Introduction To The Internet of Things: By-Sa
Introduction To The Internet of Things: By-Sa
Introduction To The Internet of Things: By-Sa
Internet of Things
Public Domain
Things — ITU definition
“Things are objects of the physical world (physical
things) or of the information world (virtual world)
which are capable of being identified and integrated
into communication networks. Things have
associated information, which can be static and
dynamic.” — Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060
Things — ITU definition
“Physical things exist in the physical world and are
capable of being sensed, actuated and connected.
Examples of physical things include the surrounding
environment, industrial robots, goods and electrical
equipment.”— Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060
Things — ITU definition
“Virtual things exist in the information world and
are capable of being stored, processed and
accessed. Examples of virtual things include
multimedia content and application software.”
— Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060
Things — ITU definition
Device — ITU definition
“A device is a piece of equipment with the
mandatory capabilities of communication and
optional capabilities of sensing, actuation, data
capture, data storage and data processing. Some
devices also execute operations based on information
received from the information and communication
networks.” — Recommendation ITU-T Y.2060
Fundamental characteristics — ITU
Interconnectivity: With regard to the IoT, anything
can be interconnected with the global information
and communication infrastructure.
Heterogeneity: The devices in the IoT are
heterogeneous as based on different hardware
platforms and networks. They can interact with other
devices or service platforms through different
networks.
Fundamental characteristics — ITU
Dynamic changes: The state of devices change
dynamically, e.g., sleeping and waking up, connected
and/or disconnected as well as the context of devices
including location and speed. Moreover, the number
of devices can change dynamically.
Fundamental characteristics — ITU
Enormous scale: The number of devices that need
to be managed and that communicate with each other
will be at least an order of magnitude larger than the
devices connected to the current Internet. The ratio of
communication triggered by devices as compared to
communication triggered by humans will noticeably
shift towards device-triggered communication.
Predictions
Predictions
Predictions
Source: http://www.postscapes.com/what-exactly-is-the-internet-of-
things-infographic/
Internet of Fewer Things
http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/the-internet-of-fewer-things
One to many to any
Connectivity
Ability to communicate with another computer.
Personal area network (PAN, e.g. BLE, Zigbee).
Local area networks (LAN, e.g. Ethernet, Wi-Fi).
Wide area networks (WAN, e.g. 3/4G, LoRaWAN).
The range grows from "room" to "building" to "city"
(e.g. BLE, 30m; Wi-Fi, 100m; LoRaWAN, 2-15km).
Connectivity
Connectivity: key aspects
Range - are you deploying to a single office floor or an
entire city?
Data Rate - how much bandwidth do you require? How
often does your data change?
Power - is your sensor running on mains or battery?
Frequency - have you considered channel blocking and
signal interference?
Security - will your sensors be supporting mission
critical applications?
IoT high level use cases
IoT enables these core use cases, in different flavors.
Efficiency (e.g. trash bins let you know they are full).
Convenience (e.g. remotely preheat a holiday home).
New insights (e.g. a crowdsourced air quality map).
Sectors include connected consumer products,
citizen sensing, industrial IoT and many more.
Connected products
Internet-connected consumer products, e.g.
Nest, a connected, self-learning thermostat.
Philips Hue, connected lights with a Web API.
Withings Scale, logs your weight to a dashboard.
Good Night Lamp, linked lamps to share presence.
Citizen sensing
Self-built sensors, open data, nonprofit, e.g.
Safecast.org, a crowdsourced radiation map.
Oxford Flood Network, measuring water levels.
Luftdaten.info, particles and nitrogen oxides map.
Physical Virtual
Interaction Interaction
User
Device
Embedded computer with sensors and actuators.
Connectivity on the chip or as an external module.
Microcontroller (MCU) with constrained resources.
Small, slow processor, limited memory, low power.
Radio
MCU Module
Sensor or
Actuator
Device CC BY-SA, tamberg.org
Sensors
Convert physical properties to electrical signals.
E.g. temperature, sound, light, distance, flow.
Sensors
Sensors
Actuators
Convert electrical signals to physical properties.
E.g. light, movement, sound, heat, current.
CC BY-S
A, Oom
lo ut
Gateway
Connects local devices/network to the Internet, e.g.
LoRaWAN to Wi-Fi gateway (TTN indoor gateway).
LoRaWAN to 4G gateway (TTN outdoor gateway).
Zigbee to Ethernet gateway (Philips Hue bridge).
Or the Wi-Fi router itself (for Wi-Fi devices).
Transparent, depending on the perspective.
Backend
Backend server(s), service endpoint "in the cloud“ or
local.
Provides data to clients, receives commands.
High availability, scalability, bandwidth.
Can provide storage or data analysis.
Can call 3rd-party (Web) services.
Client
Client app, e.g. dashboard or 3rd-party service client.
Reads measurement data from devices via backend.
Writes control data to the device via backend.
Multiple client apps can share a backend.
Important IoT System Qualities
Security, to keep devices, network & backend
secure.
Privacy, to keep people in control of their own data.
Interoperability, to become part of an ecosystem.
Openness, standards & open source build trust.
See, e.g. betteriot.org principles for guidance.
Summary
We defined IoT, understood the drivers behind it.
We looked at connected products in three sectors.
We know a simple reference model for IoT systems.
We've seen some patterns with varying connectivity.
Feedback?
Email me mzennaro@ictp.it