The Internet of Things – a reality after more than 2 decades
Among the many phenomena and related technologies that show exponential growth in recent years and (will) result in digital transformation (initiatives) is the Internet of Things or IoT.
It has taken over two decades for the ‘concept’ of the Internet of Things (IoT) to become a reality that is impacting and will impact many areas of business and society. Yet, several more years are needed before the IoT is a full-blown daily reality in all possible areas, for numerous reasons, such as IoT security challenges, which we cover in this IoT guide. The Internet of Things is still in its early days, despite massive attention for it.
The Internet of Things is emerging as the third wave in the development of the Internet.
Driven by new connectivity solutions and the cloud, as well as other “third platform” technologies, without which the Internet of Things cannot exist, such as (big data) analytics, artificial intelligence and cognitive computing, to name a few, the number of IoT applications and the adoption of the Internet of Things is accelerating fast, with several industries and sectors taking the lead, while others are testing of considering potential IoT deployments. The industrial sector is by far the earliest mover in IoT.
Moreover, viable Internet of Things use cases, various enablers, connected devices and a range of technologies, which are designed to leverage IoT-generated data fast, are increasing, so it’s clear that the Internet of Things is growing rapidly and has found fertile ground to be leveraged in valuable ways. Initially this is, as said, mainly the case in an Industrial Internet of Things context, but expect the Consumer Internet of Things to grow fast soon.
What is the Internet of Things? Definitions
There are many definitions of the Internet of Things and there is no universal one. It just depends on how you look at it: the application perspective, the technological perspective, the industry context, the benefits, etc.
The Internet of Things describes a range of applications, protocols, standards, architectures and data acquisition and analysis technologies whereby devices and items (appliances, clothes, animals,….) which are equipped with sensors, specifically designed software and /or other digital and electronical systems, are connected to the Internet and/or other networks via a unique IP address or URI, with a societal, industrial, business and/or human purpose in mind. As you can read below, data and how they are acquired, analyzed and combined into information value chains and benefits are key in it. In fact, the true value of the Internet of Things lies in the ways it enables to leverage entirely new sources and types of data for entirely new business models, insights, forms of engagement, ways of living and societal improvements.
The Internet of Things is an umbrella term and often a distinction is made between the Consumer Internet of Things (CIoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). We cover both on this page as they are still often used. However, both CIoT and IIoT cover many use cases and applications as well and thus are umbrella terms too. Furthermore, there are overlaps between both.
We see the Internet of Things more from an Internet of Everything perspective, which is again part of a broader context. What this means is explained further below.
The Internet of Things is not a thing. Data which is acquired, submitted, processed or sent to devices, in most cases travels across the Internet, fixed lines, across cloud ecosystems or via (tailored) wireless connectivity technologies which are developed for specific applications of IoT (e.g. wireless technologies for the IIoT).
55% of organizations see IoT as strategic to their business as a means to compete more effectively (IDC, 2016)
Bridging digital, physical and human spheres through networks, connected processes and data, turned into knowledge and action, is an essential aspect in this equation. In recent years the focus in IoT has shifted from the pure aspect of connecting devices and gathering data to this interconnection of devices, data, business goals, people and processes, certainly in IIoT.
What is the Internet of Things? 7 characteristics
The Internet of Things can be defined by the various characteristics in the broader context.
There are 7 crucial IoT characteristics:
- Connectivity. This doesn’t need much further explanation. Devices, sensors, they need to be connected: to an item, to eachother, to a process and to ‘the Internet’ or another network.
- Things. Anything that can be tagged or connected as such as it’s designed to be connected. From sensors and household appliances to tagged livestock. Devices can contain sensors or sensing materials can be attached to devices and items.
- Data. Data is the glue of the Internet of Things, the first step towards action and intelligence.
- Communication. Devices get connected so they can communicate data and this data can be analyzed.
- Intelligence. The aspect of intelligence as in the sensing capabilities in IoT devices and the intelligence gathered from data analytics (also artificial intelligence).
- Action. The consequence of intelligence. This can be manual action, action based upon debates regarding phenomena (for instance in climate change decisions) and automation, often the most important piece.
- Ecosystem. The place of the Internet of Things from a perspective of other technologies, communities, goals and the picture in which IoT fits. The Internet of Everything dimension.
As the Internet of Things is an umbrella term and as such has no meaning since data and devices are inherently dumb and derive their meaning from the purpose, context and integration with processes, people and information systems for which they are designed, some prefer to use other terms.
This is why some organizations and individuals, for instance, rather talk about the Internet of Everything (as we do, see below), while others opt to drop the term IoT alltogether and mention it in terms of specific use cases and contexts such as smart cities, smart metering, smart wearables, Industrial Internet or connected homes, all of course with their own meaning and, again, with more subdivisions.
Working towards a universal IoT definition
The Internet of Things fits in – and requires – a context of integration, hyper-connectedness, digital transformation and certainly actionable data and information so it’s more than that big connected ‘thing’ we all talk about it.
Yet, as mentioned it’s important to speak the same language. That’s also what the people at the IEEE think. This association (IEEE stands for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), which was founded in 1963 is known for its exhaustive work in regards with standards in technologies.
Via a special IoT page on the website of the IEEE where members can join in contributing to the, quote, “ever-changing definition of IoT” you can download the latest version (PDF, no registration) of “Towards a Definition of the Internet of Things”, as revised and published on May 27th 2015.
It is 86 (!) pages long. Of course it doesn’t just strictly cover a definition of the IoT, it provides a huge overview of considerations, evolutions, specifications and various aspects in regards with the IoT ecosystem and the technological and social aspects of the Internet of Things as depicted below. It even dives deep into questions such as what are ‘things’ in an IoT ecosystem view.
The origin of the Internet of Things: how it all started
As said in the introduction, the idea of the Internet of Things goes back quite some time.
We can even go back a very long time but will begin at the end of the previous Millenium where RFID has been a key development towards the Internet of Things and the term Internet of Things has been coined in an RFID context (and NFC), whereby we used RFID to track items in various operations such as supply chain management and logistics.
However, the roots and origin of the Internet of Things go beyond just RFID. Think about machine-to-machine (M2M) networks. Or think about ATMs (automated teller machine or cash machines), which are connected to interbank networks, just as the point of sales terminals where you pay with your ATM cards. M2M solutions for ATMs have existed for a long time, just as RFID. These earlier forms of networks, connected devices and data are where the Internet of Things comes from. Yet, it’s not the Internet of Things.
The role and impact of RFID
In the nineties, technologies such as RFID, sensors and a few wireless innovations led to several applications in the connecting of devices and “things”.
Most real-life implementations of RFID in those days happened in logistics, warehouses and the supply chain in general. However, there were many challenges and hurdles to overcome, as we covered end 1999 in a white paper for a Belgian RFID specialist who targeted the logistics industry (mainly warehousing and industrial logistics as RFID was still expensive).
An example of an RFID application - electronic toll collection - Wikipedia by user Gary D
An example of an RFID application – electronic toll collection – Wikipedia by user Gary D
Gradually, the use of RFID (and along with it, several NFC or “near field communication”, wireless technologies), became popular in areas beyond logistics and supply chain management: from public transport, identification (from pets to people), electronic toll collection (see image), access control and authentication, traffic monitoring, retail to – back then – innovative forms of outdoor advertising. That growing usage was, among others, driven by the decreasing cost of RFID tags, increasing standardization and NFC.
From RFID to the Internet of Things
Although RFID strictly speaking has nothing to do with the Internet of Things, the possibility of tagging, tracking, connecting and “reading” and analyzing data from objects went hand in hand with what would become known as the Internet of Things around the beginning of this Millenium.
It was obvious that the connection of the types of “things” and applications – as we saw them in RFID (and in M2M and more) – with the Internet would change a lot. It might surprise you but the concepts of connected refrigerators, telling you that you need to buy milk, the concept of what is now known as smart cities and the vision of an immersive shopping experience (without bar code scanning and leveraging smart real-time information obtained via connected devices and goods) go back since before the term Internet of Things even existed.
Again, it took a long time. Furthermore, we shouldn’t reduce the Internet of Things to just these popular and widely known concepts, even if consumer-related attention for the IoT without a doubt has led to the grown attention for it as you’ll read further.
How the Internet of Things was coined in a context of RFID
According to the large majority of sources, the term Internet of Things was coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton, the co-founder of the MIT’s Auto-ID Center where a standard was developed for RFID, primarily from a retail perspective.
Kevin Ashton - who reportedly coined the term Internet of Things - in 2015
Kevin Ashton – who reportedly coined the term Internet of Things – in 2015 – By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44613882
RFID existed years before talked about the Internet of Things as a system, connecting the physical world and the Internet via omni-present sensors. It also already existed when he co-founded the Auto-ID Center (now called the Auto-ID labs) at MIT.
Ashton, who was a marketer at P&G, wanted to solve a challenge he had seen before as Wired reports: empty shelves for a specific product. When shelves are empty, obviously no one can buy what’s supposed to be there. It’s a typical problem of logistics and supply chain. Ashton found the solution in RFID tags, which were still far too expensive to be able to put them on each product. When the MIT Auto-ID Center was launched, funded by the major global retail brands who understood the challenge and obvious benefits of a solution, he was ‘loaned’ by P&G and became the executive director at that Center as Wired explains.
The rest is a standard system, solving miniaturization challenges, lowering RFID tags prices and…history.
The exponential growth of the Internet of Things
One thing we can agree on is that the Internet of Things still has a long way to go and that the growth of connected devices or “intelligent things” will indeed continue to rise exponentially over the coming years, as multiple challenges continue to get solved.
In that sense it is safe to say that, despite the fact that we’ve been talking about the Internet of Things for a long time and the fact that IoT in many industries is a reality, we are still in the early years. Although it is expected that, as a term and concept, the Internet of Things will dissapear and just become part of a new normal, we are far from there. Note, however, that in a business context it’s best to focus on goals and use cases when trying to get projects accepted and done than to speak about the IoT.
With the expnonential growth, enabled by what Gartner would call a “nexus of forces”, comes growth in many other areas such as traffic, storage, processing capacity, data volumes, network capabilities, you name it.
The Internet of Things exists in many industries, applications and contexts. Some projects are still in the pilot stage while others form the backbone of important processes, operations and innovations. In other words: the Internet of Things is certainly here but the degree in which it is changing the ways we live, work and conduct business depends on the context.
Predictions on the number of connected devices
The exact predictions regarding the size and evolution of the IoT lanscape tend to focus on the number of devices, appliances and other ‘things’ that are connected and the staggering growth of this volume of IP-enabled IoT devices, as well as the data they generate, with mind-blowing numbers for many years to come.
It makes it look as if the Internet of Things is still nowhere. Make no mistake though: it is already bigger than many believe and used in far more applications than those which are typically mentioned in mainstream media.
At the same time it is true that the increase of connected devices is staggering and accelerating. As we write this, approximately each single hour a million new connections are made and there are about 5 to 6 billion different items connected to the Internet (last update: September 2016). By 2020, Cisco expects there will be 20 billion devices in the IoT. Estimations for 2030 go up to a whopping 50 billion devices.
Some predictions are even more bullish, stating that by 2025 there will be up to 100 billion devices and a few even think that it will be even higher.
The truth is that we will have to wait and see and that by the time we have written about recent predictions, new ones are already published. When we first wrote this overview Gartner estimated that by 2020 we would live in a world with over 26 billion connected devices. As the image below indicates Cisco back then predicted that 37 billion intelligent things would be connected to the Internet by 2020 (earlier the company talked about 50 billion) and some even went over 200 billion.
A variety of sources and predictions in context
Regardless of the exact numbers, one thing is clear: there is a LOT that can still be connected and it’s safe to assume we’ll probably reach the lower numbers of connected devices (20-30 billion) by 2020.
The variety of sources and pace at which data about the expected number of connected devices is released is so big that we plan a section with forecasts from several sources, nicely dated, so you can stay up-to-date.
There are several reasons why these predictions differ so much. Among them are certainly various uncertainties and challenges regarding the Internet of Things which are further fuelled by impactful events regarding among others security and privacy. And then there is the fact that the Internet of Things obviously also gets hyped by those who have an interest in doing so. This doesn’t mean that the Internet of Things is a hype as such (it has been at the beginning of this Millennium). However, the realities, data and even definitions regarding IoT are so vast that all predictions are really merely attempts, often fitting in a hypish perspective.
CONTINUE READING AT: http://www.i-scoop.eu/internet-of-things/