An Introduction to IoT : The Future of Internet

The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow
- Bill Gates

We are all now connected by Internet , like neuron in a giant brain.
- Stephen Hawking

The evolution of Internet has occurred in so many way that we could never imagine. The present world and the world before 20 years , are totally different. In the early ages of Internet , advancements in Internet occurred slowly. But in present days , innovation and communication are happening at a remarkable rate. New technology and new devices like smart-phone, laptop etc are coming out every year or every six months. Only 1% of existing devices are connected to Internet while more than 99% of physical devices are waiting to be connected with the internet. But new phenomenon called IoT(Internet of Things) is waking up rapidly , but surely to connect everything we can imagine to Internet. It s predicted by experts that more 50 Billions devices will be connected to the internet by 2020. Here is simple video developed by CISCO to introduce us with the concept "Internet of Things" .

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Internet: The place to go for everything you need!

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Even before 20/25 years ago,the world seemed to bigger place. But it s Internet that has made our world smaller. Any news can spread all over the world with a moment through Internet. Internet doesn't have any border. All people over the world connected through it .But what does people really mean with the word 'Internet' ? Usually they mean Internet is a virtual place where using Facebook, Google, YouTube or different online site where they can watch movies or read online news or listen music or even watching live game etc . They don't intend to mean the physical connection in the real world. Rather they would love to imagine Internet as a collection of information without form . It is the place where people go to find or share all the information. In reality Internet has become 21st century's library , video store and personal album store.
In reality Internet is essentially network of networks. The whole world connected via cable like a net. Each of us connected to internet using a physical device such as Laptop , PC, Smart-phone, Tablet etc which can be connected either by cable or wireless . Underneath this network of networks lies a real backbone of connections that bring the world to our personal devices. Here is a link that would show us how countries and continents are really connected through submarine cables.

Submarine Cable Map | Source

After opening that Telegraphy Map we can click any cable to highlight that cable and to see how this cable is connected with land different part of the world. It s also possible to click any city from map to see all the cables that are connected to it.

Transitioning to the IoT

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Internet has significantly change our ways of life. It has made our life easier. Now we can read online newspaper, we can learn through online tutorial site, watch movies online, listening musics online, even it s possible for some people to work online.Now-a-days new internet currency or Cryptocurrency has been introduced that is getting more and more popularity every day. In a word, it has changed how we live , work, play and learn. Using the available technology we are connected the physical world to our virtual world that is known as Internet. Actually it is connecting the unconnected that we transition from Internet to Internet of things.Goal of IoT is connect every possible devices to Internet. IoT uses M2M(machine-To-machine) communication concept where devices connected to Internet are able to communicate or share their information and make decision without human intervention.

Barcalona, the 1st smart city!

Anyone can embrace this new technology and get hugely benefited from it. The "Barcelona as a people city" project was launched by the city council in Barcelona , Spain in 2011. This project has been using technical innovation to improve the welfare of its people.
“Barcelona, I would argue, over the past five years, has probably come up there as one of the one or two smartest cities in the world,” said Arvind Satyam, Cisco’s managing director of smart cities and digitization division.
“It connects and collects all the data from different sensors and devices — water sensors, parking sensors, street lights, waste bins, environmental sensors — and brings that data and provides an API to different existing applications in a city to improve productivity and efficiency,” said Munish Khetrapal, managing director of Cisco’s smarter cities and IoT department. “When you’re deploying a smart city, for us what is very important is you don’t have to replace your current waste management application and systems, but you improve and enhance their capability.”
In the following video we can how Barcelona embraces this new technology IoT to improves the life of its people.

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A practical example of IOT

In IoT every smart devices are connected to Internet. Those smart devices are capable of making decision without using human intervention , rather using the available information from Internet. Imagine Bob(a random person) who has a smart car and he wants to go to office for work. All he has to do is just command the car using his audio voice to take him to office . He can read newspaper or drink coffee or smoke a cigarette or even taking a nap in the car on his way office. After reaching the office he wouldn't need to search for parking spot as the smart car already has the information about free parking spot as it s connected to Internet. That s just a single example of IoT. In the world of IoT, thousands of this kind events are possible.
Here is a video made by Cisco to show us how the life would look like with IoT.

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Reference:
1.Designing the Internet of Things, Adrian McEwen and Hakim Cassimally
2.Intro to IoT, Cisco's online tutorial
3.The Internet of Things,Samuel Greengard

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