the original idea of the auto-id center is based on rfid-tags and distinct identification through the electronic product code. this has evolved into objects having an ip address or uri. an alternative view, from the world of the semantic web focuses instead on making all things (not just those electronic, smart, or rfid-enabled) addressable by the existing naming protocols, such as uri. the objects themselves do not converse, but they may now be referred to by other agents, such as powerful centralised servers acting for their human owners. integration with the internet implies that devices will use an ip address as a distinct identifier. due to the limited address space of ipv4 (which allows for 4.3 billion different addresses), objects in the iot will have to use the next generation of the internet protocol (ipv6) to scale to the extremely large address space required. internet-of-things devices additionally will benefit from the stateless address auto-configuration present in ipv6, as it reduces the configuration overhead on the hosts, and the ietf 6lowpan header compression. to a large extent, the future of the internet of things will not be possible without the support of ipv6; and consequently, the global adoption of ipv6 in the coming years will be critical for the successful development of the iot in the future. application layer adrc defines an application layer protocol and supporting framework for implementing iot applications. short-range wireless bluetooth mesh networking – specification providing a mesh networking variant to bluetooth low energy (ble) with an increased number of nodes and standardized application layer (models). light-fidelity (li-fi) – wireless communication technology similar to the wi-fi standard, but using visible light communication for increased bandwidth. near-field communication (nfc) – communication protocols enabling two electronic devices to communicate within a 4 cm range. radio-frequency identification (rfid) – technology using electromagnetic fields to read data stored in tags embedded in other items. wi-fi – technology for local area networking based on the ieee 802.11 standard, where devices may communicate through a shared access point or directly between individual devices. zigbee – communication protocols for personal area networking based on the ieee 802.15.4 standard, providing low power consumption, low data rate, low cost, and high throughput. z-wave – wireless communications protocol used primarily for home automation and security applications medium-range wireless lte-advanced – high-speed communication specification for mobile networks. provides enhancements to the lte standard with extended coverage, higher throughput, and lower latency. 5g - 5g wireless networks can be used to achieve the high communication requirements of the iot and connect a large number of iot devices, even when they are on the move. there are three features of 5g that are each considered to be useful for supporting particular elements of iot: enhanced mobile broadband (embb), massive machine type communications (mmtc) and ultra-reliable low latency communications (urllc). long-range wireless low-power wide-area networking (lpwan) – wireless networks designed to allow long-range communication at a low data rate, reducing power and cost for transmission. available lpwan technologies and protocols: lorawan, sigfox, nb-iot, weightless, rpma, mioty. very small aperture terminal (vsat) – satellite communication technology using small dish antennas for narrowband and broadband data. wired ethernet – general purpose networking standard using twisted pair and fiber optic links in conjunction with hubs or switches. power-line communication (plc) – communication technology using electrical wiring to carry power and data. specifications such as homeplug or g.hn utilize plc for networking iot devices. comparison of technologies by layer different technologies have different roles in a protocol stack. below is a simplified presentation of the roles of several popular communication technologies in iot applications: physicallink / macnetworktransportapplication bluetooth le z-wave itu-t g.9959 zigbee matter tcp and udp thread ieee 802.15.4 ipv6 ethernet wi-fi standards and standards organizations this is a list of technical standards for the iot, most of which are open standards, and the standards organizations that aspire to successfully setting them. short name long name standards under development other notes auto-id labsauto identification centernetworked rfid (radiofrequency identification) and emerging sensing technologies connected home over ipproject connected home over ipconnected home over ip (or project connected home over ip) is an open-sourced, royalty-free home automation connectivity standard project which features compatibility among different smart home and internet of things (iot) products and softwarethe connected home over ip project group was launched and introduced by amazon, apple, google, comcast and the zigbee alliance on december 18, 2019. the project is backed by big companies and by being based on proven internet design principles and protocols it aims to unify the currently fragmented systems. epcglobalelectronic product code technologystandards for adoption of epc (electronic product code) technology fdau.s. food and drug administrationudi (unique device identification) system for distinct identifiers for medical devices gs1global standards onestandards for uids ("unique" identifiers) and rfid of fast-moving consumer goods (consumer packaged goods), health care supplies, and other things the gs1 digital link standard, first released in august 2018, allows the use qr codes, gs1 datamatrix, rfid and nfc to enable various types of business-to-business, as well as business-to-consumers interactions. parent organization comprises member organizations such as gs1 us ieeeinstitute of electrical and electronics engineersunderlying communication technology standards such as ieee 802.15.4, ieee p1451-99 (iot harmonization), and ieee p1931.1 (roof computing). ietfinternet engineering task forcestandards that comprise tcp/ip (the internet protocol suite) mtconnect institute—mtconnect is a manufacturing industry standard for data exchange with machine tools and related industrial equipment. it is important to the iiot subset of the iot. o-dfopen data formato-df is a standard published by the internet of things work group of the open group in 2014, which specifies a generic information model structure that is meant to be applicable for describing any "thing", as well as for publishing, updating and querying information when used together with o-mi (open messaging interface). o-miopen messaging interfaceo-mi is a standard published by the internet of things work group of the open group in 2014, which specifies a limited set of key operations needed in iot systems, notably different kinds of subscription mechanisms based on the observer pattern. ocfopen connectivity foundationstandards for simple devices using coap (constrained application protocol)ocf (open connectivity foundation) supersedes oic (open interconnect consortium) oma open mobile alliance oma dm and oma lwm2m for iot device management, as well as gotapi, which provides a secure framework for iot applications xsfxmpp standards foundationprotocol extensions of xmpp (extensible messaging and presence protocol), the open standard of instant messaging w3c world wide web consortium standards for bringing interoperability between different iot protocols and platforms such as thing description, discovery, scripting api and architecture that explains how they work together. homepage of the web of things activity at the w3c at https://www.w3.org/wot/ politics and civic engagement some scholars and activists argue that the iot can be used to create new models of civic engagement if device networks can be open to user control and inter-operable platforms. philip n. howard, a professor and author, writes that political life in both democracies and authoritarian regimes will be shaped by the way the iot will be used for civic engagement. for that to happen, he argues that any connected device should be able to divulge a list of the "ultimate beneficiaries" of its sensor data and that individual citizens should be able to add new organisations to the beneficiary list. in addition, he argues that civil society groups need to start developing their iot strategy for making use of data and engaging with the public. government regulation one of the key drivers of the iot is data. the success of the idea of connecting devices to make them more efficient is dependent upon access to and storage & processing of data. for this purpose, companies working on the iot collect data from multiple sources and store it in their cloud network for further processing. this leaves the door wide open for privacy and security dangers and single point vulnerability of multiple systems. the other issues pertain to consumer choice and ownership of data and how it is used. though still in their infancy, regulations and governance regarding these issues of privacy, security, and data ownership continue to develop. iot regulation depends on the country. some examples of legislation that is relevant to privacy and data collection are: the us privacy act of 1974, oecd guidelines on the protection of privacy and transborder flows of personal data of 1980, and the eu directive 95/46/ec of 1995. current regulatory environment: a report published by the federal trade commission (ftc) in january 2015 made the following three recommendations: data security – at the time of designing iot companies should ensure that data collection, storage and processing would be secure at all times. companies should adopt a "defense in depth" approach and encrypt data at each stage. data consent – users should have a choice as to what data they share with iot companies and the users must be informed if their data gets exposed. data minimisation – iot companies should collect only the data they need and retain the collected information only for a limited time. however, the ftc stopped at just making recommendations for now. according to an ftc analysis, the existing framework, consisting of the ftc act, the fair credit reporting act, and the children's online privacy protection act, along with developing consumer education and business guidance, participation in multi-stakeholder efforts and advocacy to other agencies at the federal, state and local level, is sufficient to protect consumer rights. a resolution passed by the senate in march 2015, is already being considered by the congress. this resolution recognized the need for formulating a national policy on iot and the matter of privacy, security and spectrum. furthermore, to provide an impetus to the iot ecosystem, in march 2016, a bipartisan group of four senators proposed a bill, the developing innovation and growing the internet of things (digit) act, to direct the federal communications commission to assess the need for more spectrum to connect iot devices. approved on 28 september 2018, california senate bill no. 327 goes into effect on 1 january 2020. the bill requires "a manufacturer of a connected device, as those terms are defined, to equip the device with a reasonable security feature or features that are appropriate to the nature and function of the device, appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit, and designed to protect the device and any information contained therein from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure," several standards for the iot industry are actually being established relating to automobiles because most concerns arising from use of connected cars apply to healthcare devices as well. in fact, the national highway traffic safety administration (nhtsa) is preparing cybersecurity guidelines and a database of best practices to make automotive computer systems more secure. a recent report from the world bank examines the challenges and opportunities in government adoption of iot. these include – still early days for the iot in government underdeveloped policy and regulatory frameworks unclear business models, despite strong value proposition clear institutional and capacity gap in government and the private sector inconsistent data valuation and management infrastructure a major barrier government as an enabler most successful pilots share common characteristics (public-private partnership, local, leadership) in early december 2021, the u.k. government introduced the product security and telecommunications infrastructure bill (pst), an effort to legislate iot distributors, manufacturers, and importers to meet certain cybersecurity standards. the bill also seeks to improve the security credentials of consumer iot devices. criticism, problems and controversies platform fragmentation the iot suffers from platform fragmentation, lack of interoperability and common technical standards a situation where the variety of iot devices, in terms of both hardware variations and differences in the software running on them, makes the task of developing applications that work consistently between different inconsistent technology ecosystems hard. for example, wireless connectivity for iot devices can be done using bluetooth, wi-fi, wi-fi halow, zigbee, z-wave, lora, nb-iot, cat m1 as well as completely custom proprietary radios – each with its own advantages and disadvantages; and unique support ecosystem. the iot's amorphous computing nature is also a problem for security, since patches to bugs found in the core operating system often do not reach users of older and lower-price devices. one set of researchers say that the failure of vendors to support older