Internet of things

1What is Internet of Things (IoT)? Definition, history and features of IoT.

This chapter describes some important highlights in the history of the IoT (Internet of things). Nowadays, the internet-based information architecture allows the exchange of services and goods between all elements, equipment and objects connected to the network. The IoT refers to the networked interconnection of those everyday objects, which are often equipped with some kind of intelligence. In this context, Internet can be also a platform for devices to communicate electronically and share information and specific data with the world around them. So, IoT can be seen as a real evolution of what we know as Internet by adding more extensive interconnectivity, a better perception of the information and more comprehensive smart services. For the most part, the Internet was used for connection-oriented application protocols like HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). However, nowadays a large number of smart devices communicate between themselves and to other control systems. This concept is known as M2M (Machine-to-Machine communications).

IoT (Internet of things) is an emerging global Internet-based technical architecture facilitating the exchange of goods and services in global supply chain networks has an impact on the security and privacy of the involved stakeholders [1].

Some highlights in the IoT history are the following:

The term Internet of Things was first used by Kevin Ashton in 1999 that was working in the field of networked RFID (radio frequency identification) and emerging sensing technologies.
However, IoT was “born” sometime between 2008 and 2009 [2].
In 2010, the number of everyday physical objects and devices connected to the Internet was around 12.5 billion. Nowadays there are about 25 billion of devices connected to the IoT. More or less a smart device per person [2].
The number of smart devices or “things” connected to the IoT is expected to increase to a further 50 billion by 2020.

The IoT introduces a step change in individuals’ quality of life by offering a lot of new opportunities to data access, specific services in education, security, health care or transportation among others. On the other hand, it will be a key to increase enterprises’ productivity by offering a widely distributed, locally intelligent network of smart devices and new services that can be personalized to customer needs. The IoT brings benefits from improved management and tracking of assets and products, it increases the amount of information data and allows the optimization of equipment and use of resources that can be translated into costs saving. Moreover, it offers the opportunity to create new smart interconnected devices and explore new business models.