ISSN: 0011-9342 | Year 2021

Design Engineering Issue: 9 | Pages: 176 - 186

Insights Internet of X-Things: An Overview,

Architecture, Design Challenges and
Applications
S. P. Kabilan
Department of Computer Science, Madurai Kamaraj University College, Madurai, India.
spkabi@gmail.com
S. Pandi kumar
Department of Computer Science, The American College, Madurai, India.
spandikumar@gmail.com
Abstract:
The revolution of wireless technologies in the last decade is exceptional and it lift human life
into one step forward but, still, plenty of innovations going to be explored in this domain.
Internet of Things plays a vital role among wireless technologies because it makes virtual
connections between human beings and physical objects and makes that object intelligent. The
extreme growth of high-speed data networks such as 4G and 5G provides a lot of technical
freedom to go beyond traditional Internet of Things such as Broadband IoT and Internet of X-
Things, which aims to connect underwater objects, Space Things, Nano Things and underground
Things to resolve climate changes, agriculture issues, and security threats, etc. Internet of X-
Things (X-IoT) is an enabling technology to fulfill all of the above requirements. This paper
discusses the novel Internet of X-Things and its characteristics, types, design issues, architecture,
protocols, and applications.
Keywords: Internet of SpaceThings, Internet of NanoThings, Internet of BioNanoThings, IoT,
Wireless Technology.

I. INTRODUCTION
In the beginning, the internet was a file-sharing system that was connected with simple
hyperlinks, offering limited web-based text information to the users [1]. Certainly evolved and
became a backbone of almost all IT services and applications and it directly involves daily
human activities. With the help of wireless networks, the reach of the internet is incomparable
and gives new dimensions to human lives. Internet of Things (IoT) is an ideal technology that
influences the internet to provide a privilege to connect and communicate living and non-living
things [2] and provides heterogeneous integration of different wireless networks. Plenty of
definitions can be quoted but the following will be most suitable for this research that is IoT is a
network of cyber-physical devices comprising embedded electronics, sensors or actuators,
software, and network connectivity, enabling such devices to collect and exchange data over the
internet [3]. Billions of billion data were generated every day from the smart things and it will
be stored and processed by cloud architecture and various data science algorithms. Fortune

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business insights forecast that the world IoT market is expected to rise from $381.30 billion in
2021 to $1,854.76 billion in 2028 at a compound annual growth rate of 25.4% in the 2021-2028
periods [4]. According to the forecast of International Data Corporation, the data collected from
IoT smart devices will be 79400 Exabytes by 2025 from 41.6 billion IoT devices, which comes
from 13600 Exabytes in 2019. Most of this data is generated from security and CCTV
surveillance; nevertheless connected IoT-enabled industrial applications will also take a
significant percentage of this data [5].
In recent years, the Cloud Computing [6] has been the prevalent storage framework for IoT
environment. Cloud is the only option to store the sensing data from various IoT sensors [7]. The
IoT devices are sense the values from various objects and environment and transmit it into cloud
Centre over internet. The control units monitor the entire process and give control signal to the
sensors if needed.
IoT is the major source of big data because the sensors are collecting millions of data from
smart things every day [8]. The algorithm of big data will handle those data by various data
processing algorithms.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Internet of X-things is a developing research domain and the proposals are still ongoing.
Very few researchers have published a paper on those areas and feel very difficult to collect the
papers on those areas. The researcher Ian F.Akyildiz and his team from Georgia Institute of
Technology have been given maximum contribution on this research domain and published more
exceptional papers. The substrate of XIoT was initiated by those teams and published several
papers [9–14] to propose an architecture, protocols, frameworks, communication technology, etc.
This research refers to all work of Ian F.Akyildiz and quoted three XIoT based works in this
paper.
This literature review started from IoT and it moves to the Internet of SpaceThings, Internet
of NanoThings, and Internet of BioNanoThings.
2.1 Internet of Things
The research [15-17] argues a detailed introduction of IoT and system architecture,
communication choices, characteristics of devices, and use case applications. The architecture of
various applications is proposed by the researchers Christidis, et al. Samudrala, et al.
Vinayakumar, et al. Kumar, P.M, et al. Qiu, T, et al. [2, 18-22].
2.2 Internet of NanoThings
The paper [23, 24] explores the basic idea, architecture, applications, research scope, and
characteristics of IoST. Ali et al [25] discusses the detailed methodology of using IoNT in the
healthcare industry. The paper argues the advantages and disadvantages of existing medical
technology and deeply discusses the layered and non-layered IoNT model and its merits and
demerits. Ian F. Akyildiz [26] gives a complete picture of IoNT and proposes a novel
architecture. The paper was the first one that introduces the concept, characteristics, logical
diagram, and communication methods.
2.3 Internet of SpaceThings
Sanctis et al[27] introduces a new method called IoT-enabled satellite communication. IPv6
protocols are used to communicate the satellite sensors over the internet. The research [9-12]
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proposes a novel architecture to create integrated communication between terrestrial and space
things with an SDN network.
2.4 Internet of BioNanoThings
The paper [14] proposes a novel IoBNT architecture called PANACEA. The architecture is
tailored to focus on the diagnosis and therapy of infectious diseases. The author provides a
system, where sensing, actuation, and computing processes are tightly coupled to provide
reliable and responsive disease detection and infection recovery system.
III. INTERNET OF X-THINGS
Internet of X-Things is an advanced technology of IoT. The „X‟ on the Internet of X-Things
(XIoT) refers Extension of IoT that means the transformation of smart things will be more
focused and wider, that is terrestrial, air, underground and celestial [28, 29]. The objectives
XIoT transform not only smart things but Nano things, bio Nano things, deep under earth
objects, etc. to produce pioneering applications to enhance modern society. Wireless
communication like 4G and 5G offers a separate communication channel named Narrowband
IoT [30] to transmit seamless IoT data.

Fig 1. Overview of XIoT.

The Narrowband IoT will give the freedom to the researchers to spread the wings beyond
terrestrial smart things moreoverthe wings will go higher the earth and deeper (Fig 1).
IV. INTERNET OF SPACETHINGS (IoST)
Researchers from Georgia Tech introduced an Internet of Space Things (IoST), a cyber-
physical system that connectsterrestrial-based sensing dataand satellite information toachieve
anextensive range of applications [31]. The “Things” in Internet of SpaceThings
(IoST)particularlydenotes small satellites named CubeSats.
CubeSats are a pint-sized satellite that has been spinspecifically in low Earth orbit
aboutfifteen years tenure, and are now they are used for interplanetary missions too. The
miniature satellitesequipped with limited onboard processing andconnected through ad hoc
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network with nearest; their primary role is to collecting a data and transmits to and from the
Earth, in conjunction with active and passive sensing capabilities.In the earlier, they were
generally positioned in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for applications such as remote sensing or
telecommunications. As of mid-2018, a couple of CubeSats was developed on a mission flying to
Mars, and hosts of other CubeSat are being considered for the moon and Jupiter.
The traditional design of a CubeSat is about 10 cmhexahedron with a wait of below 1.33
kilograms approximately (2.93 lbs.) [32]. But variations on the theme are possible. CubeSats can
also be designed tocomprise two, three or six 10 cmcluster for more crucial missions.
The potential of CubeSats is the discovery of a new global cyber-physical system that
enables a swarm of transmuting applications on terrestrial, in the air, and in celestial. With the
use of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) based
architecture would offer CubeSats to be highly scalable, integrated, and seamless, operate as-a-
service and utilize network slicing for resource isolation between users.
4.1 Architecture of IoST
The priortransmitting option of LEO CubeSat communication method is utilize IoT narrow-
band LoRaWAN (Long Range WAN) [33, 34] which is long range data transmission protocol.
IoT Smart Things within the CubeSatwill transmit sensingdatathrough LoRaWAN protocol to
terrestrial Hub.
CubeSat communication system comprises the following components that are, LoRaWAN,
Internet, Cloud, and Computation Unit (Fig 2).
 LoRaWAN Gateway is receiving point of sensing data from the space and transmits it
into the control unit. Even the terrestrial data also transmitted to the gateway and reached
to the cloud through integrated multiplexed stream.
 Centralized Computation Unit (CPU), generates control burst to control the sensors and
all units of the system. The payload management and communication will be established
by the CPU and processing of stored data is also managed by the control unit. The
CubeSat on-board unit can directly receive the control signals from the centralized
control unit.
CubeSatsend and receive the sensingsignals to the cloud throughthree methods (Fig 2) that are
 Direct contact,
 Indirect contact, and
 Hubs.
Gateway of the LoRaWAN is obviously connected with local network and enablesIoT data
communication through the Internet to the Cloud Architecture.The hubs are representingas the
ground stations of IoST to maintain robust and seamless connectivity with CubeSats; they are
spreadworldwide across datacenters.Service action burst or control instructions are transmitted
through the same protocol in the reverse direction.
The terrestrial modules can directly communicate with sensing devices of CubeSat by direct
contact method and they can transmit the sensing data in both directions. This kind of access
most suitable for the situation where
 Device act as clustered array-head,
 Not power dependable,
 Discontinuous data operated,
 Low data volume services, a

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 And where the terrestrial maintenance is not robust and feasible.

The indirect Connection is possible through Access Gateway. It acts as an intermediate
between the CubeSat and earth module and the signals are transmitted through this gateway or
through hubs.

Fig 2. Architecture of IoST [12]

The indirect communication will most suitable for situation where

 Difficult to recharge power unit.
 Minimized control traffic
 Underwater sensing
 Underground sensing
This section outline the components of the IoST architecture due to length of the paper and the
elaborated discussion will be present in forthcoming papers.

4.2 Use cases for IoST

 Remote sensing
 Monitoring of terrain and assets
 Exploration of the deep space
 Management of global transportation
 Inter-CubeSat or ground-station data transmission
 Disrupted or underserved areas have limited Internet access

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V. INTERNET OF NANOTHINGS
Internet of NanoThings (IoNT) is just an array of integrated Nanodevices that can
communicate through the internet. Simply says the Internet of Nano Things (IoNT) is a
convergent point where meet Internet of Things, Nanotechnology, the, and Industry 4.0. The size
of typical NanoThings is ranging from one to a few hundred nanometers.
Introducing and discussing the design issues and insights of Nanotechnology is out of the
scope of this paper but the paper assumes the audiences have a fundamental knowledge of
Nanotechnology a little bit.
IoNT is not a new technology but it‟s an extension and advancement of conventional IoT
because the internet facility is added with Nanomaterial‟s and converts them intelligent. The
IoNT applications can give better performance in small-scale or medium-scale areas than larger-
scale coverage. Nano things are implanted, hidden, and distributed to reaches unprecedented
locations in a non-invasive way.
5.1 Architecture
The architecture of IoNT having different components, those components will communicate
with the centralized macro-scale control unit. According to the research [35-38] the Nano
communication protocols are broadly classified into two categories that are molecular
communication or Bio-Nano Communication and Nano Electromagnetic communication.

Fig. 3 Architecture of IoNT.

Cell or molecules based bio Nano networks are made by molecular communication [42].
These types of communications are implemented in the deepest units of human organs‟. The
second communication can be implemented on terrestrial Nanodevices by using electromagnetic
waves. The components of this architecture are Nano Endpoint, Nano Routers, Nano-micro
interface, Gateway (fig 3 and fig 4).

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The short-range, energy-constrained, simplest Nanodevices are often named Nano Endpoint
in IoNT. These nodes are capable of doing limited computation and having limited memory.
These nodes act as a transceiver with reduced communication capabilities.

Nano-routers are the device that invasively deployed and accumulating the data transmitted
from the Nano Endpoint and ensures the seamless communication workings of Endpoints. These
devices having significantly better computational power and memory comparing to Endpoints. It
often controls the behavior of the Endpoint by sending limited commands that are
activated/deactivate, standby, get values, etc.

Fig.4 Components of IoNT Architecture.

Nano-micro interface devices: these devices are micro-scale devices capable of doing more
computation than Nano routers and provide the interface between Nano nodes to the gateway. It
receives and accumulates the information from the routers and transmits it into micro-scale
devices. The Nano-micro device creates communication between heterogeneous networks. The
gateway of this architecture connects the Nano units over the internet.
5.2 Use case of IoNT
IoNT used in a wide range of Healthcare applications especially, grapheme-based
compounds in medicinal nanotechnology has received more attention recently. IoNT contributes
underground oil and gas monitoring stations, chemical research laboratories, homeland
applications, environment observatories, intelligent transportation, etc.
VI. Internet of BioNanoThings (IoBNT)
The complex and very useful system of XIoT paradigm is BioNanoThings. IoBNT is a new
age communication system where pint-sized, tissue-compatible, and non-intrusive devices sense
and collect biological information from the biotic environment and send them over the internet.
It‟s a convergence of three domains that is Nanotechnology, IoT, and biology [39] (fig 5). The
IoNT pushes forward to sense biochemical data from the biotic environment.

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Placing Nanodevices inside the human body can be affected by electromagnetic radiation or
other incompatibilities of biochemical reactions.
Programmed synthetic biological cells [40] are used as substrates of BioNanoThings to read
and sense cells, DNA, RNA, etc. BioNanoThings are integrated with molecular communication
that is chains of chemical reactions inside the cells that process information signals revamped
into chemical characteristics, such as molecule concentration, variety, and energy state, and
disseminate them from a source, to a destination [41]. The architecture of IoBNT consist control
unit, memory unit, processing unit, power unit, transceivers, Sensing and actuation.

Nano
Technology

Internet
of Biology
Things

Fig 5. Convergence of IoBNT.

6.1 Use case of IoBNT

IoBNT uses a wide range of intrabody applications such as sparse cell detection,protein-
protein interaction network analysis, protein structure prediction, interpretation of Genomes,
Nucleic acid diagnostics, Drug Delivery, Gene delivery Liposomes, etc.
VII. CONCLUSION
Internet of Things is one of the prominent research areas and its shows tremendous growth in
the last decade but, still has a lot of scopes to find more problems. This paper focuses on to
reveals the substrates of the Internet of X-Things. XIoT is a next-decade research area and it‟s an
extension of IoT. The research explores various fields of XIoT and their characteristics,
architecture, communication methods, components, research direction, etc. It‟s very difficult to
disclose all those information but this paper does it efficiently. In the future, the author plan to
publish in-depth distinct coverage of IoST, IoNT, IoBNT.
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