Enabling Technologies And Challenges

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

"Do you think it is possible when accident happens, the car is able to call an ambulance faster than mobile phone? And while the ambulance is hurry to the scene of the accident, they could gather all the information about the patient and transfer the information to the centre before arriving at the hospital?" Imagine if the object starts to sense and communicate becoming tools to help us dealing with urgent or complex situations. These scenarios can be seen if the concept of "Internet of Things (IoT)" is applied. Generally, Internet of things is an Internet wireless medium that is used to control and keep everything up to date with our progress. IoT opens a paradigm where everything and everyone is connected at any place and any time. Internet itself is one of the most important and powerful creations in all of human history. By creating this advance technology, all the objects are interconnected (communicating and understanding of each other task) and applications are infinite.

Approximately, there were 6.3 billion people living on the planet and 500 million devices connected to the Internet in 2003. Based on Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), Internet of things is born between 2008 and 2009. During 2008, the number of things connected to the Internet exceeded the number of people on earth. According to the Cisco IBSG, IoT is simply the point in time when more "things or objects" were connected to the Internet than people. It is possible that by 2015, a total of 25 billion wirelessly objects or things are connected to the net worldwide and by the end of the decade it says that could boost to 50 billion.

The transition to future’s Internet of things from today’s Internet of Machines is already can be seen in several visible shifts such as from systems to software based services, from passive RFID tags to wireless sensors, from IPv4 to IPv6, from features and options to experienced sense and simplicity, from always-on to always-responsive, and from exposure to privacy.

The Internet of Things is a technological revolution that represents the future of computing and communications, and its development needs the support from some innovation technologies. Radio frequencies identification (RFID) is a pivotal enabler of the future Internet of Things and it has a great economical potential. In order to get the objects interconnected, it should be identified first. RFID can provide this function. Based on Wikipedia, RFID is the wireless non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects. It is more than just a bar code, it is able to track items in real-time to gain information about their location and current status even if it is covered by another object or not visible. RFID can be used in a variety of applications such as health-care, retail, facilities management and others. For example, a Dutch company, Sparked has developed a sensor that is implanted in a cow’s ear. This sensor can measure the cow’s vital signs; the data is then transmitted wirelessly to a server for access by the farmers. By using these data, the farmers can instantly determine the health of the herd and respond if they are sick or pregnant. This sensor can be used to monitor the animals’ movements, eating habits and response to environmental factors.

The layered structure of computer network architecture model like the OSI model and the Internet TCP/IP model played an important role to the occurrence and development of the computer networks. Same goes with IoT architecture model, it will help in contributing to the development of things focused on the vital role to play.

In the Internet of Things, billions of objects will be connected which will create a larger traffic and need much more data storage to store the information carried. Not only that, there are still other challenges need to be taken into account like security, governance and others. According to BLED Declaration, today's Internet was designed in the 1970s for purposes that bear little resemblance to current and foreseen usage scenarios. Mismatches between original design goals and current utilisation are now beginning to hamper the Internet’s potential. This is one of the reasons on why to redesign the architecture of the Internet of Things. A new IoT architecture model has a clear hierarchy of features and gives some key technologies to appropriate positions, and emphasizes that the future development of IoT needs to focus in solving some new key technologies and clarifies the relationship between IoT and Internet.

There are many factors need to be considered in order to redesign the new IoT architecture since it is a very complex project such as reliability, scalability, modularity, interoperability, interface, quality of services (QoS) and others. The key enabler in designing the Internet of Things are the service-oriented architecture (SOA), exploiting integration with Internet and interfacing with wide ranging edge technologies and associated networks.

A new architecture of IoT is established by combining the technology architecture of the Internet and the logical structure of Telecommunications Management Network, with the specific features of the Internet of Things. The new IoT structure is divided into 5 layers which are the Business Layer, the Application Layer, the Processing Layer, the Transport Layer and the Perception Layer.

Figure : New Internet of Things Architecture

The main function of the Perception Layer is to identify the physical properties of an object (its temperature, location, speed and so on) by various sensors and convert this information to digital signals which is more convenient for network transmission. This layer can be found in Telecommunications Management Network. As we all know, many objects can’t be detected directly, these microchip needs to be implanted into their bodies. The key techniques used in this layer are the sensing technologies which are RFID technology, graphical tags (QR codes), GPS and others, the nanotechnology and embedded intelligence technology.

The Transport Layer is used for transmitting data received from the Perception Layer to the processing centre through various network like wireless network or the enterprise Local Area Network (LAN). Within this layer, there are many protocols are found like Internet Protocol version 6) IPv6 which is used to address billions of things. The IoT will encompass huge amount of various networks connecting to various objects. Thus, the communication in IoT is very crucial. Examples of techniques include in this layer are FTTx, Wifi, Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) and so on.

The main task of Processing Layer is to store, analyze and process the information received from the Transport Layer. Since in IoT, there will be a large quantities of things and huge information carried, this layer will help to store and process these mass data. The key techniques that are needed to process this information are database, intelligent processing, and cloud computing and ubiquitous computing. Cloud and ubiquitous computing technologies will act as the primary technology in this layer.

The Application Layer will provide diverse applications to each industry based on the information processed in the previous layer, the process layer. This layer will play an important role in order for the Internet of Things to step up to a broad scale development since there will be various applications to promote the development of IoT.

The Business Layer will act as a manager of the Internet of Things. Not only various applications, relevant business model and other business will be managed within this layer, but also the research on business model and profit model. An IoT without this the research on business model will not have effective and long term development. Through this layer, users’ privacy could also be managed.

There are several barriers that need to be addressed since these issues have the potential to slow the IoT development. The three crucial issues are the deployment of IPv6, power for sensors and agreement on standards.

According to Cisco IBSG, the Internet ran out IP addresses in February 2010. This situation will caused the IoT’s progress becomes slower since there are potentially billions of new sensors, objects or even things that require unique IP addresses. In order to overcome the IPv4 address shortage, the IPv6 is developed and deployed. Since IPv6 have an auto configuration capabilities, it will make the networks management becomes easier and it offers to improve security features.

Sensors need to be self-sustained in order for IoT to reach its full potential. It’s not possible for billion of devices to change batteries. Thus, a sensor to generate electricity from environmental elements like vibrations, light and air flow is needed. Indeed, there is a commercially viable nano generator; a flexible chip that can generate electricity through a body movements like a pinch of finger.

Even though there are much the progress for Internet of Things has been made in the standardize area, more is needed especially in areas of architecture, security, communications and privacy. IEEE is one of the organizations that are working in solving these challenges by ensuring IPv6 packets can be routed across different types of network.

In conclusion, the Internet of Things represents the next revolutionary technology that transforms the Internet to Future Internet where everything and everyone can share, exchange and interpret information and make decision by themselves. Although, there are lot of technical issues need to be addressed but it is not impossible to turn this into reality. Since humans advance and evolve by turning data into information, knowledge and wisdom, IoT has stepped out of its infancy and has the potential to change the world for a better.