A Scoping Review of Wireless IoT Data Acquisition in Nuclear and Particle Physics Facilities

Wireless Internet-of-Things (IoT) data acquisition is an emerging instrumentation paradigm for nuclear and particle physics facilities, offering a flexible complement to established wired architectures based on VME, CAMAC, and OPC-UA. Despite growing deployment activity, the evidence base remains fragmented. It is spread across conference proceedings, technical notes, and journal publications in instrumentation, nuclear science, and telecommunications. This scoping review systematically maps the evidence on wireless IoT DAQ in this context, following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) framework. A structured search of IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, and the CERN Document Server, covering publications from 2015 to 2025, identified 47 papers meeting eligibility criteria after screening. LoRaWAN® dominates current deployments, appearing in 72% of identified systems, driven by its infrastructure independence and sub-GHz propagation characteristics suited to shielded environments. Radiation monitoring at Large-Hadron-Collider-scale facilities is the most evidence-rich application domain; cyclotron equipment health monitoring is the most active non-CERN domain. Five priority evidence gaps are identified: empirical RF propagation data for African geological formations, long-term total-ionising-dose degradation data from deployed nodes, standardised wired-to-wireless DAQ integration interfaces, sub-millisecond wireless synchronisation, and documentation of Global South facility deployments. The review is grounded in direct operational experience across ATLAS/CERN detector instrumentation, the Dolosse DAQ framework at NRF–iThemba LABS, and the proposed Paarl Africa Underground Laboratory (PAUL).