IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Collaboration for Internet of Things

The network of objects/things embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, Internet of Things (IoT), creates many exciting applications (e.g., smart grids, smart homes, and smart cities) by enabling objects/things to collect and exchange data so that they can be sensed and controlled. To fulfill IoT, one essential step is to connect various objects/things (e.g., mobile phones, cars, and buildings) so that they can “talk” to each other (i.e., collect and exchange data). However, substantial case studies show that simply connecting them without further collaboration among the objects/things when “talking” to each other leads to unnecessary energy consumption, uncertain security, unstable performance, etc., for IoT. Therefore, collaboration for IoT is very important. Specifically, there are a lot of critical issues to consider in terms of how to achieve robust collaboration among the objects/things for IoT. For instance, how to conduct collaboration among the objects/things so that more energy-efficient communication can be achieved for IoT? How to conduct collaboration among the objects/things so that computing with higher performance can be achieved for IoT? How to improve the security of IoT with collaboration among the objects/things? How to enhance the Quality of Service of IoT with collaboration among the objects/things? How to minimize the overhead costs when objects/things are collaborating in IoT?