The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to uniquely identifiable objects and people as well as their virtual representations in an Internet-like infrastructure. After the Web and mobile accessibility, IoT has been hailed as another technological revolution of our lifetime, even more promising with smart automated systems (such as Smart Cities, Smart Grid, Smart Factories, Smart Buildings, Smart Homes, and Smart Cars). In such systems and related applications, it is important to effectively design and implement methods and architectures able to effectively collect, manage, and process large/complex data sets and processes, and ultimately to manage and control IoT-enabled systems at different levels (from local to global), as they are composed of many networked entities of different scales (smart objects, sensors and actuators, embedded computers, mobile devices, machines, factories, buildings, and people). The large-scale nature of IoT-enabled systems raises a number of specific challenges including: effective data collection, cleaning, and storage; data latency and real-time Big Data analytics; novel methods for global system control; effective development of large-scale management platforms; well-defined control interfaces for IoT technologies; and various IoT standards. Moreover, such new findings need to ensure IoT system safety, security and privacy.
