131 IoT links: how to keep up with the Internet of things
Internet of Things (IoT) - a network of physical objects equipped with technologies for interaction with each other and the external environment.
There are many definitions of this term. The above definition is one of the shortest and most capacious. The keywords in it are network, technology, interaction, and the key point is the presence of a person in this interaction in the general case is not necessary.
Most likely, the term Internet of Things was first used by Kevin Ashton in 1999. Kevin Ashton was an assistant brand manager at Procter & Gamble in 1997, when he became interested in using RFID (Radio-frequency identification) technology for supply chain management. This work brought him to MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he, as a co-founder, organized an RFID research consortium called Auto ID Center. Ashton subsequently became ThingMagic's vice president of RFID, and later he became one of the founders and CEO of Zensi, which was acquired by Belkin International in April 2010. For about 4 years, Ashton was the General Manager of Belkin, where under his leadership a series of devices for the smart home WeMo was developed and launched .
The IoT term was reborn from the feed of Cisco analysts, who estimated that between 2008 and 2009 the number of devices connected to the global network exceeded the population of the Earth, thereby making the Internet of People an “Internet of Things”. In the summer of 2013, Cisco launched the Connections Counter counter for Internet-connected devices , on which you could see the number of connected devices in real time. So, according to analysts at the corporation, at the end of July 2013, 10.3 billion connections were recorded. Interestingly, the forecasts of analytical agencies and vendors on the number of connected devices differ several times - from 3.8 billion to 16 billion in 2014 ( Gartner and ABI Researchrespectively) and from 25 billion to 50 billion by 2020 (Gartner and Ericsson, respectively). It is clear that forecasts are a thankless task, and all numbers will be corrected, but nevertheless, the tendency of individual analysts to inflate prospects should be fundamentally criticized sooner or later.
But why, it seems, is everyone talking about the Internet of Things right now? It would seem that the individual components and technologies have been developed for a long time. For example, the concept of “Smart Home”, which is often referred to in the context of the Internet of things, has existed for more than one year. But as such, the traditional Smart Home product was available only to wealthy clients until recently, when the budget of one project began from tens of thousands of dollars and ended with millions, it’s enough to recall Bill Gates ’s housein Medina, Washington. However, dramatic changes are taking place before our eyes. At the beginning of October in Moscow at the conference “Automation 2.0” there were many representatives of smart home systems installation companies. As one of the leaders of the Russian club KNX (the standard of the communication bus used to automate buildings) rightly noted that either these companies will take part in the new technological revolution of the Internet of things, or they will simply be washed away by the wave from the market.
The same goes for telemetry in connection with the Internet of things. It is believed that telemetry first appeared in the 19th century. But the most famous news about telemetry came along with space rocket technology. At one of the core IoT events held at Open Innovation- 2015, one of the respected professionals representing a very large corporation said about the Internet of things that nothing had changed, and earlier they transmitted telemetry data via their bus. Of course, he was cunning when he said that he did not see the difference between the proprietary bus and the Internet of things. By the way, quite often you hear from annoyed experts with great experience that the Internet of things is just a marketing ploy, an artificial term that combines the unified. Their annoyance is understandable, because companies that do not fit into the new trends of the Internet of things will also be washed away by the wave from the market.
It’s possible that the Internet of things is a marketing term that brings together a seemingly inseparable. But it allows us to discuss the future, completely different companies agree on cooperation in order to change the world for the better. Overall, this is a new driving force that will fundamentally transform many industries.
So what changes have taken place lately to talk about the Internet of things? The main changes are: 1) the constant cost reduction of electronic components, 2) ubiquitous wireless networks, 3) the availability of cloud computing. What other trends are worth mentioning in this context?
4) Further penetration of the Internet.
5) Increase in channel capacity.
6) Development of technologies of inter-machine interaction (M2M).
7) Start of transition to IPv6.
8) Mastering software-configurable networks.
9) Cheaper data processing.
10) A steady trend to “mobilize” networks, devices, programs and applications.
11) An increase in the number of startup projects related to hardware.
12) Release by leading electronics manufacturers with an Internet connection.
13) All large companies are focused on creating ecosystems around their own products.
14) Many companies provide software to integrate their products and services.
15) Increased interest in the Industrial IoT sector of various enterprises.
16) Increased interest in the “smart home” sector (Connected Home, Connected Home Services, Connected Devices) of the mass layers.
17) Growth in sales and cash fleet of smartphones and tablets.
18) An increase in the number of applications for mobile devices and an increase in the number of downloads from application stores.
Many of the latest trends discussed in this article can be found in detail on the websites of vendors and agencies:
Twenty Internet of Things trends to watch in 2015
IoT Megatrends 2015
6 Must-know future trends of the Internet of Things
Trends in IoT Investing for 2015
All these trends add up to one big trend in the development of the Internet of things. Gartner confirms that the Internet of things this year is associated with the highest expectations.
All the largest IT corporations expect great growth in this market and staked out directions in connection with their specializations.
So, Microsoft sees the Internet of things primarily as the Internet of Your Things and invites you to connect things important to you and your business. The new Windows 10 can be installed on any device, including a version of Windows 10 IoT Core, which can be installed, for example, on a single-board microcomputer Raspberry Pi 2. In addition, the corporation in its public cloud Microsoft Azure launched a set of pre-configured Azure IoT solutions Suite , which allows you to quickly connect existing devices.
Cisco is promoting its IoT concept - the Internet of Everything. Based on many years of experience building various networks, the corporation offers its customers to implement the concept of a smart city , which, for example, is being partially implemented in Kazan. In addition, specialized solutions are offered, such as the Cisco Connected Stadium Solution, which are equipped, for example, with the stadium of the Manchester City Club and Donbass Arena in Donetsk.
In turn, General Electric Corporation (GE) specializes in the use of IoT in production - the Industrial Internet , primarily in the energy and engineering sectors .
For Intel, of course, the Internet of Things begins with Intel Inside processors, Edison boards ,Galileo , Quark microcontrollers , etc., and integrates all this using its own IoT platform.
Recently, IBM announced that the Watson supercar will be used in new IoT solutions - the Watson IoT Unit and Watson IoT Cloud platform . Apple's HomeKit
technology allows you to use your iOS device to control any home accessories that have the Works with Apple HomeKit tag(Compatible with Apple HomeKit). To use HomeKit, you will need an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 8.1 or later. In addition, you must have one or more accessories that support HomeKit. Such accessories at the moment can be lock Schlage Deadbolt the Smart Sense , lighting system Philips the Hue , light control system Lutron , hub Insteon , device the iHome , the iDevices , Elgato , ConnectSense , thermostat Ecobee .
Google introduced the Brillo operating systemfor low-power Internet of Things devices, which is an extension of the Android OS. Part of this solution is the cross-platform language Weave (a competitor to Apple's HomeKit standard), which allows smart devices to communicate with each other. Earlier, Google acquired Nest Labs , the manufacturer of Nest smart thermostats, Nest Cam camcorders (the Dropcam was renamed after absorption) and Nest Protect sensors.
This description of the development can go on for a very long time. However, the question is, who owns intellectual property, patents for inventions and technologies? The very interesting results of a study on patent holders based on patent applications in the US were published in Forbes in July 2015 .
So, most corporations are in the market, and where is the money, and how is the IoT market valued in value terms? Thanks to the analysts, from the numbers of forecasts again charged in the eyes. Let's take a better look at real mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Internet giant Google acquired Nest Labs in January 2014 for $ 3.2 billion. This startup in 2010 was founded by former Apple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, who created Apple's breakthrough iPod player. In turn, Nest Labs bought Dropcam for $ 555 million for home surveillance cameras.
In 2014, SAMSUNG conglomerate acquired SmartThings for $ 200 million , the technology of which provides cross-platform communication between smart devices in the home.
In March 2015, the British company AlertMe (home energy monitoring service) was sold to British Gas (part of the Centrica PLC group) for £ 65 million ($ 100 million).
Under Armor, a US sportswear company, paid $ 560 million for two personal monitoring companies, Endomondo and MyFitnessPal.
A company developing chip-based sensor systems, InvenSense acquired two software companies in its field, Movea and Trusted Positioning, for a total of $ 81 million.
In May 2015, tire and car manufacturer Continental paid $ 687 million for Elektrobitdeveloping firmware for cars. It is worth noting that Continental has interests in the field of connected cars (Connected Car) and cooperates with IBM and Cisco in the field of unmanned cars, and Elektrobit, in turn, owns a 51% stake in a joint venture with Audi that develops displays, voice recognition and entertainment systems.
At the end of 2013, the American software company PTC acquired Thingworx , a platform for developing applications for the Internet of things for $ 112 million. In the summer of 2014, PTC bought Axeda , a pioneer in developing solutions for the secure connection of machines and sensors to the cloud for $ 170 million. May 2015, PTC swallowed ColdLight, a platform in the field of machine learning using big data and predictive (predictive) analytics, paying $ 100 million.
In March 2015, the American giant Amazon acquired a platform for the Internet of things 2lemetry . A startup focused on the corporate segment is engaged in the collection and processing of data from all devices with Internet access. Amazon declined to comment on the purchase, but it is likely that the service could become part of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The total purchase amount was not disclosed, but is estimated at $ 9 million.
Offshore developer Luxoft, a member of IBS, announced the acquisition of Radius in 2014engaged in the development of strategic analysis of data and information generated on the Internet of things. According to documents published on the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the deal amounted to $ 19.8 million.
In addition to M&A transactions, a large number of financing transactions are recorded. According to CB INSIGHTS, the most active Internet of Things investors in 2014 (and some of the objects of investment):
1. Intel Capital - Enlighted , Appscomm , Avegant
2. Sequoia Capital - Lifx , Simplisafe , Airstrip
3. True Ventures -Ring , Narrative , Athos Works
4. Qualcomm Ventures - Ineda Systems , Airstrip , Streetline
4. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers - Enlighted , Kinsa , mCube
4. Khosla Ventures - Thync , Misfit , Helium Systems
4. Andreessen Horowitz - IFTTT , Thync , Wearable Intelligence
8. Cisco Investments - Alya Networks ,EVRYTHING , Ineda Systems
8. Norwest Venture Partners - IFTTT , iRhythm , Misfit
8. The Social + Capital Partnership - BoomBotix , FiLiP Technologies , Athos Works
After reviewing just a few of the deals, it becomes clear how many different directions there are on the Internet of things. The Ontology of the Internet of Things from Intel seems to be the most successful .
In the proposed ontology, the Internet of things is divided into industrial and consumer. Industrial vehicles typically include smart vehicles or Connected Cars, smart cities, smart grids in the energy sector, smart cars and entire factories. To the consumer - wearable devices (Wearables), connected devices (Connected Devices or Appliances), a smart home (Smart Home), etc.
Of course, the division is very arbitrary. For example, connected cars from the point of view of automobile concerns belong to the industrial Internet. But there are consumer solutions where a driver can save fuel with a small device and a mobile application. And finally, when the buses are connected to a common system of monitoring public transport, this solution can simultaneously be attributed to a smart city.
Currently, not all areas are equally promising. Harvard Business Review identifies 5 key markets: Connected Wearables, Connected Cars, Connected Homes, Connected Cities, Industrial Internet.
The main focus of the media is on smart home and wearable devices. The industrial Internet as a more complex sector is less often covered by the press. It is interesting in this regard to consider the Enterprise View on the Internet of things from ZDNet.
For an enterprise, business functions are primary that can be efficiently solved at a new level using the Internet of Things:
Using numerous protocols / standards and various types of sensors and controllers, an enterprise can manage and measure the status of various fields of activity.
As it became clear, hundreds of enterprises operate in the IoT market. There are many landscape schemes. Here is one of the latest from Venture Scanner : We
dare to compose the Russian landscape of the Internet of things. It is difficult to claim absolute completeness, for adjustment, please comment.
With all the variety of systems of the Internet of things, all systems have common components.
Firstly, these are IoT things, primarily devices - sensors, controllers, actuators, as well as physical objects that were not originally designed to connect to the network. Each item must be uniquely identified. Devices are identified by firmware provided by device developers, the traditional identifier is the MAC address of the network adapter. The range of available addresses is finite, but IPv6 provides a greater opportunity (a new version of IP with an address length of 128 bits instead of 32 in IPv4). And physical objects can be identified using RFID tags, radio beacons, optically recognizable identifiers (for example, barcodes), etc.
Secondly, it is the network of the Internet of things. Wired and wireless, including hubs and gateways, with the entire zoo numerous protocols. For wireless networks, such qualities as efficiency at low speeds, fault tolerance, adaptability, the possibility of self-organization, low power consumption play an important role.
Thirdly, these are data centers (DPCs), usually in the cloud (cloud computing). These centers collect, store, process, analyze and visualize data. And also forecasts are made, recommendations and commands to devices for smart interaction between themselves and between devices and the external environment in accordance with specified algorithms.
It seems that all the major IT companies have already opened their public clouds. However, the most competitive, perhaps, are the cloud services Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Currently, to save data center computing resources and traffic in networks, solutions are being introduced that transfer some of the calculations, for example, data preprocessing, to the network boundary. Such computing as opposed to cloud computing is called fog computing, and Cisco is also promoting this concept.
What barriers hinder the development of the Internet of Things? Of course, in the first place - a variety of different protocols and the lack of generally accepted standards.
Initially, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, International Telecommunication Union, ITU) began to play a key role in standardization in the field of the Internet of things. Other major international standards development organizations are also implementing IoT standardization projects. These include the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, International, Organization for Standardization, the ISO ), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC, International, Electrotechnical Commission, to IEC ) and Task Force Internet Engineering problems (the Task of Internet Engineering the Force, the IETF ). And of course, a large number of standards committees are conducted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE), without which it would be impossible to effectively implement the Internet of things. In addition, important national projects are being implemented in the framework of standards development organizations in Canada, China, Europe, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the USA.
However, many practitioners believe that standards should be developed primarily by manufacturers, industry leaders such as Broadcom, Dell, Intel, Samsung, etc., who created the Open Interconnect Consortium or QUALCOMM, Sharp, Microsoft, Cisco, LG, Philips, Sony et al. with their AllSeen Alliance .
This alliance promotes AllJoin, an open source protocol designed for applications, devices and users to communicate over IP networks, regardless of device type. At the same time, devices and applications can find and provide services to each other over the network without the use of additional equipment and servers. The AllJoin protocol is now seen as a potential common standard for the Internet of Things. An important advantage of this standard is its openness, independence from a particular manufacturer. Some analogue of this standard from the world of automation is the BACnet standard, which can also work in IP networks and has the functions of detecting devices and determining what services they provide. But the AllJoin standard has a very interesting ability to transfer not only commands, but also data, for example, audio and video streams. This makes it possible to fully integrate multimedia systems and manage engineering systems of buildings within one open standard.
In addition, the Thread Group organization , which was created by OSRAM, QUALCOMM, ARM, SAMSUNG, Nest Labs, etc. , has recently gained fame for one purpose: to create the best way to connect and manage devices in the house. This not-for-profit organization promotes Thread Networking Protocol and certifies products. Currently certified more than 250 devices.
Just as the Thread Group was created by smart home market players, the Industrial Internet Consortium was founded in March 2014 by AT&T, Cisco, GE, Intel, and IBM for the industrial Internet .) in order to bring together organizations and technologies necessary to accelerate the implementation of IIoT. Many companies have joined the Consortium, including Kaspersky Lab and Rostelecom.
No less well-known is another non-profit organization - oneM2M , which is developing standards for M2M and IoT. M2M is Machine-to-Machine, a generic term for technologies that enable machines to exchange information with each other. This term appeared much earlier than the term IoT, the last of which is currently considered to be broader. OneM2M has 230 members, including all the largest vendors and telecoms. IoT Alliance
Map :
The Open Automotive Alliance was created in January 2014, which includes major automakers GM, Honda, Audi, Hyundai and many others, as well as technology partners such as chip maker Nvidia. The goal of the alliance is to build a common platform for cars based on the Android OS. Google has a chance to spread its influence to millions of cars.
Many experts are of the opinion that the Open Automotive Alliance is a response to Apple CarPlay . CarPlay is an Apple system that allows you to connect your iPhone, starting with iPhone 5, to a multimedia-adapted car for integrating Siri and other services into the car. For work, iOS 7.1 or higher is required, for the first time the concept of technology was presented at the WWDC annual presentation in June 2013, then it was called iOS In The Car.
Russia also does not stand aside from countries developing national projects in the field of IoT. Rostelecom identified the Industrial Internet as one of the strategic directions of development and announced the creation of a domestic Consortium in the field of Industrial Internet by the summer of 2016.
In addition, in October it became known that the Ministry of Industry and Trade had developed a “road map” for the development of the “Internet of Things” in Russia. The roadmap is due by February 2016. The working group included representatives of the Ministry of Emergencies, Samsung, T1 group (as part of Renova Group of Companies), RTI JSC (as part of Sistema JSFC), and the key participants in this association should be Rostelecom, GS Group, United Instrument-Making Corporation (subsidiary Rostec company). On behalf of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the document is being prepared by the Internet Initiatives Development Fund.
The second important barrier to the development of IoT is security issues. Now the term Internet of threats has even begun to be used: How not to turn the Internet of things into an Internet of threats?
Due to the unsatisfactory security level of the Internet of Things technique, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI) recommends that such devices be completely isolated from the global network. This was reported on the official website of the department. In particular, the agency is concerned about UPnP vulnerabilities (Universal Plug and Play - a set of network protocols published by the UPnP forum, UPnP's goal is universal automatic configuration of network devices), hard-coded logins and passwords, weak default passwords, and denial of service.
Security issues in IoT have become the focus of attention of many companies specializing in information security, including Kaspersky Lab. In a recent article on the Kaspersky Lab blog, you can learn about how to use smart devices and protect yourself from intruders. A small spoiler: “In this case, the user may not notice that, having exploited the vulnerability in the coffee machine (coffee machine, Karl!), Another user connected to the network.”
The third barrier to the development of the Internet of things is the power problem of connected devices. Since many of these devices are various wireless sensors, which will soon be deployed in huge numbers, including in hard-to-reach places, the costs of replacing batteries in them can negate all the benefits of their use.
This problem can be solved in different ways: autonomous power supply, chemical-technological way, using low-power technologies such as Bluetooth LE, taking into account the low power requirements when building a network architecture, special software, etc.
The fourth barrier, psychological, the most difficult to overcome, is that many consumers are not ready to let smart devices into their lives for various reasons. These are also personal security considerations, since several rather high-profile scandals have already occurred regarding the connection of cybercriminals to home surveillance cameras, including “video nannies”. Or the case when hackers gained access to remote control of the car. As well as the incident in March of this year when users of the Hive smart British Gas thermostat could not control heating due to a DNS failure at the provider.
Some consumers simply believe that smart things do not create added value, are useless and expensive.There is a fear that a person will become an experimental rabbit in the marketing services of large corporations.
Despite these developmental barriers, the Internet of things has great prospects. Ubiquitous Internet and wireless networks will lead to ubiquitous touch networks. Data will turn into a kind of new currency. Entire industries will change, with the boundaries between some industries disappearing. Many old routine professions will be replaced by completely new ones. To paraphrase one of the slogans, we can say that when your home and business are connected, the possibilities are almost endless.
Finally, a small reference bonus on information aggregators and IoT events.
Among the aggregators of IoT information, the following should be noted: Postscapes
portal
IOT ANALYTICS Research Agency , Hamburg, Germany.
Russian Center for the Internet of Things
Monitor Agency, Bulletin “World of the Internet of Things” (a pilot copy is available, regular release from 2016).
5 outstanding speeches about the Internet of things at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design).
10 best books on IoT and 50 best professionals in the field of IoT according to the portal IoTCentral.
What activities on the topic of the Internet of things should I look for? First of all, at the most famous events related to consumer electronics:
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas CESJanuary 6-9, 2016
Barcelona Mobile Technology Congress Mobile World Congress , February 22-25, 2016
Hanover exhibition CeBIT March 14-18, 2016 IFA
Berlin Exhibition , September 2-7, 2016 In addition, a lot of specialized events are held in the world, only some of the coming and important ones: IoT World Forum , November 18-19, 2015, London IoT Applications USA , November 18-19, 2015, Santa Clara, USA inside IoT München , November 30, 2015 , Munich Insurance IoT USA , December 1, 2015, Miami IEEE IoT Startup Competition presented by IEEE with IoT Central , December 2, 2015, New York
IoT For Utilities , December 2-3, 2015, Houston
ThingMonk , December 3-4, 2015, London
The Internet of Things World Forum 2015 , December 6-8, Dubai
THE CONNECTED CITY SUMMIT 2016 , March 16, 2016, London
M2M World Congress 2016 , April 26-27, 2016, London
RE.WORK CONNECT SUMMIT BOSTON , May 12, 2016, Boston
THE INTERNET OF THINGS WEEK 2016 BELGRADE , May 31 - June 2, 2016, Belgrade
Internet of Things Conference , 2016, Moscow
More IoT events at website www.iotevents.org
The first version of this article is here .
There are many definitions of this term. The above definition is one of the shortest and most capacious. The keywords in it are network, technology, interaction, and the key point is the presence of a person in this interaction in the general case is not necessary.
Most likely, the term Internet of Things was first used by Kevin Ashton in 1999. Kevin Ashton was an assistant brand manager at Procter & Gamble in 1997, when he became interested in using RFID (Radio-frequency identification) technology for supply chain management. This work brought him to MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Massachusetts Institute of Technology), where he, as a co-founder, organized an RFID research consortium called Auto ID Center. Ashton subsequently became ThingMagic's vice president of RFID, and later he became one of the founders and CEO of Zensi, which was acquired by Belkin International in April 2010. For about 4 years, Ashton was the General Manager of Belkin, where under his leadership a series of devices for the smart home WeMo was developed and launched .
The IoT term was reborn from the feed of Cisco analysts, who estimated that between 2008 and 2009 the number of devices connected to the global network exceeded the population of the Earth, thereby making the Internet of People an “Internet of Things”. In the summer of 2013, Cisco launched the Connections Counter counter for Internet-connected devices , on which you could see the number of connected devices in real time. So, according to analysts at the corporation, at the end of July 2013, 10.3 billion connections were recorded. Interestingly, the forecasts of analytical agencies and vendors on the number of connected devices differ several times - from 3.8 billion to 16 billion in 2014 ( Gartner and ABI Researchrespectively) and from 25 billion to 50 billion by 2020 (Gartner and Ericsson, respectively). It is clear that forecasts are a thankless task, and all numbers will be corrected, but nevertheless, the tendency of individual analysts to inflate prospects should be fundamentally criticized sooner or later.
But why, it seems, is everyone talking about the Internet of Things right now? It would seem that the individual components and technologies have been developed for a long time. For example, the concept of “Smart Home”, which is often referred to in the context of the Internet of things, has existed for more than one year. But as such, the traditional Smart Home product was available only to wealthy clients until recently, when the budget of one project began from tens of thousands of dollars and ended with millions, it’s enough to recall Bill Gates ’s housein Medina, Washington. However, dramatic changes are taking place before our eyes. At the beginning of October in Moscow at the conference “Automation 2.0” there were many representatives of smart home systems installation companies. As one of the leaders of the Russian club KNX (the standard of the communication bus used to automate buildings) rightly noted that either these companies will take part in the new technological revolution of the Internet of things, or they will simply be washed away by the wave from the market.
The same goes for telemetry in connection with the Internet of things. It is believed that telemetry first appeared in the 19th century. But the most famous news about telemetry came along with space rocket technology. At one of the core IoT events held at Open Innovation- 2015, one of the respected professionals representing a very large corporation said about the Internet of things that nothing had changed, and earlier they transmitted telemetry data via their bus. Of course, he was cunning when he said that he did not see the difference between the proprietary bus and the Internet of things. By the way, quite often you hear from annoyed experts with great experience that the Internet of things is just a marketing ploy, an artificial term that combines the unified. Their annoyance is understandable, because companies that do not fit into the new trends of the Internet of things will also be washed away by the wave from the market.
It’s possible that the Internet of things is a marketing term that brings together a seemingly inseparable. But it allows us to discuss the future, completely different companies agree on cooperation in order to change the world for the better. Overall, this is a new driving force that will fundamentally transform many industries.
So what changes have taken place lately to talk about the Internet of things? The main changes are: 1) the constant cost reduction of electronic components, 2) ubiquitous wireless networks, 3) the availability of cloud computing. What other trends are worth mentioning in this context?
4) Further penetration of the Internet.
5) Increase in channel capacity.
6) Development of technologies of inter-machine interaction (M2M).
7) Start of transition to IPv6.
8) Mastering software-configurable networks.
9) Cheaper data processing.
10) A steady trend to “mobilize” networks, devices, programs and applications.
11) An increase in the number of startup projects related to hardware.
12) Release by leading electronics manufacturers with an Internet connection.
13) All large companies are focused on creating ecosystems around their own products.
14) Many companies provide software to integrate their products and services.
15) Increased interest in the Industrial IoT sector of various enterprises.
16) Increased interest in the “smart home” sector (Connected Home, Connected Home Services, Connected Devices) of the mass layers.
17) Growth in sales and cash fleet of smartphones and tablets.
18) An increase in the number of applications for mobile devices and an increase in the number of downloads from application stores.
Many of the latest trends discussed in this article can be found in detail on the websites of vendors and agencies:
Twenty Internet of Things trends to watch in 2015
IoT Megatrends 2015
6 Must-know future trends of the Internet of Things
Trends in IoT Investing for 2015
All these trends add up to one big trend in the development of the Internet of things. Gartner confirms that the Internet of things this year is associated with the highest expectations.
All the largest IT corporations expect great growth in this market and staked out directions in connection with their specializations.
So, Microsoft sees the Internet of things primarily as the Internet of Your Things and invites you to connect things important to you and your business. The new Windows 10 can be installed on any device, including a version of Windows 10 IoT Core, which can be installed, for example, on a single-board microcomputer Raspberry Pi 2. In addition, the corporation in its public cloud Microsoft Azure launched a set of pre-configured Azure IoT solutions Suite , which allows you to quickly connect existing devices.
Cisco is promoting its IoT concept - the Internet of Everything. Based on many years of experience building various networks, the corporation offers its customers to implement the concept of a smart city , which, for example, is being partially implemented in Kazan. In addition, specialized solutions are offered, such as the Cisco Connected Stadium Solution, which are equipped, for example, with the stadium of the Manchester City Club and Donbass Arena in Donetsk.
In turn, General Electric Corporation (GE) specializes in the use of IoT in production - the Industrial Internet , primarily in the energy and engineering sectors .
For Intel, of course, the Internet of Things begins with Intel Inside processors, Edison boards ,Galileo , Quark microcontrollers , etc., and integrates all this using its own IoT platform.
Recently, IBM announced that the Watson supercar will be used in new IoT solutions - the Watson IoT Unit and Watson IoT Cloud platform . Apple's HomeKit
technology allows you to use your iOS device to control any home accessories that have the Works with Apple HomeKit tag(Compatible with Apple HomeKit). To use HomeKit, you will need an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 8.1 or later. In addition, you must have one or more accessories that support HomeKit. Such accessories at the moment can be lock Schlage Deadbolt the Smart Sense , lighting system Philips the Hue , light control system Lutron , hub Insteon , device the iHome , the iDevices , Elgato , ConnectSense , thermostat Ecobee .
Google introduced the Brillo operating systemfor low-power Internet of Things devices, which is an extension of the Android OS. Part of this solution is the cross-platform language Weave (a competitor to Apple's HomeKit standard), which allows smart devices to communicate with each other. Earlier, Google acquired Nest Labs , the manufacturer of Nest smart thermostats, Nest Cam camcorders (the Dropcam was renamed after absorption) and Nest Protect sensors.
This description of the development can go on for a very long time. However, the question is, who owns intellectual property, patents for inventions and technologies? The very interesting results of a study on patent holders based on patent applications in the US were published in Forbes in July 2015 .
So, most corporations are in the market, and where is the money, and how is the IoT market valued in value terms? Thanks to the analysts, from the numbers of forecasts again charged in the eyes. Let's take a better look at real mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Internet giant Google acquired Nest Labs in January 2014 for $ 3.2 billion. This startup in 2010 was founded by former Apple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, who created Apple's breakthrough iPod player. In turn, Nest Labs bought Dropcam for $ 555 million for home surveillance cameras.
In 2014, SAMSUNG conglomerate acquired SmartThings for $ 200 million , the technology of which provides cross-platform communication between smart devices in the home.
In March 2015, the British company AlertMe (home energy monitoring service) was sold to British Gas (part of the Centrica PLC group) for £ 65 million ($ 100 million).
Under Armor, a US sportswear company, paid $ 560 million for two personal monitoring companies, Endomondo and MyFitnessPal.
A company developing chip-based sensor systems, InvenSense acquired two software companies in its field, Movea and Trusted Positioning, for a total of $ 81 million.
In May 2015, tire and car manufacturer Continental paid $ 687 million for Elektrobitdeveloping firmware for cars. It is worth noting that Continental has interests in the field of connected cars (Connected Car) and cooperates with IBM and Cisco in the field of unmanned cars, and Elektrobit, in turn, owns a 51% stake in a joint venture with Audi that develops displays, voice recognition and entertainment systems.
At the end of 2013, the American software company PTC acquired Thingworx , a platform for developing applications for the Internet of things for $ 112 million. In the summer of 2014, PTC bought Axeda , a pioneer in developing solutions for the secure connection of machines and sensors to the cloud for $ 170 million. May 2015, PTC swallowed ColdLight, a platform in the field of machine learning using big data and predictive (predictive) analytics, paying $ 100 million.
In March 2015, the American giant Amazon acquired a platform for the Internet of things 2lemetry . A startup focused on the corporate segment is engaged in the collection and processing of data from all devices with Internet access. Amazon declined to comment on the purchase, but it is likely that the service could become part of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The total purchase amount was not disclosed, but is estimated at $ 9 million.
Offshore developer Luxoft, a member of IBS, announced the acquisition of Radius in 2014engaged in the development of strategic analysis of data and information generated on the Internet of things. According to documents published on the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the deal amounted to $ 19.8 million.
In addition to M&A transactions, a large number of financing transactions are recorded. According to CB INSIGHTS, the most active Internet of Things investors in 2014 (and some of the objects of investment):
1. Intel Capital - Enlighted , Appscomm , Avegant
2. Sequoia Capital - Lifx , Simplisafe , Airstrip
3. True Ventures -Ring , Narrative , Athos Works
4. Qualcomm Ventures - Ineda Systems , Airstrip , Streetline
4. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers - Enlighted , Kinsa , mCube
4. Khosla Ventures - Thync , Misfit , Helium Systems
4. Andreessen Horowitz - IFTTT , Thync , Wearable Intelligence
8. Cisco Investments - Alya Networks ,EVRYTHING , Ineda Systems
8. Norwest Venture Partners - IFTTT , iRhythm , Misfit
8. The Social + Capital Partnership - BoomBotix , FiLiP Technologies , Athos Works
After reviewing just a few of the deals, it becomes clear how many different directions there are on the Internet of things. The Ontology of the Internet of Things from Intel seems to be the most successful .
In the proposed ontology, the Internet of things is divided into industrial and consumer. Industrial vehicles typically include smart vehicles or Connected Cars, smart cities, smart grids in the energy sector, smart cars and entire factories. To the consumer - wearable devices (Wearables), connected devices (Connected Devices or Appliances), a smart home (Smart Home), etc.
Of course, the division is very arbitrary. For example, connected cars from the point of view of automobile concerns belong to the industrial Internet. But there are consumer solutions where a driver can save fuel with a small device and a mobile application. And finally, when the buses are connected to a common system of monitoring public transport, this solution can simultaneously be attributed to a smart city.
Currently, not all areas are equally promising. Harvard Business Review identifies 5 key markets: Connected Wearables, Connected Cars, Connected Homes, Connected Cities, Industrial Internet.
The main focus of the media is on smart home and wearable devices. The industrial Internet as a more complex sector is less often covered by the press. It is interesting in this regard to consider the Enterprise View on the Internet of things from ZDNet.
For an enterprise, business functions are primary that can be efficiently solved at a new level using the Internet of Things:
- smart connected workstation
- monitoring, management and optimization of business processes
- advanced and advanced IT
- automation of products and services
- business analytics
- involvement and connection of customers and points of sale
Using numerous protocols / standards and various types of sensors and controllers, an enterprise can manage and measure the status of various fields of activity.
As it became clear, hundreds of enterprises operate in the IoT market. There are many landscape schemes. Here is one of the latest from Venture Scanner : We
dare to compose the Russian landscape of the Internet of things. It is difficult to claim absolute completeness, for adjustment, please comment.
With all the variety of systems of the Internet of things, all systems have common components.
Firstly, these are IoT things, primarily devices - sensors, controllers, actuators, as well as physical objects that were not originally designed to connect to the network. Each item must be uniquely identified. Devices are identified by firmware provided by device developers, the traditional identifier is the MAC address of the network adapter. The range of available addresses is finite, but IPv6 provides a greater opportunity (a new version of IP with an address length of 128 bits instead of 32 in IPv4). And physical objects can be identified using RFID tags, radio beacons, optically recognizable identifiers (for example, barcodes), etc.
Secondly, it is the network of the Internet of things. Wired and wireless, including hubs and gateways, with the entire zoo numerous protocols. For wireless networks, such qualities as efficiency at low speeds, fault tolerance, adaptability, the possibility of self-organization, low power consumption play an important role.
Thirdly, these are data centers (DPCs), usually in the cloud (cloud computing). These centers collect, store, process, analyze and visualize data. And also forecasts are made, recommendations and commands to devices for smart interaction between themselves and between devices and the external environment in accordance with specified algorithms.
It seems that all the major IT companies have already opened their public clouds. However, the most competitive, perhaps, are the cloud services Amazon, Google and Microsoft.
Currently, to save data center computing resources and traffic in networks, solutions are being introduced that transfer some of the calculations, for example, data preprocessing, to the network boundary. Such computing as opposed to cloud computing is called fog computing, and Cisco is also promoting this concept.
What barriers hinder the development of the Internet of Things? Of course, in the first place - a variety of different protocols and the lack of generally accepted standards.
Initially, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU, International Telecommunication Union, ITU) began to play a key role in standardization in the field of the Internet of things. Other major international standards development organizations are also implementing IoT standardization projects. These include the International Organization for Standardization (ISO, International, Organization for Standardization, the ISO ), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC, International, Electrotechnical Commission, to IEC ) and Task Force Internet Engineering problems (the Task of Internet Engineering the Force, the IETF ). And of course, a large number of standards committees are conducted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE), without which it would be impossible to effectively implement the Internet of things. In addition, important national projects are being implemented in the framework of standards development organizations in Canada, China, Europe, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the USA.
However, many practitioners believe that standards should be developed primarily by manufacturers, industry leaders such as Broadcom, Dell, Intel, Samsung, etc., who created the Open Interconnect Consortium or QUALCOMM, Sharp, Microsoft, Cisco, LG, Philips, Sony et al. with their AllSeen Alliance .
This alliance promotes AllJoin, an open source protocol designed for applications, devices and users to communicate over IP networks, regardless of device type. At the same time, devices and applications can find and provide services to each other over the network without the use of additional equipment and servers. The AllJoin protocol is now seen as a potential common standard for the Internet of Things. An important advantage of this standard is its openness, independence from a particular manufacturer. Some analogue of this standard from the world of automation is the BACnet standard, which can also work in IP networks and has the functions of detecting devices and determining what services they provide. But the AllJoin standard has a very interesting ability to transfer not only commands, but also data, for example, audio and video streams. This makes it possible to fully integrate multimedia systems and manage engineering systems of buildings within one open standard.
In addition, the Thread Group organization , which was created by OSRAM, QUALCOMM, ARM, SAMSUNG, Nest Labs, etc. , has recently gained fame for one purpose: to create the best way to connect and manage devices in the house. This not-for-profit organization promotes Thread Networking Protocol and certifies products. Currently certified more than 250 devices.
Just as the Thread Group was created by smart home market players, the Industrial Internet Consortium was founded in March 2014 by AT&T, Cisco, GE, Intel, and IBM for the industrial Internet .) in order to bring together organizations and technologies necessary to accelerate the implementation of IIoT. Many companies have joined the Consortium, including Kaspersky Lab and Rostelecom.
No less well-known is another non-profit organization - oneM2M , which is developing standards for M2M and IoT. M2M is Machine-to-Machine, a generic term for technologies that enable machines to exchange information with each other. This term appeared much earlier than the term IoT, the last of which is currently considered to be broader. OneM2M has 230 members, including all the largest vendors and telecoms. IoT Alliance
Map :
The Open Automotive Alliance was created in January 2014, which includes major automakers GM, Honda, Audi, Hyundai and many others, as well as technology partners such as chip maker Nvidia. The goal of the alliance is to build a common platform for cars based on the Android OS. Google has a chance to spread its influence to millions of cars.
Many experts are of the opinion that the Open Automotive Alliance is a response to Apple CarPlay . CarPlay is an Apple system that allows you to connect your iPhone, starting with iPhone 5, to a multimedia-adapted car for integrating Siri and other services into the car. For work, iOS 7.1 or higher is required, for the first time the concept of technology was presented at the WWDC annual presentation in June 2013, then it was called iOS In The Car.
Russia also does not stand aside from countries developing national projects in the field of IoT. Rostelecom identified the Industrial Internet as one of the strategic directions of development and announced the creation of a domestic Consortium in the field of Industrial Internet by the summer of 2016.
In addition, in October it became known that the Ministry of Industry and Trade had developed a “road map” for the development of the “Internet of Things” in Russia. The roadmap is due by February 2016. The working group included representatives of the Ministry of Emergencies, Samsung, T1 group (as part of Renova Group of Companies), RTI JSC (as part of Sistema JSFC), and the key participants in this association should be Rostelecom, GS Group, United Instrument-Making Corporation (subsidiary Rostec company). On behalf of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the document is being prepared by the Internet Initiatives Development Fund.
The second important barrier to the development of IoT is security issues. Now the term Internet of threats has even begun to be used: How not to turn the Internet of things into an Internet of threats?
Due to the unsatisfactory security level of the Internet of Things technique, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI) recommends that such devices be completely isolated from the global network. This was reported on the official website of the department. In particular, the agency is concerned about UPnP vulnerabilities (Universal Plug and Play - a set of network protocols published by the UPnP forum, UPnP's goal is universal automatic configuration of network devices), hard-coded logins and passwords, weak default passwords, and denial of service.
Security issues in IoT have become the focus of attention of many companies specializing in information security, including Kaspersky Lab. In a recent article on the Kaspersky Lab blog, you can learn about how to use smart devices and protect yourself from intruders. A small spoiler: “In this case, the user may not notice that, having exploited the vulnerability in the coffee machine (coffee machine, Karl!), Another user connected to the network.”
The third barrier to the development of the Internet of things is the power problem of connected devices. Since many of these devices are various wireless sensors, which will soon be deployed in huge numbers, including in hard-to-reach places, the costs of replacing batteries in them can negate all the benefits of their use.
This problem can be solved in different ways: autonomous power supply, chemical-technological way, using low-power technologies such as Bluetooth LE, taking into account the low power requirements when building a network architecture, special software, etc.
The fourth barrier, psychological, the most difficult to overcome, is that many consumers are not ready to let smart devices into their lives for various reasons. These are also personal security considerations, since several rather high-profile scandals have already occurred regarding the connection of cybercriminals to home surveillance cameras, including “video nannies”. Or the case when hackers gained access to remote control of the car. As well as the incident in March of this year when users of the Hive smart British Gas thermostat could not control heating due to a DNS failure at the provider.
Some consumers simply believe that smart things do not create added value, are useless and expensive.There is a fear that a person will become an experimental rabbit in the marketing services of large corporations.
Despite these developmental barriers, the Internet of things has great prospects. Ubiquitous Internet and wireless networks will lead to ubiquitous touch networks. Data will turn into a kind of new currency. Entire industries will change, with the boundaries between some industries disappearing. Many old routine professions will be replaced by completely new ones. To paraphrase one of the slogans, we can say that when your home and business are connected, the possibilities are almost endless.
Finally, a small reference bonus on information aggregators and IoT events.
Among the aggregators of IoT information, the following should be noted: Postscapes
portal
IOT ANALYTICS Research Agency , Hamburg, Germany.
Russian Center for the Internet of Things
Monitor Agency, Bulletin “World of the Internet of Things” (a pilot copy is available, regular release from 2016).
5 outstanding speeches about the Internet of things at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design).
10 best books on IoT and 50 best professionals in the field of IoT according to the portal IoTCentral.
What activities on the topic of the Internet of things should I look for? First of all, at the most famous events related to consumer electronics:
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas CESJanuary 6-9, 2016
Barcelona Mobile Technology Congress Mobile World Congress , February 22-25, 2016
Hanover exhibition CeBIT March 14-18, 2016 IFA
Berlin Exhibition , September 2-7, 2016 In addition, a lot of specialized events are held in the world, only some of the coming and important ones: IoT World Forum , November 18-19, 2015, London IoT Applications USA , November 18-19, 2015, Santa Clara, USA inside IoT München , November 30, 2015 , Munich Insurance IoT USA , December 1, 2015, Miami IEEE IoT Startup Competition presented by IEEE with IoT Central , December 2, 2015, New York
IoT For Utilities , December 2-3, 2015, Houston
ThingMonk , December 3-4, 2015, London
The Internet of Things World Forum 2015 , December 6-8, Dubai
THE CONNECTED CITY SUMMIT 2016 , March 16, 2016, London
M2M World Congress 2016 , April 26-27, 2016, London
RE.WORK CONNECT SUMMIT BOSTON , May 12, 2016, Boston
THE INTERNET OF THINGS WEEK 2016 BELGRADE , May 31 - June 2, 2016, Belgrade
Internet of Things Conference , 2016, Moscow
More IoT events at website www.iotevents.org
The first version of this article is here .