L’Internet des Objets est l’un des secteurs les plus sujets aux spéculations. Tout le monde veut savoir de quoi sera fait demain. C’est bien normal : il s’agit de repérer les tendances IoT les plus pertinentes. Voici les 7 thématiques technologiques qui animeront 2019.

1.Industrialisation : une des tendances IoT qui prendra de l’ampleur en 2019

C’est sûrement l’une des tendances IoT qui prend déjà de l’ampleur en cette fin d’année 2018. 

Maintenant bien assimilé par les entreprises, l’Internet des Objets connaît sa vraie première phase d’industrialisation. Les entreprises du secteur industriel terminent les preuves de concept et installent maintenant des capteurs ou connectent leurs machines actives sur les chaînes de production. Soyons clairs, les usines complètement connectées ne sont pas légion.

En revanche, les données de certaines chaînes de production sont maintenant analysées par des logiciels de production et d’aide à la maintenance. On parle de maintenance préventive et dans le meilleur des cas de maintenance prédictive. Les systèmes les plus avancés versent dans l’automatisation des tâches.

Que ce soit la connexion des nouveaux outils, la commande de nouvelles pièces, l’appel d’un technicien ou bien encore l’assemblage d’éléments, les possibilités sont nombreuses.

Les projets d’automatisations généralisés se multiplient. Il suffit de prendre l’exemple de la France pour s’en rendre compte. A Fougères près de Rennes, Atlantem, le fabricant de menuiseries va ouvrir en 2019 une usine 4.0 qui emploiera 150 salariés. Pour l’occasion, la société va créer 50 nouveaux postes. De son côté, Mars compte investir 26 millions d’euros dans “l’automatisation, la flexibilité et la qualité de production” de son usine près de Strasbourg comme le rapporte les Echos.

2. Edge computing : faciliter l’analyse des données en temps réel

L’industrialisation de l’IoT dépend forcément des technologies déployées. Dans le cadre des usines connectées, il s’agit davantage de connecter des machines. Cependant, bon nombre de responsables d’usines veulent installer des capteurs qui recueillent et permettent d’analyser en temps réel leurs activités. 

En cela, l’Edge Computing est une technologie idéale. Elle permet de réduire les temps de latence entre la collecte et le traitement des données. Ce dernier peut être opéré depuis des passerelles IoT ou bien les objets eux-mêmes. Pour cela, les entreprises privilégient les infrastructures de Cloud Hybride. Elles vont préférer adopter des espaces de colocations dans des datacenters proches de leurs sites plutôt que de passer par le Cloud public. La technique la plus fiable consiste à mettre en place des micro-datacenters auparavant utilisés par certains services des entreprises.

Le secteur industriel n’est pas le seul à avoir besoin de cette analyse en temps réel. Le déploiement des voitures autonomes, des systèmes de sécurité intelligents reposent sur la même technologie. L’Edge Computing reste et sera l’une des tendances IoT 2019.

3. Machine Learning et IA embarquée

L’Edge Computing sous-tend une autre des tendances IoT 2019 : le machine learning ou l’IA embarquée. En effet, les concepteurs d’objets connectés veulent davantage de puissance de calcul et d’intelligence embarqués. Pour cela, il y a deux méthodes. Soit il faut muscler la vitesse d’horloge des composants. Soit il faut tabler sur l’intégration des algorithmes de machine learning préalablement entraînés depuis de puissantes infrastructures.

Les fabricants de voitures autonomes adoptent davantage la première méthode. 

En ce sens, Nvidia développe des cartes basées sur des processeurs graphiques pouvant prendre place au sein des véhicules.

Cependant, la méthode préférée des concepteurs d’objets connectés reste l’embarquement de modèle de machine learning. Même avec un Raspberry Pi, il est possible de récupérer des données et de les corréler à un modèle prédéfini. Depuis une caméra, il détectera par exemple le non-port du casque en milieu industriel, la présence d’une personne devant une porte, enclencher le suivi d’objet, etc.

A terme, il s’agit de confier plus d’intelligence, plus d’indépendance et d’autonomie aux objets connectés.

4. Autonomie énergétique des objets

Émanciper les objets connectés des systèmes centraux et des smartphones demandent un effort particulier. 

Le grand défi des concepteurs est de construire des produits au temps d’utilisation record. Pour cela, un soin tout particulier est apporté à l’autonomie énergétique des batteries utilisées. Certains dispositifs comme des capteurs environnementaux doivent pouvoir relever des données pendant plusieurs années. De même, dans un contexte de loisir, les fabricants de wearable doivent éviter de vendre des appareils à recharger tous les jours.

Dans le premier cas, les fournisseurs Sigfox et LoRa vantent les capacités de leurs réseaux IoT pour leur faible consommation d’énergie. Ils travaillent avec les fabricants pour augmenter au maximum la durée d’activité des appareils. 

Les plus performants émettent des données pendant plus de cinq sans besoin de charger la batterie.

Dans le second cas, un acteur comme Qualcomm a dévoilé son nouveau SoC pour montre connectée. Le Snapdragon Wear 3100 permet d’utiliser un dispositif perfectionné au maximum pendant cinq jours. Les bracelets connectés un peu plus simples disposent eux d’une vingtaine de jours d’autonomie. L’année prochaine, les dispositifs seront, nous l’espérons, encore plus performants.

5. Sécurité IoT

Voilà un secteur particulièrement dynamique. 

Les entreprises de cybersécurité multiplient leurs efforts pour proposer des outils toujours plus performants. Ils s’adressent notamment aux concepteurs de produits IoT et aux utilisateurs de ces derniers, principalement des entreprises. De leur côté, les fabricants adoptent le principe de security by design. Cela leur assure la sécurisation des fonctions de bases des objets.

Cependant, il faut avant tout sécuriser le parc de dispositifs IoT déjà installés. C’est dans cette manne de produits mal protégés que les hackers piochent pour former leurs botnets IoT. Ils réalisent ensuite des attaques DDOS afin de brider l’accès à des services populaires.

Si les entreprises sont de plus en plus alertes à ce sujet, les cabinets de recherche ont découvert bon nombre de failles ou de botnets en 2018. La plupart du temps, les équipes de recherches arrivent à stopper les propagations de malware avant qu’un problème n’ait lieu. Il faut dire que certains cyberattaquants se contentent de recopier le code mis en ligne par un autre hacker.

Cependant, les professionnels ont remarqué l’émergence de nouveau moyen de piratage plus évolué. L’une des grosses Tendances IoT 2019 est donc la sécurisation des nouveaux appareils. Les sociétés comme Symantec, Avast, Qihoo et autres travaillent au développement de solutions mêlant IA et cybersécurité.

6. La 5G, de nouveau une des tendances IoT 2019

Ah, la 5G ! Voilà un sujet dont on entend parler régulièrement depuis deux ans. En revanche, les applications concrètes peinent à pointer le bout de leur nez. Alors, pourquoi l’ajouter dans ce top des tendances IoT 2019 ? Tout simplement, car les premiers déploiements à grande échelle et les premières offres commerciales seront lancés dès l’année prochaine. Il s’agira dans un premier temps de diffuser des contenus très haute résolution sur des smartphones. L’on imagine que de nombreux tests en lien avec des voitures autonomes seront menés.

Outre le début des déploiements à large échelle, l’année 2019 sera l’occasion de voir les premiers projets IoT exploitant cette technologie. En France, l’Arcep a notamment lancé plusieurs consultations en 2018 pour analyser et comprendre les besoins des entreprises.Cela permettra notamment de régler certains problèmes de connexions rencontrés avec les systèmes MtoM actuels.

7. Constellation IoT

Après le déploiement de la 5G, du NB-IoT, de LoRa et de Sigfox, les opérateurs veulent maintenant aller dans l’espace. Plusieurs entreprises veulent lancer des nanosatellites en orbite basse afin de créer des constellations IoT. Collecte Localisation Satellites, Sigfox, Eusatel, Startlink (SpaceX), Fleet Space ou encore Iridium sont quelques-uns des acteurs prêts à déployer de tels infrastructures spatiales.

L’objectif n’est pas de créer un nouveau protocole IoT, mais de transmettre les données en rendant compatibles les standards IoT avec les bandes de fréquences spatiales. Il s’agit de couvrir l’ensemble des territoires qui ne sont pas encore desservis par les réseaux cités précédemment. L’espace maritime est le premier terrain de jeu visé. Cela permettrait de réduire drastiquement les coûts de géolocalisation en se passant des contrats d’interopérabilités entre les opérateurs. En France, l’exploitation spatiale bénéficie depuis peu d’une fiscalité avantageuse. Voilà donc un vecteur de développement important et une des tendances IoT à suivre de près.

ObjetConnectés.com

Choosing the right IoT connectivity protocol for your business is an important decision.

However, it’s not so black and white. Our team finds that customers underestimate the advantages and disadvantages for certain radio technologies. In some cases, we actually recommend cellular protocols to companies who are planning to deploy indoors. That’s because cellular IoT connectivity protocols can be easier to set up, provide better reliability, and allow the maker of the device to be in control of the data.

Many other decisions can impact the type of radio you should choose, such as availability of infrastructure (cellular network and Wi-Fi networks), or the price sensitivity of your customers. That’s why in this guide, we’ll discuss different IoT connectivity protocols, and which one could be the best connectivity option for your IoT solution.

Everything You Need to Know About Wi-Fi Connectivity 

Advantages

• Minimal to no recurring cost — Unlike cellular devices, Wi-Fi connected devices come with no recurring costs. That’s because cellular devices require a SIM card and carry the cost of a data plan from a cellular provider. Wi-Fi also tends to be cheaper because you don’t have to pay to access the network infrastructure (i.e. the Wi-Fi network). It should be noted that IoT platforms often charge a small recurring fee for connectivity usage, including Wi-Fi. However, this recurring fee is much cheaper than your typical cellular connectivity data plan.
• No bandwidth restrictions — No bandwidth restrictions make Wi-Fi a good choice for high bandwidth applications (like audio and video streaming). If you intend to stream security video footage from one place to another, Wi-Fi may be the way to go. For businesses, you don’t need to consider the cost of bandwidth because your devices will leverage your customers’ existing Wi-Fi networks.
• Low latency — Due to complex carrier networking infrastructure, cellular devices typically have to transmit data through more systems than Wi-Fi. If the device is roaming, messages must go even farther and are often given lower priority. Additionally, in order to reach long distances from the tower, cellular radio protocols have to tolerate significant message loss by taking extra time to retransmit. As a result, Wi-Fi based devices exhibit lower latency than cellular devices.

Disadvantages

• Control of IoT connectivity — Wi-Fi connected devices are dependent on the router’s connection to the Internet. If your home router provides a weak Wi-Fi signal, your device will have a poor connection. Unlike cellular, a Wi-Fi device requires that your customers know how to configure the device for access to their network. Wi-Fi connectivity also puts device data in the hands of your customer, and that is less than optimal if the value of the solution resides in the data. 
• Barriers — Wall construction material (such as drywall, metal framing, and building materials) often interfere with Wi-Fi signals.
• Home Routers — Wi-Fi is great for many indoor connected products, as the devices are generally close to the router. Although, outdoor smart products (like connected hot tubs) are often too far from the home router to establish a reliable connection. Many products are available to help extend a Wi-Fi signal. However, this requires extra setup to get started. For outdoor coverage, Wi-Fi extenders or special outdoor access points are necessary, which also require power and add additional points of possible failure, plus additional costs.
• Setup experience — Users constantly change SSIDs and passwords, which can easily disrupt a device’s connection to a router. Certain firewalls and other connection filtering solutions also require IT administration to configure a “work-around”, creating more setup complications. Cellular simply ‘works’ without any end-user configuration.

Everything You Need to Know About Cellular Connectivity

Advantages

• Connect anywhere, anytime — Cellular networks cover 90 percent of the world’s population, allowing you to connect your IoT device pretty much anywhere.
• Low power, low-cost — In recent years, the power and cost of cellular chips have reduced dramatically, meaning you can swap out cellular for Wi-Fi at a similar cost and power consumption. Cellular is now comparable in cost and power to Wi-FI, so you can consider them for more use cases.
• Designed for traffic — Existing cellular infrastructures are designed to handle constant communication. Unlike Wi-Fi networks, cellular network quality is going to be more consistent across the United States. That’s because you’re essentially paying a company (like AT&T or Verizon) to manage and provide a strong connection. You’re also are not limited by how much data you can send over a cellular network due to no limiting regulations.
• Penetration — Cellular communication protocols are better at reaching hard to reach or underground places because they can penetrate solid barriers easier.
• Security — With a cellular network, you are paying another company to manage security for you, which makes security breaches less likely. On the other hand, Wi-Fi networks can easily be hacked if end-users don’t properly update and patch their home Wi-Fi networks. 

Disadvantages

• Data Plans – Accessing cellular infrastructure carries a recurring cost that not all IoT business models can support.
• Managing carriers — Cellular carriers can be a pain to work with. It’s best to choose an IoT platform that takes care of the cellular carriers for you. Cellular carriers are more likely to respond to IoT providers faster because they are taking care of a larger amount of devices. If you’re a small business, you’re not going to be as high of a priority for cellular carriers. They will take care of larger clients before they take care of the smaller use cases, which is why IoT providers have an advantage to negotiate strong cellular carrier relationships.
• Changing cellular IoT connectivity standards — Newer and better cellular standards are always coming out. Once it was about 3G, now it’s all about LTE. Fortunately, current LTE standards are designed to be deployable for the next 10+ years. So, you don’t need to change any time soon. However, Wi-Fi formats and structures change frequently with changing technologies. Cellular infrastructure is regulated by governments and maintained by companies dedicated to uptime.

How to Choose the Right Cellular Connectivity Option 

Unlike Wi-Fi, you have to make additional considerations on the type of cellular IoT connectivity you want for your IoT device. At the moment, 2G and 3G radio technologies are being phased out, so that eliminates some of the potential options. But there are still other radio technologies that need to be considered like Cat-M1 (LTE) and NB-IoT.

Cat-M1

Category M1 (Cat-M1) is one of the newest cellular protocols available for IoT applications. Cat-M1 is an LTE chipset that is designed to integrate with sensors — it consumes less power, which means fewer truck visits and longer uptime. Verizon and AT&T just launched Cat-M1 networks a year ago, and IoT platforms  are starting to offer Cat-M1 as a part of their cellular connectivity offerings.

Narrowband IoT 

Narrowband IoT (also known as NB-IoT or LTE-NB1) is a proposed Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technology that is supposed to work anywhere. NB-IoT can be deployed within the existing LTE spectrum and carriers will be able to update their networks through firmware updates. NB-IoT can also be used as a standalone deployment within its own dedicated spectrum where deemed necessary.

Everything You Need to Know About Mesh Connectivity

As IoT platforms have matured, they have started to embrace a low-power, low-cost alternative that can bridge the gaps between these devices: wireless mesh networks.

A wireless mesh network is an infrastructure of nodes (a mesh topology) that are wirelessly connected to each other. These nodes piggyback off each other to extend a radio signal (like a Wi-Fi or cellular connection) to route, relay, and proxy traffic to/from clients. Each node spreads the radio signal a little further than the last, minimizing the possibility of dead zones.

It should be noted that not all wireless mesh solutions provide these benefits, but this is the complete list that is unique to Particle Mesh:

1. No Single Point of Failure – Build a local mesh network that is self-healing — if an individual device goes offline, the network can reconfigure itself to the closest connection. This means no data loss, no dead zones, no problems.
2. Self-Extending – Additionally, if you need to get more range out of a mesh system, you can add another node and the messages can hop through the mesh back to the gateway.
3. Reliable Networks – Interconnected devices can simultaneously transfer data smoothly and will not complicate the network connection. If one node goes down, another nearby node can pick up the connection and continue data communication.
4. Low-cost, low-power – Using wireless mesh networks eliminate the cost and complexity of installing fiber/wires between facilities. As more or less coverage is needed, wireless mesh nodes can be added or removed. Mesh uses comparable amounts of energy as Bluetooth, so you can design devices that last for 3-5 years then get tossed and replaced.

Is Wireless Mesh Networking Right for You?

When using wireless mesh networks for your IoT project, it is important that you consider these three core variables: installation, network management, and support.

1. Installation — This aspect entirely depends upon your intended application. You need to ask yourself if you actually needed a distributed set of mesh nodes for your use case. If you intend to implement wireless mesh networking for your home, this is relatively easy deployment that can be achieved with low-cost hardware. If you intend to implement mesh for commercial or industrial applications, you should setup a small-scale, prototype, mesh network to determine the efficiency of the system before deploying a mesh networking system at large.
2. Device Management — Most wireless mesh networking solutions come with some form of device or network management through a desktop or mobile application. When comparing solutions, it’s important to find one that allows you to manage fleets of devices, monitor event logs, perform diagnostics, and send updates wirelessly. The more control you have over your mesh-topography the better.
3. Support — When selecting a mesh-solution, it’s also important to consider the community surrounding it. Mesh networking solutions with limited adoption will have fewer resources available to aid you in development. For example, Particle’s development kits have a large developer community surrounding it, which makes it easier to find information and support when needed. Also, by selecting a more widely adopted wireless mesh networking solution, you will ensure that integrating your IoT device with existing cloud services will be easy.

How to Choose the Right IoT Connectivity Platform

When examining IoT connectivity protocols, you also need to examine the current IoT platforms on the market. You need to choose an IoT platform that provides the right IoT connectivity for your solution. It’s often difficult to choose the right IoT platform because they all market themselves in a different way and don’t provide the same solutions. So, here are some questions you should ask yourself when choosing an IoT platform for your connectivity needs:

• IoT Connectivity — How well does the vendor’s network coverage fit your business’s current and future initiatives?
• Method of IoT connectivity — What type of IoT connectivity do you need? Do you need a Wi-Fi or cellular solution for your IoT product? You need to assess these needs and see how the vendor can address them.
• Geographic Coverage — Do they provide embedded sim with global support? Does the IoT platform cover the regions your business needs?
• Data Plan — Does the vendor offer a fair data plan? You’ll want the ability to pause or suspend your data services at any time and the ability to control how much data that is used.
• Data Access — How will you integrate the data acquired through the IoT platform with your enterprise back ends and current cloud service? What do you plan to do with this data? Does the service match those needs?
• Type of service — How does the IoT platform describe and sell themselves? Some services are purely IoT connectivity platforms, while others are end-to-end solutions that offer the hardware, software, and connectivity. You need to assess what your business needs. How will your needs change over time?

The Bottom Line

Choosing the right IoT connectivity protocol for your business or connected project is an important decision. You must consider the advantages and disadvantages of each radio protocol before moving forward with your project. Taking the time to become acquainted with the benefits of each radio protocol will save you a lot of headache and heartache down the road.

IoT development is essential to the prosperity of your business. Click here to learn more about the wide scale of applications for enterprise IoT.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has changed our perception of technology and its application in our daily lives. IoT is a technology that links all other technologies together! The IoT development market is expected to reach a value of over $457 US Billion dollars by the year 2020. Further fueling this growth, many of the top non-IT companies have already invested in IoT services by outsourcing it to IoT development companies.

On the other hand, we have other buzzwords and trends in technology such as blockchain. A technology which is hyped up so much due to its potential, yet not many know too much about it. It is true; the theoretical descriptions about blockchain applications are indeed revolutionary if these find a practical implementation. But nothing, yet, has been done with blockchain development, which proves anything about it.

But when it comes to IoT, its potential is clear, and its application in today’s smart devices has changed the way we perceive and understand objects and scenarios in our daily lives. Just about every sector and element in the corporate world has been affected by IoT development, and an iot development company today finds many clients willing to leverage this technology to attain competitive advantage. Here are all the reasons why your business needs it.

IoT Is Gradually Taking Control Over Hardware Operations

IoT development is mostly connecting smart devices to the Internet via a website, app, or software. Yes, IoT is mostly a better utilization of the Internet. But while its conventional uses involved the sync of virtually existing websites, images, and all multimedia elements within the world-wide-web interface, IoT takes it to a new hardware level.

The simple and traditional Internet could have, at most, affected how a website or app loads. IoT affects how collections of hardware function as a whole! Until the dawn of IoT, offline and online/cloud-based businesses were considered completely different from each other.

Today, as it stands, the online and virtual world is gradually taking control of the physical hardware. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the greatest technologies, such as the steam engine, were almost entirely manually controlled. After the scientific revolution and in today’s age of information, the manufacturing of electronic and hardware-controlled devices is highly automated through software running on Internet networks. Even a finished, electronic product, such as a Tesla vehicle, can be controlled through a smartphone app today!

So, the future isn’t far when the doors of your office, the lights, software, computer systems, payroll, and everything else you could add in between could be controlled through a single device synced with every activity within the business environment.

And unlike something like blockchain, these examples aren’t merely an imagination of the mind. Instead, a primitive stage of such a use case can already be found with smart devices, such as the Philip hue Bulbs, Smart Routers, Smart Cameras by Nest, and Amazon Alexa-powered smart appliances of today.

The businesses of today are defined by their online presence and the ease with which it can deliver services through these mediums. In the future, the best companies will be the ones that make maximum use out of their IoT networks. 

Also read: How to leverage IoT & Big Data for Digital Transformation

IoT Can Be Combined With Anything!

To put the heading into context, we can consider IoT as a flavor enhancer in the world of technology. It can be used anywhere, and not just that; almost every existing technology can benefit from the application of IoT.

Let’s start with blockchain. This is, perhaps, the most hyped technology since the Internet. The integration of IoT with blockchain can result in revolutionary new methods for tracking supply chain operations. The transactions during the entire process of obtaining raw materials from suppliers and its transfer from middlemen to finally the retailer can be recorded on an immutable blockchain network and synced to smartphones through IoT to be viewed by consumers.

IoT can also be enhanced through AI and machine learning. Use cases of smart cameras using AI/ML for face detection and for identifying suspicious behavior have been discussed for a long time now. IoT can further enhance the technology by providing alerts to connected devices in case of threats and other notifications.

Yet, another technology where IoT finds its use is in chatbot development. Chatbots are considered to take the human-business interaction to newer levels with its neat interface, interactive communication experience, and instant delivery of information. With the use of IoT, chatbots can directly communicate with customers on behalf of the businesses. Chatbots equipped with access to sensors on appliances can inform its users about defects in the product or about any repairs or refillings that may be required. 

Also read: What can Chatbot development do to Revitalize your Business

That’s not all. IoT can be implemented in other applications, which include digital identity authentication, device authentication, and detection of counterfeit products through its integration with blockchain, AI/ML, and other technologies.

Remotely Accessing the Real World Through IoT

While the Internet was and is all about accessing tons of information through the world wide web, IoT is all about accessing the real world through the same technology. A company making full use of IoT can manage nearly all its operations through a single controller device. The next generation of consumers will be able to manage routine activities in their daily lives the same way, but the service they would be using to do so depends on which company puts its feet forward the earliest.

Companies such as Google and Amazon were able to capitalize on the Internet to make themselves successful. It is these companies yet again, which are first in the race to develop an ecosystem of IoT powered devices. Yet, it is unlikely that these two giants will hold a monopoly on this technology.

Today, new and emerging startups are coming up with new applications of IoT, and the advantage they have over the corporate giants is their unique specializations, something that top companies catering to wide audiences cannot gain so easily.

As long as you, as a business owner, have a specialization the product/service offered, and as long as you have an audience that can benefit from IoT, it makes absolute sense to have it implemented in your business. Unlike other technologies, like blockchain, IoT isn’t a hope for the future; it exists in the present, and companies are already leveraging it to the fullest.

Download The Comparative Guide to Rules Engines for IoT to learn what are the most common automation technologies used in the IoT domain for application development

Smart city is an urban development plan which is economically sustainable and offer high living standards to its residents. Technology has a key role to play in building smart cities. A smart city infrastructure incorporates various factors like Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Internet of things (IOT), public-private partnerships, social and human capital.

What is Internet of Things (IOT)?

Internet of Things (IOT) is connecting electronics devices (other than computers and smartphones) to internet for efficient monitoring and handling of day to day activities. They can be kitchen appliances, buildings, vehicles, health gadgets, lightings, waste disposal, security systems, energy management etc. These devices are connected to internet and monitored remotely.

The beneficiary of these devices are consumers, government and private enterprises. According to an estimate by Gartner INC, there will be 20 billion IOT devices by 2020.

IOT and Smart Cities

.In urban development ICT and IOT are important building blocks in creating a smart infrastructure for managing ever increasing city population. A smart city needs technological efficiency in transport, communication, safety measures and planning infrastructure.

In order to make cost effective, qualitative and self-sustainable infrastructure construction companies are incorporating IOT devices and solutions in their architecture plan. Governments of both developed and developing countries are working on public private partnerships (PPP) to bring IOT solutions in smart cities creation.

Some research firms estimate that by 2020 there will be investment of $400 billion every year in creating smart cities. Nearly $6 billion will be spent of IOT devices which will generate income of $13 trillion by 2025.

Must have technologies for every Smart City

1. Traffic Management and Parking Solutions

Traffic woes are a major problem faced by city dwellers. IOT devices can help immensely in giving dynamic and intelligent solutions to ever increasing traffic problems and parking space. The IOT devices can help in avoiding traffic jams, suggest feasible time to travel and give parking information about crowded places. IOT monitored traffic signals can function on vehicle density instead of time bands. Parking sensors can suggest a spot free for parking. These measures will save time, energy, gas emissions and maintain an easy flow of traffic.

Many European cities have incorporated these technologies successfully. A crowded city like Paris has minimized its traffic problem by adopting parking sensors. London is also working on its smart parking project that will help drivers in locating free parking spots. These cities are also experimenting on electric car and bike sharing models. Some examples of parking apps in Europe and US are ParkingPanda, SpotHero, Parker, and BestParking.

2. Waste Management

Waste management is a big issue for municipal bodies in urban areas. Large population generates large amount of waste. IOT enabled smart bins, garbage disposal methods, monitoring devices for wastes will help neighborhoods to maintain a clean and green surrounding.

Many waste disposal companies are developing devices powered by renewable energy. Some localities are using solar powered devices to assess the required capacity of garbage bins. Identification of trash in the form of bio-degradable, e-waste, non-degradable will save our environment from further degradation. Both government and private firms are looking for smart solutions which have least impact on our eco-system. Big Belly, Smart Bin, Zero Cycle are some companies which are giving IOT enabled waste management.

3. Security Systems

Safety and security are prime concern of Governments world over. Without technology it is difficult to trace the negative elements in overly crowded towns and cities. Top grade surveillance programs are required to eliminate the suspects. IOT sound sensors, smart video surveillance, smart streetlights and latest drone technology can quickly help police and security personnel in detecting the place of terror, number of gunshots or strikes, suspects involved and number of people affected.

IOT in security systems can also help in efficient monitoring of public places like markets, malls, airports, hotels, metro stations, banks and hospitals. They are must haves in residential and commercial buildings.

The recent surge in the market of security and surveillance products around the globe depict their necessity. Both developing and developed world are vulnerable to terror attacks. IOT in this segment can help tremendously in saving people’s lives and resources.

4. Smart Energy Consumption

Technology has made our lives easier but it has also impacted our environment negatively in last 100 years. Over utilization of natural resources in the form of nonrenewable energy like petrol, diesel, coal, wood has harmed our ecosystem. To safeguard the future of our coming generations’ countries are investing in renewable form of energy like solar, wind and water.

In lighting segment, LEDs are game changer. They reduce cost and excel on longevity factor. It is estimated that United States will convert all its streetlights into LEDS that will save $14million every year.

In renewable energy segment, European countries have taken the lead. Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy have fared well in this segment. China, Australia and Japan are also harnessing solar, wind, hydroelectricity.

The new form of energy consumption will be linked with IOT devices which will help individuals, civic bodies, industries to check energy metrics. This will help in saving water consumption, improve air quality, sewage disposal and effective power generation.

5. Healthcare Services

Modern age has brought in sedentary lifestyles. Even though advancement in medicine and technology has improved ‘Life expectancy’ of human beings, it has also created new kinds of diseases and health problems in urban population. IOT in health sector helps in remote monitoring, smart sensors and activity tracker devices.

Smart cities need smart hospitals which can track patients remotely, provide emergency services quickly, offer preventive measures, analyze patient’s data and utilize them in better research practices. For example, some hospitals have smart wristbands for newborns which alert the staff if baby is taken outside the nursing room.  Also, medical staff receive alerts if any patient is critical or need emergency care.

Apart from medical application, they are creating sustainable development through better utilization of food, energy, hospital waste management, inventory management etc. Future of smart cities will be incomplete without proper health and wellness centers for its residents.

Downfall of Internet of things

Like any other new thing IOT comes with certain disadvantages as well. Foremost is security and privacy. All these devices collect lots of personal data and unless it is not encrypted, it can be shared and misused by a known or unknown. These devices are still in a nascent stage and security experts feel that a lot has to be done in this domain.

Complexity is another issue to be tackled. IOT devices make use of multiple technologies based on different platform or architecture. Problem in one device can malfunction the whole system which might incur more cost and time.

Also while implementing them right assessment of infrastructure and capacity, management of different devices, avoiding interference and checking security lapses must be covered.

As it is still in the development process, new and innovative standards are applied by different organizations. It is essential to form a stable, wholesome and common ground for IOT to overcome the disadvantages, reap the positives and benefit the mankind. In the end, smart cities are ever growing phenomenon and without IOT devices it is impossible to see the future of our cities.

Some IoT devices are able to operate for years on a single battery, but there is demand for devices that will operate even longer, or with much smaller power sources. Some experimental technologies hold the promise of (almost) perpetual power.

Powering small remote Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as sensors that can’t be connected to an external power source has been one of IoT’s big challenges: you don’t want to be changing the battery on a buried parking sensor or water meter every year.

Thankfully that’s not necessary. One of the main claims for all the low powered wide area radio networks such as LoRaWAN, Sigfox and NB-IoT is that they are sufficiently niggardly with their energy requirements for radio communication that devices using them can cheerfully operate for a decade or so on an AA battery.

But that’s not good enough for some people. In particular if you are embedding something into a human body, you don’t want to be digging it out to change the battery: not even once per decade. So there are a number of companies developing technologies that, they say, will keep an IoT device running indefinitely.

One of the most easily understood, and most plausible, is harvesting the radio frequency (RF) energy that is all around us: radio and TV broadcasts, WiFi, mobile cellular communications and even other IoT networks like LoRaWAN and Sigfox.

Some of the others candidates can only be truly understood with at least a PhD in physics, and seem to violate the laws of physics, but I’m going to attempt to give you some insights into them.

Let’s start with the most easily understood: RF energy harvesting. Such products are already available. Freevolt, for example, claims to have technology that harvests RF energy from wireless and broadcast networks such as 2G, 3G, 4G, WiFi and Digital TV.

Evercell: Energy from Thin Air?

Far more interesting, and exotic, is Evercell. According to its developers it will be a postage stamp sized device that will come in three variants producing, respectively, 4.32 microwatts, 400 nanowatts and 800 nanowatts of continuous power at 1.2 volts.

Not a lot, granted, but you could string a whole lot together in series and parallel to generate usable electrical power. And where does that power come from? Well, it’s all around us. At any temperature above absolute zero all matter is in motion and the hotter it gets the more energetic that motion becomes.

Evercell claims to be able to tap that energy, and convert it into electricity. On the face of it that makes the device a perpetual motion machine, almost: you could use it to suck energy out of the environment and power a motor until Doomsday, or more precisely until the Universe was at absolute zero and there was no energy left in the environment.

The second law of thermodynamics, as stated in classic physics at least, says you can’t do that. We encounter this very day in our homes: your fridge extracts energy from its contents by cooling them but consumes more energy than is extracted to achieve that cooling.

Evercell claims its device works by implementing an idea put forward only as a ‘thought experiment’ by pioneer physicist James Clark Maxwell, known as Maxwell’s Demon.

Maxwell’s Demon was able to separate the faster moving particles from the slower ones, thus extracting in the form of these faster mobile particles. But it was only a thought experiment, with no expectation that such a function could be realised.

Evercell essentially claims to have developed technology that mimics the action of Maxwell’s Demon, to put it crudely, in the form of some sort of semi-permeable membrane that lets only the faster particles pass through.

Where it gets interesting, and well beyond me, is that recent studies suggest that the second law of thermodynamics might need some modification and that such a device might be theoretically possible. (If you’ve got a PhD in physics send me an email and I will send you some links).

So, it’s just possible that Evercell is real and will be available to buy someday soon.

Wave Energy, Graphene Style

Even more exotic is graphene as a source of energy. Graphene is exotic enough on its own: a one atom thick layer of carbon with some truly amazing properties.

Now, according to this August 2018 article from the World Economic Forum (WEF), “A team of researchers at the University of Arkansas has found evidence to suggest graphene could also be used to provide an unlimited supply of clean energy.”

There was nothing new in the WEF article; it was basically a rehash of a November 2017 press release from the University of Arkansas. It says: “The research of Paul Thibado, professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, provides strong evidence that the motion of two-dimensional materials could be used as a source of clean, limitless energy.”

Thibado, according to the article, “predicts that his generators could transform our environment, allowing any object to send, receive, process and store information, powered only by room temperature heat.”

In principle at least Thibado’s technology is rather easy to understand. His team discovered that a sheet of graphene is in a constant state of micro-motion, rippling up and down, and he has designed a “Vibration Energy Harvester” to extract energy from this motion.

“A negatively charged sheet of graphene [is] suspended between two metal electrodes. When the graphene flips up, it induces a positive charge in the top electrode, and when it flips down, it positively charges the bottom one, creating an alternating current.”

The samples of graphene are about 10 nanometers by 10 nanometers. He claims each can generate 10-11 watts. At this size, 20,000 could fit on a pinhead.

According to the University of Arkansas, Thibado plans to produce a proof of concept—a device capable of charging a capacitor using only ambient heat and the motion of graphene—within a year.

No mention was made of the energy likely to be available from said capacitor, or how long it would take to charge.

Evercell and Thibado’s experiments have something in common. Evercell’s technology seems to impose order on the random movement of matter via some sort of membrane with selective permeability, and so extract usable energy from the energy present in all matter above absolute zero.

Thibado seems to have discovered some order inherent in the motion of atoms in a sheet of graphene; they have a wave motion that can be harnessed and converted into electrical energy.

If either, or both, of these developments prove to be viable they will have profound and far-reaching impacts.

This article was originally publishedhere on www.iotaustralia.org.au on November 27, 2018.

Written by Stuart Corner, Editor at IoTAustralia.org.au.

Now, let’s get to the specifics of IoT wireless protocols, standards and technologies. There are numerous options and alternatives, but we’ll discuss the most popular ones.