IoT
What is IoT?
IoT (Internet of Things) means slightly different things to different people. The basics are that the "things" can be robots, any machine capable of processing information, a Computer, or even a human, . The "Internet" means that these "things" are all connected to each other. Connectivity is crucial. What is actually communicated depends on what "things" are talking. If, for example, a fridge monitors when milk or butter need re-ordering it will encode this information in a very efficient way and send out a 'packet' of information to some remote computer (server) that will then start the process of ordering and delivering as per some pre-arranged agreement. Such an information packet will only take a few milliseconds to be transmitted and acknowledged. If a car sensor picks up the fact that the disk pads are worn and need changing this may result in an equally short and fast message being sent to a car management system, which will then either indicate via a LED to the driver, or via e-mail, or more likely will encode up a larger block of data which plays out as audio to the driver. Incidentally it's quite possible that a high end car will have some 100 microprocessors embedded somewhere within it for different functions. The communication between these is normally via the CAN (Controller Area Network) bus. This is the car's equivalent of an organization's Intranet. It's a reliable electronic communications bus connecting all the car's electronics together.
"Hey! - we need more milk", said the fridge.
In fact the type of operation associated with IoT has been around for a long while already, but the acronym has only recently become popular with the expectation that the prevalence of the technology will impact consumers and consumer devices to a much greater degree over the coming years. An example of a well established existing IoT system is the black box, or algorithmic trading system that makes fast, and high frequency trading decisions. Such boxes effectively inhabit a world in which data is analysed, and trading decisions are made within microseconds. Such systems are also adaptive and make these decisions about which humans may have no idea, unless they dig deep into the history of what actually happened.
"1011001001000100", said the algorithmic trading system. A simple "What the.." was the only response the human could manage some 30 million trades later.
In my view the IoT is not solely limited to the Internet. Such systems operating over other communications networks can also be considered as part of this overall IoT movement. For example, with bad weather increasing around the world, Yachts can now be monitored against broken moorings. An IoT device can be installed in a yacht, when the movement of the yacht is measured to be excessive (using gyro and accelerometer sensors and a clever fusion algorithm) a message, either via Internet, or more likely via the mobile phone system, can be sent to owners warning of bad weather and possible mooring issues. With a GPS connection included any yacht with a broken mooring can also very easily be tracked and located. Many other parameters such as battery level etc. can also be monitored. (ref1). Similar systems can be used for critical infrastructure monitoring too. For example, a facility with multiple deep freezers for high value products or medicines would be at big risk in case of power failure. If any UPS were also to fail then likely there would be no Internet. Hence the mobile phone network can again be utilized.
"Help" said the yacht, "It's getting a bit choppy out here".
With the advent of low cost Wi-Fi devices the IoT has the capability to expand very quickly. There are simply so many applications where a no wires connection is far more suitable and convenient than wired. Small wi-fi modules that input data in simple serial UART or I2C format are available from a number of suppliers. A simple search on eBay for "ESP8266 Esp-03 Remote Serial Port WIFI Transceiver Wireless Module" will show a tiny little module at an equally tiny price. Other solutions are available such as from Sparkfun (ref2) and from Zigbee (ref3)
and STMicroelectronics (ref4) to name just a few. Such modules do all the heavily lifting by managing the IEEE 802.11 b/g/n etc. transceiver and also running the TCP/IP protocol. (The basic Internet communications language).
In future it may also be possible for such IoT devices to get their power from all the Wi-Fi transmitters around. Researchers have already managed to convert wi-fi microwaves into electricity with special coatings (ref5).
It's one thing to actually get all this data, but what about storing it or processing it somewhere? Well we all know about cloud storage and increased Internet bandwidth. In the Broadcast field the incredibly high data rates for such content as HD, 4k, 8k, 10k video is being handled by IT equipment on high speed Ethernet ports. (Just about entirely gone now are the SDI and dedicated hardware interfaces that used to be standard).
In my view technologies are all merging at the right time to make IoT a real phenomenon and not just something to talk about and write blogs about.
Further information regarding IoT and Big Data here:
ref1: http://bluelight-tech.com/SensorFusionXGuard.htm
ref2: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13231
ref3: http://www.digi.com/products/wireless-wired-embedded-solutions/zigbee-rf-modules/point-multipoint-rfmodules/xbee-wi-fi
ref4: http://www.st.com/web/catalog/sense_power/FM2185/SC1930/PF258591
ref5: http://www.pratt.duke.edu/news/wireless-device-converts-lost-energy-electric-power