University IoT Report: Analyzing Home Devices, Issues, and Solutions

This report provides an overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices currently used in homes, discussing various applications such as concussion sensors, medical alert watches, dog activity monitors, and smart home appliances. The report identifies and evaluates key challenges associated with IoT devices, including issues related to usage, control, connectivity, security vulnerabilities, and privacy concerns. It then proposes potential solutions, such as using device aggregators and adopting security measures at different network layers to mitigate these challenges. The report also includes a diagram of a dwelling layout, offering a visual representation of how IoT devices can be integrated into a home environment. Finally, the report emphasizes the importance of addressing these issues to enhance consumer confidence and unlock the full potential of IoT in the home.

Running head: INTERNET OF THINGS
Internet of things
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note

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Executive summary
The report is prepared to identify and discuss the present IoT devices used in the home. It has
analyzed the challenges like privacy, security, connectivity, control and usage. Further it has
provided the potential solution of the problems and the diagram of the layout of the dwelling.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction:......................................................................................................................................3
2. Identifying and discussing the current devices that are to be used at home:.....................................3
3. Evaluating the issues and providing potential solutions for these issues:.........................................6
3.1 The evaluation of the issues:........................................................................................................6
3.2. Providing potential solutions for the issues:...............................................................................9
4. Diagram of the dwelling layout:......................................................................................................10
6. Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................11
7. References:......................................................................................................................................12
8. Appendix:........................................................................................................................................15

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1. Introduction:
As the luxury was reserved for the tech-savvy and rich people, the IoT or Internet of Things
has been invading the private dwellings of the common people with high pace. The revolution has
been connecting various commonly used home appliances with the Internet (Sivaraman et al., 2015).
The potential of IoT at homes have been evaluated in the report. It includes the IoT systems
like the smart phones or the smart TVs.
The report has identified and discussed the present devices used in the home. It has evaluated
the challenges like privacy, security, connectivity, control and usage. Lastly it has provided the
potential solution of the problems and the diagram of the layout of the dwelling.
2. Identifying and discussing the current devices that are to be used at home:
The current devices used at home are discussed hereafter.
1. The helmet concussion sensor:
Everyone needs to secure the concussions. As the recent research has been showing
particularly, the greater connection is present between the neurological and concussion issues further
in life. It has been especially significant in the sports like hockey and football where the products
such as Shockbox have been coming in handy (Amadeo et al., 2015). It contains the software
attaching the protective helmets and has been using the accelerometers for measuring the impact of
the head effect. The data is sent to the smart-phone of the coach or parent through Bluetooth
allowing them to take critical decisions.

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2. Medical Alert Watch:
This has been the Smartwatch has been allowing the remote health monitoring the loved
ones. This Smartwatch has been tracking as well as other types of the regular activities. Moreover, it
has been providing the emergency assist button alerting the Lively for calling in and checking that
all the things have been alright (Yoon, Park & Yoo, 2015). Its features have been outstanding and it
has been offering that could be placed in the home such that the system could learn the normal
habits. This includes the opening of the refrigerator or taking medication.
3. Dog Activity Monitor:
Since the market for the health devices has been new, this smart device has been monitoring
the health of the dog. This device from the Fitbark has been the “Fitbit for the dogs”. This has been
useful in measuring the activity or the dogs and the sleeping quality. Moreover, it has been
delivering the theoretically useful data regarding the behaviors.
4. Smart Running Shoes:
These shoes have been capable of doing all the standard tracking like the split times, distance
ran and time. The using of the acquisition of the MapMyFitness, the company Under Armour has
been making that such that those shoes integrate the MapMyRun. This has been for delivering the
GPS data for the runs.
5. Smart Fitness Clothing:
Every garment has comprised of the built-in-sensors that have been measuring the muscle
activities. This is done by electromyography. The data has been relayed to the hub of “Iron Man”
that could be attached to the chest or leg. The hub has been sending the data back to the smartphone
allowing the user to assess the performance during various exercises and appropriate the techniques.

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6. Garden Sensor:
The organization named Parrot has been creating wireless devices since 1994. This has been
popular for their present range of drones. Despite that, they have been also making that an
outstanding sensor. The sensor has been analyzing the air temperature, soil moisture, fertilizer level
and the sunlight. Next, by utilizing the Bluetooth connection to the iOS or Android device, it could
alert then regarding all the necessities of the plant.
7. Smart Garage Controller:
The smart door controller of Garageio is useful in opening and closing the garage doors using
the smartphone application. This has been also promising to warn the user as they leave the garage
door open by mistake. The actual interesting feature has been that the user could grant the access of
the garage door to various people (Jie et al., 2013).
9. Raspberry Pi Amazon Echo:
It has been already the most flexible and low-expensive device of computing. It could also
create the outstanding DIY device of IoT.
10. RainMachine Mini-8, Touch HD-12, or Touch HD-16:
The RainMachine has been saving the water and keeping the plants healthy through using the
forecasts of federal weather in automatically adjusting the watering as required. The user could also
program that to shut that off in particular months, not to water at the freeze conditions and
complying with the restrictions of the locality.

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11. Abode Connected Home Security:
Provided the monthly charges for few products, the overly restricted capabilities of the still
others and the dubious security of the others, the IoT system of home security could be preferred.
The Abode has comprised of various components (Santoso & Vun, 2015). At the core, it contains the
hub. This contains the intelligence, radio controller, Internet connection, battery backup and the
siren.
3. Evaluating the issues and providing potential solutions for these issues:
3.1 The evaluation of the issues:
Same as the conventional systems, the smart homes have been experiencing various ups and
downs plaguing the latest technologies. Almost regularly, new technology sites have been putting up
articles relating how the smart systems could be hacked. Moreover, there have been proofs that those
adopting the smart devices such as security and thermostats systems have abandoned them. The
issues are highlighted below.
Usage:
The usage has been a crucial problem in understanding how billions of the new smart home
devices have been flooding online. The unmaintained devices have been spewing all kinds of staffs
onto the online. Most of them have possessed the operating system maintained by anyone. Most of
the vendors of IoT have been going out of business. Their devices have been comprised of bugs that
are impossible to fix (Yoshigoe et al., 2015). The rising concern is that what that has been to do with
the ability of the Internet in dealing with the malicious actors. The way in which the issues of
optimization and [performance around the Internet could be recognized and solved is also a concern
the fast-changing and robust scenario. A number of devices that are connected online only rises

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quicker as the more and, more elements turn Internet-enabled. For example, it must be assured about
the basic issues in front of the numerous refrigerators asking to buy milk towards the way home.
Control:
There has been a rising concern whether the devices could deliver the services required to
contact them at first. For instance, various thermostats based on Internet and applications on the
phone controlled by the systems have not been communicating directly or peer-to-peer. Rather than
this, everyone has been communicating independently with the rendezvous there and the cloud. The
commercial impacts of the systems have been deep and wide (Chung et al., 2014). Virtually all the
machines operating in all the sectors and market could be connected to the Internet. The problem of
control with it is that how these devices are tracked, assuring the billions of smart things has been
up.
Connectivity:
All the devices using the electricity have been collecting the data and are connected to the
Internet. However, there could be various wrong outcomes originating from this. The privacy and
security issues around the IoT have been so intensive that those are almost overwhelming. The smart
home has been connecting many kinds of digital devices for communicating with others via the
Internet. These devices have been forming the home area network. Here the communications have
been enabled through various protocols. Every device has been designed by various organizations
with various technologies and standards. Thus there exist various issues in the connectivity.
Security:
The security issues are described below:

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Vulnerability to Hacking: The experts are able to hack into the real and on the market devices taking
sufficient time and energy. This indicates that the hackers could also likely capable of replicating
their efforts (Perumal et al., 2016).
The readiness of the companies: From the various surveys made, only just a few percent of the
enterprises have been feeling confident regarding the security of their devices against the hackers.
True security: The securing of the IoT devices have been just more than just simplifying the securing
of the real data themselves (Shim, 2015). The organizations have also been needed to create the
security in the network connections and the software applications linking to the devices.
Privacy:
Too Much Data: The total quantity of data generated by the IoT devices has been staggering. This
has been creating more access points for the hackers and leaving the sensitive information
vulnerable.
Unwanted Public Profile: The organizations are able to utilize the gathered information that the
clients have been willingly offering to create the employment decisions (Nobakht, Sivaraman &
Boreli, 2016). For instance, the insurance company could collect data regarding the user’s health or
the life insurance because of the fitness trackers.
Eavesdropping: The hackers or manufacturers are able to utilize the devices in virtually invading the
people’s home. The researchers from Germany have accomplished that through intercepting the
unencrypted data from the smart meter device for determining what show in the television was been
watched at any moment.

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Consumer confidence: All of the issues have been putting the dent into the desire of the consumers
for purchasing the connected products that prevent the IoT from the fulfilling of their actual
potential.
3.2. Providing potential solutions for the issues:
There have been two approaches to get around the issues.
Going for the service of device aggregator:
The first one has been to opt for the service of device aggregator such as AT&T -0.63%
along with the service of Digital Life. Here they have been providing as a single app along with a
box of the consolidated wireless adapter. The consumer could create a multi-year agreement of
service same as the phone. This must reduce the initial outlay of cash (Gubbi et al., 2013). Same as
the AT&T in the cable devices, the consumers would receive the best in breed services, hardware,
and software. The solutions are discussed below.
The Revolv’s approach:
This approach has been enabling the customers in buying the end point products that are best in
breed. However, this has been integrating the software and hardware. This has been indicating the
creation of single applications from the disparate apps and also consolidating every wireless adapter.
Revolv, a popular company has been intent to perform the same thing. They have been pulling every
disparate wireless box under a single box and then pulling those disparate applications under one
single application (Skouby & Lynggaard, 2014).
Apart from these there are various security measures that could be adapted for safeguarding
the IoT devices and solutions. The security could be emended at various layers like threat
management, application and data, network and endpoint. Protection could be included in the media

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Web Service Internet Home controller
EMS
A/C
Water Heater
Pool
Pump
Refrigerator
Smart Parking
LIGHTS
ESI
AMI Network
Smart Electricity Meter
Utility
layer and the physical layer of the network. The extent of the necessary security could be determined
in the edge devices and its effect over time. The network could be protected in overcoming the
problems to protect the applications (Perumal, Datta & Bonnet, 2015). Moreover a security posture
and a cloud strategy could be incorporated. The security integrity must be maintained around the
complete life-cycle of the product. Lastly the proper security is needed to applied to every potential
risks and then the threat is to be evaluated.
4. Diagram of the dwelling layout:
Figure 1: “The diagram denoting the layout of the dwelling along with the home appliances”
(Source: Created by Author)

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6. Conclusion:
The IoT has been leading the path towards the smart world. This is done with the ubiquitous
networking and computing to simplify various tasks around the users. They have also been providing
various tasks like easy controlling of various phenomenons all around. Under the IoT, the items and
environmental from the daily routine are developed with the communication and computing
technologies. They have been joining the framework of communication and meeting various services
using the wired or wireless communications. These interconnected machines have been performing
the new services needed to be carried out through the present or future Internet. However the smart
home systems have not been devoid of various threats. The report has identified the various
measures to do away with the risks. It involves the going for the service of device aggregator and the
Revolv’s approach. Thus a new wave of the productivity growth could be expected with the
improvement in the quality of human life.

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7. References:
Amadeo, M., Campolo, C., Iera, A., & Molinaro, A. (2015, June). Information Centric Networking
in IoT scenarios: The case of a smart home. In Communications (ICC), 2015 IEEE
International Conference on (pp. 648-653). IEEE.
Apthorpe, N., Reisman, D., & Feamster, N. (2017). A Smart Home is No Castle: Privacy
Vulnerabilities of Encrypted IoT Traffic. arXiv preprint arXiv:1705.06805.
Chung, T. Y., Mashal, I., Alsaryrah, O., Hsu, T. H., Chang, C. H., & Kuo, W. H. (2014, July).
Design and implementation of light-weight smart home gateway for Social Web of Things.
In Ubiquitous and Future Networks (ICUFN), 2014 Sixth International Conf on (pp. 425-
430). IEEE.
Gubbi, J., Buyya, R., Marusic, S., & Palaniswami, M. (2013). Internet of Things (IoT): A vision,
architectural elements, and future directions. Future generation computer systems, 29(7),
1645-1660.
Jie, Y., Pei, J. Y., Jun, L., Yun, G., & Wei, X. (2013, June). Smart home system based on iot
technologies. In Computational and Information Sciences (ICCIS), 2013 Fifth International
Conference on (pp. 1789-1791). IEEE.
Moazzami, M. M., Xing, G., Mashima, D., Chen, W. P., & Herberg, U. (2016, December). SPOT: A
smartphone-based platform to tackle heterogeneity in smart-home IoT systems. In Internet of
Things (WF-IoT), 2016 IEEE 3rd World Forum on (pp. 514-519). IEEE.

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Nobakht, M., Sivaraman, V., & Boreli, R. (2016, August). A Host-Based Intrusion Detection and
Mitigation Framework for Smart Home IoT Using OpenFlow. In Availability, Reliability and
Security (ARES), 2016 11th International Conference on (pp. 147-156). IEEE.
Perumal, T., Datta, S. K., & Bonnet, C. (2015, October). IoT device management framework for
smart home scenarios. In Consumer Electronics (GCCE), 2015 IEEE 4th Global Conference
on (pp. 54-55). IEEE.
Perumal, T., Sulaiman, M. N., Datta, S. K., Ramachandran, T., & Leong, C. Y. (2016, October).
Rule-based conflict resolution framework for Internet of Things device management in smart
home environment. In Consumer Electronics, 2016 IEEE 5th Global Conference on (pp. 1-2).
IEEE.
Santoso, F. K., & Vun, N. C. (2015, June). Securing IoT for smart home system. In Consumer
Electronics (ISCE), 2015 IEEE International Symposium on (pp. 1-2). IEEE.
Shim, J. (2015). A Design of IoT based Automatic Control System for Intelligent Smart Home
Network. Journal of The Korea Internet of Things Society, 1(1), 21-25.
Sivanathan, A., Sherratt, D., Gharakheili, H. H., Sivaraman, V., & Vishwanath, A. (2016,
November). Low-cost flow-based security solutions for smart-home IoT devices.
In Advanced Networks and Telecommunications Systems (ANTS), 2016 IEEE International
Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Sivaraman, V., Gharakheili, H. H., Vishwanath, A., Boreli, R., & Mehani, O. (2015, October).
Network-level security and privacy control for smart-home IoT devices. In Wireless and
Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), 2015 IEEE 11th
International Conference on (pp. 163-167). IEEE.

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Skouby, K. E., & Lynggaard, P. (2014, November). Smart home and smart city solutions enabled by
5G, IoT, AAI and CoT services. In Contemporary Computing and Informatics (IC3I), 2014
International Conference on (pp. 874-878). IEEE.
Yoon, S., Park, H., & Yoo, H. S. (2015). Security issues on smarthome in IoT environment.
In Computer Science and its Applications (pp. 691-696). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Yoshigoe, K., Dai, W., Abramson, M., & Jacobs, A. (2015, December). Overcoming invasion of
privacy in smart home environment with synthetic packet injection. In TRON Symposium
(TRONSHOW), 2015 (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

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8. Appendix:
IoT devices Description Manufacturer Cost
1. The helmet
concussion sensor
It contains the
software
attaching the
protective
helmets and has
been using the
accelerometers
for measuring
the impact of the
head effect.
Brain Sentry $75
2. Medical Alert Watch This has been
the Smartwatch
has been
allowing the
remote health
monitoring the
loved ones.
Apple $349
3. Dog Activity Monitor This has been
useful in
measuring the
activity or the
FitBark $77.71

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dogs and the
sleeping quality.
4. Smart Running Shoes These shoes
have been
capable of doing
all the standard
tracking like the
split times,
distance ran and
time.
Lancer $330
5. Smart Fitness
Clothing
The data has
been relayed to
the hub of “Iron
Man” that could
be attached to
the chest or leg.
Athos $250
6. Garden Sensor The sensor has
been analyzing
the air
temperature, soil
moisture,
fertilizer level
and the sunlight.
Edyn Garden
Sensor
$99.97
7. Smart Garage The smart door Chamberlain $320