The Internet of Things - promise for the future? An introduction

The Internet is a living entity, always changing and evolving. New applications and businesses are created continuously. In addition to an evolving Internet, technology is also changing the landscape. Broadband connectivity is becoming cheap and ubiquitous; devices are becoming more powerful and smaller with a variety of on-board sensors. The proliferation of more devices becoming connected is leading to a new paradigm: the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things is driven by an expansion of the Internet through the inclusion of physical objects combined with an ability to provide smarter services to the environment as more data becomes available. Various application domains ranging from Green-IT and energy efficiency to logistics are already starting to benefit from Internet of Things concepts. There are challenges associated with the Internet of Things, most explicitly in areas of trust and security, standardisation and governance required to ensure a fair and trustworthy open Internet of Things which provides value to all of society. Internet of Things is high on the research agenda of several multinationals as well as the European Commission and countries such as China. The research conducted is driving the creation of a useful and powerful Internet of Things. The benefits of Internet of Things to the developing and emerging economies are significant, and strategies to realise these need to be found.