A Starter Guide to the Internet of Things: Part 3

This is the third in the series “Starter Guide to IoT”. If you have not done so already and would like to being at the start, check out an Overiew of IoT in Part 1 and IoT Technologies and Issues in Part 2.

Part 3 looks at the roadmap for IoT in the next five years.

What to expect from IoT by 2020

At the start of 2016, experts are divided on 2016 being the breakout year for IOT versus continuation of the same old issues and both camps may be right. After all, thousands of consumer wearables are being shipped daily, building automation solutions being integrated in multi-million construction projects. and efforts to collaborate, standardize and capitalize on IoT will gain momentum this year.

On the other hands, there may not be an explosive growth in new solutions as big and smaller players focus on product development, integration and industry applications.

There are three distinct streams of efforts with increasing traction for IOT.

1. Scenarios for IOT applications

The current state of development is centered around identifying use cases for the next breakthrough IoT solution with a veritable arms race between competing technology companies, start-ups and businesses. 2016 is focused on furthering design and innovation with frameworks such as hackathons, academia and research partnerships sponsored by private technology giants, and incubation of start-ups. 

Government bodies are exploring the potentials and implications of smart cities. ITU, the United Nations agency that works to enable seamless ICT communications across the globe, has long established a Global Standards Initiative for IoT. GSI established a special study group in 2015 on IoT and its applications including smart cities and communities.

2. Standards and Architecture

One of the widely cited reasons for the slow growth of IoT is the lack of a uniform over-arching standards or a governing body that steer what is really global endeavour. While a universal framework may not appear soon, various industry and technology consortia have started investing in collaborative efforts to design standards specific to their scope.

Efforts are growing at multi-national, technology neutral/agnostic bodies and industry focus group levels. Computing hardware makers Intel, Samsung and Dell are among the founding members of Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC), creating open specifications for IoT applications. OIC is sponsoring the IoTivity project an open source software framework for cross platform device connectivity. The ZigBee Alliance that drives development of the ZigBee wireless standard  is working with the Thread Group on an end-to-end applications for IP-based IoT networks.  Object Management Group (OMG) has launched the Industrial Internet Consortium in 2015.  ISO and IEEE, are working on separate initiative to create reference architecture, frameworks and standards for IoT. 

3. Platforms and Solutions

Technology innovators and giants Google, Apple, Intel are leading the way in creating robust platforms for developers to roll out IoT solutions. On the other hand, proprietary solution providers and industry consortia are coming together to create solutions based on their protocols for industrial internet, smart grid and home automation among other.

The 2016 Consumer Electronics show was anticipated to be a showcase for many new IoT solutions. While many are in in the laboratory, new commercial applications appear almost every day in the smart mobile devices, home appliances, transportation, health and wearable technology areas. With 20-30 billion devices predicted to be on the connected ecosystem in five years, these verticals are bound to become synonymous with IOT in this decade.

The vision of IoT is coming to life slowly and can become a reality by 2020

There you have it, a starter guide that attempted to cover all about of the IoT trend. One can hope the optimistic predictions come true and the Internet of Things transforms the way we work, live and communicate across the globe.