The Next Wave
Digitisation of Information and advent of Internet as a medium of sharing this information is probably the biggest
information revolution in human history since the invention of the printing press.
Now we are probably in the cusp
of the next wave. The Internet of
Things.
The Internet as we know it is a global system of
interconnected network of computers. The Internet Protocol (IP) provides IP
addresses for computers on the Internet. IP provides an address to each machine
connected on the web and in essence establishes the Internet itself. The
standard Internet Transfer Protocols (TCP/IP) links the billions of computers.
The interconnection is currently provided through wire, wireless and optical
linking.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical
objects (Machines) interconnected through the Internet. Sensors embedded in the
machines enable identification and interaction with internal states or the
external environment. It is essentially Machine to Machine (M2M) communication.
It need not be a machine in a conventional sense but an intelligent, physical
object that's communications enabled. Such objects could be a device that has
an individual IP address which enables it to be identified over the network.
IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless
technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) such as sensors and the
Internet. A smart object will contain MEMS to monitor the status of an object,
person or environment. Wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave
or 3G/4G enable them to connect to each other and/or to a cloud service. ZigBee is fighting for its place in the
internet of things against Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy and Z-wave.
Associated mobile apps would let users receive information and
command specific functions of the devices they are connected to. This means
integration of mobile, cloud and communication infrastructure.
There are elements of this infrastructure consisting of self
communicating devices that exist even now. IoT will multiply its impact
manifold. An example may illustrate this.
There are pacemakers which are now being implanted which
communicate to the remote location regularly where the data is constantly
monitored and analysed to take decisions. Doctors who monitor this data
communicate with the patient. In a networked world the monitoring and analysis
will almost be instantaneous. In case of an emergency, like a heart attack, an
ambulance nearby could be located and alerted to take the patient to the nearby
hospital that will be provided the necessary information before the ambulance
reach. The patient might get a text message on the mobile to be ready for the
ambulance (should be lucky if there is time to pick up a favorite book to read
while in hospital!). You hardly had any choice in this decision, but could
potentially be lifesaving.
IoT: Some Technological Issues:
The most prominent component of the Internet model is the
Internet Protocol, which provides addressing systems (IP addresses) for computers
on the Internet. Till now the local
networks of machines have been set up on proprietary protocols. Internet of
things means moving away from such proprietary technologies to a common
standard based format of Internet to which the objects (machines) can be
connected.
Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) is the initial version
used on the first generation of the Internet and is still in dominant use. It
was designed to address up to ~4.3 billion Internet hosts. The explosive growth
of the Internet has led to IPv4 address exhaustion. Consequently IPv6 has been
developed. Most of the IoT devices would use IPv6 protocols.
Internet Companies are already gearing up for the challenge.
Networking majors like Cisco are already offering value added services on IoT.
They are connecting manufacturing floors, energy grids, healthcare facilities,
and transportation systems to the Internet. Networking of machines has so far
been done on proprietary protocols. The challenge is to convert them to standard
based internet based protocols to seamlessly communicate on the web. Opening
operational infrastructure to the internet opens security issues. Cisco is
already providing a secure infrastructure over the Net that can support
billions of context-aware devices, people, processes, and data. This is what Cisco says:
The network plays a critical role
as the connectivity platform for control and operational systems, sensors,
machines, and devices. It must provide a secure infrastructure that can support
billions of context-aware devices, people, processes, and data. Cisco connects
the unconnected with an open standard, integrated architecture, from the cloud
to end devices.
Standardising device communication is a challenge that
companies are now addressing. he Linux Foundation, a nonprofit consortium
that promotes Linux adoption, late last year announced the creation of the AllSeen
Alliance to standardize device communications and
to promote an open source code framework to enable devices to discover one
another and then connect and interact. The code that it champions, called AllJoyn, was
initially developed by Qualcomm but was subsequently made open source. ComputerWorld reports that even Microsoft has backed open source for IoT. AllSeen
Alliance includes big vendors like LG, Panasonic, Sharp and Haier, the
household names. This tells us the shape of things to come.
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