Information and Communication Technologies for Smart Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

Smart buildings are automated buildings that deliver both essential and innovative services to citizens. These buildings increase comfort for inhabitants or employees, and reduce running expenses by automatically operating te lights, heating, air-conditioning, smart video surveillance, and so on. Today’s smart buildings are built on the technological base provided by the internet of Things (IoT). The sensors and devices of the IoT are responsible for collecting data from the different parts of the building, which are then processed using edge, fog, or cloud technologies, to learn the state of the building and to act accordingly, either by activating or deactivating some building functionality (e.g., ventilation or blinds) or by offering value-added services (e.g., relaxing music or meal ordering). Smart buildings allow for services outside of the facility to have access to some parts of the collected and pre-processed information for data mining, maintenance, optimization, planning, and so on. Thus, realizing the full potential of smart buildings requires integrating technology systems that communicate in order to fully optimize the environment and improve operations.

The design of innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) for smart buildings plays a key role in achieving the effectiveness of smart building services. The ICT challenges result from the need to interconnect numerous devices across multiple operational systems and protocols to people without specific technical knowledge themselves. Added to this is the fact that there has been an increasing move to realise real-time data processing and real-time optimisation. Finally, the integration of state-of-the-art security features into this context is also an unsolved problem as a result of the increasing complexity of cybersecurity attacks and the limited computing power and memory of legacy systems.

This Special Issue deals with the design and implementation of smart building protocols, architectures, platforms, and the theoretical analysis of open research questions related with the development of networking technologies applied to smart buildings. It targets all types of automated buildings, be it commercial, public, or residential. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Architectures and protocols
• Software technologies
• Hardware technologies
• Internet of Things and big data
• Edge, fog, and cloud computing
• Security, privacy, and trust
• Anomaly detection
• Intelligent self-management
• Context-awareness
• Human interaction and usability
• Heterogeneity and interoperability
• Applications and experimental use cases

Dr. Helena Rifà-Pous
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Smart Cities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Smart buildings
• Smart homes
• Internet of Things
• big data
• edge/fog/cloud computing
• security and privacy