Advanced Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): Network Architectures and Distributed Applications
A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 43
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Internet of Things and software-defined networking/network function virtualization paradigms with application to 6G systems; 5G vehicular networks; Industry 4.0; smart cities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: MAC protocol design and optimizations for mobile radio networks; THz-based; 5G NR architectures; industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The unprecedented advancements in hardware technologies and the momentum of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) have driven the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm toward more sophisticated and complex systems, commonly referred to as IoT 2.0.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices are increasingly mobile and geographically distributed across wide operational areas, making the design of effective internetworking strategies a critical challenge. In this context, the integration of 5G, hybrid 5G/6G, or fully 6G infrastructures and technologies offers transformative potential. These advancements promise unprecedented flexibility and scalability, facilitating the creation of an extensive, intelligent, and interconnected industrial ecosystem. Furthermore, IIoT systems merge pervasive remote process control with machine interconnectedness, underscoring the importance of distributed architectures.
This Special Issue seeks to explore challenges and innovations tied to this emerging paradigm, with a focus on network architecture and industrial service frameworks. Given the large-scale complexity of IIoT networks, there is a pressing need for adaptable network architectures and protocol designs that are capable of unifying diverse domains and dynamically managing escalating complexity. One promising approach to address this lies in software-defined networking (SDN), an emerging paradigm that enables on-demand network (re)design by decoupling the control plane from the data-forwarding plane. SDN has also been proposed to overcome the resource-constrained nature of IoT devices, ensuring adequate quality of service (QoS) for data flows while advancing threat detection and mitigation strategies.
At its core, this Special Issue emphasizes network architecture and communication protocol design in smart industrial environments, particularly those supporting distributed and cooperative sensing/processing services aligned with the IoT-as-a-Service model. Central to this evolution is the strategic integration of explainable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into network frameworks. These technologies herald a future of transparent, trustworthy, and self-sufficient networks capable of autonomous adaptation and optimization.
We cordially invite you to contribute original research addressing these themes. While the topics above highlight key areas of interest, submissions on related challenges and innovations are also welcome. We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions.
This Special Issue is partially supported by the European Union under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRPP) of Next Generation EU (NGEU), partnership on "Telecommunications of the Future" (PE00000001—program "RESTART").
Dr. Francesco Chiti
Dr. Giampaolo Cuozzo
Dr. Deepti Gupta
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- industrial Internet of Things
- industrial web of things
- 6G
- cellular IoT architectures and protocols
- distributed machine learning
- security and privacy
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