Internet of Things (IoT)

The vision of IoT focusses on more interconnected, heterogeneous and a greater range of physical devices or things than in previous visions of Internet. A heavy focus at first was mostly on types of things that are sensors or identifiable (RFID) type Things. It was less so on actuators or controllers as Things but this is changing.

The focus of IoT is on Smart Devices as Things, where the concept smart simply means that the entity is active, digital, networked, can operate to some extent autonomously, is reconfigurable and has local control of the resources it needs such as energy, data storage (Poslad, 2009)

The focus of IoT assumes human access devices such as different kinds of user terminals from wearables to smart phones to tablets, laptops and servers.. Many Things may be internetworked via local (access) networks that may be not be directly TCP-IP based, we need to use gateways to interoperate with these networks. Many connected things may just transmit or send, they may not need to receive, hence, source-routing is not needed. Not all physical Things may need a unique ID or (I)P address or have an application use for one. Hybrid identity schemes are needed for the range of Things, no one single scheme is sufficient.

Note that most Things in the physical world may not be artificial (devices), they are natural. If they are artificial or man-made, they may not be digital. If they are digital they may not necessarily have a CPU that is reprogrammable. They may not be networked as part of the Internet. e.g., a table or chair, but they could be.

IoT Applications and Projects at QMUL

• (Smart) Cities and Urban Road Transport as an Internet of Things: SUNSET. Here the main Things that are internetworked consist of smart environment devices, sensor devices embedded into the Urban Infrastructure, e.g., traffic light induction loop sensors, traffic cameras, etc. and (mobile) devices in move by a mobile host such as a SatNav in a vehicle or a SmartPhone that accompanies someone. The environment sensors tend to be wired to an access node. They do not form a local Wireless Sensor Network. The data from the sensors is acquired in a network database. Applications and users indirectly access the data from the database, and not directly from the sensors.
• The Physical Environment as an Internet of Things or Smart Environment: TRIDEC. Here the main Things that are internetworked consist of smart environment devices, sensor devices embedded into the Physical environment, e.g., buoys floating in a bay area to detect Tsunamis, etc. and (mobile) devices in move by a mobile host such as a SatNav in a vehicle or a SmartPhone that accompanies someone. Some of these environment sensors tend to be connected using a wide-area wireless network to an access node. They do not form a local Wireless Sensor Network. The data from the sensors is acquired in a network database. Applications and users indirectly access the data from the database not directly from the sensors.
• The Human Body as part of an Internet of Things: ASSET. Sensors may be worn on the body forming a wireless body area network (WBAN). Each sensor is in range of a mobile data hub on a human, typically a smart phone that can acquire the data and transmit it in real-time or off-line to a remote database.
• Smart Shoes (Zhang & Poslad, 2013)

Sensors and the Internet of Things Course

This is a MSc Level Course worth 15 credits offered by Academic staff in the QMUL/EECS networks research group. Lecturers: Dr Eliane Bodanese, Dr Stefan Poslad

Summary

This module provides a comprehensive study in the Internet of Things (IoT) including sensors and other enabling technologies. This module comes as a response to the increasing commercial and research interest in smart everywhere applications, like smart grid, smart city, smart home, industrial automation, telemetry, etc. This module covers the concepts and the enabling technologies that allow the formation of a network for autonomous communication and processing between things or between people and things. Topics include: the enabling technologies (radio frequency identification, wireless sensor networks, Near Field Communication (NFC), power line communications), physical layer challenges, naming, addressing, routing, transport layer, middleware, application protocols, service and event models for the Internet of Things. The module also includes some of the recent developments in the standardization of machine to machine communication.

Aims

• To provide a broad view of the enabling technologies for the realization of the Internet of Things including understanding how concepts such as Ubiquitous Computing relate to the realization of the Internet of Things and relevant standards.
• To provide a detailed view of sensors and the most deployed technologies and its relation as an enabling technology of IoT.
• To enable students to understand how to design and develop applications of Internet of Things.

Lecture Outline

• Introduction to Internet of Things - IoT
• System Architectures & Models for IoT
• RFID Technology as Enabler of IoT
• Sensors 1 - Enabling Technology for IoT
• Web of Things1
• Web of Things 2
• Devices and Clouds of Things
• IoT Case studies & IoT Management
• Sensors 2
• PLC and NFC Technologies as Enablers of IoT
• Resource Constraint M2M Networks

References

• Poslad, S. Ubiquitous Computing: Smart Devices, Environments and Interactions. Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-470-03560-3, 2009, pp. 26.
• Zhang Z, Poslad S. Design and Test of a Hybrid Foot Force Sensing and GPS System for Richer User Mobility Activity Recognition. Sensors Special issue: Sensors for Globalized Healthy Living and Wellbeing, Sensors 2013, Vol. 13, No. 11, pp. 14918-14953. DOI:10.3390/s131114918.