 past, addressing several problems at all layers of the proto-  RFID systems are the very small size and the very low 433
384 col stack [22]. Design objectives of the proposed solutions cost. Furthermore, their lifetime is not limited by the 434
385 are energy efciency (which is the scarcest resource in battery duration; 435
386 most of the scenarios involving sensor networks), scalabil-  wireless sensor networks are the high radio coverage 436
387 ity (the number of nodes can be very high), reliability (the and the communication paradigm, which does not 437
388 network may be used to report urgent alarm events), and require the presence of a reader (communication is 438
389 robustness (sensor nodes are likely to be subject to failures peer-to-peer whereas, it is asymmetric for the other 439
390 for several reasons). types of systems); 440
391 Today, most of commercial wireless sensor network  RFID sensor network are the possibility of supporting 441
392 solutions are based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which sensing, computing, and communication capabilities 442
393 denes the physical and MAC layers for low-power, low in a passive system. 443
394 bit rate communications in wireless personal area net- 444
395 works (WPAN) [23]. IEEE 802.15.4 does not include speci- 3.2. Middleware 445
396 cations on the higher layers of the protocol stack, which is
397 necessary for the seamless integration of sensor nodes into The middleware is a software layer or a set of sub-lay- 446
398 the Internet. This is a difcult task for several reasons, the ers interposed between the technological and the applica- 447
399 most important are given below: tion levels. Its feature of hiding the details of different 448
technologies is fundamental to exempt the programmer 449
400  Sensor networks may consist of a very large number of from issues that are not directly pertinent to her/his fo- 450
401 nodes. This would result in obvious problems as today cus, which is the development of the specic application 451
402 there is a scarce availability of IP addresses. enabled by the IoT infrastructures. The middleware is 452
403  The largest physical layer packet in IEEE 802.15.4 has gaining more and more importance in the last years due 453
404 127 bytes; the resulting maximum frame size at the to its major role in simplifying the development of new 454
405 media access control layer is 102 octets, which may fur- services and the integration of legacy technologies into 455
406 ther decrease based on the link layer security algorithm new ones. This excepts the programmer from the exact 456
407 utilized. Such sizes are too small when compared to knowledge of the variegate set of technologies adopted 457
408 typical IP packet sizes. by the lower layers. 458
409  In many scenarios sensor nodes spend a large part of As it is happening in other contexts, the middleware 459
410 their time in a sleep mode to save energy and cannot architectures proposed in the last years for the IoT often 460
411 communicate during these periods. This is absolutely follow the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach. 461
412 anomalous for IP networks. The adoption of the SOA principles allows for decompos- 462
ing complex and monolithic systems into applications 463
413 Integration of sensing technologies into passive RFID tags consisting of an ecosystem of simpler and well-dened 464
414 would enable a lot of completely new applications into components. The use of common interfaces and standard 465
415 the IoT context, especially into the e-health area [24]. protocols gives a horizontal view of an enterprise system. 466
416 Recently, several solutions have been proposed in this Thus, the development of business processes enabled by 467
417 direction. As an example, the WISP project is being carried the SOA is the result of the process of designing work- 468
418 out at Intel Labs to develop wireless identication and sens- ows of coordinated services, which eventually are asso- 469
419 ing platforms (WISP) [25]. WISPs are powered and read by ciated with objects actions. This facilitates the 470
420 standard RFID readers, harvesting the power from the interaction among the parts of an enterprise and allows 471
421 readers querying signal. WISPs have been used to measure for reducing the time necessary to adapt itself to the 472
422 quantities in a certain environment, such as light, temper- changes imposed by the market evolution [27]. A SOA ap- 473
423 ature, acceleration, strain, and liquid level. proach also allows for software and hardware reusing, be- 474

Table 1
Comparison between RFID systems, wireless sensor networks, and RFID sensor networks.

Processing Sensing Communication Range (m) Power Lifetime Size Standard


RFID No No Asymmetric 10 Harvested Indenite Very small ISO18000
WSN Yes Yes Peer-to-peer 100 Battery <3 years Small IEEE 802.15.4
RSN Yes Yes Asymmetric 3 Harvested Indenite Small None

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475 cause it does not impose a specic technology for the ser- workows of business processes, using workow lan- 511
476 vice implementation [28]. guages. In this context, a frequent choice is to adopt stan- 512
477 Advantages of the SOA approach are recognized in most dard languages such as the Business Process Execution 513
478 studies on middleware solutions for IoT. While a com- Language (BPEL) and Jolie [29,30]. Workow languages de- 514
479 monly accepted layered architecture is missing, the pro- ne business processes that interact with external entities 515
480 posed solutions face essentially the same problems of through Web Service operations, dened by using the Web 516
481 abstracting the devices functionalities and communica- Service Denition Language (WSDL) [31]. Workows can 517
482 tions capabilities, providing a common set of services and be nested, so it is possible to call a workow from inside 518
483 an environment for service composition. These common another one. The creation of complex processes can be rep- 519
484 objectives lead to the denition of the middleware sketch resented as a sequence of coordinated actions performed 520
485 shown in Fig. 2. It tries to encompass all the functionalities by single components. 521
486 addressed in past works dealing with IoT middleware is-
487 sues. It is quite similar to the scheme proposed in [29], 3.2.3. Service management 522
488 which addresses the middleware issues with a complete This layer provides the main functions that are expected 523
489 and integrated architectural approach. It relies on the fol- to be available for each object and that allow for their man- 524
490 lowing layers. agement in the IoT scenario. A basic set of services encom- 525
passes: object dynamic discovery, status monitoring, and 526
491 3.2.1. Applications service conguration. At this layer, some middleware pro- 527
492 Applications are on the top of the architecture, export- posals include an expanded set of functionalities related to 528
493 ing all the systems functionalities to the nal user. Indeed, the QoS management and lock management, as well as 529
494 this layer is not considered to be part of the middleware some semantic functions (e.g., police and context manage- 530
495 but exploits all the functionalities of the middleware layer. ment) [32]. This layer might enable the remote deploy- 531
496 Through the use of standard web service protocols and ser- ment of new services during run-time, in order to satisfy 532
497 vice composition technologies, applications can realize a application needs. A service repository is built at this layer 533
498 perfect integration between distributed systems and so as to know which is the catalogue of services that are 534
499 applications. associated to each object in the network. The upper layer 535
can then compose complex services by joining services 536

500 3.2.2. Service composition provided at this layer. 537

501 This is a common layer on top of a SOA-based middle-


502 ware architecture. It provides the functionalities for the 3.2.4. Object abstraction 538

503 composition of single services offered by networked ob- The IoT relies on a vast and heterogeneous set of ob- 539

504 jects to build specic applications. On this layer there is jects, each one providing specic functions accessible 540

505 no notion of devices and the only visible assets are ser- through its own dialect. There is thus the need for an 541

506 vices. An important insight into the service landscape is abstraction layer capable of harmonizing the access to 542

507 to have a repository of all currently connected service in- the different devices with a common language and proce- 543

508 stances, which are executed in run-time to build composed dure. Accordingly, unless a device offers discoverable 544

509 services. The logic behind the creation and the manage- web services on an IP network, there is the need to intro- 545

510 ment of complex services, can be expressed in terms of duce a wrapping layer, consisting of two main sub-layers: 546
the interface and the communication sub-layers. The rst 547
one provides a web interface exposing the methods avail- 548
able through a standard web service interface and is 549
responsible for the management of all the incoming/out- 550
coming messaging operations involved in the communica- 551
tion with the external world. The second sub-layer 552
implements the logic behind the web service methods 553
and translates these methods into a set of device-specic 554
commands to communicate with the real-world objects. 555
Some works proposed the embedding of TCP/IP stacks 556
in the devices, such as the TinyTCP, the mIP and the IwIP 557
(see [33] and references herein), which provide a socket 558
like interface for embedded applications. Embedded web 559
servers can then be integrated in the objects, performing 560
the function of this object abstraction layer. However, 561
more often this wrapping function is provided through a 562
proxy, which is then responsible to open a communication 563
socket with the devices console and send all the com- 564
mands to it by using different communication languages. 565
It is then responsible to make the conversion into a stan- 566
dard web service language and, sometimes, elaborate the 567
request to reduce the complexity of the operations re- 568
Fig. 2. SOA-based architecture for the IoT middleware. quired by the end-device [30]. 569

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570 3.2.5. Trust, privacy and security management so as to provide a trusted and secure environment for all 631
571 The deployment of automatic communication of objects applications [38]. The middleware layer in this architec- 632
572 in our lives represents a danger for our future. Indeed, un- ture mostly focuses on: (i) the secure long-term logging 633
573 seen by users, embedded RFID tags in our personal devices, of the collected environmental data over time and over 634
574 clothes, and groceries can unknowingly be triggered to re- some regions (TinyPEDS), (ii) functions that provides the 635
575 ply with their ID and other information. This potentially nodes in the network with the abstraction of shared mem- 636
576 enables a surveillance mechanism that would pervade ory (TinyDSM), (iii) the implementation of distributed 637
577 large parts of our lives. The middleware must then include information storage and collection (DISC) protocol for 638
578 functions related to the management of the trust, privacy wireless sensor networks. 639
579 and security of all the exchanged data. The related func-
580 tions may be either built on one specic layer of the previ-
4. Applications 640
581 ous ones or (it happens more often) distributed through
582 the entire stack, from the object abstraction to the service
Potentialities offered by the IoT make possible the 641
583 composition, in a manner that does not affect system per-
development of a huge number of applications, of which 642
584 formance or introduce excessive overheads.
only a very small part is currently available to our society. 643
585 While most of the proposed middleware solutions make
Many are the domains and the environments in which new 644
586 use of the SOA approach, some others have followed a dif-
applications would likely improve the quality of our lives: 645
587 ferent way, especially if developed for a specic scenario
at home, while travelling, when sick, at work, when jog- 646
588 (target application, specic set of objects or limited geo-
ging and at the gym, just to cite a few. These environments 647
589 graphical scenario). One remarkable project is the Fosstrak
are now equipped with objects with only primitive intelli- 648
590 one, which is specically focused on the management of
gence, most of times without any communication capabil- 649
591 RFID related applications [34]. It is an open source RFID
ities. Giving these objects the possibility to communicate 650
592 infrastructure that implements the interfaces dened in
with each other and to elaborate the information perceived 651
593 the EPC Network specications. It provides the following
from the surroundings imply having different environ- 652
594 services related to RFID management: data dissemination,
ments where a very wide range of applications can be de- 653
595 data aggregation, data ltering, writing to a tag, trigger
ployed. These can be grouped into the following domains: 654
596 RFID reader from external sensors, fault and conguration
597 management, data interpretation, sharing of RFID triggered
 Transportation and logistics domain. 655
598 business events, lookup and directory service, tag identier
 Healthcare domain. 656
599 management, and privacy [35]. All these functions are
 Smart environment (home, ofce, plant) domain. 657
600 made available to the application layer to ease the deploy-
 Personal and social domain. 658
601 ment of RFID-related services. In [36], the authors present
602 another RFID-related middleware which relies on three
Among the possible applications, we may distinguish 659
603 functionalities: the tag, the place, and the scenic managers.
between those either directly applicable or closer to our 660
604 The rst allows the user to associate each tag to an object;
current living habitudes and those futuristic, which we 661
605 the second supports creating and editing location informa-
can only fancy of at the moment, since the technologies 662
606 tion associated to RFID antennas; the third one is used to
and/or our societies are not ready for their deployment 663
607 combine the events collected by the antennas and the
(see Fig. 3). In the following subsections we provide a 664
608 developed related applications.
review of the short-medium term applications for each of 665
609 Another architecture that does not follow the SOA ap-
these categories and a range of futuristic applications. 666
610 proach is proposed in the e-SENSE project, which focuses
611 on issues related to capturing ambient intelligence through
612 wireless sensor networks. The proposed architecture is di- 4.1. Transportation and logistics domain 667

613 vided into four logical subsystems, namely the application,


614 management, middleware, and connectivity subsystems. Advanced cars, trains, buses as well as bicycles along 668

615 Each subsystem comprises various protocol and control with roads and/or rails are becoming more instrumented 669

616 entities, which offer a wide range of services and functions with sensors, actuators, and processing power. Roads 670

617 at service access points to other subsystems [37]. This en- themselves and transported goods are also equipped with 671

618 tire stack is implemented in a full function sensor node and tags and sensors that send important information to trafc 672

619 in a gateway node; while a reduced-function sensor node control sites and transportation vehicles to better route the 673

620 has fewer functions. In the e-SENSE vision the middleware trafc, help in the management of the depots, provide the 674

621 subsystem has the only purpose to develop and handle an tourist with appropriate transportation information, and 675

622 infrastructure where information sensed by nodes is pro- monitor the status of the transported goods. Below, the 676

623 cessed in a distributed fashion and, if necessary, the result main applications in the transportation and logistics do- 677

624 is transmitted to an actuating node and/or to the xed main are described. 678

625 infrastructure by means of a gateway. The other functions


626 that we have assigned to the middleware shown in Fig. 2 4.1.1. Logistics 679
627 are attributed to other components and layers. The project Real-time information processing technology based on 680
628 UbiSec&Sens was also aimed at dening a comprehensive RFID and NFC can realize real-time monitoring of almost 681
629 architecture for medium and large scale wireless sensor every link of the supply chain, ranging from commodity de- 682
630 networks, with a particular attention to the security issues sign, raw material purchasing, production, transportation, 683

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Fig. 3. Applications domains and relevant major scenarios.

684 storage, distribution and sale of semi-products and prod- goods together with information about the type and status 714
685 ucts, returns processing and after-sales service..It is also of the goods can integrated to provide important informa- 715
686 possible to obtain products related information, promptly, tion about the delivery time, delivery delays, and faults. 716
687 timely, and accurately so that enterprises or even the whole This information can be also combined with the status of 717
688 supply chain can respond to intricate and changeable mar- the warehouses in order to automate the relling of the 718
689 kets in the shortest time. The application result is that the magazines. 719
690 reaction time of traditional enterprises is 120 days from
691 requirements of customers to the supply of commodity
692 while advanced companies that make use of these technol- 4.1.3. Mobile ticketing 720
693 ogies (such as Wal-mart and Metro) only needs few days Posters or panels providing information (description, 721
694 and can basically work with zero safety stock [39,40]. Addi- costs, schedule) about transportation services can be 722
695 tionally, real-time access to the ERP program helps the shop equipped with an NFC tag, a visual marker and a numeric 723
696 assistants to better inform customers about availability of identier. The user can then get information about several 724
697 products and give them more product information in gen- categories of options from the web by either hovering his 725
698 eral [41]. mobile phone over the NFC tag, or pointing the mobile 726
phone to the visual markers. The mobile phone automati- 727
cally gets information from the associated web services 728
699 4.1.2. Assisted driving (stations, numbers of passengers, costs, available seats 729
700 Cars, trains, and buses along with the roads and the rails and type of services) and allows the user to buy the related 730
701 equipped with sensors, actuators and processing power tickets [42]. 731
702 may provide important information to the driver and/or
703 passengers of a car to allow better navigation and safety.
704 Collision avoidance systems and monitoring of transporta- 4.1.4. Monitoring environmental parameters 732
705 tion of hazardous materials are two typical example func- Perishable goods such as fruits, fresh-cut produce, meat, 733
706 tions. Governmental authorities would also benet from and dairy products are vital parts of our nutrition. From the 734
707 more accurate information about road trafc patterns for production to the consumption sites thousands of kilome- 735
708 planning purposes. Whereas the private transportation ters or even more are covered and during the transporta- 736
709 trafc could better nd the right path with appropriate tion the conservation status (temperature, humidity, 737
710 information about the jam and incidents. Enterprises, such shock) need to be monitored to avoid uncertainty in qual- 738
711 as freight companies, would be able to perform more effec- ity levels for distribution decisions. Pervasive computing 739
712 tive route optimization which allows energy savings. Infor- and sensor technologies offer great potential for improving 740
713 mation about the movement of the vehicles transporting the efciency of the food supply chain [43,44]. 741

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742 4.1.5. Augmented maps (including data entry and collection errors), automated 798
743 Touristic maps can be equipped with tags that allow care and procedure auditing, and medical inventory man- 799
744 NFC-equipped phones to browse it and automatically call agement. This function also relates to integrating RFID 800
745 web services providing information about hotels, restau- technology with other health information and clinical 801
746 rants, monuments and events related to the area of interest application technologies within a facility and with poten- 802
747 for the user [45]. There is a collection of Physical Mobile tial expansions of such networks across providers and 803
748 Interaction (PMI) techniques that can be employed to aug- locations. 804
749 ment the information of the map:
4.2.4. Sensing 805
750  hovering within read range of a tag so that additional Sensor devices enable function centered on patients, 806
751 information regarding the marker is displayed on the and in particular on diagnosing patient conditions, provid- 807
752 phone screen; ing real-time information on patient health indicators. 808
753  single selection/de-selection of tags by pressing a spe- Application domains include different telemedicine solu- 809
754 cic key when the tag is hovered; tions, monitoring patient compliance with medication reg- 810
755  multi-selection/de-selection of different tags; iment prescriptions, and alerting for patient well-being. In 811
756  polygon drawing by selecting the tags in a polygon that this capacity, sensors can be applied both in in-patient and 812
757 delimits an area of interest; out-patient care. Heterogeneous wireless access-based re- 813
758  picking-and-dropping, so that selected markers that mote patient monitoring systems can be deployed to reach 814
759 have been picked up using the phone can be dropped the patient everywhere, with multiple wireless technolo- 815
760 in the itinerary of interest; gies integrated to support continuous bio-signal monitor- 816
761  context menu displaying when a marker is hovered ing in presence of patient mobility [48]. 817
762 [46].
763 4.3. Smart environments domain 818
764 4.2. Healthcare domain
A smart environment is that making its employment 819
765 Many are the benets provided by the IoT technologies easy and comfortable thanks to the intelligence of con- 820
766 to the healthcare domain and the resulting applications tained objects, be it an ofce, a home, an industrial plant, 821
767 can be grouped mostly into: tracking of objects and people or a leisure environment. 822
768 (staff and patients); identication and authentication of
769 people; automatic data collection and sensing [47]. 4.3.1. Comfortable homes and ofces 823
Sensors and actuators distributed in houses and ofces 824
770 4.2.1. Tracking can make our life more comfortable in several aspects: 825
771 Tracking is the function aimed at the identication of a rooms heating can be adapted to our preferences and to 826
772 person or object in motion. This includes both real-time the weather; the room lighting can change according to 827
773 position tracking, such as the case of patient-ow monitor- the time of the day; domestic incidents can be avoided 828
774 ing to improve workow in hospitals, and tracking of mo- with appropriate monitoring and alarm systems; and en- 829
775 tion through choke points, such as access to designated ergy can be saved by automatically switching off the elec- 830
776 areas. In relation to assets, tracking is most frequently ap- trical equipments when not needed. For instance, we may 831
777 plied to continuous inventory location tracking (for exam- think of energy providers that use dynamically changing 832
778 ple for maintenance, availability when needed and energy prices to inuence the overall energy consumption 833
779 monitoring of use), and materials tracking to prevent in a way that smoothes load peaks. An automation logic 834
780 left-ins during surgery, such as specimen and blood may optimize the power consumption costs throughout 835
781 products. the day by observing when the prices, which are provided 836
by an external web service and are set according to the cur- 837
782 4.2.2. Identication and authentication rent energy production and consumption, are cheap and by 838
783 It includes patient identication to reduce incidents considering the specic requirements of each appliances at 839
784 harmful to patients (such as wrong drug/dose/time/proce- home (battery charger, refrigerator, ovens) [30]. 840
785 dure), comprehensive and current electronic medical re-
786 cord maintenance (both in the in- and out-patient 4.3.2. Industrial plants 841
787 settings), and infant identication in hospitals to prevent Smart environments also help in improving the auto- 842
788 mismatching. In relation to staff, identication and authen- mation in industrial plants with a massive deployment of 843
789 tication is most frequently used to grant access and to im- RFID tags associated to the production parts. In a generic 844
790 prove employee morale by addressing patient safety scenario, as production parts reach the processing point, 845
791 issues. In relation to assets, identication and authentica- the tag is read by the RFID reader. An event is generated 846
792 tion is predominantly used to meet the requirements of by the reader with all the necessary data, such as the RFID 847
793 security procedures, to avoid thefts or losses of important number, and stored on the network. The machine/robot 848
794 instruments and products. gets notied by this event (as it has subscribed to the ser- 849
vice) and picks up the production part. By matching data 850
795 4.2.3. Data collection from the enterprise system and the RFID tag, it knows 851
796 Automatic data collection and transfer is mostly aimed how to further process the part. In parallel, a wireless sen- 852
797 at reducing form processing time, process automation sor mounted on the machine monitors the vibration and if 853

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854 it exceeds a specic threshold an event is raised to imme- using the Google Charts API to display where, how, and 910
855 diately stop the process (quality control). Once such an with whom or what they have spent their time over some 911
856 emergency event is propagated, devices that consume it arbitrary period. 912
857 react accordingly. The robot receives the emergency shut-
858 down event and immediately stops its operation. The plant 4.4.3. Losses 913
859 manager also immediately sees the status of the so called A search engine for things is a tool that helps in nding 914
860 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) orders, the production objects that we dont remember where have been left. The 915
861 progress, the device status, as well as a global view on all simplest web-based RFID application is a search engine for 916
862 the elements and the possible side effects of a production things that lets users view the last recorded location for 917
863 line delay due to shop-oor device malfunctions [29]. their tagged objects or search for a particular objects loca- 918
tion. A more proactive extension of this application lever- 919
864 4.3.3. Smart museum and gym ages user-dened events to notify users when the last 920
865 As to smart leisure environments, the museum and the recorded object location matches some conditions. 921
866 gym are two representative examples where the IoT tech-
867 nologies can help in exploiting their facilities at the best. In 4.4.4. Thefts 922
868 the museum, for instance, expositions in the building may An application similar to the previous one may allow 923
869 evoke various historical periods (Egyptian period or ice the user to know if some objects are moved from a re- 924
870 age) with widely diverging climate conditions. The build- stricted area (the owner house or ofce), which would 925
871 ing adjusts locally to these conditions while also taking indicate that the object is being stolen. In this case, the 926
872 into account outdoor conditions. In the gym, the personal event has to be notied immediately to the owner and/or 927
873 trainer can upload the exercise prole into the training to the security guards. For example, the application can 928
874 machine for each trainee, who is then automatically recog- send an SMS to the users when the stolen objects leave 929
875 nized by the machine through the RFID tag. Health param- the building without any authorization (such as a laptop, 930
876 eters are monitored during the whole training session and a wallet or an ornament). 931
877 the reported values are checked to see if the trainee is
878 overtraining or if she/he is too relaxed when doing the 4.5. Futuristic applications domain Q3 932
879 exercises.
The applications described in the previous sections are 933
880 4.4. Personal and social domain realistic as they either have been already deployed or can 934
be implemented in a short/medium period since the re- 935
881 The applications falling in this domain are those that quired technologies are already available. Apart from 936
882 enable the user to interact with other people to maintain these, we may envision many other applications, which 937
883 and build social relationships. Indeed, things may auto- we herein dene futuristic since these rely on some (com- 938
884 matically trigger the transmission of messages to friends munications, sensing, material and/or industrial processes) 939
885 to allow them to know what we are doing or what we have technologies that either are still to come or whose imple- 940
886 done in the past, such as moving from/to our house/ofce, mentation is still too complex. These applications are even 941
887 travelling, meeting some common mates or playing soccer more interesting in terms of required research and poten- 942
888 [36]. The following are the major applications. tial impact. An interesting analysis of this kind of applica- 943
tions is provided by SENSEI FP7 Project [49] from which we 944
889 4.4.1. Social networking have taken the three most appealing applications. 945
890 This application is related to the automatic update of
891 information about our social activities in social networking 4.5.1. Robot taxi 946
892 web portals, such as Twitter and Plazes. We may think of In future cities, robot taxis swarm together, moving in 947
893 RFIDs that generate events about people and places to give ocks, providing service where it is needed in a timely 948
894 users real-time updates in their social networks, which are and efcient manner. The robot taxis respond to real-time 949
895 then gathered and uploaded in social networking websites. trafc movements of the city, and are calibrated to reduce 950
896 Application user interfaces display a feed of events that congestion at bottlenecks in the city and to service pick-up 951
897 their friends have preliminarily dened and the users can areas that are most frequently used. With or without a hu- 952
898 control their friend lists as well as what events are dis- man driver, they weave in and out of trafc at optimum 953
899 closed to which friends. speeds, avoiding accidents through proximity sensors, 954
which repel them magnetically from other objects on the 955
900 4.4.2. Historical queries road. They can be hailed from the side of the street by 956
901 Historical queries about objects and events data let pointing a mobile phone at them or by using hand ges- 957
902 users study trends in their activities over time. This can tures. The users location is automatically tracked via GPS 958
903 be extremely useful for applications that support long- and enables users to request a taxi to be at a certain loca- 959
904 term activities such as business projects and collabora- tion at a particular time by just pointing it out on a detailed 960
905 tions. A digital diary application can be built that records map. On the rare occasions they are not in use, the taxis 961
906 and displays events for example in a Google Calendar for head for pit-stops where they automatically stack them- 962
907 later perusal. This way, users can look back over their dia- selves into tight bays which are instrumented with sensors 963
908 ries to see how and with whom theyve spent their time. where actuators set off recharging batteries, perform sim- 964
909 Historical trends plots can also be automatically generated ple maintenance tasks and clean the cars. The pit-stops 965

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966 communicate with each other to ensure no over or under- the game keeps track of their achievements. Their con- 1002
967 utilization [49]. troller recognizes RFID tags on objects in the room. To 1003
score, they have to touch the object with it. As the game 1004
progresses, the system gradually makes it more difcult. 1005
968 4.5.2. City information model
At rst the objects they have to reach are nearby and easy 1006
969 The idea of a City Information Model (CIM) is based on
to reach. At some point it gets too difcult and both play- 1007
970 the concept that the status and performance of each build-
ers must touch the oor with their feet. Then the game 1008
971 ings and urban fabrics such as pedestrian walkways, cy-
makes a loud noise to indicate that this was wrong. The 1009
972 cle paths and heavier infrastructure like sewers, rail lines,
room now notices that one player is a bit taller and faster 1010
973 and bus corridors are continuously monitored by the city
than the other so it starts putting the objects a bit closer 1011
974 government operates and made available to third parties
to him, so that he can keep up. The game then adapts the 1012
975 via a series of APIs, even though some information is con-
difculty level and the target according to the achieve- 1013
976 dential. Accordingly, nothing can be built legally unless it
ments of the players so that to keep high the excitement 1014
977 is compatible with CIM. The facilities management services
level perceived by the console through the sensing 1015
978 communicate with each other and the CIM, sharing energy
devices. 1016
979 in the most cost-effective and resource-efcient fashion.
980 They automatically trade surplus energy with each other
981 and prices are calculated to match supply and demand. 5. Open issues 1017
982 In this sense, planning and design is an ongoing social pro-
983 cess, in which the performance of each item is being re- Although the enabling technologies described in Section 1018
984 ported in real-time and compared with others. 3 make the IoT concept feasible, a large research effort is 1019
985 Population changes can be inferred, as can movement pat- still required. In this section, we rstly review the stan- 1020
986 terns, environmental performance, as well as the overall dardization activities that are being carried out on different 1021
987 efciency of products and buildings. IoT-related technologies (Section 5.1). Secondly, we show 1022
the most important research issues that need to be ad- 1023

988 4.5.3. Enhanced game room dressed to meet the requirements characterizing IoT sce- 1024

989 The enhanced game room as well as the players are narios. More specically, in Section 5.2 we focus on 1025

990 equipped with a variety of devices to sense location, addressing and networking issues, whereas in Section 5.3 1026

991 movement, acceleration, humidity, temperature, noise, we describe the problems related to security and privacy. 1027

992 voice, visual information, heart rate and blood pressure. In Table 2 we summarize the open research issues, the 1028

993 The room uses this information to measure excitement causes for which they are specically crucial for IoT scenar- 1029

994 and energy levels so that to control the game activity ios and the sections when such issues will be discussed in 1030

995 according to status of the player. Various objects are also detail. 1031

996 placed throughout the room and the point of the game is
997 to crawl and jump from one to the other without touch- 5.1. Standardization activity 1032
998 ing the oor. Points are awarded for long jumps and dif-
999 cult places to reach. The game also puts a target on the Several contributions to the full deployment and stan- 1033
1000 wall-mounted screen. Whoever reaches that target rst, dardization of the IoT paradigm are coming from the scien- 1034
1001 wins. As the players work their way around the room, tic community. Among them, the most relevant are 1035

Table 2
Open research issues.

Open issue Brief description of the cause Details in


Standards There are several standardization efforts but they are not integrated in a comprehensive framework Section 5.1
Mobility support There are several proposals for object addressing but none for mobility support in the IoT scenario, Section 5.2
where scalability and adaptability to heterogeneous technologies represent crucial problems
Naming Object Name Servers (ONS) are needed to map a reference to a description of a specic object and the Section 5.2
related identier, and vice versa
Transport protocol Existing transport protocols fail in the IoT scenarios since their connection setup and congestion control Section 5.2
mechanisms may be useless; furthermore, they require excessive buffering to be implemented in objects
Trafc characterization The IoT will generate data trafc with patterns that are expected to be signicantly different from those Section 5.2
and QoS support observed in the current Internet. Accordingly, it will also be necessary to dene new QoS requirements
and support schemes
Authentication Authentication is difcult in the IoT as it requires appropriate authentication infrastructures that will Section 5.3
not be available in IoT scenarios. Furthermore, things have scarce resources when compared to current
communication and computing devices. Also man-in-the-middle attack is a serious problem
Data integrity This is usually ensured by protecting data with passwords. However, the password lengths supported by Section 5.3
IoT technologies are in most cases too short to provide strong levels of protection
Privacy A lot of private information about a person can be collected without the person being aware. Control on Section 5.3
the diffusion of all such information is impossible with current techniques
Digital forgetting All the information collected about a person by the IoT may be retained indenitely as the cost of Section 5.3
storage decreases. Also data mining techniques can be used to easily retrieve any information even after
several years

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1036 provided by the different sections of the Auto-ID Lab scat- of the so called Informal working group on the implemen- 1077
1037 tered all over the world [50,51,34], by the European Com- tation of the RFID. This is composed of stakeholders 1078
1038 mission [52] and European Standards Organisations (ETSI, (industry, operators, European standard organisations, civil 1079
1039 CEN, CENELEC, etc.), by their international counterparts society organisations, data protection authorities, etc.) 1080
1040 (ISO, ITU), and by other standards bodies and consortia required to be familiar with RFID in general, the Data Pro- 1081
1041 (IETF, EPCglobal, etc.). Inputs are particularly expected tection Directive and the RFID Recommendation. 1082
1042 from the Machine-to-Machine Workgroup of the European One of these stakeholders, CEN (European Committee 1083
1043 Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and from for Standardization) [55], although does not conduct any 1084
1044 some Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Working activity specically related to the IoT, is interested in RFID 1085
1045 Groups. 6LoWPAN [53], aiming at making the IPv6 protocol evolution towards IoT. Among its Working Groups (WGs), 1086
1046 compatible with low capacity devices, and ROLL [54], more the most relevant to the IoT are WG 1-4 BARCODES, WG 1087
1047 interested in the routing issue for Internet of the Future 5 RFID, and the Global RFID Interoperability Forum for 1088
1048 scenarios, are the best candidates. Standards (GRIFS). This latter is a two-year-project coordi- 1089
1049 In Table 3 we summarize the fundamental characteris- nated by GS1, ETSI, and CEN and aimed at dening stan- 1090
1050 tics of the main standards of interest in terms of objectives dards related to physical objects (readers, tags, sensors), 1091
1051 of the standard, status of the standardization process, com- communications infrastructures, spectrum for RFID use, 1092
1052 munication range, data rate, and cost of devices. In the ta- privacy and security issues affecting RFID [56]. 1093
1053 ble we highlight the standards that are discussed in detail Differently from these projects, ISO [57] focuses on 1094
1054 in this section. technical issues such as the frequencies utilized, the mod- 1095
1055 With regards to the RFID technology, it is currently slo- ulation schemes, and the anti-collision protocol. 1096
1056 wed down by fragmented efforts towards standardization, With regards to the IoT paradigm at large, a very inter- 1097
1057 which is focusing on a couple of principal areas: RFID fre- esting standardization effort is now starting in ETSI [58] 1098
1058 quency and readers-tags (tags-reader) communication (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, 1099
1059 protocols, data formats placed on tags and labels. The ma- which produces globally-applicable ICT related stan- 1100
1060 jor standardization bodies dealing with RFID systems are dards). Within ETSI, in fact, the Machine-to-Machine 1101
1061 EPCglobal, ETSI, and ISO. (M2M) Technical Committee was launched, to the pur- 1102
1062 More specically, EPCglobal is a subsidiary of the global pose of conducting standardization activities relevant to 1103
1063 not-for-prot standards organization GS1. It mainly aims M2M systems and sensor networks (in the view of the 1104
1064 at supporting the global adoption of a unique identier IoT). M2M is a real leading paradigm towards IoT, but 1105
1065 for each tag, which is called Electronic Product Code there is very little standardization for it, while the multi- 1106
1066 (EPC), and related industry-driven standards. The produc- plicity of the solutions on the market use standard Inter- 1107
1067 tion of a recommendation for the EPCglobal Architecture net, Cellular, and Web technologies. Therefore, the goals 1108
1068 Framework is a EPCglobal objective, shared with a com- of the ETSI M2M committee include: the development 1109
1069 munity of experts and several organizations, including and the maintenance of an end-to-end architecture for 1110
1070 Auto-ID Labs, GS1 Global Ofce, GS1 Member Organiza- M2M (with end-to-end IP philosophy behind it), strength- 1111
1071 tions, government agencies, and non-governmental orga- ening the standardization efforts on M2M, including sen- 1112
1072 nizations (NGOs). Interesting results are already available sor network integration, naming, addressing, location, 1113
1073 [5]. QoS, security, charging, management, application, and 1114
1074 As for the European Commission efforts, the event that hardware interfaces [59]. 1115
1075 might have the strongest inuence on the future RFID stan- As for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) activi- 1116
1076 dardization process is undoubtedly the ofcial constitution ties related to the IoT, we can say that recently the IPv6 1117

Table 3
Characteristics of the most relevant standardization activities.

Standard Objective Status Comm. Data rate Unitary


range (m) (kbps) cost ($)
Standardization activities discussed in this section
EPCglobal Integration of RFID technology into the electronic product code (EPC) framework, Advanced 1 102 0.01
which allows for sharing of information related to products
GRIFS European Coordinated Action aimed at dening RFID standards supporting the Ongoing 1 102 0.01
transition from localized RFID applications to the Internet of Things
M2M Denition of cost-effective solutions for machine-to-machine (M2M) Ongoing N.S. N.S. N.S.
communications, which should allow the related market to take off
6LoWPAN Integration of low-power IEEE 802.15.4 devices into IPv6 networks Ongoing 10100 102 1
ROLL Denition of routing protocols for heterogeneous low-power and lossy networks Ongoing N.S. N.S. N.S.
Other relevant standardization activities
NFC Denition of a set of protocols for low range and bidirectional communications Advanced 102 Up to 424 0.1
Wireless Denition of protocols for self-organizing, self-healing and mesh architectures over Advanced 10100 102 1
Hart IEEE 802.15.4 devices
ZigBee Enabling reliable, cost-effective, low-power, wirelessly networked, monitoring and Advanced 10100 102 1
control products

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1118 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LOW- prex are used to address the gateway between the RFID 1177
1119 PAN) IETF group was born [53]. 6LOWPAN is dening a system and the Internet. 1178
1120 set of protocols that can be used to integrate sensor nodes Accordingly, the gateway will handle messages gener- 1179
1121 into IPv6 networks. Core protocols composing the 6LOW- ated by RFID tags that must leave the RFID system and en- 1180
1122 PAN architecture have been already specied and some ter the Internet as follows. A new IPv6 packet will be 1181
1123 commercial products have been already released that created. Its payload will contain the message generated 1182
1124 implement this protocol suite. The 6LOWPAN working by the tag, whereas its source address will be created by 1183
1125 group is currently moving four Internet-Drafts towards last concatenating the gateway ID (which is copied into the 1184
1126 call in the standards track (Improved Header Compression, network prex part of the IPv6 address) and the RFID tag 1185
1127 6LoWPAN Neighbour Discovery) and informational track identier (which is copied into the interface identier part 1186
1128 (Use Cases, Routing Requirements) [60]. of the IPv6 address). Analogously, the gateway will handle 1187
1129 A further relevant IETF Working Group is named Rout- IPv6 packets coming from the Internet and directed to- 1188
1130 ing Over Low power and Lossy networks (ROLL). It has re- wards a certain RFID tag as follows. The specic RFID tag, 1189
1131 cently produced the RPL (pronounced ripple) routing which represents the destination of the message, will be 1190
1132 protocol draft. This will be the basis for routing over low- easily recognized as its identier is reported into the inter- 1191
1133 power and lossy networks including 6LoWPAN, which still face identier part of the IPv6 address; the specic mes- 1192
1134 needs lots of contributions to reach a full solution. sage (which in most cases represents the request of a 1193
1135 We clearly understand, from what is described above, certain operation) will be, instead, notied to the relevant 1194
1136 that an emerging idea is to consider the IoT standardisation RFID reader(s). 1195
1137 as an integral part of the Future Internet denition and This approach, however, cannot be used if the RFID tag 1196
1138 standardisation process. This assertion was recently made identier is long 96 bits, as allowed by the EPCglobal stan- 1197
1139 by the cluster of European R&D projects on the IoT dard. To solve this problem, in [64] a methodology is pro- 1198
1140 (CERP-IoT). According to it, the integration of different posed that uses an appropriate network element, called 1199
1141 things into wider networks, either mobile or xed, will al- agent, that maps the RFID identier (regardless of its 1200
1142 low their interconnection with the Future Internet [61]. length) into a 64 bits eld which will be used as the inter- 1201
1143 What is worth pointing out in the cited standardization face ID of the IPv6 address. Obviously, the agent must keep 1202
1144 areas is the tight collaboration between standardization updated a mapping between the IPv6 addresses generated 1203
1145 Institutions and other world-wide Interest Groups and Alli- and the RFID tag identier. 1204
1146 ances. It seems that the whole industry is willing to coop- A complete different approach is illustrated in [65], 1205
1147 erate on achieving the IoT. IPSO, but also the ZigBee where the RFID message and headers are included into 1206
1148 Alliance, the IETF and the IEEE work in the same direction the IPv6 packet payload as shown in Fig. 4. 1207
1149 of IP standards integration [61]. It is important to note, however, that in all the above 1208
cases RFID mobility is not supported. In fact, the common 1209
1150 5.2. Addressing and networking issues basic assumption is that each RFID can be reached through 1210
a given gateway between the network and the RFID system. 1211
1151 The IoT will include an incredibly high number of It follows that appropriate mechanisms are required to 1212
1152 nodes, each of which will produce content that should be support mobility in the IoT scenarios. In this contexts, the 1213
1153 retrievable by any authorized user regardless of her/his po- overall system will be composed of a large number of sub- 1214
1154 sition. This requires effective addressing policies. Cur- systems with extremely different characteristics. In the 1215
1155 rently, the IPv4 protocol identies each node through a past, several solutions have been proposed for the mobility 1216
1156 4-byte address. It is well known that the number of avail- management [66]; however, their validity in the IoT sce- 1217
1157 able IPv4 addresses is decreasing rapidly and will soon narios should be proven as they may have problems in 1218
1158 reach zero. Therefore, it is clear that other addressing pol- terms of scalability and adaptability to be applied in such 1219
1159 icies should be used other than that utilized by IPv4. a heterogeneous environment. To this purpose it is impor- 1220
1160 In this context, as we already said in Section 5.1, IPv6 tant to note that higher scalability can be achieved by solu- 1221
1161 addressing has been proposed for low-power wireless tions based on the utilization of a home agent (like Mobile 1222
1162 communication nodes within the 6LOWPAN context. IPv6 IP [67]), rather than by solutions based on home location 1223
1163 addresses are expressed by means of 128 bits and there- registers (HLR) and visitor location registers (VLR), which 1224
1164 fore, it is possible to dene 1038 addresses, which should are widely used in cellular networks. In fact, Mobile IP-like 1225
1165 be enough to identify any object which is worth to be ad- protocols do not use central servers, which are critical from 1226
1166 dressed. Accordingly, we may think to assign an IPv6 ad- a scalability point of view. 1227
1167 dress to all the things included in the network. However, Another issue regards the way in which addresses are 1228
1168 since RFID tags use 6496 bits identiers, as standardized obtained. In the traditional Internet any host address is 1229
1169 by EPCglobal, solutions are required for enabling the identied by querying appropriate servers called domain 1230
1170 addressing of RFID tags into IPv6 networks. Recently, inte- name servers (DNS). Objective of DNSs is to provide the 1231
1171 gration of RFID tags into IPv6 networks has been investi- IP address of a host from a certain input name. In the 1232
1172 gated [62] and methodologies to integrate RFID IoT, communications are likely to occur between (or 1233
1173 identiers and IPv6 addresses have been proposed. For with) objects instead of hosts. Therefore, the concept of 1234
1174 example, in [63] authors propose to use the 64 bits of the Object Name Service (ONS) must be introduced, which 1235
1175 interface identier of the IPv6 address to report the RFID associates a reference to a description of the specic ob- 1236
1176 tag identier, whereas the other 64 bits of the network ject and the related RFID tag identier [68,5]. In fact, the 1237

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Fig. 4. Encapsulation of RFID message into an IPv6 packet.

1238 tag identier is mapped into a Internet Uniform Reference can be retransmitted in case it is lost. At the destination 1282
1239 Locator (URL), which points to relevant information of data should be buffered to provide ordered delivery of 1283
1240 the object. In the IoT, the ONS should operate in both data to the application. Management of such buffers 1284
1241 directions, i.e., should be able to associate the description may be too costly in terms of required energy for bat- 1285
1242 of the object specied to a given RFID tag identier, and tery-less devices. 1286
1243 vice versa. Inverting the function is not easy and requires
1244 an appropriate service, which is called Object Code Map- As a consequence, TCP cannot be used efciently for the 1287
1245 ping Service (OCMS). Desired characteristics for OCMSs end-to-end transmission control in the IoT. Up to date, 1288
1246 are reported in [69], where a P2P approach is suggested no solutions have been proposed for the IoT and therefore, 1289
1247 in order to improve scalability. However, note that de- research contributions are required. 1290
1248 sign and assessment of OCMS in complex operational Furthermore, we do not know what will be the charac- 1291
1249 environments, such as the IoT, is still an open issue. teristics of the trafc exchanged by smart objects in the 1292
1250 Also a new conception of the transport layer is required IoT. Whereas it is fundamental to investigate such charac- 1293
1251 for the IoT. Major goals of the transport layer are to guar- teristics as they should be the basis for the design of the 1294
1252 antee end-to-end reliability and to perform end-to-end network infrastructures and protocols. 1295
1253 congestion control. In the traditional Internet, the protocol Accordingly, another important research issue concern- 1296
1254 utilized at the transport layer for reliable communications ing the networking aspects is related to trafc character- 1297
1255 is the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) [70]. It is obvious ization. It is well known that trafc characteristics in 1298
1256 that TCP is inadequate for the IoT, due to the following wireless sensor networks strongly depend on the applica- 1299
1257 reasons: tion scenario (see [72], for example). This was not a prob- 1300
lem as the interest was focused on the trafc ow inside 1301
1258 1. Connection setup: TCP is connection oriented and each the wireless sensor network itself. Complications arise 1302
1259 session begins with a connection setup procedure (the when, according to the IoT paradigm, sensor nodes become 1303
1260 so called three ways handshake). This is unnecessary, part of the overall Internet. In fact, in this scenario, the 1304
1261 given that most of the communications within the IoT Internet will be traversed by a large amount of data gener- 1305
1262 will involve the exchange of a small amount of data ated by sensor networks deployed for heterogeneous pur- 1306
1263 and, therefore, the setup phase would last for a consid- poses and thus, with extremely different trafc 1307
1264 erable portion of the session time. Furthermore, the characteristics. Furthermore, since the deployment of large 1308
1265 connection setup phase involves data to be processed scale, distributed RFID systems is still at the very begin- 1309
1266 and transmitted by end-terminals, which in most cases ning, the characteristics of the related trafc ows have 1310
1267 are limited in terms of both energy and communication not been studied so far, and therefore, the trafc which will 1311
1268 resources, such as sensor nodes and RFID tags. traverse the IoT is completely unknown. 1312
1269 2. Congestion control: TCP is responsible of performing On the contrary characterization of the trafc is very 1313
1270 end-to-end congestion control. In the IoT this may cause important as it is necessary to network providers for plan- 1314
1271 performance problems as most of the communications ning the expansion of their infrastructures (if needed). 1315
1272 will exploit the wireless medium, which is known to Finally, trafc characterization and modeling together 1316
1273 be a challenging environment for TCP [71]. Furthermore, with a list of trafc requirements is needed to devise 1317
1274 if the amount of data to be exchanged in a single session appropriate solutions for supporting quality of service 1318
1275 is very small, TCP congestion control is useless, given (QoS). In fact, if some work has been done for supporting 1319
1276 that the whole TCP session will be concluded with the QoS in wireless sensor networks [73], the problem is still 1320
1277 transmission of the rst segment and the consequent completely unexplored in RFID systems. Accordingly, a 1321
1278 reception of the corresponding acknowledgement. large research effort is needed in the eld of QoS support 1322
1279 3. Data buffering: TCP requires data to be stored in a mem- in the IoT. We believe that there will be several analogies 1323
1280 ory buffer both at the source and at the destination. In with QoS for machine-to-machine communications. Since 1324
1281 fact, at the source data should be buffered so that it such types of communications have been already ad- 1325

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1326 dressed in recent years [74], we can apply to the IoT sce- mechanism and that an attacker wants to stole the identity 1384
1327 narios QoS management schemes proposed for M2M sce- of the element B (please note that that B can be any IoT ele- 1385
1328 narios. Obviously, this should be just a starting point and ment capable of computing and communicating). The at- 1386
1329 specic solutions for the IoT should be introduced in the tacker will position two transceivers. The rst close to A, 1387
1330 future. which we call B0 and the second close to B, which we call 1388
A0 . The basic idea is to make A believe that B0 is B, and make 1389
1331 5.3. Security and privacy B believe that A0 is A. To this purpose, node B0 will transmit 1390
the query signal received by the authenticating node A to 1391
1332 People will resist the IoT as long as there is no public the transceiver A0 . The transceiver A0 will transmit such sig- 1392
1333 condence that it will not cause serious threats to privacy. nal so that B can receive it. Observe, that the signal trans- 1393
1334 All the talking and complains (see [75] for example) fol- mitted by A0 is an exact replica of the signal transmitted by 1394
1335 lowing the announcement by the Italian retailer Benetton A. Accordingly, it is impossible for node B to understand 1395
1336 on the plan to tag a complete line of clothes (around 15 that the signal was not transmitted by A and therefore, it 1396
1337 million RFIDs) has been the rst, clear conrmation of this will reply with its identication. Node A0 receives such re- 1397
1338 mistrust towards the use that will be done of the data col- ply and transmits it to node B0 , that will transmit it to node 1398
1339 lected by the IoT technologies [76]. A. Node A cannot distinguish that such reply was not trans- 1399
1340 Public concerns are indeed likely to focus on a certain mitted by B, and therefore, will identify the transceiver B0 1400
1341 number of security and privacy issues [21,77]. as the element B and provide access accordingly. Observe 1401
that this can be done regardless of the fact that the signal 1402
1342 5.3.1. Security is encrypted or not. 1403
1343 The IoT is extremely vulnerable to attacks for several Data integrity solutions should guarantee that an adver- 1404
1344 reasons. First, often its components spend most of the time sary cannot modify data in the transaction without the sys- 1405
1345 unattended; and thus, it is easy to physically attack them. tem detecting the change. The problem of data integrity 1406
1346 Second, most of the communications are wireless, which has been extensively studied in all traditional computing 1407
1347 makes eavesdropping extremely simple. Finally, most of and communication systems and some preliminary results 1408
1348 the IoT components are characterized by low capabilities exist for sensor networks, e.g., [79]. However, new prob- 1409
1349 in terms of both energy and computing resources (this is lems arise when RFID systems are integrated in the Inter- 1410
1350 especially the case for passive components) and thus, they net as they spend most of the time unattended. Data can 1411
1351 cannot implement complex schemes supporting security. be modied by adversaries while it is stored in the node 1412
1352 More specically, the major problems related to secu- or when it traverses the network [80]. To protect data 1413
1353 rity concern authentication and data integrity. Authentica- against the rst type of attack, memory is protected in 1414
1354 tion is difcult as it usually requires appropriate most tag technologies and solutions have been proposed 1415
1355 authentication infrastructures and servers that achieve for wireless sensor networks as well [81]. For example, 1416
1356 their goal through the exchange of appropriate messages both EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 and ISO/IEC 180003 1417
1357 with other nodes. In the IoT such approaches are not feasi- tags protect both read and write operations on their mem- 1418
1358 ble given that passive RFID tags cannot exchange too many ory with a password. In fact, EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 1419
1359 messages with the authentication servers. The same rea- tags have ve areas of memory, each of which can be pro- 1420
1360 soning applies (in a less restrictive way) to the sensor tected in read or write with a password independently of 1421
1361 nodes as well. each others. Whereas, ISO/180003 tags dene a pointer 1422
1362 In this context, note that several solutions have been to a memory address and protect with a password all 1423
1363 proposed for sensor networks in the recent past [78]. How- memory areas with a lower memory address. To protect 1424
1364 ever, existing solutions can be applied when sensor nodes data against the second type of attack, messages may be 1425
1365 are considered as part of a sensor network connected to the protected according to the Keyed-Hash Message Authentica- 1426
1366 rest of the Internet via some nodes playing the roles of tion Code (HMAC) scheme [82]. This is based on a common 1427
1367 gateways. In the IoT scenarios, instead, sensor nodes must
1368 be seen as nodes of the Internet, so that it becomes neces-
1369 sary to authenticate them even from nodes not belonging
1370 to the same sensor network.
1371 In the last few years, some solutions have been pro-
1372 posed for RFID systems, however, they all have serious
1373 problems as described in [21].
1374 Finally, none of the existing solutions can help in solv-
1375 ing the proxy attack problem, also known as the man-in-
1376 the-middle attack. Consider the case in which a node is uti-
1377 lized to identify something or someone and, accordingly,
1378 provides access to a certain service or a certain area (con-
1379 sider an electronic passport for example, or some keys
1380 based on RFID). The attack depicted in Fig. 5 could be suc-
1381 cessfully performed.
1382 Consider the case in which A is the node that wants to
1383 authenticate other system elements through some RF Fig. 5. Man in the middle attack.

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1428 secret key shared between the tag and the destination of For example, consider the application scenario regarding 1488
1429 the message, which is used in combination with a hash Comfortable homes and ofces described in Section 4.3, 1489
1430 function to provide authentication. and focus on the case of a building where several ofces 1490
1431 Observe that the above solutions proposed to support are located. In this case, some sensing capabilities will be 1491
1432 data integrity when RFID systems are considered have seri- deployed in the environment to track position of people 1492
1433 ous problems. In fact, the password length supported by and control the lighting or heating accordingly. If the track- 1493
1434 most tag technologies is too short to provide strong levels ing system is deployed only for increasing comfort of the 1494
1435 of protections. Moreover, even if longer passwords are sup- ofces while reducing energy consumption, then, appro- 1495
1436 ported, still their management remains a challenging task, priate policies to protect privacy should be applied guaran- 1496
1437 especially when entities belonging to different organiza- teeing that: 1497
1438 tions, as in the case of the IoT, are involved.
1439 Finally, please note that that all the solutions proposed  the tracking system does not collect information about 1498
1440 to support security use some cryptographic methodolo- the position and movements of individual users but 1499
1441 gies. Typical cryptographic algorithms spend large amount only considers aggregate users (position and move- 1500
1442 of resources in terms of energy and bandwidth both at the ments of people should not be linkable to their 1501
1443 source and the destination. Such solutions cannot be ap- identities); 1502
1444 plied to the IoT, given that they will include elements (like  people are informed of the scope and the way in which 1503
1445 RFID tags and sensor nodes) that are seriously constrained their movements are tracked by the system (taking peo- 1504
1446 in terms of energy, communications, and computation ple informed about possible leaks of their privacy is 1505
1447 capabilities. It follows that new solutions are required able essential and required by most legislations); 1506
1448 to provide a satisfactory level of security regardless of the  data collected by the tracking system should be pro- 1507
1449 scarcity of resources. In this context, a few solutions have cessed for the purposes of controlling the lighting and 1508
1450 been proposed for light symmetric key cryptographic heating and then deleted by the storage system. 1509
1451 schemes (see [83,84] for RFID scenarios and [78] for sensor
1452 network scenarios). However, as we already said, key man- To handle the data collection process appropriate solutions 1510
1453 agement schemes are still at an early stage (especially in are needed in all the different subsystems interacting with 1511
1454 the case of RFID) and require large research efforts. human beings in the IoT. For example, in the context of tra- 1512
ditional Internet services the W3C group has dened the 1513
1455 5.3.2 Privacy Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) [85], which provides 1514
1456 The concept of privacy is deeply rooted into our civiliza- a language for the description of the privacy preferences 1515
1457 tions, is recognized in all legislations of civilized countries and policies and therefore, allows automatic negotiation 1516
1458 and, as we already said, concerns about its protection have of the parameters concerning privacy based on the needs 1517
1459 proven to be a signicant barrier against the diffusion of of personal information for running the service and the pri- 1518
1460 the technologies involved in the IoT [75]. People concerns vacy requirements set by the user. Always in the context of 1519
1461 about privacy are indeed well justied. In fact, the ways traditional Internet services, through appropriate settings 1520
1462 in which data collection, mining, and provisioning will be of the applications run on the user terminals, the time 1521
1463 accomplished in the IoT are completely different from instants when personal information are being released 1522
1464 those that we now know and there will be an amazing can be easily detected and the entity collecting such data 1523
1465 number of occasions for personal data to be collected. can be identied through well established authentication 1524
1466 Therefore, for human individuals it will be impossible to procedures. 1525
1467 personally control the disclosure of their personal The problem becomes impossible to be solved in the 1526
1468 information. case of sensor networks. In fact, individuals entering in 1527
1469 Furthermore, the cost of information storage continues an area where a sensor network is deployed cannot con- 1528
1470 to decrease and is now approaching 109 euro per byte. trol what information is being collected about them- 1529
1471 Accordingly, once information is generated, will most selves. For example, consider a sensor network 1530
1472 probably be retained indenitely, which involves denial composed of cameras deployed in a certain area. The 1531
1473 of digital forgetting in people perspective. only way an individual can avoid such cameras not to 1532
1474 It follows that the IoT really represents an environment take her/his image is not to enter into the area. In this 1533
1475 in which privacy of individuals is seriously menaced in context, a possible solution that can reduce privacy prob- 1534
1476 several ways. Furthermore, while in the traditional Inter- lems might be to restrict the networks ability to gather 1535
1477 net problems of privacy arise mostly for Internet users data at a detail level that could compromise privacy [86]. 1536
1478 (individuals playing an active role), in the IoT scenarios pri- For example, a sensor network might anonymize data by 1537
1479 vacy problems arise even for people not using any IoT reporting only approximate locations of sensed individu- 1538
1480 service. als and tradeoff privacy requirements with the level of 1539
1481 Accordingly, privacy should be protected by ensuring details required by the application. Another example 1540
1482 that individuals can control which of their personal data regarding sensor networks composed of cameras de- 1541
1483 is being collected, who is collecting such data, and when ployed for video surveillance purposes. In this case, 1542
1484 this is happening. Furthermore, the personal data collected images of people can be blurred in order to protect their 1543
1485 should be used only in the aim of supporting authorized privacy [87]. If some event occurs, then the image of rel- 1544
1486 services by authorized service providers; and, nally, the evant people can be reconstructed by the law enforce- 1545
1487 above data should be stored only until it is strictly needed. ment personnel. 1546

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1547 In the case of RFID systems, the problem is twofold. In 6. Conclusions 1608
1548 fact, on the one hand usually RFID tags are passive and re-
1549 ply to readers queries regardless of the desire of their pro- The Internet has changed drastically the way we live, 1609
1550 prietary. On the other hand an attacker can eavesdrop the moving interactions between people at a virtual level in 1610
1551 reply from a tag to another authorized reader. Solutions to several contexts spanning from the professional life to 1611
1552 the rst type of problems proposed so far are based on social relationships. The IoT has the potential to add a 1612
1553 authentication of authorized readers (which have been dis- new dimension to this process by enabling communica- 1613
1554 cussed above). However, such solutions require tags that tions with and among smart objects, thus leading to 1614
1555 are able to perform authentication procedures. This in- the vision of anytime, anywhere, anymedia, anything 1615
1556 volves higher costs and an authentication infrastructure, communications. 1616
1557 which, as we have already said, cannot be deployed in To this purpose, we observe that the IoT should be con- 1617
1558 complex systems like those expected in IoT scenarios. sidered as part of the overall Internet of the future, which 1618
1559 Accordingly, solutions have been recently proposed (see is likely to be dramatically different from the Internet we 1619
1560 [88] for example) that use a new system that, on the basis use today. In fact, it is clear that the current Internet para- 1620
1561 of preferences set by the user, negotiates privacy on her/his digm, which supports and has been built around host-to- 1621
1562 behalf. The privacy decisions taken by the above system host communications, is now a limiting factor for the cur- 1622
1563 can be enforced by creating collisions in the wireless chan- rent use of the Internet. It has become clear that Internet is 1623
1564 nel with the replies transmitted by the RFID tags, which mostly used for the publishing and retrieving of informa- 1624
1565 should not be read [89]. tion (regardless of the host where such information is pub- 1625
1566 Avoiding eavesdropping by attacker in RFID systems lished or retrieved from) and therefore, information should 1626
1567 can be accomplished through protecting the communica- be the focus of communication and networking solutions. 1627
1568 tion with encryption as explained above. However, these This leads to the concept of data-centric networks, which 1628
1569 types of solutions still allow malicious readers to detect has been investigated only recently [94]. According to such 1629
1570 the presence of the RFID tags scanned by the authorized a concept, data and the related queries are self-addressable 1630
1571 reader. To x this problem, there is a new family of solu- and self-routable. 1631
1572 tions in which the signal transmitted by the reader has In this perspective, the current trend, which we have 1632
1573 the form of a pseudo-noise. Such noisy signal is modulated highlighted in Section 5.2, of assigning an IPv6 address to 1633
1574 by the RFID tags and therefore, its transmission cannot be each IoT element so as to make it possible to reach them 1634
1575 detected by malicious readers [90]. from any other node of the network, looks more suitable 1635
1576 In order to ensure that the personal data collected is for the traditional Internet paradigm. Therefore, it is possi- 1636
1577 used only to support authorized services by authorized ble that the Internet evolution will require a change in the 1637
1578 providers, solutions have been proposed that usually rely above trend. 1638
1579 on a system called privacy broker [91]. The proxy inter- Another interesting paradigm which is emerging in the 1639
1580 acts with the user on the one side and with the services Internet of the Future context is the so called Web Squared, 1640
1581 on the other. Accordingly, it guarantees that the provider which is an evolution of the Web 2.0. It is aimed at inte- 1641
1582 obtains only the information about the user which is grating web and sensing technologies [95] together so as 1642
1583 strictly needed. The user can set the preferences of the to enrich the content provided to users. This is obtained 1643
1584 proxy. When sensor networks and RFID systems are in- by taking into account the information about the user con- 1644
1585 cluded in the network, then the proxy operates between text collected by the sensors (microphone, cameras, GPS, 1645
1586 them and the services. However, note that in this case etc.) deployed in the user terminals. In this perspective, ob- 1646
1587 the individual cannot set and control the policies utilized serve that Web Squared can be considered as one of the 1647
1588 by the privacy brokers. Moreover, observe that such applications running over the IoT, like the Web is today 1648
1589 solutions based on privacy proxies suffer from scalability an (important) application running over the Internet. 1649
1590 problems. In this paper, we have surveyed the most important as- 1650
1591 Finally, studies are still at the beginning regarding dig- pects of the IoT with emphasis on what is being done and 1651
1592 ital forgetting as this has been recognized as an important what are the issues that require further research. Indeed, 1652
1593 issue only recently [92]. In fact, as the cost of storage de- current technologies make the IoT concept feasible but 1653
1594 creases, the amount of data that can be memorized in- do not t well with the scalability and efciency require- 1654
1595 creases dramatically. Accordingly, there is the need to ments they will face. We believe that, given the interest 1655
1596 create solutions that periodically delete information that shown by industries in the IoT applications, in the next 1656
1597 is of no use for the purpose it was generated. Accordingly, years addressing such issues will be a powerful driving fac- 1657
1598 the new software tools that will be developed in the future tor for networking and communication research in both 1658
1599 should support such forgetting functionalities. For exam- industrial and academic laboratories. 1659
1600 ple, a few experimental solutions have been developed
1601 and released for public use in the recent past that allow
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Please cite this article in press as: L. Atzori et al., The Internet of Things: A survey, Comput. Netw. (2010), doi:10.1016/
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COMPNW 4247 No. of Pages 19, Model 3G
31 May 2010
18 L. Atzori et al. / Computer Networks xxx (2010) xxxxxx

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31 May 2010
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