AbstractInternet of thing one of the greatest field of information technology. Of course the future is Internet of Things, which are going to transform the real world object into intelligent virtual objects. The ultimate goal of internet of things is to unify everything in our world through common infrastructure, which will give not only control to things around us, but keeping informed us to the state of things.
Internet of Things continue to develop more potential is estimated by a combining related technology approaches and concepts like cloud computing, future of internet, big data robotics and semantic. Future internet of things provide broader vision to enable every one access and contribute large information about things and location. Successfully share of social network experienced and personalized insights which shows a potential for integration with business center applications. This paper studies the state-of-the-art of internet of things and presents the key technological drivers, potential applications, challenges and future research areas in the domain of internet of things. Internet of things definitions from different perspective in academic and industry communities are also discussed and compared. Finally some issues of future research in internet of things are identified and discussed briefly. The main objective of this research paper is to provide an overview of internet of things, vital technology, architecture and use in our everyday life.
Introduction From the past few years, in the area of wireless communications and networking, a novel paradigm named the Internet of Things (IoT) is presented which was first introduced by Kevin Ashton in the year 1998, has gained increasingly more attention in the academia and industry . By embedding short-range mobile transceivers into a wide array of additional gadgets and everyday items, enabling new forms of communication between people and things, and between things themselves, Internet of things would add a new dimension to the world of information and communication. The main strength of the internet of things vision is the high impact it will have on several aspects of every-day life and behavior of potential users. The most obvious effects of the IoT will be visible in both working and domestic fields. In this context, assisted living, smart homes and offices, e-health, enhanced learning are only a few examples of possible application scenarios in which the new paradigm will play a leading role. Similarly, from the perspective of business users, the most apparent consequences will be equally visible in fields such as automation and industrial manufacturing, logistics, business process management, intelligent transportation of people and goods.
However, many challenging issues still need to be addressed and both technological as well as social knots need to be united before the vision of IoT becomes a reality. The central issues are how to achieve full interoperability between interconnected devices, and how to provide them with a high degree of smartness by enabling their adaptation and autonomous behavior, while guaranteeing trust, security, and privacy of the users and their data. IoT will pose several new problems concerning issues related to efficient utilization of resources in low-powered resource constrained objects. Several industrial, standardization and research bodies are currently involved in the activity of development of solutions to fulfill the technological requirements of IoT. Internet of Things continue to develop more potential is estimated by a combining related technology approaches and concepts like cloud computing, future of internet, big data robotics and semantic. Future internet of things provide broader vision to enable every one access and contribute large information about things and location.
The objective of this paper is to provide the reader a comprehensive discussion on the current state of the art of IoT, with particular focus on what have been done in the areas of protocol, algorithm and system design and development, and what are the future research and technology trends 7. Background and Related WorkVisions of Internet of ThingsIn the communities of research, IoT has been defined from various different perspectives and hence numerous definitions for IoT exist in the literature. The reason for apparent fuzziness of the definition stems from the fact that it is syntactically composed of two terms – Internet and things. The first one pushes towards a network oriented vision of IoT, while the second tends to move the focus on generic objects, to be integrated into a common framework. The term “Internet” and “Things” when putted together assume a meaning which introduces a disruptive level of innovation into the ICT world. IoT means world wide network of interconnected objects which are uniquely addressable, based on standard communication protocols. In IoT, unique identification of objects and the representation and storing of exchanged information is the most challenging issue.
This will bring the third perspective of IoT semantic perspective.A world wide network of academic research laboratories in the field of networked RFID and emerging sensing technologies. These institutions, since their establishment, have focused their efforts to design the architecture of IoT integrated with EPC global. There efforts have been primarily towards development of the electronic product code (EPC) to support the use of RFID in the world-wide modern trading networks, and to create the industry-driven global standards for the EPC global Network.
These standards are mainly designed to improve object visibility (i.e. the traceability of an object and the awareness of its status, current location etc.).Architecture of Internet of ThingsImplementation of IoT is based on an architecture consisting of several layers from the field data acquisition layer at the bottom to the application layer at the top. The layered architecture is to be designed in a way that can meet the requirements of various industries, enterprises, societies, institutes, government etc. Figure(1) presents a generic layered architecture for IoT.
The layered architecture has two distinct divisions with an Internet layer in between to serve the purpose of a common media for communication. The two lower layers contribute to data capturing while the two layers at the top is responsible for data utilization in applications. The layered architecture functionality are described below.Edge layer:This hardware layer consists of sensor networks, embedded systems, RFID tags and readers or other soft sensors in different forms.
These entities are the primary data sensors deployed in the field. Many of these hardware elements provide identification and information storage (e.g. RFID tags), information collection (e.g. sensor networks), information processing (e.g.
embedded edge processors), communication, control and actuation. Access gateway layer:The first stage of data handling happens at this layer. It takes care of message routing, publishing and subscribing and also performs cross platform communication.Middleware layer: This is one of the most critical layers that operates in bidirectional mode. It acts as an interface between the hardware layer at the bottom and the application layer at the top. It is responsible for critical functions such as device management and information management and also takes care of issues like data filtering, data aggregation, semantic analysis, access control, information discovery such as EPC (Electronic Product Code) information service and ONS (Object Naming Service).
Application layer:This layer at the top of the stack is responsible for delivery of various applications to different users in IoT. The applications can be from different industry verticals such as: manufacturing, logistics, retail, environment, public safety, healthcare, food and drug etc. With the increasing maturity of RFID technology, numerous applications are evolving which will be under the umbrella of IoT.
Application of Internet of Things:Telecommunication IndustryInternet of Things will create the possibility of merging of diverse telecommunication technologies and create new services. Example is the use of GSM (Global System for Mobile), NFC (Near Field Communication), lower power Bluetooth, WLAN, multi-hop networks, GPS and sensor networks together with SIM-card technology. In these types of applications the reader is a part of the mobile phone, and different applications share the SIM-card. NFC enables communications among objects in a simple and secure way just by having them close to each other. The mobile phone can therefore be used as a NFC-reader and transmit the read data to a central server.
When used in a mobile phone, the SIM-card plays an important role as storage for the NFC data and authentication credentials (like ticket numbers, credit card accounts, ID information etc). Things can join networks and facilitate peer-to-peer communication for specialized purposes or to increase robustness of communications channels and networks. Things can form ad-hoc peer-to-peer networks in disaster situations to keep the flow of vital information going in case of telecommunication infrastructure failures.Medical and Health IndustryInternet of Things will have many applications in the healthcare sector, with the possibility of using the cell phone with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) sensor capabilities as a platform for monitoring of medical parameters and drug delivery. The advantage gained is in prevention and easy monitoring of diseases, ad hoc diagnosis and providing prompt medical attention in cases of accidents.
Implantable and addressable wireless devices can be used to store health records that can save a patient’s life in emergency situations, especially for people with diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cognitive impairments. Edible, biodegradable chips can be introduced into human body for guided actions. Paraplegic persons can have muscular stimuli delivered via an implanted smart thing-controlled electrical simulation system in order to restore movement functions.Independent LivingInternet of Things applications and services will have an important impact on independent living by providing support for an aging population by detecting the activities of daily living using wearable and ambient sensors, monitoring social interactions using wearable and ambient sensors, monitoring chronic disease using wearable vital signs sensors, and in body sensors. With emergence of pattern detection and machine learning algorithms, the things in a patient’s environment would be able to watch out and care for the patient. Things can learn regular routines and raise alerts or send out notifications in anomaly situations.
These services can be merged with the medical technology services.Manufacturing IndustryBy linking items with information technology either through embedded smart devices or through the use of unique identifiers and data carriers that can interact with an intelligent supporting network infrastructure and information systems, production processes can be optimized and the entire lifecycle of objects, from production to disposal can be monitored. By tagging items and containers, greater transparency can be gained about the status of the shop floor, the location and disposition of lots, and the status of production machines. The fine grained information serves as input data for refined production schedules and improved logistics.
Self-organizing and intelligent manufacturing solutions can be designed around identifiable items.Environment MonitoringUtilization of wireless identifiable devices and other Internet of Things technologies in green applications and environmental conservation are one of the prominent promising market segments in the future. There will be an increased usage of wireless identifiable devices in environmentally friendly programs worldwide.Transportation IndustryInternet of Things offers solutions for fare collection and toll systems, screening of passengers and bags boarding commercial carriers and the goods moved by the international cargo system that support the security policies of the governments and the transportation industry, to meet the increasing demand for security in the globe.
Monitoring traffic jams through cell phones of the users and deployment of intelligent transport systems (ITS) will make the transportation of goods and people more efficient. Transportation companies would become more efficient in packing containers since the containers can self- scan and weigh themselves. Use of IoT technologies for managing passenger luggage in airports and airline operations will enable automated tracking and sorting, increased per-bag read rates, and increased security.Open Issues and Challenges in IoTThe workflows in enterprise environment, office, home and other smart spaces in the future will be characterized by cross organization interaction, requiring the operation of highly dynamic and ad-ho relationships. At present, only a very limited ICT support is available, and the following key challenges are exists.(1). Network FoundationLimitations of the current Internet architecture in terms of mobility, availability, manageability and scalability are some of the major barriers to Internet of Things.
(2). Security, Privacy and Trust In the domain of security the following are challenges: (a). Securing the architecture of IoT security to be ensured at design time and execution time.
(b). Proactive identification and protection of IoT from arbitrary attacks (e.g. DoS and DDoS attacks) and abuse.(c). Proactive identification and protection of IoT from malicious software. In the domain of user privacy, the specific challenges are:(i) Control over personal information (data privacy) and control over individual’s physical location and movement (location privacy),(ii) Need for privacy enhancement technologies and relevant protection laws,(iii) Standards, methodologies and tools for identity management of users and objects. In the domain of trust.
3 Managing heterogeneityManaging heterogeneous applications, environments and devices constitute a major challenge. In addition to the above major challenges, some of the other challenges are:(a) Managing large amount of information and mining large volume of data to provide useful services,(b) Designing an efficient architecture for sensor networking and storage.Areas of Future ResearchThere are many areas in which further research is needed for making deployment of the concept of IoT reliable, strong and efficient. Some of the areas are identified in the following. In identification technology domain, further research is needed in development of new technologies that address the global ID schemes, identity management, identity encryption, verification of parties, repository management using identification, authentication and addressing schemes and the creation of global directory lookup services and discovery services for IoT applications with various identifier schemes. In communication protocol domain, the issues that need to be addressed are design of energy efficient communication by multi frequency protocol, communication spectrum and frequency allocation, software defined radios to remove the needs for hardware upgrades for new protocols, and design of high performance, scalable algorithms and protocols. In network technology domain further research is needed on network on chip technology considering on chip communication architectures for dynamic configurations design time parameterized architecture with a dynamic routing scheme and a variable number of allowed virtual connections at each output.
In addition, power-aware network design that turns on and off the links in response to burst and dips of traffic on demand, scalable communication infrastructures design on chip to dynamically support the communication among circuit modules based on varying workloads and changing constraints are some of the important research issues.ConclusionWhenever we look at today’s state of the art technology, we will get a clear indication of how the Internet of Things will be implemented on a universal level in the coming years. We also get an indication of the important aspects that need to be further studied and developed for making large-scale deployment of IoT a reality. It is observed that an urgent need exists for significant work in the area of governance of IoT. Without a standardized approach it is likely that a proliferation of architectures, identification schemes, protocols and frequencies will happen parallel, each one targeted for a particular and specific use. This will lead to a fragmentation of the IoT.
In the coming years, technologies necessary to achieve the universal network society are expected to enter the stage of maturity. As the RFID applications find more acceptability, a vast amount of objects will be addressable, and could be connected to IP-based networks, to constitute the very first wave of the IoT. There will be two major challenges in order to guarantee seamless network access: the first issue relates to the fact that today different networks coexist the other issue is related to the sheer size of the IoT.
The current IT industry has no experience in developing a system in which hundreds of millions of objects are connected to IP networks. Other current issues, such as address restriction, automatic address setup, security functions such as authentication and encryption, and multicast functions to deliver voice and video signals efficiently will probably be overcome by ongoing technological developments.
