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From Talkin’ Cloud
The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the hottest IT buzzwords right now. But the term is actually nearly 20 years old. If IoT isn’t actually a new idea, what’s the history of the concept, and why is it suddenly so popular now? Read on for a brief history of the Internet of Things and why it’s more important today than ever before.
Internet of Things Inventions
You may not have heard much about IoT until recently, but the term dates back to 1999. Most sources say that Kevin Ashton, co-founder of MIT’s Auto-ID Center, coined the phrase “Internet of Things.” (The acronym IoT appears to have been invented much later; Wikipedia has had an entry for Internet of Things since July 2007, but the abbreviation wasn’t used until 2009.) Once introduced, the term became widely used, as this Google Ngram shows. (The results suggest the term was used once in 1979, but this is an anomalous result based on clearly incorrect metadata; the publication in question actually appeared later than Google thinks.)
The history of this phrase is important because it shows that while the concept of IoT may have only become popular in recent years, it has had widespread support among experts since the early 2000s.
An evolving concept
It’s also interesting to note that Ashton’s IoT thinking was centered around using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to connect devices together, which is similar to today’s IoT, which relies primarily on IP networks to allow devices to exchange a wide range of information, but is also very different: RFID tags are capable of much more limited functionality.
Of course, Ashton’s concept of an RFID-based IoT wasn’t all that surprising at the time. In 1999, wireless networks as we know them today were still in their infancy, and cellular networks hadn’t yet migrated to a fully IP-based setup. In that context, it would have been much harder to conceive of an IoT where every device had a unique IP address (and, since there was no IPv6, there wouldn’t be enough IP addresses if every device connected to the Internet). With RFID, there’s no need for an IP address or an actual direct Internet connection on each device, so it would have seemed a much cheaper and more feasible solution.
Building IoT
Ultimately, device manufacturers didn’t have high hopes for RFID-based IoT. Instead, by June 2000, the LG Internet Digital DIOS was released, the world’s first internet-connected refrigerator with a LAN port for IP connectivity. (This refrigerator had been in development since 1997, proving that the idea, if not the IoT name, had been around long before Ashton coined the term in 1999.)
As the 2000s progressed, the concept expanded and more real-world implementations were made. In 2008, the IPSO Alliance was formed as a collaboration of industry partners interested in promoting connected devices. This signaled that entrepreneurs and researchers, as well as large corporations, were beginning to take an interest in implementing IoT in production environments.
IoT Today: Breaking With the Past and the Importance of the Cloud
But it’s only in the last few years that IoT has become a reality on a large scale. It’s no longer just about high-end internet-connected appliances. Now, it’s common to see all kinds of internet-connected devices, from TVs to thermostats to cars.
What has changed since the 2000s to make all this possible? A few key factors: the expansion of network capabilities, the introduction of large-scale data analytics tools (making it easier to manage and interpret data from IoT devices), and the creation of new standards such as AllJoyn from the Allseen Alliance that make it easier for IoT hardware and software from different vendors to interact.
But perhaps more than anything, the growth of the cloud has played a key role in enabling the modern IoT, because it provides a low-cost, always-on place to store information and crunch numbers. Cheap, highly available cloud infrastructure makes it easy to offload storage and computing tasks from IoT devices to cloud servers. The result is cheaper, slimmer, and more powerful IoT devices.
Thanks to the cloud, a smart thermostat doesn’t have to do much more than upload very basic data to your utility’s cloud and download instructions sent via the cloud to manage your home’s temperature. It doesn’t even need to store the data itself. It doesn’t even need a local management interface if the manufacturer doesn’t want one (though most thermostats do). The device can be controlled exclusively by the cloud, provided it has an internet connection, of course.
Things weren’t so simple when LG was developing its IoT refrigerator 10 years ago: Back then, the company couldn’t rely on the always-on, highly scalable cloud to manage the device. Instead, the refrigerator had to behave like a traditional computer.
Remaining IoT challenges
Despite all the challenges that the cloud and other advancements have solved for IoT vendors, problems still remain. One of them is the lack of universal standards. The AllJoyn framework is just one IoT standard framework. There are competing solutions, and standards without consensus are not very useful.
Another challenge is the lack of unlimited bandwidth and network infrastructure. The more devices you put on the network, the more traffic your network pipes have to handle and the more connections your switches have to manage. Scaling your network infrastructure is possible, and service providers are doing it all the time. However, it’s a time-consuming and costly process. Without a faster way to scale network capacity, this will continue to be a limiting factor in the growth rate of IoT.
Power is also an issue. One of the benefits of IoT is the ability to manage large numbers of devices spread across a wide area without being embedded in a traditional infrastructure. Therefore, being able to isolate IoT hardware from a permanent power source is a requirement to realize IoT’s full potential. But the technology to make this possible doesn’t exist yet. That technology is under development, but it will be a while before IoT device batteries last for years or local solar cells can power devices indefinitely.
Last but not least, security and privacy remain big issues for IoT. IoT devices bring a whole new level of online privacy concerns to consumers. This is because these devices can not only collect personal information such as usernames and phone numbers, but also monitor when users are at home or what they had for lunch. With a never-ending stream of revelations about large-scale data breaches, consumers are wary of putting large amounts of personal data on public or private clouds. There is good reason for this. IoT vendors need to address these security issues before IoT devices can reach their full potential.
Article by Talkin’ Cloud, via The Var Guy: http://thevarguy.com/var-guy/iot-past-and-present-history-iot-and-where-its-headed-today?page=1
