Exploring a Multilayered Internet of Things Ecosystem for Municipal Solid Waste Management System in India: A Case Study

Smart homes, smart communities, and other applications based on the Internet of Things and Cloud Based services technology are in the evolutionary phase in India. Our research is the first attempt to explore a cloud based Municipal Solid Waste Management System in India. There is a dearth of exploratory studies that explain the diffusion and adoption of IoT and cloud computing in different contexts and from a multiple stakeholder perspective. The implementation of such an application requires the creation of an ecosystem consisting of the application service provider, community administration, cloud services provider, other utility services providers, mobile services providers in a multi layered system. We employed mixed methods of data collection in the form of interviews and informal discussions, and supported it with survey from multiple stakeholders like, IoT based solution provider, the people of, the Nagar Nigam Officials, private collection agencies etc. Most of the studies on Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) are focused on waste disposal and processing. We could find no study related to the IoT based system for garbage collection and disposal monitoring and efficient routing of vehicles based on real time data. The main contribution of our research is to understand the framework of cloud computing based waste management system in India and the emerging IoT ecosystems. This research has wide ranging implications on the future of Internet of Things, and can be extended to elderly health and support, energy efficient systems and smart cities.