What is Internet of Things – A complete guide

What is Internet of Things – A complete guide

Brijesh DesaiUpdated: Monday, June 03, 2019, 07:48 PM IST
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I come back home from the office, fighting the scorching heat; not even Glucon-D can bring life back to me. Gathering my almost lost energy, I switch on the TV to watch IPL, only to discover that my brother has hidden the TV remote because I didn’t let him watch that movie the other day. Little does he know that gone are the times when I had to beg him for the remote; now, I can simply tap my smartphone and change channels! How? Thanks to IoT!

What is IoT?

To understand what is Internet of Things, let’s disseminate the term. Internet of Things comprises two words: internet and things. So what is internet? The internet is an infrastructure that allows billions of people to be connected together either physically or wirelessly. And what is a thing? Any object that has a sensor attached to it, transmitting data to the cloud for analysis is called a thing in terms of the Internet of Things.

Another term that gets thrown around a lot while talking about the Internet of Things and needs clarification here is a cloud. What is a cloud? In the early 1990s, ‘cloud’ was used as a metaphor for internet while in reality, it is a colloquial term that utilizes the concept of cloud computing. Went above your head? Well, let’s recall the definition of a cloud that we learnt in school – a dense cluster of water molecules that appear as one from a distance. Similarly, an IoT cloud is a dense cluster of computers working together such that they appear to be one giant computing resource. An example of a cloud service would be cloud storage such as Dropbox. Anything stored in a cloud is actually stored on internet servers rather than your device.

So coming back to what is meant by IoT – it is simply taking all the physical devices and places in the world, adding an ability to sense and communicate in them, and connecting them to the internet and to each other.

Wait, that’s it? That’s the technology Tony Stark uses to talk to Jarvis, operate his home with a remote, and open maps, scroll through data, and surf the internet with just the tap of a finger? Well, yes!

Enough with the pop culture references though, let’s take a look at some real-time applications of the Internet of Things.

Whoa! That sounds great. But how does IoT work?

Before we delve into how IoT works, let’s take a look at the IoT components.

Now, let’s see how IoT works. Sophisticated sensors are embedded in devices and objects, known as things, each transmitting valuable data. These things are connected to an IoT platform by an IoT gateway, which acts as a bridge between two communication networks (sensors and internet). The Internet of Things gateway could either utilise an IP network like ethernet or a non-IP network like Bluetooth. The cloud integrates the data collected from various devices and applies data analytics to it in order to extract meaningful insights. These insights are then sent across respective applications. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

But why do we want to connect devices to the internet? I mean why IoT?

To give you an idea of how IoT can transform our ways of living, an internet-connected system monitors the crop fields with the help of sensors and intimates farmers about the field conditions, helping them make smarter decisions such as how much water and pesticides should be used. IoT also automates the irrigation system, thus lessening the work and improving the productivity of farmers.

Consider another situation – let’s say all our city trash cans have sensors attached to them that give information about the level of waste in the container. Now, the concerned authorities can send the collection vehicles only when needed. This would optimize the waste management process, improve the efficiency, and cut the fuel and energy cost, ensuring that the trash cans are emptied at the correct time.

You can watch this video on the world of Internet of Things to understand how beneficial IoT can be in optimizing our day-to-day activities.

Google says IoT is an in-demand skill, but I’m still skeptical about the future of IoT.

As per a NASSCOM report, IoT market in India is expected to reach $15Bn by 2020. Internet of Things offers an opportunity for businesses to turn data into insights, owing to which the industry has been witnessing the birth of numerous segments which were unheard of some time back. With IoT revolutionizing various industries such as healthcare, retail, housing, transport, security, and agriculture, the Indian market will see an exponential mushrooming of the IoT jobs. Some of the companies that are actively utilizing the power of Internet of Things are Intel, Volkswagen, IBM, MediaTek, and Apollo Hospitals.

Courtesy: Sarvesh Agrawal is the Founder and CEO of Internshala, an internships and trainings platform.

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