# Internet of Things (IoT) and the Energy Sector
## 2 Internet of Things (IoT)  
IoT is an emerging technology that uses the Internet and aims to provide connectivity between physical devices or \"things\" [30]. Examples of physical devices include home appliances and industrial equipment. Using appropriate sensors and communication networks, these devices can provide valuable data and enable offering diverse services for people. For instance, controlling energy consumption of buildings in an smart fashion enables reducing the energy costs [31]. IoT has a wide range of applications, such as in manufacturing, logistics and construction industry [32]. IoT is also widely applied in environmental monitoring, healthcare systems and services, efficient management of energy in buildings, and drone-based services [33; 34; 35; 36].  
When planning an IoT application which is the first step in designing IoT systems, the selection of components of IoT such as sensor device, communication protocol, data storage and computation needs to be appropriate for the intended application. For example, an IoT platform planned to control heating, cooling, and air conditioning (HVAC) in a building, requires utilizing relevant environmental sensors and using suitable communication technology [37]. Figure 2 shows the different components of an IoT platform [38]. IoT devices which are the second components of the IoT platforms, could be in the form of sensors, actuators, IoT gateways or any device that joins the cycle of data collection, transmission, and processing. For example, an IoT gateway device enables routing the data into the IoT system and establishing bi-directional communications between the device-to-gateway and gateway-to-cloud.  
The communication protocols that are the third component of the IoT platform, enable the different devices to communicate and share their data with the controllers or the decision making centers. IoT platforms offer the flexibility to select the type of the communication technologies (each having specific features), according to the needs of the application. The examples of these technologies include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee [39] and cellular technology such as LTE-4G and 5G networks [40]. The data storage is the fourth component of the IoT platform which enables management of collected data from the sensors.  
In principle, the data collected from the devices is very large. This necessitates planning an efficient data storage that can be in cloud servers or at the edge of an IoT network. The stored data which is used for analytical purposes, forms the fifth component of the IoT platforms. The data analytics can be performed off-line after storing the data or it can be in form of real-time analytics. The data analytic is performed for decision making about the operation of the application. Based on the need, the data analytics can be performed off-line or real-time. In off-line analytics, the stored data is first collected and then visualized on premises using visualization tools. In case of real-time analytics, the cloud or edge servers are used to provide visualization, e.g. stream analytics [41].  
Figure 2: Diagram describing the components of an IoT platform.