What Is the Internet of Things? Definition, Role, Examples, and Trends for 2022
The Internet of Things is a network of devices that feed data into a platform to enable communication and automated control.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a network of devices that feed data into a platform to enable communication and automated control. It connects physical devices to digital interfaces. This article explains IoT in detail, along with apt examples and significant trends for better understanding.
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What Is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of devices that feed data into a platform to enable communication and automated control. IoT connects machines or people to other machines. It primarily connects the physical devices to digital interfaces.
These physical devices have sensors that send data to a centralized platform. More often than not, they receive instructions based on this data. The platform also analyzes the data to provide insights to business owners and personalization to customers.
These devices can include smartwatches, injectable ID chips in animals, temperature sensors in jet engines, or voice controllers at home. Prominent examples include Google Home and Amazon Echo.
The first rudimentary IoT device is said to be a vending machine at Carnegie Mellon that was connected to the ARPANET in 1970. The phrase was coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999, though it has taken decades for technology to catch up with the vision.
According to IoT Analytics’ State of IoT Summer 2021 report, around 27 billion IoT connections will be operational by 2025.
The technological advancements that have aided in IoT taking off are:
1. RFID tags: RFID tags are low-power chips that can communicate wirelessly. They are small and can be added to larger, more expensive pieces of machinery to make them accessible.
2. Wireless & cellular networks: We now have increasing access to wireless and cellular networks, making it easy for devices to stay connected on the go. Advancements in 5G networking and Wi-Fi 6 ensure the high bandwidth required to support the low latency rates of IoT networks.
3. IPv6: When the world moved from IPv4 to IPv6, it created enough IP addresses for every device in the world for the foreseeable future.
4. Low-cost, low-energy sensors: The semiconductor industry has grown in leaps and bounds and continues to do so. Low-cost sensors now do not consume significant power. They have enough computing power to run artificial intelligence (AI) on the smallest devices.
5. Efficient machine learning algorithms: Machine learning (ML) algorithms are more complex, advanced, and efficient now than ever before. Research has indicated it takes 44X less time now than in 2012 for algorithms such as neural network training to work.
6. Cloud computing: Cloud adoption, which was already on the rise, has been accelerated due to the pandemic. Companies are looking to 50% or more of their applications being on the cloud, according to a 2021 O’Reilly study. Cloud makes it easier for data to be transferred between IoT devices and the AI platforms that analyze them.
A genuinely robust Internet of Things system requires combining all this technology. Other technological aspects such as edge computing may need to be considered based on business requirements.
An IoT system consists of four crucial components to make it work:
- Physical devices: Physical devices with sensors are the starting point of any IoT device. A camera with motion sensors, a car that gauges tire pressure, and Amazon’s Alexa that plays songs on request are all physical devices. They provide raw, base data about operational environments and user inputs.
- Connectivity platform: These devices can be hooked onto a network in several ways. The most common are Wi-Fi and cellular networks. 6LoWPAN, or low-power wireless personal area network, empowers any low-power radio to communicate with the internet. ZigBee is a low-power, low-data rate wireless network primarily used in industrial settings. Standards such as OneM2M are trying to formalize communication patterns across machines of various types.
- Analytics platform (IoT platform): Machine learning plays a significant role in analyzing the massive data sent by physical devices. Algorithms are trained to read this data and provide in-depth analysis backed by historical data. This can also be used to predict future behavior.
The platform has two primary purposes. The first is to facilitate informed, data-driven decisions at the business level. The second is to send automated instructions back to the devices. This allows the IoT devices to respond intelligently to user inputs or environmental changes. - Configuration manager: The sheer number of devices and data involved makes IoT-based systems complex to administer. A configuration manager gives the business a bird’s eye view of the devices involved, the various parameters required to monitor and control machines, and the algorithmic tweaks required with new additions. Security patch management must ideally also be a part of this setup.
- Dashboard: The dashboard makes sense of all the data mined and analyzed from the Internet of Things system.
Components of an IoT Platform
Internet of Things is everywhere now, whether we notice it or not. The idea of IoT is to create an informed environment while making mundane tasks invisible.
See More: What Is IoT Device Management? Definition, Key Features, and Software
Role of the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things has been implemented across numerous industry verticals already. The manufacturing, retail, government, healthcare, and automotive sectors have increased IoT adoption. Industries such as education and sustainability are envisioning high-impact changes with the aid of IoT.
Types of IoT
At a business level, the Internet of Things plays the role of an ultra-intelligent analyst. It provides data insights for better decisions, and finds gaps in operations and processes, and business policies. It also creates an unprecedented connection between the factory floor and the business. All this means increased productivity, even while cutting down on costs and energy expenditure. The result of all this is undoubtedly an improved company bottom line.
The Internet of Things enables the automation of everyday things that tend to suck up manpower and resources. Automatically switching settings based on immediate environment or usage is one example. This frees up a lot of resources for the organization to focus on innovation and the company’s broader vision.
The various types of IoT that are currently in the market are:
1. Industrial IoT
Industrial IoT, or IIoT, is the internet of things in an industrial setting. It mainly applies to machine-to-machine communication with little user interaction. Industrial IoT is often used to improve logistics and supply chain management. The Industrial Internet of Things is often referred to as the fourth wave of the industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0.
2. Commercial IoT
Commercial Internet of Things can further be split into consumer IoT and enterprise IoT. These are IoT solutions consumed by everyday users or enterprises to efficiently run their businesses.
Smart homes and fitness bands are examples of consumer IoT. They typically require some sort of user input.
Enterprise IoT encapsulates business-ready SaaS IoT solutions that businesses across industries can incorporate into their infrastructure. An example is using Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons to improve shopping experiences on a retail floor. The healthcare industry has significant prospects with the Internet of Things, with solutions extending from managing chronic illnesses to inventory management in pharmaceuticals.
3. Infrastructure IoT
Smart buildings aim to use the Internet of Things to reduce energy consumption, maintain costs, and utilize spaces more efficiently. Corporations and educational institutes with sprawling campuses benefit the most from infrastructure IoT.
Urban planning committees worldwide are dabbling with the concept of smart cities. Sensors are installed across cities at traffic signals and lamp posts to provide a constant data feed. This data also includes air quality levels and radiation levels. IoT can be leveraged here for traffic management, predicting and detecting maintenance problems, and crowd control.
4. Defense IoT
Defense Internet of Things, as the name suggests, leverages the military use cases of IoT. These include surveillance robots and wearable combat gear.
The Internet of Things is all-pervasive. The role of IoT will only increase, making it an undeniable part of every business and even human decision.
See More: What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Definition, Types, Goals, Challenges, and Trends in 2022
Top 5 Examples of the Internet of Things
Some examples of IoT that are already in place are:
1. Spain’s Balearic Islands
In 2017, Spain announced its project of turning the Balearic islands into an IoT lab. The Balearic port authority announced the use of sensors to monitor air quality and noise pollution and integrate meteorological measurements. They deployed around 150 sensors at five ports. The data is fed into an advanced mathematical modeling platform.
Around 50 IoT antennas were added to existing TV and radio masts containing 10,000 sensors. Officials are looking into using this data for tourism management.
2. IoT in COVID management
The most important use of the Internet of Things in the recent past is how it helped manage a pandemic of a highly infectious disease.
With rising patient inflow in hospitals and few available beds, IoT-powered telemedicine helped hospitals sustain remote treatments. Gauteng health services introduced electronic bed management systems to identify and predict hospital availability.
IoT also helped with vaccine management by tracking location, temperature, and stock levels. India’s electronic vaccine intelligence network ensured safe vaccine supply and reduced vaccine stock-outs by 80%.
Healthcare delivery drones also used the Internet of Things to deliver tests, PPE, and medical supplies. An example is Zipline, a medical product delivery company that used drones to help rural healthcare centers in places such as Rwanda and Ghana.
3. Smart factories
As mentioned before, we are seeing a new wave of the industrial revolution. One example of a smart factory project is deploying a private standalone 5G wireless network in Volkswagen’s main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. Volkswagen has enlisted the help of Nokia’s digital automation cloud. They’re testing smart factory use cases for reliability, security, and real-time connectivity.
4. Connected cars
Cars operate based on several parts and sensors working together. If there’s a need for IoT solutions anywhere, it is in vehicle maintenance and management.
Data from the accelerator, speedometer, tires, brake, odometer, and fuel tank can assess driver and vehicle performance and vehicle health. It can be used to predict and prevent maintenance problems. IoT in cars can also improve fuel efficiency. Overall, it can reduce costs significantly.
One can also leverage smart dashcams and parking sensors for safety purposes. Potential users include rental companies and parents who want to let their children on the road for the first time.
5. IoT in agriculture
Smart farming systems are equipped with connected sensors that measure light, temperature, humidity, and the soil moisture of crop fields. Irrigation systems automated with IoT are much more cost- and resource-efficient than ordinary ones.
Businesses can use agricultural drones to capture multispectral, thermal, and visual imagery. This helps increase crop yield. Besides, IoT is also used to monitor livestock.
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Top 6 Upcoming IoT Trends
According to Mordor Intelligence’s 2021 IoT market report, the IoT technology market value is expected to rise to $1.39 trillion by 2026. This is despite a semiconductor shortage due to manufacturing issues accelerated by the pandemic. Based on upcoming technology and shortcomings in various industries and business models, here are some IoT trends to keep an eye on:
1. Healthcare to see more IoT integration at patient, hospital, and pharmaceutical levels
The pandemic saw millions of households in the US turn to telemedicine for treatment. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s survey in May 2021, 43% of these households want to continue using telehealth services instead of in-person hospital visits.
With an overwhelming number of consumers turning to digital medicine, the healthcare industry is ramping up its IoT-fueled offerings. Enterprises will use IoT for inventory management, patient management, and infrastructure maintenance at an operational level.
Remote patient monitoring is another IoT use case that alerts patients when they need to see a healthcare professional. It can be used to monitor high-risk pregnancies and chronic illnesses. Besides being an alerting system, one can use such data for research in future treatment. One can also use it to predict an imminent issue such as a heart attack or a stroke.
2. Edge computing to solve latency issues that cloud computing cannot solve
As of today, most IoT systems work by communicating with a cloud. This works for standard analytics-based scenarios, where the data is simply used to make decisions.
The number of sensors communicating and feeding data into the cloud in a complex IoT system is large. This causes latency issues, with data transfer taking significant time. This can be a problem for scenarios that use this data to prompt immediate action. For example, it is crucial to shut a machine down immediately if the temperature consistently exceeds the norm for a certain period.
In such cases, edge computing, coupled with the existing cloud, makes perfect sense. Edge computing works by using small processors at the edge of the network, even before the devices can reach the cloud. These low-cost processors not only transfer data but do some of the computational analysis that requires a quick turnaround.
Edge computing has become more feasible now due to hardware and AI advancements. Upcoming IoT solutions will try to leverage this to gain efficiency and a competitive edge.
3. IoT used to track environmental issues, particularly concerning sustainability
Climate change is a global issue that requires immediate action. Drastic climate changes impact the quality of living and change the way factory floors and businesses work, with erratic changes in weather creating business continuity problems.
Companies are increasingly looking to use IoT for environmental monitoring, energy optimization, and territorial management. Companies such as NetOp and Opti are turning to IoT for fire and flood management.
At an industry level, companies such as Calyx employ biology to develop sensors for the real-time detection and analysis of air chemicals in an array of industries. They offer advanced detection of airborne chemicals.
However, the end-game of IoT-based sustainability solutions is to reduce energy consumption and observe patterns to predict future shortages.
4. Supply chain management will be revamped around IoT
Businesses saw a lot of supply chain disruptions during the pandemic. This has fast-tracked the implementation of IoT-driven changes in business operations.
Inventory management, scheduled maintenance, and fleet management are processes that benefit from the data insights provided by the Internet of Things. This data, combined with intelligent routing algorithms, will reduce overhead costs.
Industrial IoT will be used to keep track of assets. Shipping companies can have a better handle on fuel consumption and predict future fuel expenditure. It will also be used to monitor and control variables such as temperature for the shipping of sensitive material.
5. Wearable tech will move beyond smartwatches
Wearable technology is currently limited to smartwatches and fitness bands, mostly due to the lack of smaller processors and 5G networking. Experts think that 2022 is the year IoT-based wearables will diversify.
Smart eyewear, linked fabric, and smart rings will see increased adoption. People will use wearables to improve accessibility for those with physical impairments. Augmented reality and virtual reality sets combined with wearables are being explored for surgeries that provide in-depth patient data insights.
Wearables are also being explored to reduce workplace safety issues, particularly factory floors. Militaries are also considering it for combat.
6. Cybersecurity will be the focus of IoT
The world has woken up to the need for cybersecurity in every business aspect. The Internet of Things will play a crucial role in organizations’ cybersecurity posture in the future.
Newer technology such as decentralized blockchain, combined with encryption, allows secure access to assets and the secure authentication of apps, machines, and people.
The Internet of Things will be used to leverage real-time data to improve risk mitigation and disaster prevention. Companies such as Bayshore Networks already provide IoT-based solutions that learn from operational technology network activity to prepare incident responses and security policies.
Besides the focus on IoT-backed security solutions, the market will also see cybersecurity solutions explicitly tailored to IoT devices. IoT devices are a direct link to personal data in the case of consumer IoT and business data in the case of enterprise IoT. More standardized communication protocols and edge-based security solutions will come up.
See More: Edge Computing vs. Cloud Computing: 10 Key Comparisons
Takeaways
The Internet of Things promises to be the next step in revolutionizing how we live and conduct business. It requires various devices, software, and communication protocols to work together. Governments have started coming up with security guidelines keeping the scale of IoT in mind. There is no doubt that a resilient organization innovates and incorporates IoT in multiple aspects of its business in today’s market.
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