Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Computers and Electrical Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compeleceng

Internet of Energy: Opportunities, applications, architectures

and challenges in smart industriesR
Yasir Shahzad a,∗, Huma Javed a, Haleem Farman b, Jamil Ahmad b, Bilal Jan c,
Muhammad Zubair b
a
Department of Computer Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan
b
Department of Computer Science, Islamia College Peshawar, Pakistan
c
Department of Computer Science, FATA University Kohat, Pakistan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Internet of Energy (IoE) transforms energy production, supply, and consumption to
Received 1 October 2019 fulfill high energy demands via intelligent automation of industrial energy producers and
Revised 28 May 2020
consumers. This paper emphasizes the concept of the IoE in the Industrial Internet of
Accepted 22 June 2020
Things (IIoT) perspective in order to ensure productivity, control, reduced cost, real-time
decision making and monitoring, customer satisfaction, and innovative experience. Further-
Keywords: more, industrial applications and requirements for optimizing performance, transmission,
Internet of Energy and consumption for efficient energy utilization and increased productivity have also been
Internet of Things discussed. Industrial services, technologies, prerequisites, and application requirements are
Industrial Internet of Things focused on outlining the architectural framework for achieving net-zero energy efficiency,
Industry 4.0 applicability, and limitations. The taxonomy of communication layer protocols is discussed,
compared, and evaluated in depth along with their limitations, to help with pre-technology
implementations. Moreover, open challenges such as middleware, mobility, data integrity,
and scalability are also discussed in depth with their potential solutions.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Energy demand is outpaced from a decade due to high utilization in industries, transportation, air conditioning, home
appliances, health, education, automation, and other comfort services. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
is acquiring high energy demands by generating billions of requests in the shape of emails, audio-video transmissions,
searches, social, and graphical content sharing. The advent of smart devices has paved high energy loads with added con-
nectivity to the Internet and ultimately underpinned the Internet of Energy (IoE) to lower the energy requirements through
intelligent, practical, and control usage. The IoE has empowered large scale digital transformation in the energy sector to
operate real-time applications with low and efficient intakes. It has the capability to conserve energy in industrial pro-
cesses such as interoperability, security, scalability, precision, accuracy, programmability, low latency, reliability, resilience,
automation, and serviceability [1]. However, such interaction of humans and devices raises big data that require high and

R
This paper is for CAEE special section SI-ioe. Reviews processed and recommended for publication to the Editor-in-Chief by Guest Editor Dr. Murad
Khan.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: yasirshahzad@uop.edu.pk (Y. Shahzad), humajaved15@uop.edu.pk (H. Javed), haleem.farman@icp.edu.pk (H. Farman),
jamil.ahmad@icp.edu.pk (J. Ahmad), bilal.jan@fu.edu.pk (B. Jan), zubair@icp.edu.pk (M. Zubair).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2020.106739
0045-7906/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739

Fig. 1. IoT, IoE, and IIoT.

continuous energy in storage, transmission, and predictive analytics, presents many challenges in data communication, se-
curity, reliability, mobility, fault tolerance, performance, scalability, interoperability, integrity, and middleware.
The term IoE is emerged from the Internet of Things (IoT) to target industrial applications involved in ubiquitous comput-
ing, big data processing, and Machine to Machine (M2M) communication. The IoT, a Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)
technology, has extended the connectivity beyond traditional devices such as desktop, laptop, palm computers, smartphones,
and tablets to bring a substantial technological revolution with trillions of sensing devices called things. These smart devices
are connected to the Internet to achieve intelligent and automated results towards efficient, productive outputs and ease
of control. However, IoT poses a number of challenges in terms of connectivity, security, complexity, standardization, com-
patibility, cost, and energy consumption because trillion of these small devices exchanging information continuously and,
in turns, décor the concept of energy conservation for efficient and need-based utilization. Energy demands, sustainability,
efficiency, requirements, and safety of society are greatly improved by IoT, which is now extended towards the industrial
sector, such as Industry 4.0 for enhanced productivity, control, and fulfill high energy demands [2].
The industrial smartness is initiated in Germany from the fourth industrial revolution known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0). The
revolution is closely associated with IoT, IoE, Cyber Physical System (CPS), ICT, Enterprise Architecture, and Enterprise In-
tegration. The term I4.0 is coined by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany, as an industrial process
to digitize value-adding and information management. The same digitization is further divided into five categories. The first
category is digitization, optimization, and customization of production; second is automation and adaptation; third is Human
Machine Interaction (HMI); fourth is value-added services and businesses; fifth is automatic data exchange and communi-
cation [3].
Keeping in view the importance of IoE, especially in the industrial sector, a detailed and focused study is needed to
enlighten their various areas such as requirements, applications, architectures, and challenges. This paper contributes to:

• Comprehend the concept of IoE, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) concerning IoT and I4.0 so that the critical differences,
along with technological features, could be associated with each other.
• Summarize industrial applications, architectures, and challenges to highlight their role and importance in implementing
new technologies.
• Provide easy realization of IoE, IIoT, IoT, and I4.0 with operational requirements, applications, architecture, and challenges
to address energy demands in the industrial sector for a massive roll-out of ICT technologies, as shown in Fig. 1.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section II gives an overview of IoE, IoT, IIoT, and I4.0 and their technological
comparison. Section III focus on application requirements, use, and limitations in a factory and industry-based environments.
Section IV summarizes industry architectures, usage, standards, and life cycle. Section V describes the open challenges faced
by the IoE industry with possible solutions. Finally, Section VI gives concluding remarks and future directions.

2. IoT for industry

Information Technology has revolutionized data processing, storage, transmission, and usage through smart devices inte-
gration. Such devices are getting smaller and smarter to alter real-world events into self-sustained intelligent virtual objects
which have revolutionized IoT. The physical objects, in distant areas, are connected through the Internet to communicate
 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739 3

Fig. 2. IIoT Applications.

Industry 1.0 18th century (1784) – Mechanical Loom

Industry 2.0 19th century (1870) – Assembly Line

Industry 3.0
20th century (1969) – PLC

Industry 4.0 21st century (Today) – CPS

Fig. 3. History of Industry 4.0.

and exchange information for a variety of operations by sensing the environment, analyze, compute, and respond accord-
ingly. The information is usually application based where nodes called things are connected with objects, devices, and people
for the desired output. Applications of IoT are enormous and currently used in the areas such as home, building, vehicle,
healthcare, retail, industry, and energy sector.
On the other hand, IoE, a subset of IoT, is explicitly aimed for distributed energy applications to optimize energy resources
and shift towards a carbon-free global system. The energy sector is, therefore, transforming in the shape of decarbonization,
decentralization, and digitization, especially in industries for renewable clean energy, smart grids, artificial intelligence, and
big data [2]. The referred digital transformation in industries is self-sustained and automated to perform data communi-
cation, information management, and record optimization to attain maximum productivity by consuming low energy for a
more extended time period and reducing the cost to flourish IIoT. The system relies on humans, machines, and products
known as Cyber Physical Production System (CPPS) to interact with the latest and upcoming developments in an adaptive
way. Moreover, IIoT supports M2M communication and machine learning to self-learn, perform intelligent tasks, and regu-
late energy consumption. IIoT has modernized the conventional power grids, factories, agriculture, military, cities, medical,
environment, and the automotive industry, as shown in Fig. 2. The term IIoT is a blend of Industry (I) connected through
the Internet (I) for Operation Technology (OT), which is a fast-growing digital makeover with an amalgam of I4.0.
History of I4.0 is revolutionary, which is a bit different from IoE, IoT, and IIoT, as shown in Fig. 3. The first revolution was
observed in the 18th century, where the production was carried out on steam engines. The second revolution was observed
at the end of the 19th century, where the production was carried out on electrical energy. The third revolution was observed
in mid of the 20th century, where automatic production was carried out with a trace of the Internet. The fourth revolution,
the so-called Industry 4.0, is a current trend of production typically based on CPS, which is a central system that allows
communication between the physical and virtual world through sensors or actuators. The principal purpose is to process
information with net-zero energy between diverse platforms to achieve a higher level of operational efficiency, automation,
and productivity on factory level manufacturing [3].
4 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739

Table 1
Features of IoE, IIoT, and I4.0.

IoE IIoT I4.0

M2M Not mandatory Partial Mandatory

Cloud Not mandatory Partial Partial
Sensors Mandatory Mandatory Mandatory
Connected Devices Mandatory Mandatory Mandatory
Artificial Intelligence Not mandatory Partial Mandatory
Big Data Not mandatory Mandatory Partial
Augmented Reality Not mandatory Partial Partial
Digital Twin Not mandatory Partial Mandatory
Cyber Security Partial Mandatory Mandatory
Additive Manufacturing Not mandatory Partial Mandatory

Table 2
Comparison of IoE, IIoT, and I4.0.

IoE IIoT I4.0

Development Evolution Evolution Revolution

Dependable Low Moderate High
Failure Accepted Partially accepted Not accepted
Data group Data / Big Data Big Data Data / Big Data
IP Public / Private Public / Private Public / Private
Network Ad hoc / Structured Ad hoc / Structured Ad hoc / Structured
Topology Peer to peer /Mesh Peer to peer / Mesh / M2M M2M
Real-time Soft / Hard Hard Hard
Backward compatibility Partial Mandatory Mandatory
Security Partial Mandatory Mandatory
Usage Consumer / Commercial Commercial / Industry Factory

2.1. Understanding IoE, IIoT and I4.0

Large scale manufacturing, oil & gas, logistics, mining, aviation, etc. evolve high and continuous energy requirements
where massive data is endlessly generated, compiled, and transformed. The terms IoE, IIoT, and I4.0, empower digital trans-
formation in multiple sections to facilitate consumer, enterprise, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, and energy sectors
to realize things into data. Although they share conventional technologies such as sensors, cloud platforms, connectivity,
and digital platforms, as shown in Table 1, their technological needs differ. The system’s critical alterations depend on the
requisite application, as shown in Table 2 [4, 5].

3. IoT applications in industry

Smart networks hinge on devices and objects for useful communication to increase output and decrease errors. Appli-
cations of IoT technologies are pivotal for industrial operations to innovate solutions for consumption, utilization, and con-
servation of energy. The technology comprises sensors, actuators, machines, mechanical tools, software platforms, and cloud
servers to perform smart application-based activity [1]. To enlighten requirements and challenges, the IoT industry-centric
applications are divided into two sets, such as factory-based and industry-based applications, as shown in Fig. 4.

3.1. Factory applications

Application-specific sensors dynamically detect the manufacturing process and current state to analyze variations and
respond accordingly. The precise input of physical states of machines reacts at par for the ongoing activity to accomplish a
job. It shows that sensors play a vital role to monitor machines vigorously and send alerts if the equipment deviates from
its prescribed parameters. Thus, a proper working environment ensures total energy consumed equals the amount of energy
created known as Zero Net Energy (ZNE) [6]. However, to attain ZNE and other production-oriented benefits, application
level software is required to leverage energy conservation in the manufacturing factories. Factory centric applications are
briefly discussed below in Table 3 to highlight its requirements and challenges.

3.2. Industry applications

Industry-oriented applications operate robustly under ICT to expand the quality and quantity of manufacturing pro-
cesses. IoT instrumentation has led to industries’ contribution to bringing significant changes, transformation, adaptation,
advancement, and energy preservation, as deliberated in Fig. 4. The industrial applications circles around diagnostics, ob-
servation, decision, and action to exaggerate the state of the art technologies for balanced energy utilization. It brings
 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739 5

Automation Farming

Robotics Energy

Maintenance Oil/Gas

Industry
Factory
Integration IoT Drones

Packaging Metering

Logistics Self-Driving

Smart Tools Aero-Space

Fig. 4. Applications of IoT w.r.t Factory and Industry.

Table 3
IoT Factory based applications.

Title Description

Automation [6]
Smart Robotics [7]
Logistics Management
&Supply Chain [6]
Predictive Maintenance [8]
Integration of Smart Tools
/ Wearables [9]
Safety [9]
Tracking [9]
• Automation enabled machines to work autonomously, continuously, perform complicated tasks, quality checks,
controlled performance, minimize errors, remote access, and fast production
• Automation tools such as Programmable Logic Control and Programmable Automation Control are clubbed with
sensors to collect data for improved accuracy, efficiency, and human-machine interaction
• However, industrial automation cannot be applied for complete industrial solutions such as variant fabrication,
reduce cost, handmade engineering, portrayal, and maintenance
• Robots perform a dull, dirty, dangerous and autonomous activity for a particular application
• Robots tiresomely perform extreme actions to ensure accuracy and efficiency through software such as Orocos
Toolchain, Kinematics, and Dynamics Library and restricted Finite State Machine
• However, robots are propriety, dependent, power-hungry, and noisy machines. They require space and hydraulics
for future expansions. Offline programming such as Post Processor is also difficult and costly
• Storage and distribution are imperative features to provide optimize packaging, efficient movement, high
performance, and smart accommodation to reduce cost and time
• Software such as SynQ and Supply Chain Management is used for digitizing logistics and supply chain
• However, high-end manufacturing requires digitization, analyzation, and modification to foresee errors in
production, supply issues, inventory location, breakdowns, complete planning, and capital cost
• Maintenance of the system is a core technique to maximize system life and uphold long duty cycles. Smart
solutions monitor the status of each component and predict when equipment failure might occur
• Sensors trigger maintenance break by software such as GE Predix, Siemens MindSphere, and Presenso
• However, predictive maintenance operates in real-time, requiring high-end reliability, accuracy, interpretation,
and monitoring. It is a complex system with high investment and expert-level analysis
• Devices and wearables integrated with sensors provide reliability, precision, accuracy, and efficiency
• Smart tools collect readings from machines to call instant warnings during operations, accidents, and
emergencies. Hobby-based developer kits are Raspberry Pi, Kinoma, Inxus/Verve2 and Arduino
• However, battery life, device size, cost, inaccurate readings, security/privacy, and distractions are common
challenges of smart tools and wearables to address
• Ensures security for industry and their workers to minimize theft/injuries and to maximize output by following
standards, quality equipment and checks meters
• Key Performance Indicators are recorded for injuries, illness, near-misses, and absentees. Operational Equipment
Efficiency is used for redressal Health, Safety and Environment
• However, safety procedures have limitations of privacy, employee reporting, risk management, precision, and
technology dependence
• Product tracking during transit provides end to end visibility, stock management, data insight, higher reliability,
and improved profitability
• Location-based service technology such as GPS, RFID, BLE, WiFi, NFC, and LiFi is used. However, they depend on
weather, road, and environment variables during the shipment
• However, step-wise tracking is an expensive choice regarding data roaming, versatile network junction, mobility,
real-time readings, higher running costs, and privacy-related issues
6 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739

Fig. 5. Smart transportation system.

transformation, innovation, and integration in energy networks in a reliable, secure, and cost-efficient way. State of the
art networks/industries can be witnessed at Amazon-Reinventing warehousing, Boeing-Using IoT, Hitachi-An integrated IIoT,
Maersk-Intelligent logistics, and Shell-Smart oil. Few important industrial applications that have influenced energy networks
are discussed below.

3.2.1. Drones
Drones are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) that has no onboard pilot. These UAVs are controlled by the remote Ground
Control System (GSC), also referred to as a ground cockpit. These flying machines are light-weight and made of sturdy mate-
rial for fast maneuverability and achieving high altitudes. These machines are equipped with vision sensor, monocular vision,
infrared and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors to avoid obstacles during their flight roster. Drones are aware of
aerodynamics, circuit boards, chipsets, and integrated software to practice its infrared camera, GPS, laser, and weapons, if
required. Drones send real-time video to the control room through a mounted camera called First Person View (FPV). Be-
sides above, many useful applications such as farming, construction, shipping, Internet access points, disaster monitoring,
evacuations, power sectors, and surveillance are in practice. Moreover, drones can also play a gateway role to provide an
interaction point between sensor networks and data collection points. Drones are multipurpose machines for inspection,
monitoring, surveys, swarming, flight dynamics, Geographic Information System (GIS), mining, cargo, and film making. It is
expected that the drone market can gain 82 billion dollars by employing 10 0,0 0 0 people in the year 2025.

3.2.2. Smart transportation

Smart Transportation (ST) is an indispensable component of smart cities to improve mobility, infrastructure, platforms,
and payment system. ST is a pillar of smart city notions to control, track, and aware of traffic patterns of vehicles, pedestri-
ans, metro, and train stations. These systems coordinate with each other, as shown in Fig. 5, to enhance operability, situation
awareness, emergency procedures, identifying dangers, risk management, fare evasions, and medical support to strengthen
traffic safety, control, parking, limiting damages, and data acquisition. Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) has re-
alized superficial control and monitoring on vehicles to achieve high reliability, low latency, and efficient cellular Vehicle to
Everything (V2X) communications [10]. However, a pure vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication faces many problems such
as network disconnection, broadcast storm, and MAC protocol contention problems.

3.2.3. Autonomous vehicles

Autonomous Vehicle (AV) are self-driving vehicles with no human influence or interaction. Such vehicles are driverless
with embedded sensor technology to reduce crashes, energy consumption, pollution, traffic congestion, and social interac-
tion. The concept of autonomous vehicles arose in the 1980s when two types of automation are proposed. The first proposal
is an automated highway system for cars to drive on provided infrastructure. The second proposal is the automated vehicles
to operate without drivers on every road and street. The real revolution is seen in 2003 when the Defense Advanced Re-
search Project Agency influences grand challenge to researcher squads for the development of the autonomous technology.
The Stanford team won the challenge in 2005, and is, therefore, considered the beginning of the era of the self-driving cars.
Since 2009, Google’s car project known as Waymo has more than ten million self-driving miles, and Tesla’s autopilot vehicle
project has more than one billion self-driving miles. The autonomous vehicles are assisted by sensors, radars, and cameras,
which continuously detect vehicle positions, roads, obstacles, hazards, and traffic. These vehicles are environment friendly
who can detect congestions, obstacles, and choose the best route to reach a destination in the shortest time.
 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739 7

Fig. 6. Smart farming: green revolution.

3.2.4. Smart farming

Smart farming is essential for any civilization to sustain the increasing needs of human nutritional ingestions. Conven-
tional farming methods are unable to meet the needs of a growing population due to labor-intensive methods. Therefore,
various technologies combine to make a farming intelligent, organized, self-learned, self-aware, smart sensation, and an-
ticipation by improving productivity [11]. The various farming sectors require high energy demands and are, therefore, an
emerging research area to encourage efficient, flexible, and reliable energy utilization techniques. Smart farming innovations
have currently integrated IoT devices to sense light, temperature, humidity, soil, and moisture monitoring by fulfilling the
energy requirements. The inclusion of smart features in the agriculture industry has innovated the Third Green Revolution,
which includes sensors, big data, UAV, and robotics, as shown in Fig. 6.

3.2.5. Energy networks

Energy conservation is a stern global matter, especially in industrial sectors. In this regard, a variety of solutions are of-
fered to conserve energy, and IoE is playing a lead role in saving energy and enhance industrial productivity. The connected
devices, productivity, reduce costs, improved efficiency, monitoring, real-time decision, problem resolution, customer satis-
faction, and innovative experience are few embedded benefits that comply with IoE. These devices are interoperable and
integrated into the existing energy sector for flexibility, reliability, efficiency, and security. These smart devices collect data
by monitoring their surroundings and behaviors to transform it into a useful shape for decisions or planning future oper-
ations. Evenly, the amount and capacity of energy are controllable through sensors by overseeing the demand. Currently,
the buildings/industries that have a smart energy system are termed Zero-Net Building or zero-energy buildings because
the amount of energy created and consumed is equal. The transformation of energy trends with smart energy grids and
smart metering, as shown in Fig. 7, has enabled us to route new energy conservation ideas [12]. The energy is generated,
distributed, and consumed efficiently due to profound shift and load distribution. Distributed Energy Resource Management
(DERMS) application is used as communication management between markets and sites in energy networks for power gen-
eration, cloud-based storage, and power management. Energy consumption in the corporate sectors such as the weather, oil
& gas industry, and telecommunication sectors is smartly reduced through the IoE management system, which overlooks
line loss, leakage, need-based supply, and shutdown.

4. Industry architectures

A reference architecture is a set of recommended or agreed upon structures for a standard best practice solution. The di-
verse industry sector has few proposed reference architectures depending on application requirements, as shown in Table 4.
However, there is no agreed standard architecture available to homogenize IoT, IoE, and IIoT with respect to energy efficiency,
interoperability, security, scalability, reliability, and resilience. The available methods focus on multi-layer services/levels, se-
lective technologies, business needs, and technical requirements to present interconnection between applications, services,
and devices [13]. There are two standard integrations available, as shown in Fig. 8. First, horizontal integration facilitates
network inter-cooperation collaboration. Second, vertical integration facilitates hierarchical subsystems for a flexible and
reconfigurable manufacturing system.

5. Challenges

The increased pervasiveness of smart devices renovates IoT to process big data and analytics. Proper integration helps
to regulate energy consumption, predict points of failure, and autonomously trigger maintenance calls. Such systems reli-
8 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739

Fig. 7. The smart grid [12].

Fig. 8. RAMI 4.0 Architecture [13].

ably automate tasks and learn by their self for scalable and control alliance between diverse platforms/devices/system. IoT
integration in the industry refers to the installation of intelligent, sophisticated, and automated machines to process their
information and streamline operations. However, such integration, in turn, invites challenges that need to be incorporated
due to a considerable amount of information exchange. Few high-end open challenges are discussed below.

5.1. Types of communication

A variety of communication protocols are supported by smart networks in the pattern of a machine to machine, machine
to device or machine to humans and vice versa. The communications may be single or multi-hop in inter-domain or intra-
domain networks. IoT networks in the industry are self-aware; therefore, it can choose a routing path by establishing a
data session and communication pattern through the protocol stack, as shown in Fig. 9. The supported routing patterns are
centralized & distributed, static & adaptive, flat & hierarchical, and proactive, reactive & hybrid approaches. However, it faces
three open challenges, such as (i) local network/device communications, (ii) public network device communication, and
(iii) data server access and device communication. International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) have proposed standard protocols that are evaluated
below in two categories; 1) Application layer 2) Infrastructure layer protocols.
 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739 9

Table 4
Industrial architectures.

Architecture Layers Description

Industrial Internet Business • A joint venture of AT&T, Cisco, and IBM to develop a mutual
Reference Architecture industrial architecture for interoperability of diverse applications
(IIRA) [14]
Usage • Contains architectural concepts, patterns, methodology &
vocabulary
Functional • Three-tier system architecture; Edge tier, platform tier, and
enterprise tier
Implementation • The life cycle is specialized for the industrial sector in five
functional domains such as Control, Operations, Information,
Application, and Business
Reference Architecture Business • Developed by BITKOM, VDMA, and ZVEI by modifying the Smart
Model Industrie 4.0 Grid Architecture Model (SGAM)
(RAMI 4.0) [13]
Functional, • 3D model to represent technical and economic properties. It also
describes machine decomposition for virtual mapping
Information • Three corresponding axes are: Hierarchy levels, Life cycle and value
chain based on vertical/horizontal integration and end-to-end
engineering
Communication • The life cycle and value chain process consists of type and instance
Integration
Asset
Architecture Based on Hierarchical • Improvement to RAMI 4.0 by including physical and virtual world
RAMI 4.0 [13] Equipment integration and communication
Network based • Self-identification processes to keep data in Collaborative Service
machine Network
arrangements • Production Flow Schema and Petri Net Model are used. Operations
are performed through a request using Domain Name Service (DNS)
method
• The life cycle and value chain process consists of workpieces,
products, and facilities based on IEC62890
I4.0 Components Component Based It is developed by BITKOM, VDMA, ZVEI to help build hardware and
Model [15] Two main software components of I4.0
components Focuses on technical solutions, case studies, and application of I4.0
Complaint through administrative shell concept
Communication Future integration for hardware and software components and
I4.0 Component electronic container policy to secure data, improve communication
and processes ability between virtual and real objects
The life cycle follows a digital factory concept using dynamic
actualization
Object Linking and Open Platform • It is developed by OPC foundation to focus on communication
Embedding for Process Communication between industrial equipment and systems to collect and control
Control-Unified (OPC) Technology data
Architecture (OPC-UA) • Connecting sensors, instruments and controllers to provide a
[16] bridge between OPC-UA and automation systems
• Uses a client-server model with a platform-agnostic approach with
three main modules: a) Connect Server; b) Aggregate Server; c)
Cloud Proxy Server
• The life cycle revolves over intelligent field devices from a
configuration, diagnostic, commissioning, calibration, and solution for
obsolete devices
Implementing Smart Vertical integration • A proposed framework for vertical integration and operation of
Factory [17] of the smart smart factories including industrial wireless networks, cloud, and
factory of Industrie fixed/mobile terminals
4.0
• The general architecture to explore the operational mechanism of
smart factories
• Use macro closed-loop to define the operative mechanism of the
architecture
• The life cycle revolves around the operational mechanism and
system architecture, technical features, and beneficial outcomes

5.1.1. Application layer protocols

IoT, IoE, IIoT, and I4.0 are application centered networks to perform an explicit job. Whereas, IoE help conserve energy in
various industrial sectors such as agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, farming, supply chain, logistics, and healthcare.
Thus, applications are key players to identify framework, heterogeneity, useful programming, choosing the right technology,
and future expansions. The development of such applications requires architecture based job characteristics to resolve issues
such as big data, security, adaptability, intelligence, scalability, and real-time processing [18]. Application layer protocols are,
10 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739

Application Layer CoAP

Transport Layer UDP
RPL

Network Layer IPv6 ICMP

6LoWPAN
6TOP
Link Layer
802.15.4 - MAC

Radio Layer 802.15.4 - PHY

Fig. 9. Protocol stack of IIoT.

therefore, designed to offer reliable and efficient communication with respect to time, expertise, and cost to endorse them in
resource constraint networks. Merits and demerits are imperative to consider keeping in view the importance of application
layer protocols before adopting industrial applications. Few state-of-the-art application layer protocols are summarized in
Table 5 in the context of features, preferred applications, message type, packet header size, communication protocol, data
encryption, and limitations.

5.1.2. Infrastructure layer protocols

Network infrastructure is a backbone of any network to keep nodes connected and updated for data communication.
Infrastructure layer protocols are responsible for encountering precise requirements, adopt various policies, match traffic
patterns, useful power intake, scale in terms of memory and performance, adopt location change, avoid one-way links and
duplication, improve adherence, data flow, adaptability and interoperability. The taxonomy of infrastructure layer protocols
is summarized in Table 6.

5.2. Cyberattacks

The term cyberattack is an illegal access to a system to harm or steal information. Data integrity and confidentially are
the priority of deliberate trust-based communication in industrial networks. The techniques, efforts, expertise, resources,
and tools acquired for cyberattacks are called attack cost. The CPPS hardware and software platforms are vulnerable to
cyberattacks in the manner of an active network attack, passive attack, close-in attacks, and exploitation by insiders. Types
of cyberattacks on industrial systems are Network-Based, System-Based (Backend), and Sensor/Equipment-Based (Frontend).

5.2.1. Cyberattack avoidance

The industrial systems are meant to perform continuously round the clock and avoid unnecessary delay or stoppage
during active hours. Service availability, accountability, and audit are required to halt any vulnerable attack because the
systems do not afford any stoppage. Such systems are generally in small size with a capability of energy efficiency, real-time
processing, high computation, and non-stop functionality. These networks are interconnected to generate big data where
security and privacy is a real challenge to address. Therefore, an abstraction level security and privacy such as platform
security, engineering security, management security, identity management, and industrial right management are required.
Moreover, security architecture, integrity verification, server/client certificates, packet storming, authentication phases, access
control, and secure device management are a few proposed solutions to secure CPS based systems [4]. However, open eye
measures such as confidentiality, authentication, serviceability, accountability, and audit are required for a vigilant system.

5.3. Middleware

Middleware refers to an application program/interface for diverse applications and platforms to integrate successful com-
munication between devices and networks. Middleware absence creates high complexity and cost because industrial net-
works are vulnerable to computational and resource constraints. Communication between diverse applications, platforms,
and services is challenging, such as real-time operations, heterogeneous devices, device capability, distributed processing,
security & privacy, reliability and fault tolerance, mobility, device location, power limitation, integration, intelligent decision
and context awareness. The role of middleware is vital to provide interoperability, concurrency, resource discovery & man-
agement, data/event management, load balancing, horizontal/vertical scalability, transaction management, semantic informa-
tion integration/interpretation/exchange, and device identification & integration. The heterogeneity challenges are semantic
conflicts, global heterogeneity, new/unknown devices, and a large number of devices interaction due to the long life span of
industrial networks. Categorical proposals are available in literature based on design, such as event-based, service-oriented,
Table 5
Application based protocols.

Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739
Packet
Title Dev. By Features Applications Msg. Type Header Prot-ocol Encry-ption Limitation Ref.

CoAP IETF Web Transfer HTTP mapping, Request / 4-Bytes UDP DTLS Unordered [19],
Protocol, Energy MicroCoAP, SMCP, Reply and Message, Low Rest, [RFC-7252]
Efficient, IPv6, LibCoAP, H5.CoAP, REST-ful No Publish
M2M, Resource Node-CoAP, CoAPY, Subscribe, HTTP
Discovery, HTTP FreeCoAP, Replacement, Lack
Interaction, CoAPthon, of Maturity, Low
Resource Californium Reliability, Security
Observation Issues
MQTT OASIS Lightweight, QoS, Automation, Pub. / Sub. 2-Bytes TCP SSL / TLS Scalability, [20], ISO/ IEC
Telemetry Info., Facebook Message Tracks, PRF 20,922
M2M, Low Latency, Messenger, Say Authentication,
Low Power, it-Sign it, FloodNet, Client TCP
Extensive Scaling Smart Lab, Thread Dependent, No
Dating, Mobile4D Message Queue
XMPP IBM Open Source, Instant Messaging Pub. / Sub. – TCP SSL Redundancy, [21],
Instant Message, (whatsapp, and Interoperability, No RFC-6120
XMP Steaming, nimbuz, chatme, Request / Variety of QoS, File
Decentralized, kontalk), Online Reply Transfer Modes,
Spam Free, Gaming, Real-Time M2M Specialty
Real-Time, Privacy Social, WebRTC
AMQP OASIS- Open Source, Banking, Finance Pub. / Sub. 8-Bytes TCP SSL High Power, Long [20]
AMQP Efficient, Reliable, Industry, Telecom, Header, No UDP &
Queue, Defense, Factory, Multicast,
Asynchronous Internet, Cloud Reliability,
Middleware Computing Fragmentation
DDS OMG Real Time, M2M, Traffic control, Pub. / Sub. – TCP/ UDP SSL Resilience, [22]
High Act, Broker Smart grid, Broker Less Heterogeneity,
Less, Secure, Defense, Robotics, Model Scalability
Reliable, Failover Aerospace, Health,
Decentralized Transport

11
 12
Table 6

Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739
Infrastructure based protocols.

Packet Header Bandwidth Radio Band

Title Dev. By Features Application Size Spread Spect-rum (bps) Topo-logy (MHz) MAC Ref.

IEEE 802.15.4 IEEE Low Cost / Power / 6LoWPAN, Zigbee, 127 bytes DSSS, PSSS, UWB, 250 kbps Star, Peer to Peer, 868–868.6, CSMA/CA [23]
Speed, Mac & WirelessHart, CSS Cluster Tree 902–928,
Phy-Layer Standard ISA100.11a, MiWi, 2400–2483.5
RF4CE
6LoW-PAN IETF IPv6 Stack, No Nat, Health, Security, 40 bytes CSSS (Range 10 m 20 / 40 / Star and Mesh – CSMA/CA [24]
RFC-4919 Small Packet, Low Home, Buildings, to 30 m) 250 kbps
Cost/Bandwidth Cities
6TiSCH RFC- IETF IPv6, Low Power, Manufacturing, – TDMA 250 kbps Star, Mesh 868/908/2400 TDMA [25]
7554 Scalable Reliable, Construction,
Jitter Receipt Agriculture,
Farming,Energy
RPL RFC-6550 IETF IPv6, Source Home/building 40 bytes CSSS 20 / 40 / Mesh – CSMA/CA [26]
Routing, Loop Automation, Smart 250 kbps
Avoidance & Metering,
Detection, Security Industrial
Applications
EPCglobal Gen2 GS1 Barcode, RFID, Retail, Health, 96 to 128 / DS-CDMA 5–640- K Tree, Mesh 860–960 MHz ALO-HA [27]
GDSN, GS1 Cloud, Transport, Food, 496 bits
Digital Calculator Logistics, Industry
BLE Blue- Robust, Short Audio, Location 2 Bytes FHSS 2400 P2P, Mesh, 1024K TDMA [28]
tooth Range, Energy Services, Data Broad-cast
Efficient, P2P Transfer, Small
Adhoc, Reliable Networks
LTE-A 3GPP Huge Users, Carrier Live Net, Voice, – OFD-MA Ran-dom Star, Mesh 3 Gbps DL OFD-MA [29]
Based, Aggregation, Video, db 1.5 Gbps UL
Relay Nodes, Mimo Calculator,
Spectrum Built,
Multi-Channel
 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739 13

virtual machine-based, tuple spaces, database-oriented and application-specific. These categories are related to functional
requirements, including data management, resource discovery & management, event & code management. Non-functional
requirements include scalability, reliability, real-time, availability, security/privacy, and deployment. Architectural require-
ments include interoperability, adaptive, and context awareness [18].

5.4. Mobility

Mobility refers to the ability of a device to move freely without being disconnected from the network. Mobility in a
factory-based environment is not a major concern because most of the equipment is stationary. However, from an indus-
trial perspective, mobility is challenging because the connected devices are moving from one spot to another. Few high-end
challenges are fast time varying fading, channel estimation error, doppler diversity, carrier frequency offset, inter-carrier in-
terference, high penetration loss, fast/frequent handover, and network architecture. IETF develops Mobile Internet Protocol
version 4 (MIPv4) [RFC-5944] for mobility in Internet supported devices, which is later on converted to Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6)
[RFC-6275] to keep nodes connected in the IPv6 Internet. However, MIPv6 is not efficient for real-time applications because
of high handover latency, packet loss, and signaling overhead. Besides the above, Hierarchical MIPv6 (HMIPv6), Fast Han-
dover MIPv6 (FMIPv6), and Fast Handover for Hierarchical MIPv6 (FHMIPv6) are proposed to provide efficient mobility and
communication support. However, the IPv6 protocol leads to a large packet header challenge, dedicated bandwidth utiliza-
tion, and addressing scheme and implementation issues. Implementation issues related to hardware constraints always exist
to address such as critical memory, reassembly of the process caused by fragmentation and restriction of MTU of 127 bytes
by IEEE 802.15.4 networks. Moreover, fast handover suffers from packets reordering, extra processing due to tunneling/de-
tunneling, intense signaling, time delay in long handovers, increase complexity, and high packet loss. Another proxy-based
approach is offered by IETF called Proxy MIPv6 (PMIPv6) [RFC-5213] to ensure message exchange between mobile nodes
in a centralized manner by reducing handovers and signaling updates. However, it degrades the Quality of Service (QoS) in
real-time and diverse applications. The recent extension to PMIPv6 [RFC-7864] is a standard mobility management protocol
that ensures node mobility with no signaling issue during the handover process.

5.5. Data integrity

Data integrity refers to the correctness of data for accuracy, alteration, tempered, and change. Data integrity is caused
intentionally by an assailant or due to bad network/equipment/software. From the industrial perspective, the tempered data
usually comes from equipment that is detectable by Bad Data Detection (BDD). However, the sender is accountable for send-
ing private key, which is checked by the receiver on successful transmission resulting computationally complex approach.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States has published a data integrity guidance document in compliance with
drug Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) to address the industrial connected data integrity issues [30]. Moreover,
statistical analysis is performed to detect incorrect capacities; however, it could be easily bypassed through correlated errors.
Data integrity is reduced using state estimation, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) using Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN),
and Decision Tree (DT) to detect BDD.

5.6. Scalability

Scalability refers to network growth and handling of peak workloads with no service degradation. Scalability always
remains an open issue industrial networks because the addition/deletion of devices is difficult. Scalability is categorized into
three parts, including (i) device naming and addressing of new/old devices, (ii) internetworking and data communication
to sustain the continuous operation, (iii) service provision, and management for a high number of connected nodes. In the
industrial sector, smooth communication between industrial devices faces challenges with processing limitations, a large
number of requests, coverage area, fast mobility handovers, and centralized controller failure.

6. Conclusion

The efficient energy model, safety, and industrial controller require smart consumption to avoid negative impacts on
natural resources to benefit the clean environment and business. This research focuses on in-depth analysis and comparison
in the IIoT operational perspective of the IoE. It is devotedly emphasized that integrating IoE, IIoT, and I4.0 with respect
to functionalities, similarities, differences, and features is highly productive for clean, renewable, and sustainable energy.
State of the art architectures in their working integrations and life cycle are briefly discussed to illustrate its technical role,
features, use, and operational limitations. The proposed methods are found application specific and require an integrated
computing paradigm, compatibility, and energy conservation to improve the interoperability and performance gaps. The
open challenges and other prevalent issues faced in the industry are thoroughly discussed so that the utmost benefits of IoE
can be utilized to save energy, revenue, time, cost, and human resource.
To conclude, IoE has deeply influenced the industry towards an environment-friendly progressive change with possible
social benefits, effective use, secure and affordable solutions. Yet IoE faces non-technical challenges such as conventional
standards, the legacy base, significant upfront investment, lack of skilled workers, internal system barriers, existing tech-
nologies liability, social concerns, and political influences.
14 Y. Shahzad, H. Javed and H. Farman et al. / Computers and Electrical Engineering 86 (2020) 106739

Declaration of Competing Interest

No potentail competing interests exist. There is no an undisclosed relationship thay may pose a competing interest. The
research is not funded by anyone. There is no an undisclosed funding source that may pose a competing interest. Moreover, I,
corresponding author, have full access and responsibility for the accuracy of data analysis, manuscript prepartion and dece-
sion to submit the manuscript for publication.
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Yasir Shahzad received his M.S. degree in Computer Sciences in 2017 from the Department of Computer Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. He is
working for a Ph.D. degree in the same department. His-research interests include IIoT, IoE, smart health, and wireless sensor networks.

Huma Javed received the Ph.D. degree in wireless sensor networks from Liverpool John Moores University, U.K. in 2007. Currently, she is working as an
Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan. Her research interests include middleware for wireless sensor
networks, smart health, ubiquitous and pervasive computing.

Haleem Farman received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Peshawar, Pakistan, and M.S. from International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan, in
2018 and 2008, respectively. He is currently working as a Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, Islamia College Peshawar, Pakistan. His-fields
of interest include wireless sensor networks, IoT, Deep learning, and QoS issues in wireless networks.

Jamil Ahmad received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea, in 2018. He is currently serving as Lecturer at
the Department of Computer Science, Islamia College Peshawar, Pakistan. His-research interests include image analysis, content-based multimedia retrieval,
video analytics, and deep learning for computer vision.

Bilal Jan received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Control and Computer Engineering (DAUIN) Politecnico di Torino, Italy, in 2010 and
2015, respectively. He is currently working as Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, FATA University, F.R. Kohat, Pakistan. His-research
interest includes wireless sensor networks, IoT, deep learning, and high-performance computing.

Muhammad Zubair received his M.S. degree in computer science from the Department of Computer Science, University of Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2018. He
is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in IoT at Islamia College, Peshawar, Pakistan. His-research interests include network security, traffic measurement, and analysis
for monitoring QoS and IoT.