The Internet of Space Things/CubeSats

The Internet of Things for terrestrial deployments is a major part of next-generation 5G wireless systems. However, there are many use cases such as monitoring of remote areas, Internet provisioning to under-served or disrupted regions, or intelligent global transport management, which require a more global, scalable, flexible, and resilient solution. In this article, the Internet of Space Things, a ubiquitous cyber-physical system for realizing true global connectivity, is introduced. Within this context, this article discusses the state-of-the-art in satellite-based data networks and presents a novel network architecture where Software-defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization serve as key enabling technologies. Further, the major challenges in terms of network design, routing, and resource allocation are also presented. To this end, the Internet of Space Things is the ultimate cyber-physical system, with much broader application and service domains than the traditional Internet of Things.