Why the Internet of Things needs standards

These are exciting times- with 2014 set to be the year where data generated by machines is set to surpass that generated by humans. Any enterprise invested in technology has placed their bet on the Internet of Things (IoT) being the next big phenomenon. The possibilities that the IoT offers are endless – from gadgets that have the potential to monitor our movements and habits to offer suggestions and mood predictions.
As a concept, it is still in the nascent stage. In my view, here are a few asks of the technical community that can help ensure that the IoT’s full potential is unleashed –

The Need for a Common Standard

For IoT to fly, there is a need for a common language, which connects all the ’things’ and the cloud. A standard, like the HTML is for the web, needs to be developed to make the IoT more accessible to all. While several companies have jumped on the IoT bandwagon by creating specialized hardware, many of these devices can’t talk to one another, as each is built using different rules and protocols. Currently, sensors use existing connectivity standards such as WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC, but these may not be able to handle the volume of data generated. Interoperability, wherein devices automatically configure, discover, and connect with each other, is the ideal state. Else, we may have to deal with an ‘Internet of Silos’, where unconnected devices pile up data that is of no eventual value to any stakeholder.

Performance Issues

IoT requires any-time, anywhere connectivity (read cloud computing) at high speed, supplemented by Big Data tools to churn out data analysis results in nano-seconds to deliver real-time impact. This underlines the need to implement ubiquitous and reliable connectivity, which does not affect the resources (battery efficiency) of the devices interacting with it.

Security

With the proliferation of open standards and inter-device communication, the ‘hackable’ or vulnerable points in a network increase manifold. Security threats such as identity theft and free-loading (malicious nodes that consume service without contributing, thus putting a strain on the system) are real possibilities in the IoT world. The technical community must invest to ensure ‘zero tolerance’ for viruses, hacks that are built into their IoT frameworks, or a reasonably good response time to address any attack, if it does occur.

I recently came across Yo!, a mobile application that communicates via a simple 2-letter notification, which can be set to have a different meaning for different people, depending on what they set the notification for. For example, for person A, sending a “Yo!” to person B could be a notification to say “Yo, I reached school”; in a more sinister case, “Yo!” signaled the beginning of an air strike in a particular area . There are talks to extend its application to signal notifications from app to app, for instance, enable communication between the Yo! App and a smart TV to allow defining a “Yo!” alert to ’switch on the TV at X time’. If adopted widely, this could serve as a possible solution for the ’common standard’. With chips and switches getting smaller, and consequently consuming lesser energy to operate, we are well on the way to resolving performance issues.

Every day sees new discoveries in cloud, Big Data, connectivity, and mobility, which augment the IoT stable. Accompanied by a concerted push from enterprises to make the technology commercially viable across industries, we can conclude that IoT is here to stay!

Published in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services‏

Author: Beena Sarkar is a senior Product Manager for the TCS patent applied Customer Engagement product of the TCS Digital Enterprise group.

Image: An illustration picture shows a projection of binary code on a man holding a laptop computer, in an office in Warsaw June 24, 2013. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel