21-03-2012, 12:55 PM
Internet of Things in 2020
Internet of things 2020.pdf (Size: 362.28 KB / Downloads: 192)
Executive summary
This report outlines the results of the workshop “Beyond RFID – The Internet of Things”. The workshop was initiated and jointly organised by the Commission and EPoSS and more than 80 invited experts with expertise in different fields of related technologies and research attended the event. This report is not confined to summarising the discussions and conclusions of the workshop, but also elaborates on themes identified at the workshop to substantiate what the Internet of Things might become in the future.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
It is foreseeable that any object will have a unique way of identification in the coming future, what is commonly known in the networking field of computer sciences as “Unique Address1“, creating an addressable continuum of computers, sensors, actuators, mobile phones; i.e. any thing or object around us. Having the capacity of addressing each other and verifying their identities, all these objects will be able to exchange information and, if necessary, actively process information according to predefined schemes, which may or may not be deterministic.
The definition of “Internet of Things” has still some fuzziness, and can have different facets depending on the beholder. Considering the functionality and identity as central it is reasonable to define the IoT as “Things having identities and virtual personalities operating in smart spaces using intelligent interfaces to connect and communicate within social, environmental, and user contexts”. A different definition, that puts the focus on the seamless integration, could be formulated as “Interconnected objects having an active role in what might be called the Future Internet”.
Wider technological trends
It is possible to identify, for the years to come, four distinct macro-trends that will shape the future of IT, together with the explosion of Ubiquitous devices that constitute the future Internet of Things:
1.The first one, sometimes referred as “exaflood” or “data deluge”, is the explosion of the amount of data collected and exchanged. Just to give some numbers, business forecasts indicate that in the year 2015 more than 220 Exabaytes of data will be stored. As current network are ill-suited for this exponential traffic growth, there is a need by all the actors to re-think current networking and storage architectures. It will be imperative to find novel ways and mechanisms to find, fetch, and transmit data. One relevant reason for this data deluge is the explosion in the number of devices collecting and exchanging information as envisioned as the Internet of Things becomes a reality.
2.The energy required to operate the intelligent devices will dramatically decreased. Already today many data centres have reached the maximum level of energy consumption and the acquisition of new devices has necessarily to follow the dismissal of old ones. Therefore, the second trend can be identified covering all devices and systems from the tiniest smart dust to the huge data centres: The search for a zero level of entropy where the device or system will have to harvest its own energy.
3.Miniaturisation of devices is also taking place amazingly fast. The objective of a single-electron transistor is getting closer, which seems the ultimate limit, at least until new discoveries in physics.
4.Another important trend is towards autonomic resources. The ever growing complexity of systems will be unmanageable, and will hamper the creation of new services and applications, unless the systems will show self-* properties, such as self-management, self-healing and self-configuration.