Internet of Things Platforms for Academic Research and Development: A Critical Review

Tens of different IoT platforms are currently available on the market as a result of the high interest in IoT, characterized by very different characteristics in terms of utilization models, features and availability. This paper provides a review of existing platforms, both adopting a closed source and an open source access model, focusing on five evaluation criteria: communication protocols, data visualization, data processing, integration with external services and security. Afterward, the paper focuses on ten open source platforms, that are deemed more suitable for research and development activities in academia, and provides an evaluation of such platforms according to the five criteria previously defined, combined with two criteria specific to open source platforms: installation procedure and documentation. The evaluation indicates that the FIWARE platform is the best suited platform when taking into account the combination of the seven criteria; other platforms might, however, be preferred, depending on the context, thanks to specific features such as native support for a programming language, or ease and flexibility in the installation procedure.