A Comprehensive Survey on IoT Architectures From Cloud to Edge and Beyond

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a transformative paradigm that connects billions of devices, enabling data-driven automation and intelligent decision-making across diverse sectors. As IoT deployments continue to grow in scale and complexity, the architecture supporting these systems has evolved beyond traditional cloud-based models to encompass edge, fog, and hybrid computing frameworks. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of IoT architectures, exploring their evolution, core components, design principles, and deployment strategies. We critically compare cloud-centric, edge-centric, and hybrid architectures, examining their strengths, limitations, and suitability for various application domains such as smart cities, healthcare, industrial automation, and autonomous systems. Special attention is given to scalability, latency, energy efficiency, and security considerations that shape architectural choices. Furthermore, we investigate emerging trends including serverless computing, AI-at-the-edge, and decentralized IoT networks enabled by blockchain. This survey aims to provide researchers and practitioners with a holistic understanding of architectural patterns in IoT, guiding future innovations in the design of resilient, responsive, and context-aware IoT ecosystems