Smartgrid is a paradigm that was introduced into the conventional electricity network to enhance the way generation, transmission, and distribution networks interrelate. It involves the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and other solution in fault and intrusion detection, mere monitoring of energy generation, transmission, and distribution. However, on one hand, the actual and earlier smartgrid, do not integrate more advanced features such as automatic decision making, security, scalability, self-healing and awareness, real-time monitoring, cross-layer compatibility, etc. On the other hand, the emergence of the digitalization of the communication infrastructure to support the economic sector which among them are energy generation and distribution grid with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and large-scale Machine to Machine (M2M) communication. With the future Massive Internet of Things (MIoT) as one of the pillars of 5G/6G network factory, it is the enabler to support the next generation smart grid by providing the needed platform that integrates, in addition to the communication infrastructure, the AI and IoT support, providing a multitenant system. This paper aim at presenting a comprehensive review of next smart grid research trends and technological background, discuss a futuristic next-generation smart grid driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and leverage by IoT and 5G. In addition, it discusses the challenges of next-generation smart-grids as it relate to the integration of AI, IoT and 5G for better smart grid architecture. Also, proffers possible solutions to some of the challenges and standards to support this novel trend. A corresponding future work will dwell on the implementation of the discussed integration of AI, IoT and 5G for next-generation smart grid, using Matlab, NS2/NS3, Open-daylight and Mininet as soft tools and compare with related literature.

The next generation 5G radio access network (RAN) system is believed to be a true world wide wireless web (WWWW). This is because such system will seamlessly and ubiquitously connect everything, and support at least 1000-fold traffic volumes, 100 billion connected wireless devices, and diversified use cases as well as quality of service (QoS) requirements (e.g., reliability, latency, data rates, coverage, security, and privacy) of multimedia applications by 2020. Recently, a number of research challenges including the explosive growth in mobile traffic volumes, unprecedented connected devices, and diversified use cases have been identified for the 5G RAN systems. In addition, specific technologies such as multitier communication, massive MIMOs, mmWave backhauling, extreme densifications of nodes (UDNs), full-duplex communications (FDCs), and energy harvesting techniques have emerged in the literature to resolve some of these challenges of the 5G RAN systems. However, the research activities defining specific technical advancements for 5G RAN systems are yet to continue in the next half decade before specifications for standardization and commercialization are concluded. Motivated by the limited number of existing surveys of such technical advancements in a broader perspective (i.e., interference, spectrum-efficient, and energy-efficient management schemes), this paper seeks to take stock of state-of-the-art (SOTA) on such technical developments. Our attention focuses on relevant radio interference and resource management (RIRM) schemes that have been proposed in the last five years. Our contribution lies in the analysis, synthesis, and summarized alignments of the conventional RIRM schemes toward overcoming the identified challenges for the 5G RAN systems. Finally, the review highlights a number of open research issues deduced from recently proposed RIRM schemes.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19), declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global pandemic, has brought with it changes to the general way of life. Major sectors of the world industry and economy have been affected and the Internet of Things (IoT) management and framework is no exception in this regard. This article provides an up to date survey on how a global pandemic such as COVID-19 has affected the world of IoT technologies. It looks at the contributions that IoT and associated sensor technologies have made towards virus tracing, tracking and spread mitigation. The associated challenges of deployment of sensor hardware in the face of a rapidly spreading pandemic have been looked into as part of this review article. The effects of a global pandemic on the evolution of IoT architectures and management have also been addressed, leading to the likely outcomes on future IoT implementations. In general, this article provides an insight into the advancement of sensor-based E-health towards the management of global pandemics. It also answers the question of how a global virus pandemic has shaped the future of IoT networks.

In recent times, distributed denial of service (DDoS) has been one of the most prevalent security threats in internet-enabled networks, with many internet of things (IoT) devices having been exploited to carry out attacks. Due to their inherent security flaws, the attacks seek to deplete the resources of the target network by flooding it with numerous spoofed requests from a distributed system. Research studies have demonstrated that a DDoS attack has a considerable impact on the target network resources and can result in an extended operational outage if not detected. The detection of DDoS attacks has been approached using a variety of methods. In this paper, a comprehensive survey of the methods used for DDoS attack detection on selected internet-enabled networks is presented. This survey aimed to provide a concise introductory reference for early researchers in the development and application of attack detection methodologies in IoT-based applications. Unlike other studies, a wide variety of methods, ranging from the traditional methods to machine and deep learning methods, were covered. These methods were classified based on their nature of operation, investigated as to their strengths and weaknesses, and then examined via several research studies which made use of each approach. In addition, attack scenarios and detection studies in emerging networks such as the internet of drones, routing protocol based IoT, and named data networking were also covered. Furthermore, technical challenges in each research study were identified. Finally, some remarks for enhancing the research studies were provided, and potential directions for future research were highlighted.

The Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) has been introduced in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Rel-13 with the aim to provide low-cost, low-power, wide-area cellular connectivity for the Internet of Things. With the exponentially increasing number of connected wireless devices in the order of 100 billion, it has become crucial that researchers develop efficient resource management techniques to meet the 5th Generation (5G) quality of service (QoS) requirements. Recently, several research challenges including the low modulation data rates, energy-expensive channel coding techniques, and the fast-growing number of connected devices have been identified as some of the main issues encountered in the design and deployment of NB-IoT systems. In addition, several techniques have emerged in the literature to resolve some of these challenges of NB-IoT systems. However, the research activities towards the enhancement of the NB-IoT resource management are yet to continue in the next half-decade before, high data rates, energy-efficient, and scalable NB-IoT specifications can be released for the standardisation and commercialisation. Considering the limited number of existing surveys of such technical enhancement approaches in a broader perspective (i.e. energy efficiency, data rate performance and scalability) and also the non-existence, to the best of our knowledge, of a comparative survey, this paper seeks to elaborate, describe and compare the performances of such resources management approaches. Of the multiple NB-IoT resources, the focus of this paper is on the data rate, energy efficiency, and scalability enhancement schemes that have been proposed for the last three years. The contribution of the paper lies in the analysis, synthesis, comparison and summarised alignments of some of the major existing schemes towards identifying challenges faced by the NB-IoT development. Finally, this work seeks to identify research challenges, open questions, and opportunities that could arise from the existing techniques analysed.

Addressing the recent trend of the massive demand for resources and ubiquitous use for all citizens has led to the conceptualization of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart cities. Ubiquitous IoT connectivity can be achieved to serve both urban and underserved remote areas such as rural communities by deploying 5G mobile networks with Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN). The current architectures will not offer flexible connectivity to many IoT applications due to high service demand, data exchange, emerging technologies, and security challenges. Hence, this paper explores various architectures that consider a hybrid 5G-LPWAN-IoT and Smart Cities. This includes security challenges as well as endogenous security and solutions in 5G and LPWAN-IoT. The slicing of virtual networks using software-defined network (SDN)/network function virtualization (NFV) based on the different quality of service (QoS) to satisfy different services and quality of experience (QoE) is presented. Also, a strategy that considers the implementation of 5G jointly with Weightless-N (TVWS) technologies to reduce the cell edge interference is considered. Discussions on the need for ubiquity connectivity leveraging 5G and LPWAN-IoT are presented. In addition, future research directions are presented, including a unified 5G network and LPWAN-IoT architecture that will holistically support integration with emerging technologies and endogenous security for improved/secured smart cities and remote areas IoT applications. Finally, the use of LPWAN jointly with low earth orbit (LEO) satellites for ubiquitous IoT connectivity is advocated in this paper.