Internet of Things: How the Vision is being Researched, Developed & Productized

July 22, 2013

R&D by over a dozen major mobile & tech vendors, including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Qualcomm Over 20 start-up companies bringing IoT to market Three views of Internet of Things: 1. Connected every-day objects 2. Connected sensors 3. Connected appliances Input/output versus ambient connectedness Personal versus Wide Area Networks Applications for consumers, offices, industry and more

Executive Summary
The vision of the Internet of Things (IoT), in which Internet connectivity is extended to huge numbers of things in the real world, promises to transform our ability to process information about the real world and interact with real-world objects electronically. In the Internet of Things vision, we can find lost keys or wallets, activate a coffee machine before we get out of bed, turn on our air conditioner from our car, receive alerts when our dishwasher leaks, and much more. This report overviews the research & development that is making the Internet of Things vision real, at major companies & start-up companies. Research underway will surprise even those familiar with the field: Apple's innovative communication method, ZTE's comprehensive research program, Cisco's research on sensor data aggregation and search, IBM's research in cognitive radio, and much more. Active IoT R&D breaks into categories: connected sensors, connected every-day objects and connected appliances. Some make the things interactive, but most make them ambient, interacting only by wireless. Many significant technical challenges are being researched, including connectivity, protocols, addressability, discoverability and security.
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Summary of Major Company Research

COMPANY
Google Microsoft Apple Nokia ZTE Qualcomm Intel Cisco IBM General Electric Bosch Texas Instruments Freescale Page 3

Sensors

Every-day objects

Interactive Objects

Connected Appliances

Note that much of the research analyzed cannot be categorized precisely.

Table of Contents
Overview of Internet of Things: Three Views Open issues and challenges in Internet of Things Applications of Internet of Things IOT Consortia and frameworks R&D by Google R&D by Microsoft R&D by Apple R&D by Nokia R&D by ZTE R&D by Qualcomm R&D by Intel R&D by Cisco R&D by IBM R&D by other major companies Start-up Companies Bringing IoT to Market
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10 17 22 33 40 48 55 64 69 79 84 91 104 110 119

Overview of Internet of Things

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The Vision of Internet of Things

The dream of an Internet of Things is clear and appealing: Having wide varieties of physical objects be connected to the Internet in the same way that computers, phones and databases are now. But clarifying and instantiating this dream gets less clear. What things are we talking about? What will these things DO on the Internet? How will they connect? How will they be accessed? Ongoing R&D in the Internet of Things can be divided into three categories of connected things:
1. Connected every-day physical objects, such as key chains, mailboxes, 2. Connected appliances, such as refrigerators, lamps, utility meters, 3. Connected sensors, sensing motion, temperature, light,

Another distinction in ongoing R&D is whether these things will be interactive, such as appliances with display screens for browsing, or ambient, providing connectedness with no visible difference. This section explains these and other distinctions in Internet of Things R&D.
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Open Issues and Challenges of Internet of Things

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Personal versus Wide Area Network Connectivity

There are three primary approaches to how IoT things connect:
1. Directly to the Internet with their own IP address, or 2. Using a routers internal addresses (NAT), or 3. Via another wireless protocol to an Internet-connected hub or bridge

Each approach has its own technical challenges:

1. Full Internet connectivity requires IPv6 to connect a massive number of things, requires an approach to discoverability and lookup, and requires security for accessing each thing. 2. Using internal addresses still requires an approach to discoverability. 3. Using other wireless protocols via an Internet-connected hub requires that the hub handle all access and routing.

We will see this distinction underlying many of the technical issues that are addressed in IoT R&D, including addressability, discoverability, security and more.
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Research and Development by Google

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Google R&D related to Internet of Things

Google is researching a variety of technology areas related to Internet of Things. This includes a number of areas not traditionally associated with Google. This is in addition to their more mainstream work on Android, which Google and others are orienting to be the operating system for IoT devices. Google sees Android smartphones connecting over shortrange wireless with devices in the home or office, to access data, control devices, and share media. They are also working to embed Android in televisions and other appliances.

Page 41 Source: http://www.cnet.com/8301-33365_1-57356608/the-next-big-thing-android-in-the-home-and-in-the-fridge/

Android@Home (Android Open Accessory API)

Android@Home is Googles platform enabling Android to control external devices or accessories. The Android device is able to recognize external devices, interact with them, and launch specialized apps for them. Google has also released a hardware reference design, based on Arduino (above), for accessories that will interact with Android. In addition to accessories, Google is focused on controlling home systems, meters, appliances, media devices and more. Google has been quiet about Android@Home since introducing it in 2011, but it was recently re-introduced in 2013s Android 4.2.2. update.
Page 42 Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD3Q4kJhD5w http://developer.android.com/tools/adk/index.html

Google Project with Data Sensing Lab

Google and the OReilly Data Sensing Lab are also working with Arduino boards to deploy simple sensors with a mesh network to relay data from far-away sensors to sensors that have network access. The mesh network is managed by Etherioss Device Cloud platform. Their sensors include pressure sensors that detect people walking, thermometers, sound levels, air quality sensors and more. They have also developed a cloud-based data processing platform called Pipeline to process and route the data appropriately. Their Pipeline is build on top of Googles App Engine, Cloud Storage, Task Queue and BigQuery engine. Googles primary work on this project is the software side, enabling the processing of huge quantities of sensor data.

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Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuaBy3e6fd4

Networks Connecting Devices to Sensors

Google is researching the routing of queries from phones and other devices, to sensors, where these queries are routed over ad hoc short-range wireless networks via intermediate network nodes. Googles vision is clearly of a world where people use mobile devices to access data from distributed sensors, some of which are near the users, and some of which are further away. Google is also researching how a centralized system can store results of sensor queries, and re-use them for future queries for the same geographical area.

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Source: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8085792.html http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8392401.html

Google Research in Sensor Networks for Object Tracking

Google is researching ad hoc sensor networks, in the context of asset tracking. In their approach, sensor transceivers receive signals from wireless tags, and relay the messages received in an ad hoc fashion through other transceivers. It appears that the methods described in this patent filing for asset tracking can be equally-well applied to tracking cellphones or other forms of tags worn by people, as they move around a site.

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Source: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8331862.html

Start-up Companies Bringing IoT to Market

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Xively (formerly Pachube)

Xively, originally called Pachube, is an on-line database service that enables connected sensor networks to upload data which can then be accessed and processed by applications. They claim to be receiving millions of data points daily. They are working with ARM to connect ARM MBED with the Xively back-end.
Page 120 Source: https://xively.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcvszD3NGZM

SmartThings
SmartThings sells an IoT hub and a variety of sensors and devices that attach to it. These include tags that can be attached to keychains and other small objects, power outlets, motion sensors, moisture sensors, door open/closed sensors, sirens, thermometers, pressure and vibration sensors, accelerometers, and more. Their wireless communication can reach things up to 300 feet (90m), but uses mesh networking to enable things further away to communicate through intermediate things. Each hub can control up to a hundred things. In addition to devices that SmartThings sells, their hub can interact with other ZigBee-enabled products, such as door locks, water flow controls, and more.
Page 121 Source: http://www.smartthings.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/mySmartThings