IoT-Enhanced Localization: Smart Technologies and Systems for Intelligent Environments

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Computer Science & Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 December 2025 | Viewed by 439

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
Interests: last-mile delivery optimization; machine learning; Internet of Things; indoor localization systems; smart environments

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, Niccolò Cusano University, Via Don Carlo Gnocchi 3, 00166 Rome, Italy
Interests: cyber-physical systems; network-on-chip based architectures, hw accelerators; user-centric systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid diffusion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed commercial buildings into complex, interconnected ecosystems. Indoor localization—the process of determining the position of people or objects within indoor environments—has emerged as a key enabler of a wide range of applications and services, from guiding pedestrians within large buildings such as shopping malls, airports, and hospitals, to improving emergency response times and enhancing asset tracking efficiency. IoT also supports a broad array of location-based services tailored to users’ positions.

While outdoor localization typically relies on the Global Positioning System (GPS)—which is considered the de facto standard—indoor localization presents several challenges such as signal attenuation, multipath effects, and complex architectural layouts. These challenges affect the accuracy of indoor localization systems and have stimulated the development of innovative solutions leveraging heterogeneous IoT devices and infrastructures, machine learning technologies, edge and cloud computing, and other state-of-the-art techniques to optimize performance.

This Special Issue, titled “IoT-Enhanced Localization: Smart Technologies and Systems for Intelligent Environments”, aims to synthesize high-quality research that explores how IoT paradigms are reshaping the landscape of indoor localization systems.

_______________________________________________

Scope
We invite submissions addressing a broad spectrum of topics related to indoor localization in the context of IoT, including, but not limited to, the following:

  • IoT Architectures for Indoor Localization: the design and deployment of IoT infrastructures supporting accurate and scalable indoor localization systems.
  • IoT Sensor Fusion and Data Integration: combining multi-modal IoT data streams to enhance the precision, reliability, and robustness of indoor positioning systems.
  • AI for IoT-based Localization: the development of AI-driven approaches—such as deep learning, reinforcement learning, and hybrid models—that leverage IoT devices and infrastructures for localization.
  • Temporal and Dynamic Indoor Localization: addressing challenges posed by changing indoor layouts, crowd movements, and environmental changes, and developing strategies to account for these dynamics.
  • Benchmarking, Standards, and Datasets: the evaluation of publicly available datasets and the creation of new, high-quality benchmarks for comparative research.
  • Energy-Aware and Low-Latency Systems: the optimization of energy consumption and latency for battery-powered and real-time IoT-based localization systems.
  • Privacy and Security in IoT-Enabled Localization: ensuring secure localization, user anonymity, and privacy-preserving data processing in smart environments.
  • Use Cases and Real-World Deployments: case studies and pilot projects in hospitals, industrial sites, shopping centers, museums, public buildings, and other locations.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and insights.

Dr. Gaetano La Delfa
Dr. Salvatore Monteleone
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • indoor localization
  • real-time positioning
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • IoT infrastructure
  • sensor fusion
  • smart environments
  • machine learning
  • artificial intelligence (AI)
  • edge computing
  • location-based services
  • privacy and security
  • indoor localization benchmark datasets

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

14 pages, 333 KB  
Article
Beyond Nearest-Neighbor Connections in Device-to-Device Cellular Networks
by Siavash Rajabi, Reza Shahbazian and Seyed Ali Ghorashi
Electronics 2025, 14(17), 3344; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14173344 - 22 Aug 2025
Viewed by 110
Abstract
Device-to-device (D2D) communication enhances network efficiency by enabling direct, low-latency links between nearby users or devices. While most existing research assumes that D2D connections occur with the nearest neighbor, this assumption often fails in real-world scenarios—such as dense indoor environments, smart buildings, and [...] Read more.
Device-to-device (D2D) communication enhances network efficiency by enabling direct, low-latency links between nearby users or devices. While most existing research assumes that D2D connections occur with the nearest neighbor, this assumption often fails in real-world scenarios—such as dense indoor environments, smart buildings, and industrial IoT deployments—due to factors like channel variability, physical obstructions, or limited user participation. In this paper, we investigate the performance implications of connecting to the n-th nearest neighbor in a cellular network supporting underlay D2D communication. Using a stochastic geometry framework, we derive and analyze key performance metrics, including the coverage probability and average data rate, for both D2D and cellular links under proximity-aware connection strategies. Our results reveal that non-nearest-neighbor associations are not only common but sometimes necessary for maintaining reliable connectivity in highly dense or constrained spaces. These findings are directly relevant to IoT-enhanced localization systems, where fallback mechanisms and adaptive pairing are essential for communication resilience. This work contributes to the development of proximity-aware and spatially adaptive D2D frameworks for next-generation smart environments and 5G-and-beyond wireless networks. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop