News & Analysis
Photos from the frontier: The Internet of Things
Rick Merritt
4/11/2012 9:01 AM EDT
Smart buildings
Perhaps the biggest gold mine in the broad Internet of things sector is the smart meter. The concept of eventually putting every home and office electric meter on a distributed network has attracted chip, software and networking giants and startups alike—and of course all the existing meter makers.
It’s early days for the smart meter. Zigbee grabbed an early lead with use in more than a million smart meters to date as the link mfrom the meter to the so-called home area network or HAN. But next generation meters are expected to adopt the Smart Energy Profile 2.0 specification which includes optional implementations based on HomePlug powerline networking and Wi-Fi in addition to Zigbee.
Debates still rage over whether the smart meters linking upstream to the utility network should use powerline networking, a new variant of Wi-Fi in the works, cellular networks or available underused and available WiMax spectrum and services.
While the debates go on, prototypes are being shopped around to all the stakeholders including this mock up (right) of a smart meter using the G3-PLC standard and chips from Maxim.
Tomorrow’s smart buildings require plenty of other pieces to fall in to place. For example, Philips and others are working on smart lighting systems.
Another example comes from startup Vigilent which has developed and energy management system (below) and analytics services tailored for energy-conscious data centers. It uses wireless sensors based on Dust’s technology.
Next: Connected vehicles
Perhaps the biggest gold mine in the broad Internet of things sector is the smart meter. The concept of eventually putting every home and office electric meter on a distributed network has attracted chip, software and networking giants and startups alike—and of course all the existing meter makers.
It’s early days for the smart meter. Zigbee grabbed an early lead with use in more than a million smart meters to date as the link mfrom the meter to the so-called home area network or HAN. But next generation meters are expected to adopt the Smart Energy Profile 2.0 specification which includes optional implementations based on HomePlug powerline networking and Wi-Fi in addition to Zigbee.
Debates still rage over whether the smart meters linking upstream to the utility network should use powerline networking, a new variant of Wi-Fi in the works, cellular networks or available underused and available WiMax spectrum and services.
While the debates go on, prototypes are being shopped around to all the stakeholders including this mock up (right) of a smart meter using the G3-PLC standard and chips from Maxim.
Tomorrow’s smart buildings require plenty of other pieces to fall in to place. For example, Philips and others are working on smart lighting systems.
Another example comes from startup Vigilent which has developed and energy management system (below) and analytics services tailored for energy-conscious data centers. It uses wireless sensors based on Dust’s technology.
Next: Connected vehicles
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iniewski
4/11/2012 10:32 AM EDT
Very cool pics Rick...I wonder what the debate about IP protocol is all about...clearly low level control has to be done using energy efficiency protocol (Zigbee etc)...but equally clearly the only reasonable way to gather all sensor traffic is to use existing TCP/IP infrastructure...do people propose building their own energy efficient networks? Kris
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saniws
4/17/2012 11:38 AM EDT
tcp/ip for certain applications can become an IT burden with high overhead and maintenance. Various protocols that can create knowledge clouds of information that are client specific (proprietary)- while also possessing the capability to communicate to the web show promise and flexibility. i.e. Sensor Webs for one from sensorware systems
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rick.merritt
4/11/2012 11:37 AM EDT
The folks at IPSO are advocates of using existing IP/IETF standards and protocols for compatibility with the rest of the Net/Web. They say these can be implemented in energy efficient ways today for any embedded app no matter how constrained.
The folks at Zigbee and elsewhere say new kinds of protocols need to be created to meet the energy needs of deeply embedded apps.
It's a huge debate!
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docdivakar
4/16/2012 5:42 PM EDT
It is not a either / or proposition, ZigBee and WiFi can co-exist. They each have their advantages but low power WiFi will win. There are already radios available for two-way transparent conversion of between Zigbee and WiFi.
ZigBee-networked devices will not have backwards compatibility. Every time the M2M networks are upgraded, cost may therefore become a concern.
MP Divakar
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iniewski
4/11/2012 12:12 PM EDT
Very interesting Rick, you would think there enough networking protocols and standards already...personally I know over 100 of them and getting lost already (and I used to edit networking books for Wiley and CRC Press)
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rick.merritt
4/11/2012 6:44 PM EDT
Yeah everybody wants to come up with a unique protocol...what's with that? Net result: market fragmentation, lack of interoperability...and stories and books we can all write ;-)
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junko.yoshida
4/11/2012 3:24 PM EDT
Internet of Things (IoT) is such a catch-all phrase. It's used way too often, it has turned into a marketing jargon we all love to hate. And yet, it's a fascinating area because of the promises and potentials that can be brought by wireless sensor networks. View examples here and let us know what other potentials you think IoT can bring to us.
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t.alex
4/11/2012 6:38 PM EDT
These technologies have been around for sometime. Now, with the booming of mobile devices, it is time for them to bloom.
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iniewski
4/11/2012 7:04 PM EDT
Yes, the smart technologies have been in development for a while, and it is time for them to bloom..also, perhaps it is the time to drop the "smart" adjective...we already have smart phones, smart grid, smart cars and now smart cities, smart factories, and smart buildings...what happens when everything on earth becomes smart? what would become of the meaning smart in that case? ;-)...Kris
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prabhakar_deosthali
4/12/2012 1:41 AM EDT
When everything around us becomes smart we the humans are going to be reduced to dumb animals because we may not have left much to do with our own hands.
Just Obey the machines ! ( or the hackers behind them ! LOL)
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GREAT-Terry
4/12/2012 11:39 AM EDT
Nice pictures and some nice ideas. Yep, the IOT is good business opportunities for many IT and electronics related companies. Hope this can help a bit for them to come out of the economy downturn.
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selinz
4/12/2012 1:24 PM EDT
I'll take one Dick Tracy watch, please...
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joyhaa
4/12/2012 11:45 PM EDT
have been working on zigbee products for more than one year, i have to say that zigbee is terrible in design, for example, it's IP unfriendly, and i can not have two profiles co-exist on one node...
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iniewski
4/12/2012 11:52 PM EDT
What is better than ZigBee @joyhaa?
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denis.lachapelle
4/13/2012 2:02 PM EDT
We at Sysacom have a products line we call the Total Sensing Solution; it mostly enable any sensor to be connected to the Internet providing access to the data through WEB interface and also providing email and sms alarms. www.sysacom.com/cst
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Luis Sanchez
4/22/2012 4:07 AM EDT
those game cubes are interesting. though a little uncomfortable to require the PC being connected to be able to play. A whole new set of games can be developed with the SDK! And educational ones for kids too!
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