What is Internet of Things (IoT)?

Smart cars, smart thermostats, and smart locks, you may have heard of those terms lately and you may wonder what they are. What exactly are those things?

These devices are called part of an emerging category of Internet of Things or IoT for short. IoT refers to smart home devices we use every day that are connected to the Internet with the goal of providing people with smarter and more intelligent experiences. A few examples of IoT products include Smart Door Locks, Smart Bluetooth Trackers, Nest thermostats, and smart smoke detectors. With any new technology, the Internet of Things can be intimidating and confusing for average consumers. It is still in the evolving stage, and the privacy and security of IoT products are some of the challenges the industry faces. There are thousands of companies and groups working towards Internet of Things (IoT) standards and products. Especially SmartThings, The Internet of Things Consortium, Open Interconnect, AllSeen Alliance, and Apple are working to build a better IoT platform.

What is the IoT?

The broad explanation behind the IoT is that whole constellations of inanimate objects are being designed with built-in wireless connectivity. Therefore, IoT devices can be controlled, monitored, and connected over the network via a mobile application. The IoT spans a very wide range of categories which may include light bulbs and house appliances such as Washing machines, coffee makers, and even automobiles.

History

There were many concepts behind smart devices from early 1982. Modified Coke machine, CMU (Carnegie Mellon University) was the first Internet-connected device. It was able to report the temperature of the refrigerator and inventory of soft drinks. Between 1994 and 1997, many organizations have proposed solutions like Novell's NEST and Microsoft's Work. Only in 1998, did the IoT field start gaining relevant momentum. The IoT concept became popular in 2000. A user's capability to cooperate with objects can be changed remotely based on instant or present needs, in accordance with current end-user agreements. For instance, such technology can allow motion-picture producers to regulate end-user private devices by remotely applying copyright limits and digital privileges management. An important alteration is to extend "things" from the information produced from devices to objects in the physical space. The Thought Model for the future interconnection environment was planned in 2005. The prototype contains the notion of the ternary universe entails the physical world, mental world, virtual world, and a multi-level reference construction with the devices and nature at the lowest level trailed by the level of the sensor network, Internet, and portable network, and bright human-machine communities at the highest level, which supports geologically isolated users to helpfully accomplish responsibilities and resolve problems by using the network to dynamically promote the energy, techniques, flow of material information, knowledge, and facilities in this environment.

How it is being used today?

Nest thermostat is a well-known example of IoT. This Wi-Fi connected thermostat allows a user to control the temperature of a home remotely as well as predict the user's behavioral patterns to set desired temperature settings automatically and improve efficiency. One of the values it brings is allowing users to save money on their monthly electricity bill by being able to remotely control their A/C (air conditioner) and heat. Nest thermostat remembers the user's behavior and turns up or down the temperature based on the user's previous activities automatically. SmartThings which was acquired by Samsung offers different kinds of smart-home kits and sensors that can manage and monitor IoT devices.

When the Internet of Things expands, the ability to control devices can become more sophisticated. Let's take a real-world scenario where a user's fitness tracker detects that a user has fallen into a deep sleep and triggers the IoT (lights and TV) to automatically turn itself off and reduce electricity wastage. Another example may allow a user's vehicle to monitor the user's appointment via a calendar and automatically provide GPS navigation to offer the best route to the destination.

Smart Home

Internet of Things devices are a part of the greater idea of home automation, also known as "domotics". Big and smart home schemes utilize a hub or controller to deliver users with essential control for all their devices. These devices may include heating, lighting, air conditioning, media, and security systems (with ACL (access control systems), explicitly "August", Ausweis.io). Ease of use is the greatest instant advantage to smart homes and IoT. Extensive-term benefits include the capability to generate an extra environmentally approachable home by safeguarding electronics and turning off lights. One of the main problems with gaining smart home-based expertise is the high preliminary charge.

Energy management

Adding actuation and sensing systems within IoT can enhance energy consumption. It is predictable that Internet of Things devices will be integrated into all methods of energy-consuming devices (power outlets, switches, bulbs, televisions, etc.) and should be able to interconnect with the utility supply organization to efficiently balance control generation and energy usage. Those devices should also allow users to remotely regulate their devices, or centrally accomplish them via a cloud-based interface, and allow progressive functions like scheduling (e.g., controlling ovens, remotely powering on or off heating systems changing lighting conditions, etc.)

How does "Internet of Things" work?

There is a very intelligent underlying technology. Various kinds of wireless radios allow those devices to contact the Internet and to each other devices. This can include very familiar terms such as low-energy Bluetooth, Radio Frequency Identity (RFID), Near Field Communication (NFC), and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). Such Z-wave, 6LoWPAN and ZigBee. There are other kinds of sensors such as door locks, light bulbs, and motion sensors. You may employ a central hub that permits different devices to connect with each other. There are cloud services that permit the analysis and collection of data, therefore user can decide what actions can be taken from their mobile devices.

Frameworks

Internet of Things frameworks may assist the communication between "things" and permit extra composite structures like spread computing and the growth of distributed applications. Presently, some Internet of Things frameworks seem to emphasize on real-time information logging solutions, offering some foundation to work with numerous "things" and have them cooperate. Future developments may lead to detailed software-development environments to generate the software to work with the hardware used in the IoT. Organizations are emerging technology stages to deliver this type of functionality for the Internet of Things. Fresher stages are being developed, which enhance intelligence.

REST is a scalable architecture that allows things to communicate over Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is easily adopted for IoT applications to provide communication from a thing to a central web server.

Can IoT devices communicate with each other?

This is the place where things get a little more complicated. So many organizations hardly work on various kinds of platforms, technologies, and products to enable these devices to communicate with each other. Various groups are working to implement an open standard that could permit interoperability amongst the different IoT products and platforms.

Should users be worried about privacy and security?

Data is collected by connected cars, smart house devices, and electrical items. Users may worry about the potential risk of private and personal data leaking into the hackers. Number of access points also increases security risk. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has raised concerns and has recommended many precautions to protect their confidentiality and customers. However, the Federal Trade Commission does not have the authority to implement regulations on Internet of Things devices.

IoT security

There are 6 key areas of focus when implementing security for the IoT.

1. IoT API Security – The ability to authorize and authenticate data flow between IoT devices, applications, and back-end systems will be essential for securing the integrity of data.
2. IoT security analysis – monitoring, normalizing, collecting, and aggregating data from devices to get actionable reporting mechanisms to gain more details about attacks for the organization. Learning, big data techniques, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) give more forecasting modeling and threat detection (to reduce false positives detected by current firewalls). Identifying IoT-specific intrusions and attacks that were not identified by traditional firewall systems.
3. IoT PKI – Giving complete X.509 cryptographic key and digital certification including private key and public key revocation, management, distribution, and generation. Digital certificates should be securely uploaded to IoT devices at the beginning of the manufacturing.
4. Encryption – Data transit between these devices using traditional cryptographic systems can be decrypted even in small programs. Thoroughly analyzing the PKI life cycle and key management would increase overall security.
5. Authentication – From simple static passwords or pins to more robust and high authentication mechanisms like biometrics, digital certificates, and two-factor authentication. Sometimes there may be a machine-to-machine authentication without intervention from a real person.
6. Network Security – It is always challenging when it comes to these future devices. Device capabilities, standards, network protocols, and standards will increase network security as well as firewall configurations. It will also need to have a proper endpoint security anti-malware program, a better next-generation firewall with an intrusion prevention system will do the work.