Opportunistic Internet of Things (IoT): Demystifying the Effective Possibilities of Opportunisitc Networks Towards IoT

Vision of Internet of Things (IoT) augments next generation Internet by promoting harmonious interaction between human societies and connected devices. Conventional way of connecting IoT devices is to build a global infrastructure-based environment for establishing relationships among objects, activities, people, places, and technologies. Adequate management of IoT-based systems in smart cities and communities lies not only in funneling, processing, and sensing of data, but also in the expedited mechanisms of networking for the IoT devices. More imperative demand of ubiquity and real-time operations compels for the quest of decentralized networking-based IoT infrastructure. Opportunistic Networks (OppNets) and Computing are new paradigms for decentralized-based computing. Despite the fact that IoT and OppNets are not correlated with each other and are considered as independently unique networking environments, this article proposes a novel Opportunistic IoT network architecture that collaborates the layers of IoT with OppNets. Moreover, how to create an efficient Opportunistic network by exploring inherent relationship between humans and smart things is one of the fundamental problems among Opportunistic communities. Considering these facts, this paper reviews several ground-breaking applications, imminent challenges, architecture of Opportunistic networks based on IoT environment, and taxonomy of OppNets forwarding algorithms. This article also correlates and measures the performance of OppNets forwarding algorithms in realistic model of smart city with the help of ‘THE ONE’ simulator.