Sensor as a Company: On Self-Sustaining IoT Commons

TL;DR

This paper introduces SensorInc, a novel IoT deployment model where shared sensors are tradeable assets, incentivizing community participation and addressing deployment challenges in large-scale IoT neighborhoods.

Contribution

It proposes a new paradigm of sensor liquefaction for incentivizing residents to deploy and manage IoT sensors, enhancing sustainability and community engagement.

Findings

Sensor liquefaction enables self-sustaining IoT deployments.

Case studies show potential for community-driven sensor management.

Tradeable sensors attract resident investment and participation.

Abstract

Beyond the "smart home" and "smart enterprise", the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution is creating "smart communities", where shared IoT devices collectively benefit a large number of residents, for transportation, healthcare, safety, and more. However, large-scale deployments of IoT-powered neighborhoods face two key socio-technical challenges: the significant upfront investment and the lack of information on local IoT needs. In this paper, we present SensorInc, a new IoT deployment paradigm that incentivizes residents to design and manage sensor deployment through sensor liquefaction. By turning shared sensors into liquid (i.e. tradeable) assets akin to company stock or bond, users can design and invest in promising IoT deployments and receive monetary rewards afterward. We present the detailed design of SensorInc and conduct two case studies (parking occupancy sensors and air pollution sensors) to study the self-sustainability and deployment challenges of such a paradigm.