4. The concept of
internet of thing
The Internet of
Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and
digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique
identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring
human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
A thing, in the
Internet of Things, can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal
with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert
the driver when tire pressure is low -- or any other natural or man-made object
that can be assigned an IP address and provided with the ability to transfer
data over a network.
IoT has evolved from the
convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS),
microservices and the internet. The convergence has helped tear down the silo
walls between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT),
allowing unstructured machine-generated data to be analyzed for insights that
will drive improvements.
IPv6’s huge increase in
address space is an important factor in the development of the Internet of
Things. According to Steve Leibson, who identifies himself as “occasional
docent at the Computer History Museum,” the address space expansion means that
we could “assign an IPV6 address to every atom on the surface of the earth, and
still have enough addresses left to do another 100+ earths.” In other words,
humans could easily assign an IP address to every "thing" on the
planet. An increase in the number of smart nodes, as well as the amount of
upstream data the nodes generate, is expected to raise new concerns about data
privacy, data sovereignty and security.
Practical applications
of IoT technology can be found in many industries today, including precision
agriculture, building management, healthcare, energy and transportation.
Connectivity options for electronics engineers and application developers
working on products and systems for the Internet of Things include.
Although the concept
wasn't named until 1999, the Internet of Things has been in development for
decades. The first internet appliance, for example, was a Coke machine at
Carnegie Melon University in the early 1980s. The programmers could connect to
the machine over the internet, check the status of the machine and determine
whether or not there would be a cold drink awaiting them, should they decide to
make the trip down to the machine.