The Internet of Multimedia Nano-Things in the Terahertz Band

Nanotechnology is providing the engineering community with a new set of tools to design and manufacture advanced devices which are able to generate, process and transmit multimedia content at the nanoscale. The wireless interconnection of pervasively deployed multimedia nano-devices with existing communication networks and ultimately the Internet defines a truly cyber physical system which is further referred to as the Internet of Multimedia Nano-things (IoMNT). This paper discusses the state of the art and major research challenges in the realization of this novel networking paradigm, which has innumerable applications in the biomedical, defense, environmental and industrial fields. Fundamental research challenges and future research trends are outlined in terms of multimedia data and signal processing, Terahertz channel modeling for communication among nano-things, and protocols for the Internet of Multimedia Nano-Things. These include novel medium access control techniques, addressing schemes, neighbor discovery and routing mechanisms, a novel QoS-aware cross-layer communication module, and novel security solutions for the IoMNT.