The Internet of Things: Overview of the essential elements and the new enabling technology 6LoWPAN

The Internet has been a great success over the past twenty years, growing from a small academic network into a global one. It is regularly used by over 4 billion people worldwide. The innovation of the World Wide Web (WWW) model, the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and the hypertext markup language (HTML) led to an exponential growth of the objects and users connected to the Internet. This paper provides an overview of the new technology called "The Internet of Things" (IoT), which is considered to be the next major big opportunity and challenge for the Internet engineering community, users of technology, companies, and society. The paper begins by presenting the purpose of the Internet and how a large number of users and objects have joined it since the time of its conception. The next section provides a definition of the IoT with an emphasis on the basic elements required in the IoT environment, related trends, and the key issues. Also we examine the introduction of IPv6 in the IoT architecture through the 6LowPAN networking technology adaptation layer. This allows IPv6 packets to be carried within small link layer frames, such as those defined by IEEE 802.15.4. As a result, 6LowPAN permits the use of an end-to-end IP-based infrastructure which led to take full advantage of more than thirty years of IP technology development, facilitating open standards and interoperability as largely demonstrated through the daily use of the Internet.