Towards Space Sensor Network and Internet of Things: Merging CubeSats with IoT

The fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, has been impacted by the advancements of various technological areas, including microsatellites. The Internet of Space Things (IoST) and Space Sensor Networks (SSNs) are generally integrated into microsatellites as well as Internet of Things (IoT) devices that have recently been used in modern applications. Compared to the traditional microsatellites and IoT devices, the current IoST and SSN devices have the advantages of collecting IoT data in remote areas where there is no network or Internet, sending data with low power between mobile devices and satellite constellations, ensuring global coverage of data exchange, and so on. Due to the mentioned individual advantages, the IoST and SSNs devices have been widely applied in microsatellites and IoT devices. The IoST devices can be integrated with a satellite constellation and CubeSats or IoT receivers. Beside this, the IoST devices are implemented in other applications as a bigger satellite constellation which have both IoT receivers and space sensors such as satellite dishes and RF devices. This paper surveys the current research and technologies of IoST and SSNs within their applications in microsatellites and IoT devices. The impact of IoST on Industry 4.0 is also discussed in this paper.