Internet of Things (IoT) Overview

Abstract

This chapter introduces the foundation of IoT and formulates a comprehensive definition. The chapter presents a framework to monitor and control things from anywhere in the world and provides business justifications on why such monitoring and control of things is important to businesses and enterprises. It then introduces the 12 factors that make IoT a present reality

Problems and Exercises

• 1. What is the simple definition of IoT? What is the “more complete definition”? What’s the main difference?

• 2. IoT components were listed for the simple definition to include the intersection of the Internet, Things, and data. Process and standards were added to the complete definition. Why are process and standards important for the success of IoT?

• 3. What are the main four components that empower IoT? List the main function of each component.

• 4. What is IoT’s promise? What is IoT’s ultimate goal?

• 5. Cisco estimated that the IoT will consist of almost 30 billion objects by 2020. Others have higher estimates. What was their logic?

• 6. What is Moore’s Law? When was it first observed? Why is it relevant to IoT?

• 7. In a table, list the 12 factors that are fueling IoT with a brief summary of each factor.

• 8. What are the top three challenges for IoT? Why are those challenges also considered as opportunities?

• 9. What is BYOD? Why is it considered a security threat for the network?

• 10. How do companies deal with BYOD today? List an example of BYOD system.

• 11. Why is operation technology (OT) under pressure to integrate with information technology (IT)?

• 12. Uber is using smartphone Gyrometer data to monitor speeding drivers. What is “Gyrometer”? How does it work? Where was it first used?

• 13. What is KISS? What are the top five principles for KISS user experience?

• 14. Section 1.3.10 stated the following three facts: (i) over the history of computing hardware, computer power has been doubling every 18 months, (ii) biggest networks we have today have millions of nodes and billions of connection, and (iii) a human brain has a hundred thousand billion nodes and a hundred trillion connections. It then stated that using (i)–(ii), in year 2015, a computer should be as powerful as a human brain in about 25 years! How did the author arrive at 25? How long would it take if the computer power was doubling every 2 years instead of 18 months and why?

• 15. What are the key four differences between Analytics 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0?

• 16. List examples of solutions that offer Analytics 3.0.

• 17. What are the top three befits of cloud computing? What do they mean?

• 18. In a table format, compare IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. List an example for each.

• 19. What are the main differences between virtual machines and containers in virtualization? Provide an example of container technology. Which approach do you prefer and why?

• 20. List two main functions that TCP/IP protocol, the bread and butter of today’s Internet.

• 21. Why do we need both TCP and IP protocols?

• 22. It is often said by User Experience Experts that the “Best Interface for a system is no User Interface.” What does such statement mean? When does it typically apply? Provide an example in networking technologies.

• 23. This question has four parts:

  • (a) What is circuit-switched technology? What is packet-switched technology?

  • (b) What are circuit-switched networks and packet-switched networks used for? List an example of each use.

  • (c) Why did we need packet-switched technology?

  • (d) In a table, list three main differences between packet switching and circuit switching?

  • (e) Which approach is better for the Internet and why?

• 24. What is a connection-oriented protocol? What is a connectionless protocol? Provide an example of each.

• 25. Some companies use the term IoE instead of IoT. What is their logic?

• 26. What is Cloud 1.0 and Cloud 2.0? What is the main difference between cloud 1.0 and cloud 2.0? How does machine learning differ from traditional approaches to extract business intelligence form the data?

• 27. Circuit-switched networks are designed with either frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) or time-division multiplexing (TDM). For TDM link, time is divided into frames of fixed duration, and each frame is divided onto a fixed number of time slots as shown below (for a network link supporting up to three connections/circuits).

When the network establishes a connection across a link, the network dedicates one time slot in every frame to this connection. These slots are dedicated for the sole use of that connection, with one time slot available for use (in every frame) to transmits the connection’s data.

• (a) How does FDM work in circuit-switched networks?

• (b) What is the typical frequency band in tradition circuit-switched-based telephone networks/public-switched telephone network (PSTN)?

• (c) Compare FDM with TDM.

• (d) Draw FDM and TDM for a tradition circuit-switched network link supporting up to five connections/circuits.

• 28. Refer again to problem 27 above. Let’s assume that all links in the circuit-switched network are T1 (i.e., have a bit rate of 1.536 Mbps with 24 slots) and use TDM.

• (a) Assuming setup and propagation delays are zero, how long does it take to send a file of 1.280M bits from Host A to Host B? How about from Host A to Host C? Do you expect the answer to be the same or different and why?

• (b) Let’s also assume that it takes 500 ms to establish an end–to-end circuit before Host A can begin to transmit the file and 250 ms for a propagation delay between any two adjacent routers. How long does it take to send a file form Host A to Host B?

• (c) What is the difference between transmission delay and prorogation delay? Which delay is a function of the distance between the routers?