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CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS THE INTERNET OF THINGS?
1.1 OVERVIEW AND MOTIVATIONS
The proliferation of an ever-growing set of devices able to be directly connected to the Internet is leading to a new ubiquitous-computing paradigm. Indeed, the Internet—its deployment and its use—has experienced significant growth in the past four decades, evolving from a network of a few hundred hosts (in its ARPAnet form) to a platform capable of linking billions of entities globally. Initially, the Internet connected institutional hosts and accredited terminals via specially developed gateways (routers). More recently, the Internet has connected servers of all kinds to users of all kinds seeking access to information and applications of all kinds. Now, with social media, it intuitively and effectively connects all sorts of people to people, and to virtual communities. The growth of the Internet shows no signs of slowing down, and it is steadily becoming the infrastructure fabric of choice for a new paradigm for all-inclusive pervasive computing and communications. The next evolution is to connect all “things” and objects that have (or will soon have) embedded wireless (or wireline) connectivity to control systems that support data collection, data analysis, decision-making, and (remote) actuation. “Things” include, but are not limited to, machinery, home appliances, vehicles, individual persons, pets, cattle, animals, habitats, habitat occupants, as well as enterprises. Interactions are achieved utilizing a plethora of possibly different networks; computerized devices of various functions, form factors, sizes, and capabilities such as iPads, smartphones, monitoring nodes, sensors, and tags; and a gamut of host application servers.
This new paradigm seeks to enhance the traditional Internet into a smart Internet of Things (IoT) created around intelligent interconnections of diverse objects in the physical world. In the IoT, commonly deployed devices and objects contain an embedded device or microprocessor that can be accessed by some communication mechanism, typically utilizing wireless links. The IoT aims at closing the gap between objects in the material world, the “things,” and their logical representation in information systems. It is perceived by proponents as the “next-generation network (NGN) of the Internet.” Thus, the IoT is a new type of Internet application that endeavors to make the thing's information (whatever that may be) available on a global scale using the Internet as the underlying connecting fabric (although other interconnection data networks, besides the Internet, can also be used such as private local area networks and/or wide area networks). The IoT has two attributes: (i) being an Internet application and (ii) dealing with the thing's information. The term Internet of Things was coined and first used by Kevin Ashton over a decade ago1 (1). The “things” are also variously known as “objects,” “devices,” “end nodes,” “remotes,” or “remote sensors,” to list just a few commonly used terms.
The IoT generally utilizes low cost information gathering and dissemination devices—such as sensors and tags—that facilitate fast-paced interactions in any place and at any time, among the objects themselves, as well as among objects and people. Actuators are also part of the IoT. Hence, the IoT can be described as a new-generation information network that enables seamless and continuous machine-to-machine (M2M)2 and/or human-to-machine (H2M) communication. One of the initial goals of the IoT is to enable connectivity for the various “things”; a next goal is to be able to have the “thing” provide back appropriate, application-specific telemetry; an intermediary next step is to provide a web-based interface to the “thing” (especially when human access is needed); the final step is to permit actuation by the “thing” (i.e., to cause a function or functions to take place). Certain “things” are stationary, such as an appliance in a home; other “things” may be in motion, such as a car or a carton (or even an item within the carton) in a supply chain environment (either end-to-end, or while in an intermediary warehouse).
At the “low end” of the spectrum, the thing's information is typically coded by the unique identification (UID) and/or electronic product code (EPC); the information is (typically) stored in a radio frequency identification (RFID) electronic tag; and, the information is uploaded by noncontact reading using an RFID reader. In fact, UID and RFID have been mandated by the Department of Defense (DoD) for all their suppliers to modernize their global supply chain; RFID and EPC were also mandated by Wal-Mart to all their suppliers as of January 1, 2006, and many other commercial establishments have followed suit since then. More generally, smart cards (SCs) will also play an important role in IoT; SCs typically incorporate a microprocessor and storage.
At the “mid range” of the spectrum, one finds devices with embedded intelligence (microprocessors) and embedded active wireless capabilities to perform a variety of data gathering and possibly control functions. On-body biomedical sensors, home appliance and power management, and industrial control are some examples of these applications.
At the other end of the spectrum, more sophisticated sensors can also be employed in the IoT: some of these sensor approaches use distributed wireless sensor network (WSN) systems that (i) can collect a wide variety of environmental data such as temperature, atmospheric and environmental chemical content, or even low- or high resolution ambient video images from geographically dispersed locations; (ii) can optionally pre-process some or all of the data; and (iii) can forward all these information to a centralized (or distributed/virtualized) site for advanced processing. These objects may span a city, region, or large distribution grid.
Other “things” may be associated with personal area networks (PANs), vehicular networks (VNs), or delay tolerant networks (DTNs).
The IoT is seen by many as a comprehensive extension of the Internet and/or Internet services that can establish and support pervasive connections between objects (things) (and their underlying intrinsic information) and data collection and management centers located in the network's “core” (possibly even in a distributed “cloud”) (2,3). The IoT operates in conjunction with real-time processing and ubiquitous computing. The IoT is also perceived as a global network that connects physical objects with virtual objects through the combination of data capture techniques and communication networks. As such, the IoT is predicated on the expansion of the scope, network reach, and possibly even the architecture of the Internet through the inclusion of physical instrumented objects, such expansion fused with the ability to provide smarter services to the environment or to the end user, as more in situ transferable data become available. Some see the IoT in the context of ambient intelligence; namely, a vision where environment becomes smart, friendly, context aware, and responsive to many types of human needs. In such a world, computing and networking technology coexist with people in a ubiquitous, friendly, and pervasive way: numerous miniature and interconnected smart devices create a new intelligence and interact with each other seamlessly (4).
The IoT effectively eliminates time and space isolation between geographical space and virtual space, forming what proponents label as “smart geographical space” and creating new human-to-environment (and/or H2M) relationships. The latter implies that the IoT can advance the goal of integration of human beings with their surroundings. A smart environment can be defined as consisting of networks of federated sensors and actuators and can be designed to encompass homes, offices, buildings, and civil infrastructure; from this granular foundation, large-scale end-to-end services supporting smart cities, smart transportation, and smart grids (SGs), among others, can be contemplated. Recently, the IEEE Computer Society stated that
“… The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to be the most disruptive technology since the advent of the World Wide Web. Projections indicate that up to 100 billion uniquely identifiable objects will be connected to the Internet by 2020, but human understanding of the underlying technologies has not kept pace. This creates a fundamental challenge to researchers, with enormous technical, socioeconomic, political, and even spiritual, consequences. IoT is just one of the most significant emerging trends in technology…” (5).
Figure 1.1 depicts the high level logical partitioning of the interaction space, showing where the IoT applies for the purpose of this text; the figure illustrates human-to-human (H2H) communication, M2M communication, H2M communications, and machine in (or on) humans (MiH) communications (MiH devices may include human embedded chips, medical monitoring probes, global positioning system (GPS) bracelets, and so on). The focus of the IoT is on M2M, H2M, and MiH applications; this range of applicability is the theme captured in this text.
Recently, the IoT has been seen as an emerging “paradigm of building smart communities” through the networking of various devices enabled by M2M technologies (but not excluding H2M), for which standards are now emerging (e.g., from European Telecommunications Standards Institute [ETSI]). M2M services aim at automating decision and communication processes and support consistent, cost-effective interaction for ubiquitous applications (e.g., fleet management, smart metering, home automation, and e-health). M2M communications per se is the communication between two or more entities that do not necessarily need direct human intervention: it is the communication between remotely deployed devices with specific roles and requiring little or no human intervention. M2M communication modules are usually integrated directly into target devices, such as automated meter readers (AMRs), vending machines, alarm systems, surveillance cameras, and automotive equipment, to list a few. These devices span an array of domains including (among others) industrial, trucking/transportation, financial, retail point of sales (POS), energy/utilities, smart appliances, and healthcare. The emerging standards allow both wireless and wired systems to communicate with other devices of similar capabilities; M2M devices, however, are typically connected to an application server via a mobile data communication network.
IoT applications range widely from energy efficiency to logistics, from appliance control to “smart” electric grids. Indeed, there is increasing interest in connecting and controlling in real time all sorts of devices for personal healthcare (patient monitoring and fitness monitoring), building automation (also known as building automation and control (BA&C)—for example, security devices/cameras; heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC); AMRs), residential/commercial control (e.g., security HVAC, lighting control, access control, lawn and garden irrigation), consumer electronics (e.g., TV, DVRs); PC and peripherals (e.g., mouse, keyboard, joystick, wearable computers), industrial control (e.g., asset management, process control, environmental, energy management), and supermarket/supply chain management (this being just a partial list). Figures 1.2–1.5 provide some pictorial views of actual IoT applications; these figures only depict illustrative cases and are not exhaustive or normative. As it can be inferred, however, in an IoT environment there are a multitude of applications and players that need to be managed across multiple platforms (6). Some see IoT in the context of the “Web 3.0” (a name/concept advanced by John Markoff of The New York Times in 2006), although this term has not yet gained industry-wide, consistent support (7). The proposed essence of the term implies “an intelligent Web,” such as supporting natural language search, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and machine-facilitated understanding of information, with the goal of providing a more intuitive user experience. IoT might fit such paradigm, but does not depend on i...
