Abstract
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an interconnected network of objects which range from simple sensors to smartphones and tablets; it is a relatively novel paradigm that has been rapidly gaining ground in the scenario of modern wireless telecommunications with an expected growth of 25 to 50 billion of connected devices for 2020 Due to the recent rise of this paradigm, authors across the literature use inconsistent terms to address the devices present in the IoT, such as mobile device, smart device, mobile technologies or mobile smart device. Based on the existing literature, this paper chooses the term smart device as a starting point towards the development of an appropriate definition for the devices present in the IoT. This investigation aims at exploring the concept and main features of smart devices as well as their role in the IoT. This paper follows a systematic approach for reviewing compendium of literature to explore the current research in this field. It has been identified smart devices as the primary objects interconnected in the network of IoT, having an essential role in this paradigm. The developed concept for defining smart device is based on three main features, namely context-awareness, autonomy and device connectivity. Other features such as mobility and user-interaction were highly mentioned in the literature, but were not considered because of the nature of the IoT as a network mainly oriented to device-to-device connectivity whether they are mobile or not and whether they interact with people or not. What emerges from this paper is a concept which can be used to homogenise the terminology used on further research in the Field of digitalisation and smart technologies.
Highlights
In 2011 Cisco predicted that 50 billion of Things would be connected to the Internet by 2020 (Evans, 2011)
Key features of smart devices A systematic content analysis revealed distinct themes which describe the key capabilities of the devices addressed by the reviewed papers
Furthmüller & Waldhorst (2012) explained that mobile devices ffer a set of resources in which we find sensors like Global Positioning System (GPS) and accelerometer
Summary
In 2011 Cisco predicted that 50 billion of Things would be connected to the Internet by 2020 (Evans, 2011). More recent investigations show that 25 billion devices will be connected to the internet by 2020 and those connections aim at facilitating the process of autonomous intelligent decision making (Gartner, 2014). The IoT is proliferating across all sectors, creating opportunities and becoming a competitive marketplace weapon as the focus of primary benefits, shifts from both internal and external improvements of the worldwide industries (Gartner, 2016). Sectors benefitted from the IoT are: transportation, smart city, smart domotics, smart health, e-governance, assisted living, e-education, retail, logistics, agriculture, automation, industrial manufacturing, process management, among others (Gubbi, Buyya, Marusic, & Palaniswami, 2013) and (Miorandi, Sicari, De Pellegrini, & Chlamtac, 2012).
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