Introduction

The notion of the Internet of Things (IoT) was prophezied by Kevin Ashton [1] in 1999 as a key paradigm, wherein humans and devices, i.e., objects, would connect and interact over the Internet. Over the last decade or so, this technological viewpoint of IoT became a reality since a network of billions of smart objects (often also referred to as the ‘things’) began connecting over the Internet. This evolution of connected smart objects has, therefore, contributed to the considerable number of applications and services having practical implications in our daily lives [2–5].