## 1 Introduction  
The Internet of Things (IoT) (Internet of Things (IoT). Cisco.com [online]. 2015 [cited on 14 January 2016]. Available at: [[http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/internet-of-things/overview.html](http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/internet-of-things/overview.html)]([http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/internet-of-things/overview.html](http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/internet-of-things/overview.html)), accessed on 9 March 2022) is a recent communication paradigm foreseeing a near future, wherein everyday objects will be equipped with microcontrollers, transceivers for digital communication, and appropriate protocol stacks that will allow them to communicate with each other and with users as well as to become an integral part of the Internet [1]. This used to be called \"M2M\" (Machine to Machine), then \"Connected Devices\", \"Smart Devices\"; however, it is still the same-the Internet of Things (IoT). The basic building blocks of the Internet of Things consist of three blocks, namely things, network, and cloud. Things are represented by devices that can be connected to the Internet, either via a wired or wireless connection. These things are connected to the cloud by a network used as a communication medium. The cloud is defined as remote servers in data centers where transmitted or retrieved data is stored. This data is detected from things using sensors, e.g., for sensing temperature, position, or ambient air humidity. This information in the form of data is so-called small data because its size is only a few bytes. The next step is to forward small data through the network to the cloud, where it is aggregated and tracked. In this way, larger and larger amounts of data are collected over time, creating so-called big data. According to Cisco, people, machines, and things will generate 850 ZB worth of data by 2021. There is no point in storing such large amounts of data, and only a fraction of the data is useful for storing in a cloud and analyzing later. According to Cisco, approximately 10% are useful, corresponding to 85 ZB [2,3]. Cisco is also looking at the Internet of Things and estimates that it will consist of 50 billion devices connected to the Internet in the near future (Cisco has also come up with a new term: Internet of Everything. Furthermore, a section called Smart+Connected City (e.g., Traffic, Lightning, Wi-Fi) can be found in the Industry Solutions category. Thus, Cisco is trying to implement various technology solutions for smart cities. Indeed, this paradigm finds applications in many different fields, such as home automation, industrial automation, medical devices, mobile healthcare, assistive services for the elderly, smart energy management and smart grids, automotive, traffic management, and many others [4]. The usage of IoT is illustrated in Figure 1.  
In addition to technical difficulties, the lack of a clear and widely accepted business model that can attract investments to support the deployment of these technologies is hindering the adoption of the IoT paradigm [5]. In this complex scenario, the application of the IoT paradigm in an urban context is particularly interesting because it responds to the strong push by many national governments to adopt ICT (Information and communication technologies) solutions in governance and, thus, implement the so-called Smart City concept [6]. Thus, IoT is often referred to as \"a set of technologies enabling access to data deployed by various devices over wireless and wired Internet networks\". Although there are differences in the definitions of the Internet of Things, there is consensus on the basic definition: It is the ability to deliver valuable and efficient information to different user devices via wireless and wired internet networks. In line with the issues being addressed in this paper, a smart grid will be defined. It is a modern infrastructure that relies on ICT and digital networks to collect data about the power grid.