Abstract
The Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly becoming a major component of contemporary societies and the next stage of the Internet’s development. Its applications have touched several aspects of our lives, including health, economy, technology, education, environment, and transport. In addition, recent research shows that interest in the IoT is increasing, driven by the potential benefits that it brings, such as improving efficiency and productivity, saving time and effort, staying connected, better health services and care, improved safety and security, automation and control among other benefits. However, despite these advantages and due to the infancy of the IoT, research around this topic is still evolving, and more needs to be done to understand this paradigm of technology. This paper aims to review current applications and challenges associated with its adoption. It provides insights into current applications of the IoT in different domains, including smart cities, health care, smart agriculture, smart water management, retail, logistic and product lifetime management, smart living, public safety and environmental monitoring, and the IoT for physically challenged persons. Concerning the challenges, the study discusses issues related to confidentiality, security, and privacy, data management, machine-to-machine communication, interoperability, reliability, availability and robustness, technological architecture issues, and standardization. Finally, the study concludes with a summary of the findings and suggestions for future research.