The Essay On IoT: Future Applications And Challenges.

Existing and Future Applications of IoT

There are several fields of applications associated with the Internet of Things (IoT), such as medical, electrical, information technology, education, agriculture and so on. Currently, many types of research are being conducted with respect to the application of IoT, as well as the different benefits and challenges related to it. Therefore, this research will mainly focus on the areas that are being researched about IoT, along with the future applications of IoT and the challenges that will be faced during the same.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the existing research conducted on IoT along with identifying the future applications of IoT and the challenges that shall be faced in future applications.

The research objectives are as follows,

• To evaluate existing applications and research associated to IoT.
• To identify future applications of IoT.
• To determine the challenges that will be faced in future applications of IoT.

This research will be beneficial for evaluating the existing areas where IoT is applied by evaluating the existing research. Furthermore, IoT is considered an emerging technology and its application of the same is growing rapidly. Several fields are getting advanced with the application of IoT, and as a reason for this, the research will be helpful. In addition to this, the challenges that will be faced during the future application of IoT will be identified, which will be beneficial for mitigating the challenges in the future.

According to the viewpoints of de Almeida et al. (2019), security is said to be the major issue related to the extensive level of connectivity at the time of utilizing IoT. The author mentioned that there are millions of attacks that are identified by vendors from the endpoints of IoT. Security is considered an evolving trend associated with IoT, and several organizations are undertaking measures for the development of IoT solutions by utilizing different technologies.

However, Jindal, Gupta and Bhushan (2019) contradicted by stating about the future applications of IoT. The author mentioned the application of IoT in agriculture and highlighted that the smart agriculture solution provides the farmers with the assistance of informed decisions. This further assists the farmers in achieving better as well as higher quality crop yields (Ghosh, Edwards and Hosseini 2020). The application of IoT will also help the farmers in reducing costs by reduction of the utilization of resources such as water, pesticides and electricity. 

Figure 1: IoT-based Smart Agriculture application

(Source: Friha et al. 2021)

According to the viewpoint of Wang et al. (2018), blockchain technology is being considered the latest trend of the IoT. In addition to this, blockchain assists in ensuring the data protection of all the devices associated with IoT. This also provides the facility of successful interaction between the different nodes of the network and further ensures the safe keeping of records and why the same is fitted for application within IoT as they are distributed by nature.  

Figure 2: Blockchain-based data structure

(Source: Wang et al. 2019)

However, Chin, Callaghan and Allouch (2019) provided the focus on the application of IoT for consumer electronics in the future. The author stated in the literature that IoT assists in the enhancement of user experience along with the satisfaction of customers on an immediate basis by providing them with a convenient way of living in their everyday lives. IoT further assists in collecting data of consumers in an efficient manner and further provides an allowance to the producers for the purpose of analyzing and optimizing the utilization of the devices and applications.

Challenges Related to IoT

Reyna et al. (2018) highlighted the challenges that will be faced by IoT in the future. Technology is considered the major challenge that will be faced by the application of IoT in the future, such as connectivity, security, standards, longevity as well as compatibility. Social and legal are other challenges that will be faced by the application of IoT in the future. Privacy and regulatory standards will be the major concern for the areas making use of IoT in the future (Tang et al. 2019). However, there are several mitigation measures in order to avoid the challenges that will be faced in terms of the application of IoT in the future.

The research methodology that has been taken into consideration for the research paper is secondary research. All the data that has been gathered are from a secondary sources such as the existing research papers along with journals as well as articles. The data analysis technique which has been utilized is the qualitative data analysis technique (Stobaugh et al. 2019). All the data that will be collected through the secondary sources will be interpreted and evaluated for taking into consideration in future research. The secondary data are not collected directly from the sources, and the research work of other authors will be interpreted for utilization in this research. Therefore, in order to avoid the problem of data restrictions, all the data that will be collected from the research work of other authors shall be referenced and cited in order to avoid the problem of plagiarism (Jena and Kar 2019). Anyone can undertake the collection of secondary data, and as a reason, the secondary research method has been taken into consideration.

The different limitations that are related to this research include the availability of relevant data. Restriction of data is regarded as the major problem because there are few relevant papers whose access is denied, and the same requires the approval of the author (Lee, Kim and Desta 2020). In addition to this, time is regarded as another issue for the research because the time provided for research was limited, and several activities associated with research were to be undertaken to complete this research in a successful manner.

From the research, the result that has been gained is about the existing utilization as well as application of IoT. Furthermore, future applications related to IoT have been gained along with the challenges that are faced at the time of using IoT. The existing trends associated with IoT that have been achieved from the research include the utilization of IoT for the purpose of security in organizations (Mei et al. 2019). In addition to this, IoT has assisted in fuelling the 5G technology, and this further revolutionized the growth in terms of technology. The utilization of blockchain technology is regarded as another existing application of IoT. There are several artificial intelligence applications that are enabled by IoT, and the usage of IoT and artificial intelligence together is said to be useful for providing commercial solutions. A very less amount of data is required at the time of using algorithms associated with AI, and therefore, its existing use is vast.  

Smart Agriculture and Blockchain: Examples of IoT Applications

Figure 3: Technologies associated with 5G

(Source: Li, Da Xu and Zhao 2018)

There are several fields within which IoT shall be utilized in the future, and the same has been researched in the paper. In the field of agriculture, IoT can assist the farmers in making informed decisions and, at the same time, reduce costs related to different operations. In the field of transportation, IoT can be utilized in smart cars that will stay connected through the internet with the help of IoT (Rahimi, Zibaeenejad and Safavi 2018). The companies that will make use of IoT shall be able to reduce their operational costs and, as a result of the same, deliver better experiences for the drivers as well as the passengers of the vehicles.

The future application of IoT is also done in healthcare. The pandemic situation has also increased the utilization of IoT for operations such as remote monitoring, digital diagnostics as well as telehealth. The engagement of patients has also been improved in the recent applications, and as a result, their satisfaction with the doctors has been improved by undertaking interactions and making the procedures more efficient and, at the same time, easier. The future application of IoT also involves consumer electronics that will get enhanced with respect to user experience as well as the satisfaction level of customers. The data of customers will also get collected in an efficient manner that shall allow the producers in order to analyze along with optimization of device usage.

Advanced principal technologies, as well as proliferation with respect to devices, have assisted in fueling the growth of all the technologies related to IoT. The future growth of IoT will involve the latest and innovative sensors along with an increase in the computing power and reliability of the connectivity of mobiles. Mobile connections are prone to several threats to privacy, and as a result of this, the application of IoT in the future will help in making this connection more reliable and trustworthy.

In essence, it has been researched and evaluated the market associated with IoT shall grow because the existing devices related to information technology are linked with IoT. Thus, it can be stated that the future related to IoT is not limited to the virtual platforms because of the advancement that is taking place in terms of technology (Ometov et al. 2019). Furthermore, consumers desire to undertake the integration of their devices like the household machines with smartphones, which will require IoT and further lead to the advancement of IoT in the future. The protocols associated with connectivity and network have made the connection of people with machines possible for all types of platforms.

There are a huge amount of data that will be transmitted in the future that will hold a privacy challenge. Therefore, the issue of security must be highlighted for getting addressed in the future for the purpose of keeping up with the demand for IoT. The other challenges associated with the future application of IoT involve connectivity issues along with the capability of cross-platform (Birkel and Hartmann 2019). All these issues will be ensured to be mitigated in order to make the utilization of IoT successful in the future. Lack of proper skill set as well as the procedure of data collection and processing is regarded as an additional problem of IoT, and the measures of mitigating the same will be researched in the future.

Consumer Electronics and IoT

Conclusion:

The research paper has primarily focused on the Internet of Things. The existing utilization and research associated with IoT have been evaluated in the paper. In addition to this, the research has provided the main focus on the application of IoT in the future as they are going to be spread in several fields. There are several challenges associated with the usage and application of IoT that have been further determined in the research. The secondary methodology has been further used for the purpose of gaining relevant data with respect to the aims as well as objectives of the research. 

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