In 2003, there were only more than 500 million connected devices in the world, and only 0.08 per capita, which means that only 0.02 devices per person can connect to the Internet. In 2010, this figure rose to 12.5 billion, with an average of almost 6 connected devices per person. The scale of the networked “equipment†in 2015 is expected to rise further to 25 billion units, and will reach 50 billion units by the end of 2020.
This growth trend will continue. With the development of the new nano-joining technology, the so-called “smart dustâ€, this number will grow further by hundreds of billions per day. As the number of connected devices grows, communication between devices becomes more intelligent. For example, a smart fire safety system can become even more useful if it is connected to a smart thermostat. If the thermostat is further connected to the user's smartphone, the intelligence of the system will be upgraded to a whole new level. Therefore, the more networked devices are added to the network, the better they can convert massive amounts of useless “data†into useful information.
This is the fundamental goal of the Internet of Things: building a self-sustaining network for everyday objects that provides collective value far beyond the capabilities of individual items. It is based on this that the Internet of Things is widely deployed by government departments, business organizations, academic groups and amateurs. The Internet of Things has reached all levels of the electronics field, from international IoT standards to custom smart sensor development.
However, despite the widespread development of IoT applications around the world, there are still many complex challenges to be solved in order to achieve their universal application, including technical issues such as general protocols and standards, as well as more abstract concepts such as personal privacy. Only when the industry truly addresses these challenges can the Internet of Things be developed, otherwise it will always be in place.
Use common standards
Although the industry has made great achievements in the standardization of the Internet of Things, its security, privacy, and especially architecture still need to be improved. According to a recent report published in the Financial Times, technology manufacturers and telecommunications companies have launched a "death struggle" to compete for the Internet of Things market. As industry leaders try to further refine their positioning in the IoT market, there are several competitive standards in the industry, including Google's "Physical Network", Industrial Internet Alliance (IIC), Open Internet Alliance (OIC) and Thread. This is a new IP wireless network protocol jointly launched by Google, Samsung, ARM and Freescale.
Although these institutions are committed to promoting the popularity of the Internet of Things, the lack of standardization of the Internet of Things is still worrying. Before the development of common standards, the Internet of Things has the potential to become another area of ​​asynchronous technology that relies on the special supervision of large IT companies.
2. Adopt IPv6
Every device connected to the Internet needs to have its own unique digital label, the IP address. Currently, most IP addresses are run on the fourth generation Internet Protocol, which is IPv4. IPv4 uses a 32-bit system that provides a total of 4.3 billion unique IP addresses. This number of IP addresses was allocated in February 2010. With the continuous access of new devices to the Internet every day, IPv4 is now heavily overloaded. Therefore, only by using Network Address Translation (NAT) technology can more devices be connected to the Internet. This technology can convert one IP address into another to provide more available IP address space.
Although it turns out that NAT can effectively avoid the exhaustion of IP addresses, it cannot meet the needs of the development of the Internet of Things. Instead, network operators are actively promoting the popularity of IPv6, a new 128-bit protocol that can provide up to 3.4 & TImes; 1038 device addresses. The new protocol not only provides ample IP addresses for the development of the Internet of Things (including 'smart dust' applications), but also provides enhanced security and network management capabilities.
Despite the many advantages of IPv6, according to a report released by Google in December 2014, more than 94% of Internet traffic worldwide is still sent by IPv4. For the success of the Internet of Things technology, the penetration rate of IPv6 is bound to be further enhanced.
3. Wireless protocol selection
In addition to the lack of a standardized architecture, design engineers are faced with the choice of the problem, they need to select the most suitable solution from a large number of connection technologies to the Internet of Things devices.
Several of the representative connection technologies include WiFi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, ANT, Zigbee, and RF4CE. To select the best wireless technology, designers must consider a number of factors, such as whether a dedicated solution is needed, what frequency band meets the industry standard used, and what power is required for the device. The choice of wireless technology will affect the way communication between devices and may fundamentally limit the application of the device in the Internet of Things.
Whether you choose to develop a dedicated solution or directly adopt standardized technologies such as Bluetooth, the trade-off between the two lies in the basic functions required. Highly specialized features may require the development of proprietary implementations that directly limit the choice of available products offered by OEM vendors; but at the same time it has a beneficial side, as dedicated wireless platforms may be tailored to the application, Conducive to shrinking the footprint of the software.
As expected, Wi-Fi currently dominates the entire wireless connection world. However, the high power consumption of Wi-Fi technology makes it unsuitable for IoT applications. Many developers are actively experimenting with low-power Bluetooth technology and the Dynastream 'ANT' protocol, both of which provide low-cost and ultra-low-power solutions for short-range wireless communications, making them ideal for wearables and IoT devices.
4. Provide power
Abandoning the use of Wi-Fi brings another problem to the Internet of Things application: How to provide sufficient power for a large number of portable Internet connected devices? In order to fully realize the potential of the Internet of Things, various devices accessing the network need to gradually implement self-sustainment functions. With the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things, there are millions of embedded sensors connected to it, even if it is less than a few billions. It is almost impossible to replace the battery of each device regularly, so we have to make each sensor They are able to use their various local elements in their surroundings, such as vibration, light, airflow, etc. to generate electricity independently.
In most cases, this type of power generation is achieved through the use of nanogenerator technology. These flexible, self-powered energy harvesters can be used to convert kinetic energy (from vibrational energy and mechanical energy) into electrical energy without the need for external circuitry and batteries required to install electronics. Although the initial development of nano-generators is relatively slow, its recent development is obvious to all, and its energy efficiency has increased by nearly 40 times. Through the efforts of industry companies such as EnOcean and Perpetuum, nano-power generation technology can now convert various energy, such as weak vibrations and even walking on the human body, into electrical energy.
Despite this, we still have to overcome many problems in order to finally solve the problem of energy consumption. As the world is expected to usher in 50 billion connected devices, we urgently need to develop flexible renewable energy.
5. Privacy
The impact of the Internet of Things on individual rights and personal privacy has been one of the topics of constant concern. Because the Internet of Things may cause intrusive marketing and enterprise monitoring, it has aroused widespread public disapproval and distrust of the Internet of Things. Therefore, if the industry wants to promote consumer applications widely, IoT designers must ensure that the privacy of users is maintained, and fundamentally, it is to ensure that they do not live up to the trust of users.
From a design perspective, the best way to achieve this goal is to ensure that IoT products can truly bring tangible value to the lives of the general public. The IoT industry can provide end users with truly useful products by designing useful applications rather than just creating new ones.
At the beginning of the introduction of all new technologies, the media always questioned its privacy issues, and this issue will ultimately be of concern to the public. Whether it is a smartphone or a satellite navigation system, this phenomenon existed at the beginning. Ultimately, however, these technologies have grown rapidly because they not only provide tangible benefits, but also strive to maximize the security and privacy of end users.
Therefore, IoT device data collection should be as transparent as possible, and appropriate management and security measures should be taken to protect the user's data. The basic content of these controls was originally outlined in a 2009 report of the European Commission, which invited member states of the Union to provide guidance on the design and operation of Internet-connected devices. These guidelines highlight several requirements for IoT devices, including proactive defense against attacks, use of authenticated data, appropriate access control for collected data, and high level of protection for client privacy. IoT professional designers and amateurs must consider all of these features when trying to develop new connectivity devices.
In order to realize the universal application of the Internet of Things in 2015, we must solve a series of problems that we are currently facing. This article only mentions several of them. While some of these challenges will be addressed by government agencies and industry organizations, global designers and amateurs have encountered many problems. This is why the Internet of Things is so interesting in the design community. They not only look forward to the great benefits behind success, but also enjoy the many challenges it brings.
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