Building integrated assessment model for IoT technology deployment in the Industry 4.0

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) platforms have become the building blocks of any automated system but they are more important in case of industrial systems where sensitive data are captured and handled by the information system. Therefore, it is imperative to deploy the right IoT platform to perform the computational and operational tasks in a better way. During the last few years, an array of IoT technologies/platforms with different capabilities and features were introduced in the markets. This abrupt rise created selection and decision-making issues particularly for the network engineers, designers, and industrial managers due to a lack of technical understanding and skill in this area. Therefore, we present an integrated assessment model focusing on evaluating and ranking IoT platforms in the industrial environment. It encompasses multiple methods such as the proposed model leverages a well-known data collection technique such as Delphi for data collection related to the criteria features. It adopts the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for giving weights to the criteria features. The technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method has been applied for the evaluation of the top twenty (20) Industrial IoT(IIoT) platform alternatives according to the proposed criteria. It selects the most rational choice of IoT platform that can be employed in the Industry 4.0 setting. The proposed integrated assessment model produces the most accurate and consistent outcomes. Hence, it is believed that it can be used as a guideline by different stakeholders like researchers, developers, network engineers, and policymakers for the assessment and deployment of IoT platforms in the industrial environment. It is believed that it is the first kind of multi-methods integrated assessment mode for the assessment, decision-making, and prioritization of IoT technologies in the industry 4.0 domain.