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Internet of Things(IoT)

…The meaning of things lies not in the things

themselves, but in our attitude towards them.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Extracted from Cluster of European Research Projects on the Internet of Things (CERP-IoT)

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Definitions (1)

“Thing” could be defined as a real/physical or digital/virtual entity that exists and move in space and time and is capable of being identified. Things are commonly identified either by assigned identification numbers, names and/or location addresses.

Internet of Things (IoT) is an integrated part of Future Internet and could be defined as a dynamic global network infrastructure with self configuring capabilities based on standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual “things” have identities, physical attributes, and virtual personalities and use intelligent interfaces, and are seamlessly integrated into the information network.

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Definitions (2)

In the IoT, “things” are expected to become active participants in business, information and social processes:

They are enabled to interact and communicate among themselves and with the environment;

They exchange data and information “sensed” about the environment;

They react autonomously to the “real/physical world” events and influencing it by running processes that trigger actions and create services;

With or without direct human intervention.

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Parentheses - Web Service

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defines a Web service as: a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically Web Services Description Language - WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.

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(Web Service)

A directory called UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) defines which software system should be contacted for which type of data. So when one software system needs one particular report/data, it would go to the UDDI and find out which other system it can contact for receiving that data. Once the software system finds out which other system it should contact, it would then contact that system using a special protocol called SOAP . The service provider system would first of all validate the data request by referring to the WSDL file, and then process the request and send the data under the SOAP protocol.

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Definitions (3)

In addition to the term "Web Service", the term "Internet of service (IoS)" arises:

”IoS-based service” identify services provided through the Internet. IoS-based services are distinct from previous services: Service is not limited to IT-based services but also to real-

world or day-to-day services; Stakeholders of such services, from the provisioning and

consumption side, are not only IT professionals but also non-professional users.

IoS-based services serve a dual purpose since they can be utilized directly by consumers, but they can also be invoked by technical systems to access business functionality.

IoS-based services will combine and correlate business, operational and IT aspects into service descriptions.

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Definitions (4)

Internet of Media (IoM) will address the challenges in scalable video coding and 3D video processing, dynamically adapted to the network conditions that will give rise to innovative applications such as massive multiplayer mobile games, digital cinema and in virtual worlds placing new types of traffic demands on mobile network architectures.

The vision of Future Internet based on standard communication protocols considers the merging of computer networks, Internet of Media (IoM), Internet of Services (IoS), and Internet of Things (IoT) Internet of Energy (IoE), Internet of Business/Enterprises (IoB), Internet of People (IoP) into a common global IT platform of seamless networks and networked “things”.

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Toward Ubiquitous Computing

This future network of networks will be laid out as public/private infrastructures and dynamically extended and improved by terminals created by the “things” connecting to one another.

We envisage that the Internet of Things will allow people and things to be connected Anytime, Anyplace, with Anything and Anyone, ideally using Any path/network and Any service.

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History

The term Internet of Things was proposed by Kevin Ashton in 1999 though the concept has been discussed since at least 1991. The concept of the Internet of Things first became popular through the Auto-ID Center at MIT and related market analysis publications.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) was seen as a prerequisite for the Internet of Things in the early days. If all objects and people in daily life were equipped with identifiers, they could be managed and inventoried by computers.

http://www.iotbrasil.com.br/new/brazilian-iot-forum-history/

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Previsão de Mercado

Previsão de Mercado para RFID

Previsão de Mercado para Wireless sensors

(source: http://www.IDtech.com)

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Application Scenarios (1)

Smart Urban Planning: Interactive Street Sensing gathers data about the city. Sensors on every lamppost in the city measure data about noise, traffic, environment, crowds, temperature – literally anything. Data is transmitted and processed and information is presented as dynamic infographics, showing interesting detail about the city as a living organism, e.g. how it is used by people, flow of traffic and impact on the environment;

Smart Urban Waste Management: an easier and more environmentally friendly way of collecting waste. This can be achived by identifying and emptying bins and containers when they are close to their fill level but not overflowing at private households, enterprises and public areas.

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Application Scenarios (2)

Ageing Population: For example, body sensor networks can be used as direct feedback during athletic exercises or may reveal that a person suffered a dangerous fall. The latter case is in particular relevant to elderly people that face those situations; in case of an emergency the IoT application would contact a responsible person with time and location information of the person concerned such that further action can be taken as soon as possible.

Emergency response: Sensors in the car detect a serious collision and send a signal to the emergency services. Several other calls, apart from the collided cars, confirm the accident. The onboard sensors of the two cars immediately detected the accident and the event was fused with geo-location information and transmitted to the local emergency authority to guide them to the accident site.

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Application Scenarios (3)

Mobile Payment: An identification of an object combined with location information is a powerful means of tracking objects, people and animals. Ex: Greg is taking the bus to work and checks out the next bus to arrive on his mobile. He will be charged based on the number of zones he crosses. Once he gets off the bus a message displays the cost of the trip. And payment is performed automatically via his mobile phone.

Smart Product Management: By employing different technologies such as RFIDs, sensor networks and intelligent accounting software, a supermarket manager will be able to keep track of his inventories without having to count manually ; everything will be automated. In addition, the software will be able to produce statistics on which products are favoured by the customers.

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Application Scenarios (4)

Intelligent Shopping : Pointing the RFID reader on the mobile phone at the products , Anna gets additional information about the products such as origin and expiry date. The device alerts Anna that it’s not suitable for her daughter because of her allergies. While she places the products in the shopping trolley, the bill is updated in real time. Checkout and payment happens automatically, to avoid the lengthy queues at the checkout.

Home Automation, Smart Renewable Energy (Smart Grid), Smart Events, Smart Orchard .....

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On the other hand...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) expressed concern regarding what is, in their view, the ability of IoT to erode people's control over their own lives. The ACLU wrote that "There’s simply no way to forecast how these immense powers -- disproportionately accumulating in the hands of corporations seeking financial advantage and governments craving ever more control -- will be used. Chances are Big Data and the Internet of Things will make it harder for us to control our own lives, as we grow increasingly transparent to powerful corporations and government institutions that are becoming more opaque to us.”

A different criticism is that the Internet of Things is being developed rapidly without appropriate consideration of the profound security challenges involved and the regulatory changes that might be necessary.

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Essential Components

Things: device and everyday objects.

Environment: Things retrieves information from the environm.

User Interfaces: users interact with things via some interface;

Services: applications and services providing funcionality;

Devices are integrated with the virtual world of the Internet.

Things

Environm

Interfaces

Services

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Main Features

Collect and transmit Data: sense the environment, gather data and transmit to another device.

Actuate based on triggers: Actuate based on conditions set by you.

Receive information: from other devices or the Internet.

Communication Assistance: devices can also forward data between other nodes;

Web Platforms can store data - devices usually have limited memory – and also send data back to devices

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Major Components of IoT Devices (1)

Control Units: a small computer on a single integrated circuit containing processor core, memory and a programmable I/O peripheral. It is responsible for the main operation.

Sensor: devices that can measure a physical quantity and convert it into a signal, which can be read and interpreted by the microcontroller unit. Most sensors fall into 2 categories: Digital or analog. An analog data is converted to digital value that can be transmitted to the Internet.

The Atmega328 chip from Atmel

Humidity sensor connected to a microcontroller

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Major Components of IoT Devices (2)

Communication Modules: responsible for the communication with the rest of the IoT platform. The communication between IoT devices and the Internet is performed in two ways:

A) There is an Internet-enable intermediate node acting as a gateway;

B) The IoT Device has direct communication with the Internet.

The communication between the main control unit and the communication module uses serial protocol (in most cases). They share a pair or Rx/Tx ports

A Bluetooth module connected to the Atmega168

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Major Components of IoT Devices (3)

Power Sources: In small devices the current is usually produced by sources like batteries, thermocouples and solar cells. Mobile devices are mostly powered by lightweight batteries that can be recharged for longer life duration.

(Exception for RFID).Probably the smallest rechargeable consumer battery.

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Communication Technologies (1)

Devices need to integrate a wireless (preferably) or wired Communication system.

Major technologies: RFID – Radio Frequency Identificiation - the most

common, but cannot provide any direct or indirect communication to the Internet.

Bluetooth – in the ISM band, creates PAN. Devices can discover and communicate with each other without line of sight. The low power consumption is important for IoT. The major drawback is that it cannot provide direct connectivity to the Internet (needs a gateway).

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Communication Technologies (2)

Major technologies: ZigBee : specifically developed to address low-cost, low-

power wireless networks for communications between machines (also know as machine-to-machine or M2M networks). In the ISM band, can provide 17 hours of continuous operation. Better power eficiency and higher range than Bluetooth, but still requires a gateway.

WiFi: Devices can connect directly to the Internet. Easy to establish. One drawback is that this technology is more power demanding than the others.

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Communication Technologies (3)

Major technologies: RFLinks : Radio Frequency Interfaces are quite cheap and

small and can provide communication range between 100m and 1 km (depending on the transmission power and the antenna used). Data rates are low, Internet-enable gateway is needed, do not provide any implementation of the TCP/IP.

Cellular Networks: A good option for connecting devices directly to the Internet, without further infrastructure. The communication protocols are complex (3G, 4G), requires high power requirements specially if the reception signal is low.

Wired communication: Ethernet – high data rates, signal availability, no mobility, but easy and popular

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Which one is the Best?

To decide what is the most appropriate communication technology for your IoT network, consider mobility, network range, data rate, power consumption, size and cost

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Open Issue – Standardization (1)

Scientific community are working to develop standards.

The main standards:

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Open Issue – Standardization (2)

EPCGlobal: it aims at supporting the global adoption of a unique identifier for each tag, which is called Electronic Product Code (EPC) and related industry-driven standards.

GRIFS: Global RFID Interoperability Forum for Standards is among the most relevant Working Groups from European Commitee for Standardization. They discuss communication infrastructure, spectrum for RFID use, privacy and security affecting RFID.

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Open Issue – Standardization (3)

M2M: ETSI M2M commitee discuss development and maintenance of an end-to-end architecture for M2M (with end-to-end IP philosophy behind it) – sensor network integration, naming, addressing, location, QoS, security, charging, management...

6LoWPAN – IETF discuss IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks. A set of protocols that can be used to integrate sensor nodes into IPv6 networks.

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Open Issue – Standardization (4)

ROLL – IETF group named Routing Over Low Power and Lossy networks. They produced the RPL (pronounced ripple) routing protocol draft including 6LoWPAN. Existing routing protocols such as OSPF, IS-IS, AODV, and OLSR have been evaluated by the working group and have in their current form been found to not satisfy all of these specific routing requirements. Aspects to consider: time varying loss characteristics and connectivity while permitting low-power operation with very modest memory and CPU pressure in networks potentially comprising a very large number (several thousands) of nodes.

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Open Issue – Addressing and networking (1)

Name identifier has 64-96 bits and IPv6 address has 128 bits. Metodologies to integrate RFID identifiers and IPv6 addresses have been proposed.

The concept of Object Name Server (ONS) instead of DNS: associates a reference to a description of the specific object and the related RFID tag identifier.

TCP is inadequate: (1) 3 way handshake unnecessary: waste energy; (2) Congestion control – it is difficult to suppose congestion in wireless environment; the amount of data exchanged in a single session is very small and the congestion control is useless; (3) TCP maintains data in buffer, devices have low memory and low battery to manage memory. No solution have been proposed!

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Open Issue – Addressing and networking (2)

The characteristics of the traffic exchanged by smart objects are unknown. This is the basis for the design of the network infrastrucutes and protocols.

When the traffic flows inside the wireless sensor network itself, it is not a problem. When sensor nodes are part of the Internet, different traffic characteristics arise, according to different application scenarios.

It is an important issue as network providers must plan the expansion of their infrastructure. How they can provide QoS?

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Open Issue – Security (1)

IoT is vulnerable to attacks: wireless..., low computing resources, cannot implement complex schemes for security.

Authentication and data integrity are must. Some solutions have been proposed, but none solve the man-in-middle attack:

A wants to authenticate other systems elements and an attacker wants to stole B identity. The attacker will position two transceivers B´ and A´. A believe that B´ is B and make B believe that A´is A. The signal transmitted by A and B is replicated and cannot be distinguished.

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Open Issue – Security (2)

HMAC has been used (keyed-hash message authentication code). Some secret key shared between the tag and the destination of the message, in combination with a hash function to provide authentication. Password length is an issue.

Privacy: To handle data collection process appropriate solutions are needed in all the different subsystems interacting with human beings in the IoT. An individual cannot control what information is being collected about themselves. (Be careful with Obama...)

The success of IoT depends also on the security!