Guest Editorial Special Issue on Spectrum and Energy Efficient Communications for Internet of Things

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) provides enormous connections of devices and sensors with different applications. It is an enabling technology for smart city, intelligent transportation systems, environmental monitoring, security surveillance, smart homes, satellite and space information network, ocean monitoring, and unmanned border awareness systems, just to name a few. IoT as a high-density network will take the burden of massive data generated by different kinds of terminals and sensors. Dramatic growth in IoT has created a shortage in the available radio spectrum. Wireless communications services in IoT such as cellular phones, tablets, and wireless Internet access have to compete with existing users in radar, government and military communications, environmental monitoring, and other IoT applications. The strategy to increase the efficiency of spectrum sharing among the enormous users in IoT. Besides, the IoT applications demand more and better functionality and performance from new electronic devices; these demands translate into greater energy consumption demands. The gap between energy storage and demand continues to grow and the battery technologies for energy storage are not expected to increase tremendously in the coming years. Furthermore, reducing signal transmission power can lessen interference among devices in IoT. Energy-efficient protocols and network architectures will further reduce the number of transmissions and extend the battery life of IoT devices (IoTDs). Therefore, it is essential to pursue fundamental research on new components, techniques, and architectures to achieve energy-efficient sensing, communications, and networking in a shared spectrum environment for IoT.