Impact of COVID-19 on IoT Adoption in Healthcare, Smart Homes, Smart Buildings, Smart Cities, Transportation and Industrial IoT

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how COVID-19 has accelerated IoT adoption across various sectors like healthcare, smart cities, and transportation, highlighting initiatives, challenges, and future research directions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of COVID-19's impact on IoT adoption in multiple sectors, combining literature, reports, and expert insights to identify challenges and research needs.

Findings

Increased IoT initiatives in healthcare and smart cities due to COVID-19

Identification of key challenges hindering IoT adoption

Future research directions to accelerate IoT deployment

Abstract

COVID-19 has disrupted normal life and has enforced a substantial change in the policies, priorities and activities of individuals, organisations and governments. These changes are proving to be a catalyst for technology and innovation. In this paper, we discuss the pandemic's potential impact on the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in various broad sectors namely healthcare, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cities, transportation and industrial IoT. Our perspective and forecast of this impact on IoT adoption is based on a thorough research literature review, a careful examination of reports from leading consulting firms and interactions with several industry experts. For each of these sectors, we also provide the details of notable IoT initiatives taken in wake of COVID-19. We also highlight the challenges that need to be addressed and important research directions that will facilitate accelerated IoT adoption.