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Internet of Things (IoT) Applications: An Overview

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 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND EMERGING ISSN: 2522-3348
TECHNOLOGIES
(IJCET)- VOL1(1) DECEMBER 2017- 44-48

www.ijcet.salu.edu.pk Publisher: Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur

Internet of Things (IoT) Applications: An Overview

*1
Abdur Razzaq, 1Riaz Ahmed Shaikh, 2M. Ali Qureshi, 1Mirza Adnan Baig, 3Sajid Habib Gill
1
Department of Computer Science, Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, Pakistan
2
Department of Telecommunication Engineering, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan
3
Department of Computer Science, NCBA & E Rahim Yar Khan Campus, Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan
*mirza.razakphd@salu.edu.pk, riaz.shaikh@salu.edu.pk, ali.qureshi@iub.edu.pk,
mirza.adnanphd@salu.edu.pk, sajidgill418@gmail.com

Abstract— Internet of Things (IoT) makes the physical world

smarter and transform into the digital world. It makes the devices smarter, processing more artificially intelligent, and
transmission more informative by merging real world and digital world to minimize human intervention with the help of
Machine-to-Machine (M2M) interaction. The IoT is applied in any field of life to make its vision for anyone, anywhere,
anyway, and anytime. In IoT applications, smart sensors are used, information captured is sent to distributed cloud servers
using communication links like Wi-Fi, after processing/ decision making the instructions/information is distributed to
actuators/smart devices. In this paper, different emerging IoT applications are discussed to improve understanding of IoT
use, facilitate researchers’ community about IoT services to serve the humanity.

Keywords- Internet of Things (IoTs); Machine-to-Machine (M2M) ;Wifi; IoT Applications

I. INTRODUCTION than people on the earth [1] so unique large address

With the emergence of internet technologies, high-
speed communication mediums, and miniaturization
of devices, it is becoming more flexible to connect
with others using the digital devices for social
networking and business purposes than it was before.
Moreover, a lot of devices and machines are invented
to provide luxurious and enhanced life quality by
sensing the environment and coordinating with each
other through some communication networks. The
Internet of Things (IoT), therefore, refers to
interconnection and communication of electronic
devices such as computers, laptops, mobile phones,
smartphones, tablets, sensors, and actuators and many
more digital devices through the internet for
identification, sensing, and communication purposes.
The mobility and smartness are two most important
aspects in IoT, therefore wireless media such as WiFi,
Bluetooth, Zig-bee, Cellular networks, 3G, 4G, and
LTE are used in IoT for connection purposes
whereas, WiFi is the most commonly used medium of
connection in IoTs. The IoT is considered to be
evolved from RFID, Radio
frequency identification. The IoT is a future of the
internet and its applications include smart health,
smart homes, smart manufacturing, safety monitoring
in buildings and bridges, smart industries, energy
management, intelligent transportation, smart
logistics, smart environment, emergency response to
disasters, among others.
In 1999, Kevin Ashton first time used the term
Internet of Things in a supply application. In 2011,
the number of things connected to internet is more
space like IPv6 is required [2] and in 2020, it is
expected that the quantity will reach about 24 billion
devices [3]. Now it is a vision that the technology
will be embedded in the environment and disappeared
from consciousness to sense a situation and take
decision accordingly because sometimes human
decision are difficult to act upon. IoT is becoming
machine-to-machine interaction M2M [4]. The
devices can hear, see, think, and act as they talk to
each other and the environment will become
ubiquitous, context-aware and pervasive. The
availability of services of these devices will be
anywhere and anytime, e.g., when user will enter the
home, the gate will be opened before automatically
and coffee or other requirements like TV, climate
control etc. will be ready according to his will. The
emerging technologies along with IoT are the
analysis of big data and cloud computing as well as
Fog computing. There are security and privacy
challenges to IoT due to its heterogeneity.
I IOT APPLICATIONS
The applications of IoT are emerging in every
field of life for everyone everywhere. These services
or applications are categorized as identity-related
services, collaborative awareness applications,
information aggregation applications, and ubiquitous
services [5], [6]. These services are anywhere,
anytime for anyone. Smart healthcare and smart grids
are under the third category, smart buildings, smart
home, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and
smart industries are under the second category.

*Corresponding Author: mirza.razakphd@salu.edu.pk 44

Razzaq et al.
A. AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
Air pollution is one of the erroneous (serious)
environment problems nowadays. It affects the
humans, animals, and plant in terms of different
diseases and life. The main cause of air pollution is
unburnt fuel from vehicles, the industrial wastes,
among others. To monitor the air pollutions in indoor
and outdoor environments, air contaminations are
monitored using various sensors. The readings are
stored in a central web server. A user can monitor the
air pollution using Wi-Fi
connected Android mobile application [7] (see Fig.
1)1
Figure 1. Example of smart air polution monitoring in IoT (1)
B. MONITORING OF BUILDINGS AND BRIDGES
The condition, situation, and quality of material
used in huge bridges and buildings must be according
to the standards. In case of poor materials and
continuous use may produce resonance and become
dangerous for humans and other living things. Smart
buildings are called Building Automation System
(BAS) [4]. In BAS, different sensors and actuators
like HVAC are used for security, safety, lightening,
entertainment, and shading. The health conditions of
buildings and bridges need to be continuously
monitored with the help of sensors to save citizens
precious lives. The observation is also required in
case of natural or human disasters. The IoT sensors
continuously read the data and transfer the
maintenance requests to the central hub of municipal
town committee or building contractor without
human intervention. The information is also sent to
citizens having smartphones to alert them to save
their life [2].
C. SMART MANUFACTURING
The deployment of IoT is very cost effective in
industries to increase profit and production in
multiple assembly line manufacturing. The industries
compete with each to increase man safety hours to
1 2
http://inhabitat.com/citisense-is-a-portable-air-pollution-
monitoringdevice-that-sends-data-to-your-smart-phone/
IJCET VOL1 (1)- 44-48
minimize major injuries near to zero. For safety
purposes, the equipment is continuously monitored
with the help of sensors to save lives. In assembly
lines, the products are observed and shifted to free
station from job completed station from one line to
another line by sensing and actuating [2]. The
manufacturing tasks are completed with help of
robotic devices with minimal human intervention.
The IoT sensors monitor the machines and whenever
a problem arises, immediately communicate to the
maintenance department for fixation. The IoT
enhances the production by analyzing data, timing,
and issues in manufacturing [4] (see Fig. 2)2.
Figure 2. Example of smart manufacturing in IoT(2)
D. SMART HEALTHCARE
Medical facilities and healthcare are primary need
of all citizens specially aged people [2]. Elders or old
persons in this busy life need more care than young.
Smartness is also necessary for medical equipment
like Masimo Radical- 7 [4] to monitor different
physiological statistics of patients like blood pressure,
diabetes, temperature, heart-beat etc. and
communicate to servers and then to concerning
medical staff to take action accordingly. The sensed
data collected from body of patient transmitted to
doctors smartphone or terminal [8] (see Fig. 3)3.
Figure 3. Example of smart healthcare in IoT(3)
E. INTELLIGENT MONITORING
In factories, there are high-pressure gases,
dangerous chemicals, oil refining procedures etc.,
required to be continuously monitored 24 hours a
https://www.astm.org/smartmanufacturing/
3
http://smartamerica.org/teams/closed-loop-healthcare/
44
Razzaq et al. IJCET VOL1 (1)- 44-48

weak for the safety of workers. The sensors

intelligently observe the dangerous products and
efficiently communicate to server for necessary
action [9], [10].

F. SMART HOME
Human wants to make his lifestyle luxurious, so
research is being done in developing smart homes.
Home appliances are controlled and monitored using
IoT like air conditioning, heating system, activating
fire alarm, monitoring internal and external
environment to take decision according to scenario,
for example closing of windows before rain, closing
of curtains due to sunlight, opening of gate of home
for residents, switching on/off of lights according to
the daily routines or will of residents etc. [11] (see
Fig. 4)4. Figure 5. Example of smart transportation in IoT(5)

H. SMART GRIDS
Deploying IoT in smart grids enhance and improve
power utilization of buildings and houses. The
deployment of IoT in smart grids helps the energy
suppliers to monitor load balancing according to
customers’ needs, improve the capacity of
transformers, and controls power theft. Smart grids
use the IoT to make a network of consumer’s meters
to improve quality of services of power suppliers.
The meters sense, analyze, monitor, manage, and
control power consumption [13], [14]. Figure 6
shows a very nice example of smart grid6.

Figure 4. Example of smart home in IoT(4)

G. SMART TRANSPORTATION
The smart transportation is called T-CPS,
Transportation Cyber Physical System or ITS,
Intelligent Transportation System [4] or may be smart
VANET. In this system the transportation is smartly
controlled and monitored the due integration of
communication and computing using four
components ITS monitoring server, security
Figure 6. Example of smart grid in IoT(6)
subsystem, roadside units (station subsystem), and
vehicle subsystem including GPS, OBU, RFID, and I. SMART CITY
transmission. Vehicles are also connected, vehicular The huge demand for high data rates and ultra-
to vehicular communication (V2V) to drive securely,
reliable coverage is becoming demanding issues due
efficiently and reliably. Audi, Google, Volvo, and
to the increased growth in world population. The
USDOT are manufacturing smart vehicles [12] (see huge demand for high-quality life employs careful
Fig. 5)5. planning for smart cities. As a premier agent for
stimulating a quality of life compatible with a
resource efficient economy, the smart city
phenomenon has recently attracted the interest of the
4 academia and the industry significantly. As the
https://buildingcontrols.honeywell.com/buildingintel/2015/09/grap Internet of things (IoT) is considered as a primary
hic-24-
hours-in-a-smart-building/
5 6
http://www.brindleytech.com/smart-transportation/ https://trilliantinc.com/smart-grid

45
Razzaq et al.
driving force for future cities, advanced
communication methods will play a crucial role in
assisting real-time data acquisition and utilization of
distributed sensors. Ubiquitous computing services
are applied in the smart city to improve the lifestyle
of residents of the city by getting their information of
interest. Various systems in the smart city are
connected to provide services like health, education,
transportation, buildings and homes, utilities, and
government, to make a more convenient life of
citizens [4] [15], [16], [17] [18] (see Fig. 7)7.
Figure 7. Example of smart city in IoT(7)
J. FOG COMPUTING IN IOT
Fog computing is the extension of cloud computing to
provide services close to the users for minimization
of latency and awareness of location. Fog computing
is used in wireless sensor and actuator networks,
smart grids, and smart vehicles etc. It is like a
distributed network of a large geographical area
having small locations each [19], [20].
K. SMART AGRICULTURE
Electrochemical sensors are installed in
agriculture land at different locations to measure the
intensity of sunlight, key nutrients like nitrogen and
phosphorus for better feeding of fertilizer, water
saturation in the soil for appropriate watering,
observation of insects on the crop for spraying
purposes. In smart agriculture, the livestock is also
monitored with the help of RFID chips containing
information as number/name tags for theft detection
[21].
L. SMART AQUACULTURE
Fish farming is also using IoT to increase the fish
growth and decrease the risk of diseases called
aquaculture. The sensors continuously monitor the
quality of water and automatically send an
appropriate instruction to the user to take action
accordingly. The automatic controllers are also used
for action with authorization [22].
M. SMART WATER
Water conservation is very important where
droughts are perpetual. Using IoT, sensors are used
in taps, showers to detect human presence for water
saving, e.g., closing of tap while brushing and closing
of shower when someone moves away. Smart water
sensors measure temperature, consumption, pressure,
7 8
http://iotindiamag.com/2017/02/smart-cities-initiative-moves-
aheadheres-city-wise-updates-india/
IJCET VOL1 (1)- 44-48
quality, and other statistical data, the results are
transmitted to the central location (e.g., water
management board) to monitor consumers’ usage. It
can also detect leakage in faulty pipelines in homes
and send information to the owners. Honey-well,
Fibaro, Samsung, Insteon, Quirky, and Sensaphone
are marketing water sensors and leakage detectors
(see Fig. 8)8.
Waste water is also monitored using smart water
management. In short, smart water system collects
meaningful information about pressure, flow, and
distribution to forecast water consumption and
accurately control its use. The components of smart
water are sensor component, pumps, valves, pipe,
reservoirs etc. In San Francisco, the smart water
management measures water consumption hour by
hour using software platform and smart meters and
sent to consumers four times a day via wireless
access. In East Bay, Municipal Water District
is measuring water consumption hour by hour on a
daily basis of a single home and sends alerts to the
consumers via smartphone or email if water usage
exceeds the specified limit and if water running
continuously 24 hours [23], [24], [25].
Figure 8. NB-IoT enables smart water(8)
To summarize, IoT has proven its importance in
almost every field. In healthcare, IoT is used in the
form of clinical wearables and surgical equipment for
continuously patient health monitoring and treatment.
In the energy sector, smart grids share the real-time
load information for efficient energy distribution. In
industries, IoT is used to increase the production and
worker safety. In buildings, IoT is used for optimized
energy consumption. At homes, IoT is automating the
daily routine tasks. In transportation, IoT is providing
smart and intelligent logistics systems for human
safety and reduced traffic. IoT is also helping the
society in terms of water preservation, environment
pollution monitoring, and so on.
III. CONCLUSION
The novel concept of IoT is tremendously
increasing in the modern world to improve living
http://www.infiniteinformationtechnology.com/iot-smart-city-
what-issmart-water
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