Connecting networks in the age of the Internet of Things

The internet was created by connecting networks. Now we are building a new internet, The Internet of Things. We believe that lack of interoperability and interconnection of networks is holding back the big IoT dream where billions of devices are connected on a global scale.

Let's have a look at how it worked out for the Internet so far.

1. We first started connecting systems and computers. The main reason for this was to exchange information peer to peer. The business case for doing the network investment was made with the upside of direct information exchange.
2. We ended up in a situation where we started to have networks of computer systems. And there were multiple networks. But why would each network put their own cables in the ground and setup their own routing infrastructure when you can share this? Interconnecting networks was the solution and the internet as we know it was born. This created a second growth wave that increased the global traffic significantly. And demand soared.
3. Eventually not every infrastructure provider was contributing equally. And the economics for building these network got out of balance. As a solution concepts like transit, paid peering, internet exchanges, etc started to emerge as business models. Balancing out the infrastructure investment by rewarding the givers and make the takers pay. This step made the internet more robust and solid. Allowing for e-commerce, critical communication, etc.

Following this analogy for Internet of Things we believe we are in the second phase. That by connecting IoT networks we can lower costs, increase the quality of service, making it ready for the many business applications to start fully leveraging the Internet of Things. Focussing on the size of the network not so much on individual local benefits.

We built The Things Network with LoRaWAN as it is an open network protocol used in an open spectrum that allows for building open networks secured by solid end-to-end encryption. By default The Things Network is shared infrastructure, just like the internet, the cloud, and 90% of your IT tools you use now a days. This resulted in a global network now with more than 5500 gateways which route over 13 Million messages on a daily base.

Now that there are multiple LoRaWAN networks we see the need to start connecting networks. Mainly driven by the demand for lower cost connectivity. Following the lessons we have learned from the internet we can lower the costs and increase the quality through interconnection of networks as it remove overhead and adds redundancy. That is why we support the Packet Broker (www.packetbroker.org) which enables IoT networks to connect and exchange data. This video explains the concept in short.

We believe this open exchange will allow growth of the IoT enabled business because it can reduce connectivity costs dramatically and increase the quality.

It is ready for future business models that can level the unbalance in network infrastructure investments with similar concepts like paid peering and transit through a to be announcement marketplace.

Want to know more about our commitment for pushing for fair and business driving Internet of Things connectivity with LoRaWAN. Come meet us at The Things Conference. We will share more information about the Packet Broker vision.

Check out the tickets here.