IoT era: how to enter?

    Today, the world is on the verge of mass adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in everyday life and business. It is expected that its serious development is inextricably linked with the new 5G mobile communications standard , which is at the final stages of development and testing. With its help, a person will be able to control many “smart” devices connected to the network. However, today there are devices whose technical characteristics even allow the administration of IoT devices to be managed within the capabilities of existing networks.



    Smartphone Explorer


    As we recall, initially users could access the Network only through computers connected to it. But with the beginning of the era of smartphones, their owners got mobile access to the Internet. The development of wireless networks has become fertile ground for connecting to it any devices that can exchange information using a network interface, called the Internet of Things. According to BI Intelligence , in 2016, approximately 6.6 billion IoT devices were recorded, but by 2021 at least 22.5 billion are expected.

    This suggests that in the next 3-5 years we will be able not only to see the active development of the Internet of things, but also become direct participants and users of global IoT systems that will radically change our lives. But for now, they can be discussed within the framework of today's technical capabilities and in relation to the current needs of the end user.

    Recently, IoT has become an increasingly popular topic, especially in relation to 5G, which will expand the functionality and infrastructure of smart devices. According to estimates, their mass implementation will take at least five years. One of the main obstacles is the lack of uniform operating standards for various devices included in IoT systems. However, while developers are looking for the right solution, an ordinary smartphone can facilitate the “communication” with “smart” devices to some extent .

    Perhaps today it is one of the optimal solutions for communication between various IoT devices and a kind of remote control for them. In other words, today a smartphone not only facilitates communication with “smart” things, but, being a full-fledged gateway, acts as a kind of adapter, or basic platform for IoT.

    This is facilitated by a number of factors, one of which is the mass distribution. According to the British company IHS Markit, by the end of 2016 there were about 4 billion smartphones in the world, and by 2020 their number could reach 6 billion. Moreover, about 7.4 billion people live in the world today and according to UN forecasts by 2020 their number will not exceed 8 billion. That is, the percentage of people with smartphones will grow very significantly.



    Most modern smartphone models are advanced technical devices. Their software and processor power make it possible to connect to them and manage a large number of various IoT devices. And the basic set of sensors and other devices available in the smartphone allows you to build a network whose dimensions can far exceed the “human” Internet. In addition, smartphones can be used as a hub on the way to the cloud, where all the necessary information is stored for the full interaction of IoT devices.

    Thus, in spite of its “sophistication”, the smartphone remains easy to use, and most importantly, accessible to the mass consumer device, which performs the functions of transmitting / receiving data, controlling and configuring IoT devices.

    But still, the main link in communication remains a person. In most cases, it initiates the interaction of devices in the IoT system. And this suggests that a person himself becomes a part of it and can control the flow of information, initiate or receive control commands. That is, with his participation, a new system is formed, which is called the “Social Internet of Things” (SIoT).

    Unification and interaction


    Of course, with the advent of 5G communications and the projected increase in the world of smart devices to 50-100 billion, a qualitatively new level of IoT interaction will be required. And for this you need compatibility of the protocols of their work, since it is the possibility of uninterrupted communication of smart devices of various functionalities that will be one of the drivers for the mass distribution of IoT systems.

    By the way, back in 2015, the American consulting company McKinsey & Company found that about 40% of the total economic value of various IoT systems is the ability to interact with each other their devices, i.e. compatibility. Limited compatibility dramatically reduces the value and usefulness of such a system and leads to its lack of demand by users.

    Therefore, in order to take full advantage of the IoT concept and the capabilities of 5G, today’s disparate systems must learn to interact and exchange information. Solving this problem is a difficult and time-consuming and financial task, but application developers and device manufacturers together with companies implementing IT systems will have to agree on the necessary minimum of common standards and protocols. So in any case, solutions will be found that will lead to their unification, approximately the same as it was with the set of TCP / IP network protocols.



    When this happens, “smart” devices in large quantities will be able to organize themselves into a global network of physical objects that connect to the Internet through gateways (hubs or specialized IoT platforms). The latter perform the necessary translation between the protocols that are used in communication networks and in the devices themselves. At the same time, many hardware platforms will be able to act as a gateway, starting from ordinary routers and ending with specialized “boxed” solutions.

    Of course, to ensure the connection and maintenance of so many devices, as well as provide the appropriate tools for processing and storing the data received from them, a global software platform is needed. Moreover, ideally, it should be multi-user and be able to combine not only IoT devices, but also people. And the most suitable option here is the SIoT platform. With their help, users can not only manage connected devices, but also create new device configurations and various scenarios for their use. Data will be stored in the cloud, and managed smart devices can be located at large distances from each other, even on different continents.

    Science fiction to become reality


    At first glance, for an uninitiated person, everything related to IoT may seem unbelievable. But this is literally tomorrow's reality, the onset of which is very advisable not to oversleep. The world around us is changing beyond our will, and one fine day, for example, your usual TV suddenly becomes the control center of everything and everything, since everything necessary for this has already been laid down by the manufacturer. It has a display, a microcontroller, a network card, an operating system and everything you need to communicate with other network devices. Having registered the corresponding modules using the IoT Constructor and connecting your Smart TV to the cloud, any user can fully and in the necessary parameters interact with the new digital and wireless world surrounding him.

    And this interaction may be the most unexpected. Today, few people imagine that using the same TV connected to the IoT system, you can, for example, start and control the process of watering the beds and flowers in a country cottage, or a washing machine in the apartment of your beloved mother-in-law, who was sent to rest in the Maldives yesterday (or further).

    And recently, one of the young IT companies began to produce game and training consoles for dogs. A special bowl with a built-in Wi-Fi module, colored buttons and a speaker gives the animal various tasks, rewarding for the correct pressing with a portion of the feed, and informs the owner about his actions. The device also allows you to feed the animal at a set time.



    These “fantastic” examples show that in fact IoT is a huge field for experimentation. And despite the fact that the era of “smart” devices is just beginning, but it says a lot that the upcoming IT revolution will be connected precisely with the Internet of things.

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