Internet of things as a day-to-day story
It was 1999. Kevin Ashton worked for Procter & Gamble (P&G), and was 28 years old and tried to solve a problem: the most popular products were not available in stores. He discovered that this happened because, the greater the publicity of a product, the faster it ran out. It was an information problem. The solution was to put sensors connected to the network in P&G products (to know when they were not in stock), a crazy idea in the 90s. People experienced internet through dial-up modems, it was very slow and one had to connect to the phone line. P&G executives, who were very old, had to be persuaded to put sensors everywhere. So putting the word “Internet” in the proposal could attract your attention because more or less in 1998 all managers were told that the network was important and everyone was looking for ways to do something with it. The word "Things" was used because it began to have the idea of being able to embed computers on tables or things like that because the devices were getting smaller and cheaper. The whole idea was confusing at first, but it was good enough to start doing research at MIT. While doing his job there Ashton made that presentation thousands of times, all over the world. Between 2005 and 2008 not much was heard about IoT. Then around 2009, it became a word that everyone used.
The term was used in a small community of technicians, but with the arrival of Twitter, the term IoT could have become popular, because "Internet Of Things" can be written as IoT in the way to the good acronym and, considered that hashtags are used in the Twitter world, IoT is unique and short. Before there was no talk of "IoT", it was just "internet of things". But the hashtag (#IoT) helped and there was a generation for whom this became very intuitive.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a reality we are already living, but its effect will intensify in the coming years. It implies the interconnection of objects at a level that we can hardly imagine, there will even be more things connected to the network than people.
THIS IS HOW THE INTERNET OF THINGS WORKS
It is the digital interconnection of any everyday object with the Internet, turning them into intelligent objects capable of exercising autonomy for problem-solving. Those who own a Smartphone make use of IoT on a daily basis without knowing it, because they connect televisions to watch a series of Netflix that is being played on the mobile, cameras used as remote video surveillance or even the latest models of refrigerators.
An intelligent washing machine is capable of cleaning clothes but also programming without a human presence nearby, delivering efficiency statistics and tips to improve use. However, a couple of devices connected to IoT do not provide much information, entire connected cities will be required to generate big data reports that will have an impact on global issues such as sustainability. It will optimize individual behavior with respect to the use of devices but also the overall performance.
Imagine your morning routine in a few years. The alarm sounds and you take the phone to see your sleep statistics. You get out of bed in the direction of the kitchen where fresh coffee is waiting for you because the coffee maker knows what time you wake up. You open the fridge to choose your breakfast and warns you that some foods will expire, in addition to running out of others that you use frequently. The fridge sends an alert to your trusted supermarket to place an order, while you brush your teeth with a smart brush that detects tooth decay and makes an appointment with your dentist. Broadly speaking, this is what you might expect from the future of the Internet of things.
On a macro level, household efficiency will move to a world where objects would not be lost because they would be fully identified as they would offer their exact location. Exhausted products in stock, precedes or expired medicines would be a problem of the past because we would know what is required at all times. You would no longer have to request extra towels at the hotels because they themselves sent a notification to the reception, offices would always have printing paper and heart attacks could be prevented using data stored on the mobile to make proactive decisions.
WHAT IS THE INTERNET OF THINGS?
The internet of things (IoT) is about the digital interconnection of every object with the internet that happens ever days. It is an internet connection with objects but without people. So, it is possible for the objects to interact with each other and make autonomous decisions. If the everyday life objects had radio tags incorporated, they could be identified and managed by other teams in the same way as if they were by human beings.
It constitutes a radical change in the quality of life of people in society, offers a lot of new opportunities for access to data, specific services in education, security, health care, and transport, among other fields.
According to a study by Karen Rose, Scott Eldridge, and Lyman Chapin, it is predicted that the impact of IoT on the Internet and the economy is impressive: by 2025 there will be up to one hundred billion devices connected to IoT and that its impact will be USD $ 11,000,000,000,000.
IoT CHARACTERISTICS
What can be said about the internet of things:
Definitions
In general, the term Internet of Things refers to scenarios in which network connectivity and computing capacity extend to everyday objects, sensors, and items that are not usually considered computers, allowing these devices to produce, exchange and consume data with either nothing or minimal human intervention. However, there is not a single or a universal definition for the IoT.
Instrumental Technologies
Combining networks, computers, and sensors to monitor and control different devices as a concept has existed for decades. However, the recent confluence of different trends in the technology market is allowing the Internet of Things to be closer and closer to being a widespread reality. These trends include ubiquitous connectivity, widespread adoption of networks based on the IP protocol, an economy in computing capacity, miniaturization, advances in data analysis and the emergence of cloud computing.
Connectivity models
The Internet Of Things (IoT), implementations use different models of connectivity, each of which has its own characteristics. The four of the connectivity models described by the Internet Architecture Board include Device-to-Device (device to device), Device-to-Cloud (device to the cloud), Device-to-Gateway (device to door link) and Back-End Data-Sharing (exchange of data through the back-end). These models highlight flexibility in the ways in which IoT devices can connect and provide value to the user.
Transformation potential
If trends and projections on the development of IoT become reality, this could force a change of mentality regarding the implications and problems in a world where the most frequent interaction with the Internet will come from passive interaction with connected objects and not of active interaction with the content. A hyperconnected world is the potential carrying out of this result as a proof of the general-purpose nature of the Internet architecture itself, which does not impose inherent limitations on the applications or services that could use this technology.
IoT APPLICATIONS
There is a wide range of applications for devices connected to the internet. Several categories have been suggested, but the most common convergence is to separate applications into three main branches of use: consumers, business, and infrastructure.
Consumer applications
For consumption applications there is an increasing percentage of IoT devices created. If you review in detail you can see home automation, entertainment, cars, wearable technology, telemetry, connected health and appliances such as dryers, washing machines, robotic vacuum cleaners, ovens, air purifiers and, refrigerators that use Wi-Fi for remote process monitoring.
Business
The term "business IoT" is used to refer to all devices in the business and corporate environment. By 2020, it is estimated that IoT will comprise about 40% or 9.1 billion devices.
Media
The media use the internet of things primarily for marketing and studying consumer habits. These devices collect useful information on millions of individuals through behavioral segmentation. By making use of the profiles built during the segmentation process, media producers present the consumer with on-screen advertising aligned with their known habits in the right place and time to Maximize its effect.
Infrastructure management
The monitoring and control of urban and rural infrastructure operations such as bridges, railways and wind farms is a key application of IoT. The IoT can be used to track any event or change in structural conditions that may compromise safety and increase risk. It can also be used to plan repair and maintenance activities efficiently, coordinating tasks between different service providers and facility users. Another application is the control of critical infrastructure, such as bridges to allow the passage of vessels or the control of river flow level. The use of IoT devices for infrastructure monitoring and operation can improve incident management, coordination of emergency response, quality and availability of services, as well as reducing operating costs in all related areas. to the infrastructure. Even areas such as waste management can benefit from the automation and optimization that the IoT application would bring, aiming at better energy management.
Agricultural sector
In the agricultural sector, we can find solutions such as:
The smart tractors: they are smart tractors that replace the driver's cab with a completely autonomous system based on cameras, radars, GPS and sensors that detect obstacles and make the vehicle change direction to avoid impacts. The farmer can use an app to program it and can make it work at a time with other tractors. It works thanks to the introduction of maps in the system, with the limits of the field and, in addition, it includes software of route planning.
Drones will fly more and more over agricultural land. Experts estimate that the market for robots and drones for agriculture already moves 2.6 billion euros a year and expects this figure to triple in 2022 to reach 8.9 billion euros. Many farmers already use them to accurately know the status of crops in real-time and thus perform precision fumigation. There is even talk of bee drones due to the reduction of bees.
Online monitoring using different kinds of sensors allows farmers to know through their smartphone or tablet the temperature, humidity and stem size of the fruit or crop. Depending on the state of the crops, each person can adapt to each farm the treatment of fertilizers and fungicides effectively and accurately.
Connected livestock is another of the advances that are already being made. Tools and sensors that measure the movement of cattle, control their nutrition and even their reproductive capacity. In addition, farmers can always know the location of animals to facilitate their counting and reduce theft.
Smart pest controls through remote sensors are installed in crops and warn farmers about the most suitable conditions for pest proliferation. Even the necessary actions to combat them can be carried out manually or automatically thanks to the use of new technologies.
Body
Devices (for dressing and ingestible) to monitor and maintain the health and well-being of people, manage diseases, increase physical fitness and productivity.
TECHNOLOGICAL AND MARKET TRENDS THAT ARE PROMOTING IoT
- Ubiquitous connectivity
- Generalized adoption of networks based on the IP protocol
- Economics of computing capacity
- Miniaturization
- Advances in data analysis
- The emergence of cloud computing
IoT COMMUNICATION MODELS
From an operational point of view, it is useful to think about how IoT devices connect and communicate in terms of their communication models. In March 2015, the Internet Architecture Committee (IAB) released a document to guide the creation of smart object networks (RFC 7452).
"Device to device" communications
The device-to-device communication model represents two or more devices that connect and communicate directly with each other and not through an intermediary application server. Several types of networks are supported by these devices to communicate. This includes IP networks or the Internet. However, to establish direct communications from device to device, protocols such as Bluetooth, Z-Wave or ZigBee are often used.
"Device to cloud" communications
When the cloud is the communication media for a device communication model, the IoT device connects directly to a cloud service, such as an ASP (application service provider), to exchange data and control message traffic.
"Device to gateway" communication
In the device-to-gateway model, or more generally the device-to-layer application-to-gateway (ALG) model, the IoT device is connected through an ALG service as a way to reach service in the cloud.
SECURITY
In the context of information technology security considerations are not new. On the other hand, the attributes of many IoT implementations present new and unique security challenges. Therefore, a fundamental priority is addressing these challenges and ensuring security in IoT products and services. Users should be able to trust that IoT devices and related data services will be secure and free of vulnerabilities, especially as this technology becomes more widespread and integrated into our daily lives. The unsafe IoT devices and services can serve as potential entry points for cyberattacks and expose user data to theft by leaving data flows with inadequate protection.
The interconnected nature of IoT devices means that each poorly secured device connected to the Internet could affect the security and resilience of the Internet globally. This challenge is amplified by other considerations, such as the large-scale deployment of homogeneous devices, the ability of some devices to automatically connect to others, and the possibility of these devices being deployed in unsafe environments.
In principle, developers and users of IoT devices and systems have a collective obligation to ensure that they are not exposing users and the Internet itself to potential damage. Therefore, a collaborative approach will be needed to develop effective and adequate solutions to the security challenges of IoT, solutions that adapt well to the scale and complexity of the problems.
PRIVACY
The potential of the Internet of Things depends on strategies that respect the individual privacy options corresponding to a broad spectrum of expectations. The data streams and specificity that IoT devices allow can unlock unique and incredible value for users, but concerns about privacy and potential damage could make it difficult to fully adopt the Internet of Things. This means that privacy rights and expectations regarding user privacy are essential to ensure user confidence on the Internet, on connected devices and related services.
The IoT is, in fact, redefining the debate on privacy issues, as several implantations can dramatically change the habits about personal data is collected, analyzed, used and protected. For example, IoT amplifies concerns about the potential for greater monitoring and follow-up, the difficulty of being able to opt-out of being included in certain data collections and the power of aggregating IoT data flows to obtain portraits. Detailed digital users. While these challenges are important, they are not impossible to overcome. These are opportunities and to take advantage of them, strategies should be developed to respect individual privacy options considering a broad spectrum of expectations, while continuing to foster innovation in new technologies and services.
IoT - INTEROPERABILITY / STANDARDS
A fragmented environment of technical implementations that own IoT could inhibit its value to users and the industry. While full interoperability between products and services is not always possible or necessary, buyers may be reluctant to purchase IoT products and services if there is a lack of flexibility in their integration, great complexity in terms of ownership and concern regarding possible difficulties to change technology providers (lock-in).
In addition, poorly defined and configured IoT devices can have negative consequences for the network resources to which they connect and for the Internet in a broader sense. Having problems, reference models and best practices can also help curb the proliferation of devices that could change to the Internet. The use of generic, open and complex protocols available (such as the Internet Protocol) as components of IoT devices and services have greater advantages for users, more innovation and more economic opportunities.
REFERENCES
Internet society: https://www.internetsociety.org/es/resources/doc/2015/iot-overview
Internet Architecture Board (IAB): https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7452.txt