Chapter 7 - Internet of Things: from hype to reality

Abstract

The era of the Internet of Things (IoT) is sweeping over and replacing the Internet creating a world where smart things exist connected to each other intelligently. This was predicted by Eric Emerson Schmidt, the former C.E.O. of Google over 20 years ago. The physical world is now connecting to the digital world so quickly with the emergence of the IoT that it seems the Internet will become invisible soon, meaning the physical world will be connecting to the digital world seamlessly. The world will enjoy smart connectivity in the same way that the city of Barcelona has emerged to be the smartest city in the world. We are moving toward system-to-system connection, with smart networking reaching its peak. The idea of software-defined autonomous machines is about to become hugely important, which will become ubiquitous. With the advent of the IoT, we explore how it is becoming a reality and whether it has any limits. Maciej Kranz in his book on the IoT explains the very essential detailed and inclusive idea of the IoT, with IoT expanding to businesses, and covering and impacting on a variety of technology areas. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have a huge scope because of the enormous data generated by sensors and devices connected through the IoT. We will explore in this chapter the hype around the IoT and the reality. We will also discover improved metrics in the IoT that is allowing it to be a leader in the technological world. We are witnessing the fourth revolution in the digitization world and discuss the reasons behind its exponential growth. The protocols that differentiate them from others have evolved for IOT in a new set of patterns. This also creates security concerns and data are described as the new oil, raising further challenges of data privacy.