Covering the basics of IoT technology

My goal with Tech Tuesday and this article is to simply provide more information about emerging technologies to every day people, every Tuesday, using simple terms and breaking down the technology into 3 categories: 1) What is it? 2) How does it work? and 3) What are its current and future applications?

So this week, I'm going to cover the topic of Internet of Things (IoT) technology!

Lets jump right into it.

What is it?

The concept of Internet of Things (IoT) simply put, refers to connecting any device with an on and off switch to the Internet, and/or to each other. This includes everything from cellphones, thermostats, washing machines, headphones, home alarms, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of.  When something is connected to the internet, that means that it can send information, receive information, or both and by combining these connected devices with automated systems, it is possible to collect information, analyse it and perform actions based on it to help with a particular task, or learn from a process. These devices, often called "connected" or "smart" devices, can communicate with other related devices, through a process called machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and act on the information they get from one another. Let’s use smartphones as an example: Right now you can listen to almost any song in the world, but it’s not because your phone actually has those songs stored on it, but because every song in the world is stored somewhere else, in the "cloud", and your phone can send information (asking for that song) and then receive information (streaming that song on your phone).

Humans can interact with the gadgets to set them up and give them instructions, but the devices can do most of the work on their own without human intervention. Connected devices also generate large amounts of data that can be used to make the devices useful, but can also be analyzed to provide insight into a given situation. IoT allows for a level of real-time information that we've never had before.  All this new data, and the Internet-accessible nature of the devices, raises both privacy and security concerns, but we'll discuss the applications later.

How does it work?

A complete IoT system involves four different components: sensors/devices, connectivity, data processing, and a user interface:

1) Sensors/Devices

A sensor/ device is used to simply collect data from its environment. Multiple sensors can be bundled together or sensors can be part of a device that does more than just sense things. For example, your phone is a device that has multiple sensors (camera, gyrometer, GPS, etc), but your phone is not just a sensor.

Whether it’s a standalone sensor or a full device, in the first step, data is being collected from the environment by a sensor/device.

2) Connectivity

Next, the data collected is sent to "the cloud", which is essentially a collections of servers in data centers around the world (we'll cover this in a future article). The sensors/devices can be connected to the cloud through a variety of ways including: cellular, satellite, WiFi, Bluetooth, low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN), or connecting directly to the internet via ethernet.

Each option has tradeoffs between power consumption, range and bandwidth. Choosing which connectivity option is best comes down to the specific IoT application, but they all accomplish the same task: getting data to the cloud.

The tradeoffs can be grouped into three major categories:

a) High Range, High Power Consumption, High Bandwidth:

To send a lot of data over a great distance, it takes a lot of power. A great example of this is your smartphone. Your phone can receive and send large amounts of data (e.g. videos) all over the world, but because of the power drain, you need to charge it every 1–2 days. Connectivity options in this group include cellular and satellite. Cellular connection is used when the sensor/device is within coverage of cell towers, and for greater distances, such as across the world, satellite connection becomes required.

b) High Range, Low Power Consumption, Low Bandwidth:

To increase range while maintaining low power consumption, the amount of data being sent has to be decreased. Connectivity options in this group are called Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN). LPWAN's send small amounts of data which allows them to operate at very low power with ranges in miles, rather than feet. For example, a moisture sensor for agricultural purposes doesn’t need to send a lot of data, perhaps just the moisture level every few hours. You don’t want this sensor to consume a lot of power because it needs to run on battery (plugging it into an outlet in the middle of a field isn't too viable). Since agriculture covers a wide area, WiFi and Bluetooth lack the range needed.

LPWAN's are extremely useful for IoT applications because they allow tons of sensors to collect and send data over large areas, while lasting years on battery life. Although they can’t send much data, most sensors don’t need to.

c) Low Range, Low Power Consumption, High Bandwidth

To decrease power consumption and still send a lot of data, you have to decrease the range. Connectivity options in this group include WiFi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet.

Ethernet is a hard-wired connection, so the range is short because it’s only as far as the length of the cable. WiFi and Bluetooth are both wireless connections with lower power consumption than cellular and satellite, about equal bandwidth but the range is limited to just about your household.

3) Data Processing

Once the data gets to the cloud, it is processed and analyzed by an individual or computer using softwares. This could be something simple, such as checking that the temperature reading is within an acceptable range, or it could also be very complex, such as using computer vision on video to identify objects (such as intruders in your house).

But what happens when the temperature is too high or if there is someone in your house? That’s where the user comes in.

4) User Interface

The information is made useful to the end-user in some way, which could be via an alert to the user (email, text, notification, etc). For example, a notification could pop up on your phone if someone opens the front door. Also, a user might have an interface that allows them to proactively check in on the system. For example, you might want to check the video feeds in your house via a phone app or browser.

However, depending on the IoT application, the user may also be able to perform an action and affect the system. Sticking with the home alarm example, you could arm your security system from your phone, sitting in your car. Some actions are performed automatically, however, such as a thermostat automatically adjusting your room temperature via predefined rules. Additionally, rather than just call you to alert you of an intruder in your house, the IoT system could also automatically notify relevant authorities.

3) What are its current/future applications?

The applications for IoT technology are incredibly vast. Any device that can connect to the internet and with other devices will be used by IoT in the future to improve our processing capabilities. There are many examples for what this might look like or what the potential value might be: For example say you are on your way to a meeting; your car could have access to your calendar and already know the best route to take. If the traffic is heavy your car might send a text to the other party notifying them that you will be late. What if your alarm clock wakes up you at 6 a.m. and then notifies your coffee maker to start brewing coffee for you? What if your office equipment knew when it was running low on supplies and automatically re-ordered more? These are just some ways in how our day to day might change with more integration of IoT devices, but these could be expanded to industries like engineering, where cars could have automated service alerts and corresponding adjustments, the medical industry could employ these devices to improve medical treatment as well.

On a broader scale, the IoT can be applied to things like transportation networks and cities: "smart cities" which can help us reduce waste and improve efficiency for things such as energy use; this helping us understand and improve how we work and live, illustrated in the image above (Credit: Libelium).

The estimates are varied, but research indicates there are already between 15 and 25 billion connected devices, with the count expected to grow to anywhere from 50 to 212 billion by 2020 (sources: FTC, Intel, McLellan, OIC). Some analysts even estimate that there will be around a trillion connected devices by 2025 (source: Wasik).

At the centre of creating a vast, reliable IoT network lies one significant issue: compatible standards. Connected objects need to be able to speak to each other to transfer data and share what they are recording. If they all run on different standards, they struggle to communicate and share. To try and tackle this issue on a commercial scale, Microsoft has introduced its own system for IoT devices called IoT Central. This system gives businesses a managed central platform for setting up IoT devices and Microsoft claims the system will simplify the creation of IoT networks.

Another issue that is involved with the rise of IoT is security. Everything that's connected to the internet can be hacked, and IoT devices are not an exception to this. There's also the issue of surveillance, where with every product that becomes connected, there's the potential for tracking and unrestricted observation of users. As IoT technology becomes more prevalent, these issues will need to be addressed to ensure safe and effective use of these devices, especially in our daily lives.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this article, I hope it was a helpful and insightful read into the world of Internet of Things (IoT) technology! I, by no means am an expert in technology, just simply someone with a passion for it and a love for sharing information with others!

If you have any tips/ideas for the Tech Tuesday format, or other topics to cover for next week's edition, please let me know!

Cheers.