Activating the Internet of Things
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COVER FEATURE ACTIVATING THE INTERNET OF THINGS Activating the Internet of Things Roy Want, Google Schahram Dustdar, TU Wien 16 COMPUTER PUBLISHED BY THE IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY 0018-9162/15/$31.00 © 2015 IEEE Now is the time to tune in, turn on, and plug in— the Internet of Things ushers in a whole new paradigm in our relationship with technology. he Internet of Things (IoT) turn uses an LTE cellular service is a term now widely used to connect to the Internet and ulti- in scholarly technical pub- mately to a cloud service. How- lications and mainstream ever, the common factor for all IoT Tmedia. CEOs of major tech compa- devices—from low-end sensors to nies center their keynote addresses high-end appliances—is that they around this term at top industry will have some form of Internet shows—as illustrated by Samsung connectivity and embedded pro- Activating CEO BK Yoon’s address at this year’s cessing to make use of it. Consumer Electronics Show. Analysts have predicted the What is so exciting about the IoT to be the “next big thing” for IoT? What does it really mean and several years. Gartner recently why should we care? The IoT vision, estimated that there would be the Internet simply put, is that almost any elec- about 5 billion devices connected tronic device can be augmented by a to the Internet in 2015, rising to connection to the Internet, enabling 25 billion by 2020.3 Others see the an ordinary standalone device to IoT as just another overhyped tech of Things become a smart networked device.1 story feeding headlines and giving For example, a garden sprinkler consumers inflated expectations. system can carry out its watering However, even if only half the task more efficiently if it knows the predicted number of things come weather forecast or the moisture online, these numbers are so large Roy Want, Google needs of the plants it waters. Like- that it will still be a significant wise, an air conditioning unit can evolution of the Internet. Schahram Dustdar, TU Wien reduce running costs if it knows So, why are IoT expectations when the cheapest off-peak elec- increasing so rapidly today and tricity is available. All manner of not 10 years ago? Part of the an- devices can use Internet-derived swer is that many of the devices information to improve their basic not yet connected to the Internet operation and become smarter, tend to be low-cost devices built more efficient, and cost-effective.2 for just one purpose. Thus, the In some cases, this means a thing overhead of integrating Internet becomes a first-class network com- connectivity— via a cable or wire- puter with an IP address, as acces- less solution—for these devices sible as any other networked com- would have been cost prohibitive puter. However, the IoT’s scope also for manufacturers. Since then, includes devices that are only occa- broadband Internet connectivity sionally available on the network has become ubiquitous and avail- to save power, or are connected able to the majority of homes in the via a proxy device such as a pass- developed world. This is often fur- ing smartphone. In the latter case, ther augmented with Wi-Fi access a device can use protocols such as points, enabling IoT devices to be Bluetooth low energy (BLE) to con- easily deployed and connected to nect to the smartphone, which in cloud services. And because almost SEPTEMBER 2015 17 ACTIVATING THE INTERNET OF THINGS everyone carries a smartphone—with has the most to offer: composable sys- is surprisingly little consideration of a high-bandwidth cellular Internet tems, smart cities, and more efficient the presence of cars and efficient road connection such as LTE in addition to use of resources. utilization. Consider a scenario in local Wi-Fi and Bluetooth access—we which you are driving through a busi- can each serve as a bridge for data that Composable systems ness district late at night. You stop at flows from an IoT device 30 feet away Because the IoT allows us to make each red light, even though there is to the Internet. At present, there are connections among many different very little traffic on the cross streets. about 2 billion smartphones in use— kinds of devices, we can build new ad This wastes time as well as the energy that is a lot of opportunities for an IoT hoc systems from a variety of nearby required to stop and start the vehicle. bridging capability. things. As these devices discover one Thus, a traffic-light system capable of Moreover, technology development another over local wireless connec- sensing the location and density of has marched on, as predicted by tions, they can present users with cars in the area could optimize when Moore’s law, resulting in dramatic options for combining resources to the lights turn red or green through- increases in processor performance provide higher- level capabilities. Like out the day, and provide the best pos- and memory capacity over the past 10 Web service mashups, in which a sin- sible service for drivers, pedestrians, to 15 years. As a result of lithographic gle webpage can provide a utility built and the city. scaling for VLSI, the average energy on top of a collection of Web services, consumed per processor instruction these composable systems provide Conservation of resources has also decreased. Combined, these more value as a whole than the simple Applicable across many IoT devices factors have enabled products to tran- sum of their component parts. and applications, resource conserva- sition from low-end 8-bit microproces- For example, imagine a logical com- tion offers a significant benefit. The sors to 32-bit systems capable of sup- puter being assembled on the fly using extensive use of Internet-connected porting complete operating systems nearby devices to provide a powerful networked sensors—both wired and and fully functional network proto- computing experience—without a wireless—allows for vast improve- col stacks—cheaply and in battery- traditional physical computer. Such ments in the monitoring and optimi- operated mobile devices. As a result, a system could be assembled from zation of resources such as electricity these embedded systems behave like a collection of colocated devices: a and water. Examples include pow- the desktop computers of 10 years ago, smartphone, a full-size keyboard, and ering off lights in a room when it is and they are easily integrated with a digital TV. The smartphone would empty, and monitoring the weather low-end appliances. With very little serve as the computing hub, extend- and gauging appropriate irrigation. additional cost, such appliances can ing its screen wirelessly to the digi- Many of the utilities we use on a daily add a network interface and take full tal TV and providing improved user basis run in open-loop mode—that is, advantage of Internet connectivity. interaction through the full-size key- resources are provided without any As with any new technology, the board. Because these connections are direct feedback about their aggregate IoT brings an improved standard of all wireless, the components can easily use or the resulting cost. Closing the living, better ways of doing things, be reconfigured using different com- sensing loop to provide smart control and increased productivity. How- binations of nearby devices. Thus, in for more efficient use of resources is ever, such changes often result in principle, composable systems can be one of the IoT’s biggest potential soci- social challenges. rapidly adapted to the task at hand. etal benefits. IoT OPPORTUNITIES Smart cities IoT CHALLENGES A vision of the future in which our A modern city provides many essen- The IoT presents some key risks, too. devices become smarter by anticipat- tial utilities that are not necessarily With so many interconnected things, ing our wants and needs and respond managed in the most efficient way. For boundaries disappear or become dif- accordingly seems to depend quite example, a city’s traffic-light network ficult to establish and defend. As sys- heavily on a successful IoT design. We is composed of a collection of simple tems become more intertwined, inter- see three key areas in which the IoT timers to control the signals, and there dependent, and sophisticated, their 18 COMPUTER WWW.COMPUTER.ORG/COMPUTER ABOUT THE AUTHORS ROY WANT is a research scientist at Google. His research interests include mobile and ubiquitous computing, distributed systems, context-aware opera- tion, and electronic identification. Want received a PhD in computer science from Cambridge University, England. He is a Fellow of ACM and IEEE. Contact him at [email protected]. weaknesses become more significant. In critical systems, any sort of inter- SCHAHRAM DUSTDAR is a professor of computer science with a focus on ruption or corruption could result in Internet technologies and heads the Distributed Systems Group at TU Wien property damage or, in the worst case, in Vienna, Austria. His research interests include the Internet of Things, cloud loss of life. But even more immediate computing, and distributed systems. Dustdar received a PhD in business infor- are concerns about security, privacy, matics from the University of Linz, Austria. He is a member of Academia Euro- and standardization of user interfaces. pea, an ACM Distinguished Scientist, and a Senior Member of IEEE. Contact him at [email protected]. Security IoT data from smart things and sen- sors capturing resource use can be collected and processed with the intent of improving our daily lives. to use your smart device at home with converge on the standard set we use Although city utility managers and other networked devices, you could in- today.