Internet of things: from internet scale sensing to smart services

Abstract

The internet of things (IoT) is the latest web evolution that incorporates billions of devices (such as cameras, sensors, RFIDs, smart phones, and wearables), that are owned by different organizations and people who are deploying and using them for their own purposes. Federations of such IoT devices (we refer to as IoT things) can deliver the information needed to solve internet-scale problems that have been too difficult to obtain and harness before. To realize this unprecedented IoT potential, we need to develop IoT solutions for discovering the IoT devices each application needs, collecting and integrating their data, and distilling the high value information each application needs. We also need to provide solutions that permit doing these tasks in real-time, on the move, in the cloud, and securely. In this paper we present an overview of a collection of IoT solutions (which we have developed in partnerships with other prominent IoT innovators and refer to them collectively as IoT platform) for addressing these technical challenges and help springboard IoT to its potential. We also describe a variety of IoT applications that have utilized the proposed IoT platform to provide smart IoT services in the areas of smart farming, smart grids, and smart manufacturing. Finally, we discuss future research and a vision of the next generation IoT infrastructure.