Intelligent IoT for the Digital World

1IoT Technologies and Applications

1.1 Introduction

As a new dimension to the world of information and communication technologies (ICTs), the concept of the internet of things (IoT) aims at providing “connectivity for anything”, “by embedding short‐range mobile transceivers into a wide array of additional gadgets and everyday items, enabling new forms of communication between people and things, and between things themselves”, according to the seventh International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Internet Reports 2005 (International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2005). In recent years, different IoT technologies and standards have been actively developed for different industrial sectors and application scenarios, such as smart city, intelligent transportation system, safety, and security system, intelligent agriculture, environment monitoring, smart factory, intelligent manufacturing, smart home, and healthcare. Various IoT‐centered business models and value chains have become, consolidated, and popular; these IoT applications are effectively accelerating the digitalization and transformation progresses of traditional industries (Union, 2016). As a result, they have generated tremendous economic and social benefits to our society, as well as huge impacts on people's daily life.

Sensors, machines, and user devices are the “things”, which are usually equipped with limited energy resources and simple sensing, computing, communication, motion, and control capabilities. By using a ...