Internet of Everything (IoE) - From Molecules to the Universe

As the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies continue to advance, they are becoming increasingly specialized and compartmentalized into non-interacting application domains, which we call IoXs with X referring to the particular application areas, e.g., Internet of Energy (IoEn), Internet of Vehicles (IoV). This trend has also led to the emergence of unconventional IoXs, such as the Internet of Nano Things (IoNT), further increasing the heterogeneity of the future IoT landscape, in terms of not only the underlying technologies but also the spatiotemporal scale and medium of applications, as well as the material nature of things and the type and semantics of data produced and exchanged. This article explores the potential synergies and opportunities that may arise from such diversity through the interactions between heterogeneous IoXs, enabling unprecedented applications beyond the current confines of IoT. Inspired by the ubiquitous connectivity and seamless interoperability of the universe, which is a vast network of heterogeneous entities interconnected through various forms of interactions (e.g., chemical, electromagnetic, acoustic, and gravitational), we propose the Internet of Everything (IoE) framework. The IoE framework aims to facilitate cooperation of both existing and future IoXs on a diverse scale ranging from molecules to the universe. We discuss potential IoE applications that can be enabled by such synergies and identify the unique challenges for bringing this holistic IoE picture into reality. To address some of these challenges, we propose a layered network architecture for IoE, which includes an IoE middleware that provides a semantic interface among IoXs based on the introduced concept of “IoX-as-a-Service.” Lastly, we recommend future research directions for enabling the IoE applications.