Guest Editorial “Things” as Intelligent Sensors and Actuators in the Users’ Context: Processing and Communications Issues

The technological evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) and of the related devices, and their increasing diffusion, give mobile network providers the opportunity to come up with more advanced and innovative services. Among these are the so-called context-aware services: highly customizable services tailored to the user’s preferences and needs, which rely on real-time knowledge of the user’s surroundings, without requiring complex configuration on the user’s part. Examples of context-aware services are user profile changes that result from context changes, user proximity-based advertising, or media content tagging, etc. Applications based on the information acquired, processed and distributed by the IoT can answer the following questions about the objects’ surroundings: what, who, where, when, why, and how.