Momentous developments in wireless sensor networks, telecommunications and informatics have paved the realization of pervasive intelligence which envisions thefuture Internet of things (IoT). Currently, the IoT is envisaged both at the individual andprofessional level. For an individual, IoT plays a pivotal rolein enhancing living standards in the form of e-health, smart home and smart learning. For a professional, IoT finds itsapplication in automation, smart supply chain and transportation, remote monitoring and logistics. The Internet of Things (IoT)-centric concepts like augmented reality, high-resolution video streaming, self-driven cars, smart environment, e-health care, etc. have an ubiquitous presence now. These applications require higher data-rates, large bandwidth, increased capacity, low latency and high throughput. In light of these emerging concepts, IoT has revolutionized the world by providing seamless connectivity between heterogeneous networks.
The concept of IoT revolves around the word ‘‘smartness’’ – ‘‘an ability to independently obtain and apply knowledge’’. Therefore,IoT refers to the ‘‘things or devices and sensors’’ that aresmart, uniquely addressable based on their communicationprotocols, and are adaptable and autonomous with inherent security.IoT is characterized into threevisions. They are,
- Internet Oriented–the vision focusses on connectivitybetween the objects;
- Things Oriented- the vision focusseson generic objects; and
- Knowledge Oriented – the visionfocusses on how to represent, store and organize information.
These visions paved towards International Telecommunication Union (ITU) vision of IoT, which defines it as ‘‘fromanytime, anyplace connectivity for anyone; we will now havethe connectivity for anything’’. In a nutshell, the ultimateobjective is ‘‘to plug and play smart objects’’. IoT offers many business opportunities, which allow companies to build new business strategies and models to implement the concept. Not only business opportunities, but also the realization of efficient and resourceful opportunities in multi-disciplinary fields. Also, IoT transforms the world into a smart world, where everything is easily accessible in less time and effort.
Emerging IoT Scenario.
In the current decade, the ‘smart environment’ concept has become a booming technology. The concept is diverse as it covers transportation/logistics,healthcare, utilities, personal home/offices and muchmore. During this decade, concepts like augmented maps,autonomous car, mobile ticketing, and passenger counting in transportation/logistics domain have been successfully implemented. The continuous improvement in thesetechnologies is also currently in practice. The concept ofIoT enabled remote patient monitoring,smart biosensors, smart ambulances, wearable devices, telemedicine in IoT-enabled healthcare domain benefitted thesociety manifold. Public utility infrastructure hasbeen improved to a large extent, with the concept of smart metering and smart-grid systems.
Not only the country’s infrastructure has been improved,but also the end-users are also benefitted at a personallevel with the concept of smart homes and smart-cities which prove cost-effective and convenient. Smarthealth-care manages the health of the consumer efficiently. The concept of the smart gym allows the end-user tomonitor his exercise schedule regularly. Today, every individual is socially active; there is a need of time to automatically update their social activities on social media. This concept has already been introduced by Tweetbot. A digital diary application that records personal data andupdates it on the Google calendar. Hence, IoT also proved beneficial at the end-user level with the challenges of securityand privacy.
Architectural view of 5G enabled IoT
As discussed previously, the IoT technology has immense demands. Hence, a 5G architecture should be capable of proving a scalable network, network virtualization facility, cloud services, network densification capability, mobility control services, radio access control, efficientresource allocation mechanism, and big IoT data analysistools. In a nutshell, a 5G-IoT based architecture should be independentasper the application requirement.
Various initiatives are taken all around the world for adopting and standardizing 5G enabled IoT. Innovation in wireless domains, next-generation technologies and development of 5G enable IoT requires cutting-edge services and solutions together with the need of broadband spectrum to meet the demands of rapidly growing traffic. Therefore, a combination of low-band, mid-band and high band spectrum is desirable to manage the use cases of 5G enabled IoT successfully.
Artificial Intelligence in IoT
IoT makes it possible forthe implementation of data-hungry and computation intensive industries along withArtificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms for various user applications. With high data transmission capacity of the networkcomes the possibility of the use of efficient deep learningalgorithms such as virtual speech recognition and video classification over wireless IoT nodes. The combinationof IoT and AI has a higher potential of changing thelandscape of businesses by making intelligent decisions inreal-time.
Interestingly, AI based techniques could also be employed over IoT networks to further optimize its own performance at application, physical and network layers to further enhance data rates by predicting traffic patterns on the network, thus facilitating the provisioning of AI baseduser applications. For example, at the application layer,AI techniques could be utilized for studying network trafficand capacity trend analysis to make the network self configurable, self-organized and self-adaptive. On physical and network layers, AI based optimization algorithmscould facilitate dynamic spectrum management, structuringof huge data, integration of heterogeneous devices, ultra densification of devices, IoT nodes interoperabilityandimproved battery life.
Some current and futuristic AI based applications thatcould be supported over IoT are summarized below;
- Big data processing enhancement
The Artificial Intelligence – IoT has the potential to tackle problemsrelated to communication channel congestion and enormous data processing. With the amalgamation of AI algorithms and IoT, the objective is to processhuge amount of data intelligently, optimizing the communication channels andupgrading the utilization of channelseffectively.Watchnet Data Center
- Expanding the Horizon of Healthcare
The combination of IoT and AI in the field of healthcarecan improve the lives of millions of people by upgradingthe existing system. Itdesigns a personalizedemotion-aware healthcare system using AI and IoT that emphasizeson the emotional care, especially for children, and mentallyill and elderly people.Watchnet Smart Hospitals Management, Watchnet Smart Elderly Care
- Intelligent Networking
One of the applications of AI is the implementation of networks in the architecture of an autonomic self-managing networkextending with the machine learning based decision-making mechanism. The reasonbehind deploying a more adaptive controlling mechanism is the pursuit to reduce thecosts of the systemat a competitivelyhigh level.
- Smart Transportation System
Vehicles with continuous connectivity, are becoming a realitywith the integration of AI with IoT. This integration hasgiven the ability to access the internet in a more efficientway. Now, car manufacturers have developed their interestand areexploring different markets to bring this technologyin the field of transportation systems.Also the installation of sensors in traffic lights provide the datawhich helps in making decisions for efficient traffic routesreducing the propagation time of vehicles.Watchnet Smart Parking Management
- Improving Security
Up until now, IoT device manufacturers have often prioritized connectivity over security, but that is slowly changing. The use of default passwords on IoT devices is decreasing, with more networks able and willing to use encrypted connections to keep data secure in transit. The biggest shift, however, is that companies themselves are more aware than ever of the importance of data security and are putting group pressure on IoT device manufacturers to improve this aspect of their devices.
- IoT and AI Resilience
Resilience is emerging as the watchword in many industries, and the AI and IoT is no exception. Today, resilience encompasses more than just security. It now includes provisions such as ensuring a business has the right skills for coping with widespread change such as the shift to home and remote work as well as ensuring it doesn’t lose out due to the activity of competitors or markets. Critical sectors of the economy, such as the food industry, will benefit from the extra resilience that the IoT can afford them, and those working in the IoT industry are likely to see more and more clients listing resilience as a key concern in its implementations.
This is, of course, just the beginning of the story of the IoT. The technology is likely to be with us for many decades to come, and will increasingly fuse with both web design and networking more generally. But right now, it’s a dynamic technology that is undergoing rapid transformations.
