UNIT 1
INTRODUCTION – Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) has not been around for very long. However, there have been visions of machines communicating with one another since the early 1800s. Machines have been providing direct communications since the telegraph (the first landline) was developed in the 1830s and 1840s. Described as “wireless telegraphy,” the first radio voice transmission took place on June 3, 1900, providing another necessary component for developing the Internet of Things. The development of computers began in the 1950s.
The Internet, itself a significant component of the IoT, started out as part of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1962, and evolved into ARPANET in 1969. In the 1980s, commercial service providers began supporting public use of ARPANET, allowing it to evolve into our modern Internet. Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) became a reality in early 1993, with the Department of Defense providing a stable, highly functional system of 24 satellites. This was quickly followed by privately owned, commercial satellites being placed in orbit. Satellites and landlines provide basic communications for much of the IoT.
About objects/things in the IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) describes a vision in which everyday objects are connected to the Internet, be identified and communicate with other devices. These objects are typically referred to as "smart objects." The aim is to digitizing applications and processes to make them easier and more efficient. Smart Objects (also known as Intelligent Objects) are objects that are equipped with positioning and communication technologies and are integrated into a communication network, the so-called Internet of Things (IoT).
These intelligent objects can enter, store and process data and interact with other objects, systems or people. They can be embedded or fixed in other objects and capture data about position and sensors, as well as execute decision and control functions.
Overview and motivations
The internet of things (IoT) is a computing concept that describes a scenario where every day physical objects are connected to the internet and can identify themselves to other devices or processes, via an address. The IoT is significant because an object that can represent itself digitally becomes something greater than the object by itself. No longer does the object just relate to the process; it now connects to surrounding objects and database data, permitting “big data” analytics and insights. In particular, “things” might communicate autonomously with other things and other devices, such as sensors in manufacturing environments or an activity tracker with a smartphone. IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems, microservices and the internet.
Examples of applications
1. Smart home
Smart Home clearly stands out, ranking as highest Internet of Things application on all measured channels. More than 60,000 people currently search for the term “Smart Home” each month. This is not a surprise. The IoT Analytics company database for Smart Home includes 256 companies and startups. More companies are active in smart home than any other application in the field of IoT. The total amount of funding for Smart Home startups currently exceeds $2.5bn. This list includes prominent startup names such as Nest or AlertMe as well as a number of multinational corporations like Philips, Haier, or Belkin.
2. Wearables
Wearables remains a hot topic too. As consumers await the release of Apple’s new smart watch in April 2015, there are plenty of other wearable innovations to be excited about: like the Sony Smart B Trainer, the Myo gesture control, or LookSee bracelet. Of all the IoT startups, wearables maker Jawbone is probably the one with the biggest funding to date. It stands at more than half a billion dollars!
3. Smart City
Smart city spans a wide variety of use cases, from traffic management to water distribution, to waste management, urban security and environmental monitoring. Its popularity is fueled by the fact that many Smart City solutions promise to alleviate real pains of people living in cities these days. IoT solutions in the area of Smart City solve traffic congestion problems, reduce noise and pollution and help make cities safer.
4. Smart grids
Smart grids is a special one. A future smart grid promises to use information about the behaviors of electricity suppliers and consumers in an automated fashion to improve the efficiency, reliability, and economics of electricity.
5. Industrial internet
The industrial internet is also one of the special Internet of Things applications. While many market researches such as Gartner or Cisco see the industrial internet as the IoT concept with the highest overall potential, its popularity currently doesn’t reach the masses like smart home or wearables do. The industrial internet however has a lot going for it. The industrial internet gets the biggest push of people on Twitter (~1,700 tweets per month) compared to other non-consumer-oriented IoT concepts.
6. Connected car
The connected car is coming up slowly. Owing to the fact that the development cycles in the automotive industry typically take 2-4 years, we haven’t seen much buzz around the connected car yet. But it seems we are getting there. Most large auto makers as well as some brave start-ups are working on connected car solutions. And if the BMWs and Fords of this world don’t present the next generation internet connected car soon, other well-known giants will: Google, Microsoft, and Apple have all announced connected car platforms.
IoT definitions:
“The Internet of Things (IoT) is a broad term for connected devices that communicate with other connected devices via embedded sensors and wireless networks, mainly cellular and WiFi. These devices streamline common tasks and not-so-common tasks. We are currently living in a world that uses IoT devices daily, however, with the arrival of the 5G era, we expect these devices to be more commonplace.”
“A network of connected devices with 1) unique identifiers in the form of an IP address which 2) have embedded technologies or are equipped with technologies that enable them to sense, gather data and communicate about the environment in which they reside and/or themselves.”
1.1.1 IoT Frame work
The IoT decision framework provides a structured approach to create a powerful IoT product strategy. The IoT decision framework is all about the strategic decision making. The IoT Decision Framework helps us to understand the areas where we need to make decisions and ensures consistency across all of our strategic business decision, technical and more.
The IoT decision framework is much more important as the product or services communicates over networks goes through five different layers of complexity of technology.
- Device Hardware
- Device Software
- Communications
- Cloud Platform
- Cloud Application
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Figure 1
1.1.2 General observations, ITU-T views, working definitions
General Observations
According to The Forrester Wave, business infrastructure and operations professionals are quickly realizing the opportunities IoT makes possible. The research confirms that 60 percent of decision-makers already use or planning to use IoT-enabled applications over the next two years, from building connected products to transforming operational processes.
However, the adoption of IoT at the dawn of the regulation and standardization of emerging technology and protocols is complicated. Often it seems as though we’re going in blind. According to The Forester Wave, today’s decision-makers have to deal with “fragmented sets of hardware, protocols, software, applications, and analytics solutions.” These issues persistently slow down IoT adoption.
At the same time, strong IoT software platforms by IBM, Amazon, Cisco, GE, and other giants offer multitier solutions that simplify the design, creation, integration, and management of IoT infrastructure and enterprise data. These multifunctional solutions address the remaining issues and help companies and governments build, secure, connect and manage IoT-enabled technology at large scale.
ITU-T Views and working definitions
ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) and its membership are at the forefront of standards development and coordination of the Internet of Things, with activities across all domains of the IoT.
With the benefit of integrated information processing capacity, industrial products will take on smart capabilities. They may also take on electronic identities that can be queried remotely, or be equipped with sensors for detecting physical changes around them. Such developments will make the merely static objects of today dynamic ones - embedding intelligence in our environment and stimulating the creation of innovative products and new business opportunities.
The Internet of Things will enable forms of collaboration and communication between people and things, and between things themselves, hitherto unknown and unimagined.
The success of the Internet of Things depends strongly on the existence and smooth and effective operation of global standards.
Standards are ubiquitous, and hardly a day passes during which we do not encounter standards in one form or another. Users of standards are familiar with the benefits of standardization, but even more with the inconveniences brought about by a lack of standards.
IoT Architecture
There is not such a unique or standard consensus on the Internet of Things (IoT) architecture which is universally defined. The IoT architecture differs from their functional area and their solutions. However, the IoT architecture technology mainly consists of four major components:
- Components of IoT Architecture
- Sensors/Devices
- Gateways and Networks
- Cloud/Management Service Layer
- Application Layer
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Figure 2
Sources of IoT:
- Sensors/Actuators: Sensors or Actuators are the devices that are able to emit, accept and process data over the network. These sensors or actuators may be connected either through wired or wireless. This contains GPS, Electrochemical, Gyroscope, RFID, etc. Most of the sensors need connectivity through sensors gateways. The connection of sensors or actuators can be through a Local Area Network (LAN) or Personal Area Network.
- Gateways and Data Acquisition: As the large numbers of data are produced by this sensors and actuators need the high-speed Gateways and Networks to transfer the data. This network can be of type Local Area Network (LAN such as WiFi, Ethernet, etc.), Wide Area Network (WAN such as GSM, 5G, etc.).
- Edge IT: Edge in the IoT Architecture is the hardware and software gateways that analyze and pre-process the data before transferring it to the cloud. If the data read from the sensors and gateways are not changed from its previous reading value then it does not transfer over the cloud, this saves the data used.
- Data center/ Cloud: The Data Center or Cloud comes under the Management Services which process the information through analytics, management of device and security controls. Beside this security controls and device management the cloud transfer the data to the end users application such as Retail, Healthcare, Emergency, Environment, and Energy, etc.
Internet of Things (IoT): Vision, Definition
Vision:
A vision where things (wearable, watch, alarm clock, home devices, surrounding objects with) become smart and behave alive through sensing, computing and communicating systems
A vision where embedded devices interact with remote objects or persons through connectivity, for examples, using Internet or Near Field Communication or other technologies.
Definition:
The network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, connected so as to enable achieving greater value and offer service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices each thing uniquely identifiable, things embedded with sensors and computing system, able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure.
Internet of Things (IoT) extends the uses of Internet by providing the communication, and thus inter-network of the physical objects, devices, machines, vehicles; all referred as “things”.
Key Takeaways
- Internet of Things (IoT) extends the uses of Internet by providing the communication, and thus inter-network of the physical objects, devices, machines, vehicles; all referred as “things”.
2. Ease of designing with availability of sensors, actuators, controllers and IoT devices
3. Low in cost and hardware, and
4. Use preferably open-source software components and protocols
References
- Bernd Scholz-Reiter, Florian Michahelles, “Architecting the Internet of Things”, ISBN 978- 3842-19156-5, Springer.
- Olivier Hersent, David Boswarthick, Omar Elloumi, “The Internet of Things” Key Applications and Protocols, ISBN 978-1-119-99435-0, Wiley Publications.
