The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things

Abstract

The internet of things (IoT), also referred to as the internet of everything, is the integration of devices through a network. Although the IoT is rapidly changing not only the business world but also the whole world at large, more than 70% of the world’s population has not heard about the technology. The technology architecture has led to tremendous potential and limitless opportunities around the globe. Due to its pros, governmental and non-governmental agencies have incorporated it into their system to work more efficiently. Its application in different sectors such as education, medicine, agriculture, real estate, environment, and the transport industry has led to rapid change and growth of those various areas. The internet of everything has more advantages than its disadvantages making its implementation in the business sector significant.

Introduction

Due to the fast-rising technological revolution, every day the world’s population work towards becoming as smart as possible to reduce human to human and human to computer interaction by increasing machine to machine communication. The aim of achieving this is to make sure individuals have full control over all their possession at hand at any time. Similarly, the internet of things enables the objectives of tech experts to come true. In general, it is a system that facilitates the provision of unique identifiers (RFIDs) and reduces human to human and human to computer interaction by integrating digital machines, computer devices, people and animals. The IoT comprises of different elements inclusive of devices such as smartphones, simple hypersensitive sensors, and wearables connected on a single private network. Data is provided to ensure a continuous machine to machine communication.

Despite the ideology of connected devices being in existence since the ’70s and ’80s through the invention of the coke machine, it resurfaced again in the late ’90s through Kevin Ashton whose idea was to incorporate the internet into gambling. Since then the IoT has evolved over a short span through the combination of the web together with microelectromechanical systems and wireless technologies.

In the light of the aggressive and uncontrolled technical advancements, it is evident that the tech experts work tirelessly to achieve a brighter and smarter global future for not only our generation but also the coming generations. Competition in the tech world pushes the artificial language as well as the machine language experts to invent new and unique technologies geared to save time and money to attract more consumers (Li et al, 2015). Moreover, governmental and non-governmental institutions all over the globe have invested heavily in IoT to optimize their operations such as customer relationship management and decision making. Statistics indicate that in 2016 about more than 15 billion IoT devices were connected, 30 million wearable devices were sold among other devices summing to $740 billion global expenditure. This expenditure means that the world’s population has fully accepted the ideology due to its vast advantages; however, it has some cons too such as malware and hacking.

How IoT Works

Consequently, the IoT architecture is vast and complex since the integration of multiple sensors and systems is not an easy task. The process requires new technology and experts in the tech field to come up with a fully secure and functioning system. The architecture comprises of only four components which a linked together to work as a unit. The elements include data processing, sensors or devices, connectivity, and a user interface. Data is collected from the environment by the sensors and sent to the cloud through a medium of connectivity such as the cellular network, WiFi, Bluetooth or LAN. Once the data gets into the cloud, it undergoes a series of processing whereby an already-installed software interprets and analyzes it (Botta et al, 2016).

Meanwhile, the software chooses the correct action (feedback) and sends it back to the sensor through the user interface. For instance, in a smart house whereby detection of movement above an absolute magnitude controls the lighting system, in case a person passes by the sensor, the sensor sends the data to the cloud, and before long the data is processed, feedback send and the lights go on. The process is so fast, considering the connectivity is strong, to meet the customers’ satisfaction.

Applications of IoT

Undoubtedly, adoption IoT has gained massive traction in broad business categories worldwide such as healthcare, real estate, farming, manufacturing, retail, transport, banking among others. IoT has changed how people used to work by providing easier mechanisms on how to maneuver through different aspects of life. Nowadays, the works of IoT such as smart tv, telecommunication, and gaming gadgets surround a large percentage of people around the globe. According to the United States statistics, almost 40 % of its manufacturers have incorporated the ideology of the IoT in their business (Lee & Lee, 2015). In 2016, about $30 million units of wearable devices were sold, and a total of $740 billion was spent on IoT markets globally. Also, statistics reveal that the IoT will boost the world’s GDP growth by $14 trillion by 2030. Indeed, the use of IoT, machine language and artificial intelligence will eradicate digital challenges in all sectors of the industrial world.

Application in medicine

The incorporation of IoT in the health sector has become a standard technology in most of the hospitals around the world. Most of the health institutions have taken the advantage of the radio-frequency identifiers to reduce management costs by helping in the production, distribution and tracking medicine and medical devices (Islam et al, 2015). Significantly, this aids in fighting counterfeit drugs which kill almost 15% of patients worldwide. In this situation, a unique identity which is difficult to forge identifies medical devices and medicine. Furthermore, medical waste information management uses this technique whereby the identification of the products ensures correct treatment of medical waste.

Consequently, the IoT has broad application in managing medical information. For instance, it assists in keeping a patient medical history which prohibits the administration of allergic drugs and assists in health procedures. Besides that, Islam et al (2015) agree that the RFID technology is useful in medical emergency management, drug storage, newborn anti-kidnapping system, dynamic networking and node mobility management in the health sector.

Application in the Transport sector.

In 2016, the transport industry spent $78 billion on the IoT suggesting a good reception and use of the architecture in the sector. The transport industry ranges from private and public to transit transport. Smart transportation is the expected way of traffic since it plays a vital role in making transport systems to be more efficient and safer. Lee & Lee (2015), affirm that Biz4Intellia, an IoT service provider in the US, has transformed the freight transportation by integration of features such as fleet management, geo-spacing, and public transit management. Besides, the IoT is a pioneering infrastructure for smart parking, smart lighting along roads, railway management systems, intelligent toll collection such as traffic flow, and revenue collection, and transport logistics (Lee & Lee, 2015).

Application in telecommunication

The IoT revolution enables the telecommunication service providers to adopt new strategies in their sector to keep up with the dynamic changing world of customers. With the aid of the RFIDs, the network providers can use machine data to predict the failures of their projects before they happen. Through the RFIDs in the IoT infrastructure, these companies can efficiently plan for the optimization of bandwidths and coverage to improve their customer service at the same time minimizing revenue lost due to service disruption.

Application in Agriculture

The multi-billion global population relies on the agricultural sector for food and other products. The use of IoT- based farming helps farmers to keep up with the rising climate change and extreme weather conditions. IoT-based farming avails the farmer with full control of monitoring field conditions with the aid of light, temperature, humidity and soil moisture sensors which control the irrigation system (Scuotto et al, 2016). Smart farming provides optimization of water usage, inputs and crop disease treatment. Additionally, IoT-based farming increases competitiveness and produce sustainability through smart greenhouses, livestock monitoring, agricultural drones, and precision farming.

Application in Real Estate

In the recent centuries smart houses and homes were not typical in most countries. However, through the advancement of IoT in the real estate sector more smart homes are being built. Smart homes are built with motion and sound sensors connected to the CCTV cameras, an alarm control unit, and other smart devices in the homes such as smartphones to increase home surveillance, safety, and security (Scuotto et al, 2016). Also, they have humid sensors which are responsible for the automated air ventilation system, smoke sensors for the fire control system, and motion sensors for energy management thus increasing energy efficiency.

Technology Requirements for IoT

For a working IoT system, all four IoT components are a necessity. In other words, a proper working network, data processing, and analysis, security, computer processing power, memory and storage devices, and a database management system technology out to be present. Generally, the Internet of Things requires a wide range of new techniques and skills such as IoT device management. IoT device management technology provides functional capabilities of the device firmware and software through configurations, monitoring, and authentication (Al-Fuqaha et al, 2015). The technology has a closed device enablement which plays a crucial role in connecting the device to the cloud storage through a network. Besides that, some of the device management technology allow heterogenous cloud connection whereby different devices from different manufacturers can access the cloud server (Botta et al, 2016). Some of these management technologies include the Open Mobile Alliance’s Device Management, Comcast or the Lightweight Machine to Machine.

Moreover, low-power short and long-range IoT networks technologies are essential for a full functional IoT system. For data transfer from the devices to the cloud, a network coverage (regardless of the range) is mandatory. For short distance machine to machine connection, short-range mesh networks are recommended since they reduce installation, maintenance, and running costs. Botta et al (2016) claim that some of them include the WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Tiny mesh among others. In the case of a wide range of data conveyance, long-range wireless networks are recommended to ensure a faster and efficient connection to the cloud server. For instance, Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) is an example of a long-range wireless network technology which can send data between 20- 30 kilometers at high speed.

An IoT system requires a fast and reliable processor. Processors go hand in hand with IoT operating system technology since they must be compatible. The choice of an IoT processor technology is very crucial since it determines the security and encryption strength, power consumption, firmware, and device management considerations. On the other hand, IoT operation systems such as Contiki, Brillo, Zephyr, and RIOT are recommended compared to the Windows and the IOS since they are faster and have low power consumption.

Consequently, IoT platform technology is required to host an IoT system. Its large functions make it easy to control an IoT system such as device monitoring and management, updates on firmware, security, communication, data acquisition, analysis, and management. Examples of IoT platforms include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azuri, Google cloud platform, IBM Watson, Artik among others (Whitmore et al, 2015). Every IoT system requires a robust IoT security technology to protect its network from numerous security threats among other vulnerabilities. Some IoT security technologies that provide cybersecurity include Armis, Bastille, CENTIRI, Cisco, DarkMatter among others.

Advantages of IoT

The excellent application of the IoT in almost every sector proves that it has numerous benefits in data handling, monitoring, and management. Due to the integration of vast information from the transport, health, medical, industrial and real estate sectors, it facilitates the process of decision making (Li et al, 2015). IoT promotes machine to machine communication thus leading to total transparency and quality communication between computers. The linkage of IoT to several networks encourages automation and full control over devices (Wortmann & Flüchter, 2015). Such aspect in the IoT allows an individual to monitor and track different perspectives, for instance, the humidity of a house or greenhouse, the security of a homestead, low ink in the printer, geo-spacing of vehicles among others.

Moreover, due to automation a lot of time and money is saved since human to machine interaction is minimized by the machine to machine communication. Also, smart lighting saves money used to pay energy utility bills thus increasing energy efficiency. All in all, IoT leads to a quality life.

Disadvantages of IoT

Despite the technology having tremendous positive effects which have led to its integration within almost every sector, its vast confidential information in the cloud storage increases the chances of its vulnerability to cybersecurity threats. Information security and privacy are among the core cons of IoT technology due to higher chances of data leakages and hacks. Compatibility of devices to the installed network poses another challenge since some devices don’t connect to the cloud storage due to poor compatibility (Wortmann & Flüchter, 2015). Also, safety is a threat to IoT systems since hacked data may be used against the owner of the system. Lastly, the complexity of the system makes it difficult to solve a problem in case the system fails.

Business Applications

Globally, most business enterprises use IoT technology despite its few disadvantages which pose a threat to their institutions. Since the IoT technology brings about a lot of merits which help in running daily activities of the business, they have high end encrypted IoT security technologies which protect their data. Whitmore et al (2015) confirm that business entities have incorporated the IoT system to predict the customers’ behavior, increase productivity, reduce operation costs, monitor their employees, and come up with new projects. Pursuing this further, IoT can predict the future of a business using the already-collected data, shortcomings and offer possible solutions to any problem. Unquestionably, smart management has led to the thriving of smart companies against all the odds.

Conclusion

There is a lot of difference between the past two centuries and the previous ones thanks to the rapidly changing technology. The Internet of Things has turned the globe by transforming ways of problem-solving. Generally, life is safer and efficient. Although the IoT technology has rendered millions of employees homeless, it has also created jobs for other people in the tech world. The worlds’ population is celebrating increased food production, improved healthcare, clean air, and water, decreased traffic congestion, proper waste management, and easy access to governmental services. The companies and business enterprises which have not fully integrated the IoT technology in their business should analyze and understand the benefits which come alongside the technology.

References

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Islam, S. R., Kwak, D., Kabir, M. H., Hossain, M., & Kwak, K. S. (2015). The internet of things for health care: a comprehensive survey. IEEE Access, 3, 678-708.

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