Internet of Things A to Z

Technologies and Applications

Qusay F. Hassan, Qusay F. Hassan

• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119456773
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Comunicaciones móviles e inalámbricas

A comprehensive overview of the Internet of Things' core concepts, technologies, and applications

Internet of Things A to Z offers a holistic approach to the Internet of Things (IoT) model. The Internet of Things refers to uniquely identifiable objects and their virtual representations in an Internet-like structure. Recently, there has been a rapid growth in research on IoT communications and networks, that confirms the scalability and broad reach of the core concepts. With contributions from a panel of international experts, the text offers insight into the ideas, technologies, and applications of this subject.

The authors discuss recent developments in the field and the most current and emerging trends in IoT. In addition, the text is filled with examples of innovative applications and real-world case studies. Internet of Things A to Z fills the need for an up-to-date volume on the topic. This important book:

• Covers in great detail the core concepts, enabling technologies, and implications of the Internet of Things
• Addresses the business, social, and legal aspects of the Internet of Things
• Explores the critical topic of security and privacy challenges for both individuals and organizations
• Includes a discussion of advanced topics such as the need for standards and interoperability
• Contains contributions from an international group of experts in academia, industry, and research

Written for ICT researchers, industry professionals, and lifetime IT learners as well as academics and students, Internet of Things A to Z provides a much-needed and comprehensive resource to this burgeoning field.

Part I
Concepts and Perspectives

1
Introduction to the Internet of Things

Detlef Schoder

Department of Information Systems and Information Management, University of Cologne, Köln, Germany

1.1 Introduction

Early in 1926, Nikola Tesla envisioned a “connected world.” He told Colliers Magazine in an interview (Kennedy, 1926):

“When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole Earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole […] and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”

Kevin Ashton was the first to use the term Internet of Things (IoT) in 1999 (Ashton, 2009) in the context of supply chain management with radio frequency identification (RFID)-tagged or barcoded items (things) offering greater efficiency and accountability to businesses. As Ashton wrote in the RFID Journal (June 22, 2009):

“If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things – using data they gathered without any help from us – we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their best.”

In the same year, Gershenfeld (1999) published his work “When Things Start to Think,” in which he envisioned the evolution of the World Wide Web as being a state in which “things start to use the Net so that people don't need to.” ATMs could be considered as one of the first smart objects, which went online as early as 1974. In addition, early examples of various prototype devices include vending machines in the 1980s performed by the Computer Science Department of Carnegie Mellon University. Since then, understanding of the possible breadth of IoT has become much more inclusive, comprising a wide range of application domains, including health care, utilities, transportation, and so on, as well as personal, home, and mobile application scenarios (Gubbi et al., 2013; Sundmaeker et al., 2010). More recently, the “Industrial Internet of Things” (IIoT) has further expanded the scope of IoT (see Section 1.2.2 and Chapter 11). With IoT, a world of networked, “intelligent,” or “smart” objects (Ashton, 2009; Weiser, 1991; Weiser and Brown, 1996; Lyytinen and Yoo, 2002; Aggarwal et al., 2013; Gubbi et al., 2013; Mattern and Flörkemeier, 2010; Atzori et al., 2014; Chui et al., 2010) is envisioned. Recently, novel extensions of IoT have emerged, which include not only physical objects but also virtual objects¹ (which may blur the core concept of IoT that predominately focuses on physical things and objects).The common denominator of these varied conceptions of IoT is that “things” are expected to become active elements in business, information, and social processes.

If one recognizes the broad spectrum of application scenarios, the more general term “Net” would be more adequate than “Internet,” since not all communication occurs via the Internet. Communication also does not exclusively occur between things/devices, but also between things and people. So, it would be more appropriate to use the terms the “Internet of Everything”² or “Net of Everything” instead of “Internet of Things.”

As the most well-known visionary of the computerized and interlinked physical world, Mark Weiser asserts that a connected world of things is designed to help people with their activities in an unobtrusive manner. Interaction occurs with everyday—but computationally augmented—artifacts through natural interactions, our senses, and the spoken word (Weiser, 1991). In the course of miniaturization, the increasingly smaller technical components will be embedded into physical components, with as little intrusiveness for users as possible or without attracting attention at all. For example, miniaturized computers (or components thereof) and wearables with sensors are directly incorporated into pieces of clothing. In his essay in 1991, “The Computer for the 21st Century,” Mark Weiser first expressed this vision while he was a Chief Technologist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in the late 1980s (Weiser, 1991, 1993; Weiser and Brown, 1996; Weiser et al., 1999). Since then, this work ranks among the most cited academic papers in related academic disciplines that envision a connected world of everyday things. This vision and the related developments are referred to by Weiser as “Ubiquitous Computing” (also known as “Ubicomp”). Since its conceptual inception more than 25 years ago, many more related and modified concepts have emerged, including pervasive, nomadic, calm, invisible, universal, and sentinel computing, as well as ambient intelligence.³ The Cluster of European Research Projects on the Internet of Things (CERP-IoT) blend together building blocks that derive from the aforementioned concepts and emphasize the symbiotic interaction of the real and physical with the digital and virtual world. From their perspective, physical objects have virtual counterparts representing them, which translate them into computable parts of the physical world. The CERP-IoT vision has recently become even more comprehensive by incorporating issues of Social Media, anticipating massive user interaction with things and linking to additional information regarding identity, status, location, or any other business, social, or privately relevant information (Chapter 1 of Uckelmann et al., 2011). Essentially, ITU (2005) defines IoT as a concept that allows people and things to be connected anytime, anyplace, with anything and anyone (and adding—according to CERP-IoT, 2009—ideally using any path/network and any service). Another line popularized by CISCO asserts a simple concept: The IoT is born when more things are connected via the Internet as human beings. As such, the advent of IoT may be dated around 2008/2009 (Evans, 2011) or 2011 (Gubbi et al., 2013). According to the lnternational Data Corporation (IDC)'s Worldwide Internet of Things Forecast, 2015–2020, 30 billion connected (autonomous) things are predicted to be part of the IoT by 2020. Another estimate anticipates approximately 1000 devices per person by 2025 (Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, 2014).

IoT is at the center of overlapping Internet-oriented (middleware), things-oriented (sensors), and semantic-oriented (knowledge) visions (Atzori et al., 2010). Specifically, (i) Internet-oriented, which emphasizes the networking paradigm and exploiting the established IP-based networking infrastructure, in order to achieve an efficient connection between devices, and on developing lightweight protocols in order to meet IoT specifics (see Section 1.5.2); (ii) things-oriented, which focuses on physical objects and on finding means that are able to identify and integrate them with the virtual (cyber) world; and (iii) semantic-oriented, which aims to utilize semantic technologies, making sense of objects and their data to represent, store, interconnect, and manage the enormous amount of information provided by the increasing number of IoT objects (Atzori et al., 2010; Borgia, 2014).

As IoT continues to evolve, its comprehensive definition is also likely to develop.⁴ Accordingly, the IEEE IoT initiative gives its community members an opportunity to contribute to the definition of the IoT (IEEE, 2015, 2017). The document presents two definitions, one for small-scale scenarios: “An IoT is a network that connects uniquely identifiable ‘Things’ to the Internet. The ‘Things’ have sensing/actuation and potential programmability capabilities. Through the exploitation of unique identification and sensing, information about the ‘Thing’ can be collected and the state of the ‘Thing’ can be changed from anywhere, anytime, by anything.” The second definition is for large-scale scenarios: “Internet of Things envisions a self-configuring, adaptive, complex network that interconnects ‘Things’ to the Internet through the utilization of standard communication protocols. The interconnected things have physical or virtual representation in the digital world, sensing/actuation capability, a programmability feature and are uniquely identifiable. The representation contains information including the thing's identity, status, location or any other business, social or privately relevant information. The things offer services, with or without human intervention, through the exploitation of unique identification, data capture and communication, and actuation capability. The service is exploited through the use of intelligent interfaces and is made available anywhere, anytime, and for anything taking security into consideration.”

Incorporating various perspectives while revealing its nucleus, we may consolidate and define:

IoT is a world of interconnected things which are capable of sensing, actuating and communicating among themselves and with the environment (i.e., smart things or smart objects) while providing the ability to share information and act in parts autonomously to real/physical world events and by triggering processes and creating services with or without direct h...