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The Internet of Important Things

Extreme challenges in connectivity

‘Future Internet 2020’ – Example 1

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“Maria’s clothes are made of self-cleaning nanofabric but some still require a washing machine. Maria does not know what setting to use. To find the right washing cycle, the clothes talk to the washing machine, which in turn talks to the clothes manufacturer and the detergent manufacturer”

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/foi/library/docs/epr.pdf

‘Clothes that can talk to the washing machine’specification

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Parameter Requirement Notes

Size Wearer dependent

Power source Body heat Required to communicate when not being worn

Information stored Material type, size, manufacturer, age, previous washes, state of nano-repair

Only needed when requested

Communications range ~30 cm Wireless

Communications protocol One to one

Useful live Up to 10 years

Cost < £0.05 per item

Challenges for connectivity

• How does the machine knowwhich piece of clothing to interrogate?

• Who will develop the necessarystandards and protocols

• Could clothes communicate witheach other and with user?• “Don’t go to your left, there’s someone else

wearing the same outfit”• Should communication be restricted to

clothes – washing machine?

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‘Future Internet 2020’ – Example 2

“The hotel’s entertainment system provides suggestions for the next day based on their individual fitness profiles and forecasts of slope conditions. These forecasts are based on sensor data from biodegradable smart dust deployed in the winter sport area.”

‘Biodegradable smart dust’ specification

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Parameter Requirement Notes

Size ~ 1 mm³

Power source Solar Not required to operate during night hours

Sensors TemperatureHumidityColour / BrightnessMovement

Reporting every 15 minutes

Communications range ~10 cm Wireless

Communications protocol Mesh network

Useful Life 6 months Must have decomposed by 12 months

Cost < £0.0001 per ‘flake’

Challenges for connectivity

• Small amounts of data• Inefficient to use ‘IP’ to package this• Minimise transmissions to conserve power

• Millions of devices• Self-forming mesh network requires intelligence• Be ‘awake’ to relay incoming data

• Size of antenna• Tiny!• Range too small to

connect to a network• Range versus power

versus bandwidth

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Maximum number of ‘hops’

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At 8am, the Ski Resort polls the Smart Snow

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• Each device relays data it has stored:• Temperature: 8 bits• Humidity: 8 bits• Snow Colour: 24 bits• Movement: 24 bits (8 bits x 3D)

• 100 million devices per km²• Area of resort is 100 km²• Amount of data to be transferred:

• ~7 Gbytes• But it’s a mesh network with up to 6 hops so ~140 Gbytes

• Maximum transfer time 5 minutes• Resulting data transfer rate ~500 Mbit/second

‘Smart Dust’ – that’s silly talk

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Trivial examples illustrating a greater problem

• The data format used for the ‘Things’ on the internet will have to be carefully designed to meet the constraints of the particular ‘Thing’• IP may have far too much overhead (IP v6 header is 320 bits)• Connections may be increasingly server initiated• Connecting a ‘thing’ to an existing

network may be difficult• Wireless connectivity is essential• Individual pieces of data may be small,

but total data requirement is massive• Devices may or may not be intelligent• Security is paramount

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Current networks are not designed for the IoT

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• Networks assume data will grow and grow• but not necessarily that the size of ‘parcels’ may

shrink

• Wireless networks have greater capacity• but can’t cope with devices with very

limited range

• Devices will need to connect wirelessly• but there isn’t any spectrum set-aside for

the purpose

• Multiple protocols may be necessaryto support different ‘things’• but there is a drive towards fewer

Things are looking up

• Entrepreneurial companies are developing solutions that don’t take a ‘one size fits all’ approach• Developing bespoke protocols for particular data types• Finding novel ways to use available spectrum (eg white space)• Expanding the capability of existing

technologies (eg NFC, RFID)• Finding ways of generating power ‘out

of thin air’ (eg RF harvesting)

• Networks are thinking about theproblems• Charging regimes for data services

(eg one-off 2.5G/3G tariffs)• Dealing with ‘lumpy’ data (eg RSVP)

11 http://www.ralphtherobot.com/tag/things-are-looking-up/

Don’t forget security

• Millions of consumer devices will form Internets• Appliances• Cars• Household systems (heating,

lighting)• Industrial sensors and processes

• Whilst hacking into a washing machine or heating system might cause distress, hacking into an industrial system could cause loss of life

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What happens next?

• Flexible data protocols that can serve multiple purposes• to assist with interoperability between clothes, snow, washing

machines and humans

• Hierarchical wireless handling techniques• tiny devices support one standard only• bigger devices support more protocols• network nodes support higher level protocols (only?)

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Wider challenges

• There are a multitude of additional challenges facing ‘Things’• Finding and storing power• Making things small enough• Being able to communicate when small• Small, sensitive, sensors• Learning how to use the unimaginable amounts of data

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The Internet of Things has the potential to change the world, just as the

Internet did. Maybe even more so.

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Thank you for your attention

Richard Womersleyrichard.womersley@askhelios.com