There are various definitions that are available in the literature. The core concept was proposed by Kevin Ashton that was based on well-known Ubiquitous Computing concept proposed by Mark Weiser in 1989 (Weiser, 1991). The vision of IoT based on core concept progressed with the time that leads to several visions based on advancement in technologies.
The Concept of IoT
The term “Internet of Things” was coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999. IoT concept is dreadfully simple (refer to figure 1) and it will be realized when all objects used in daily life will be uniquely identified and will have the ability to communicate with each other and react on the occurrence of any event.
Figure 1. The Internet of things for Everyone, Every Where, Any Thing
Ashton presented IoT concept in an article of RFID journal (Ashton, 2009). As per the concept, the technologies like RFID and sensors will enable computers to observe, identify and understand the world of their own without the intervention of humans. Such computers will be able to provide their own status like when to repair, replace and discard. IoT concept is also presented by other.
As per dictionary definition of Oxford:
The interconnection via the Internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data.
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) describes IoT as (Rose, Eldridge & Chapin, 2015):
The term Internet of Things (IoT) denotes a trend where a large number of embedded devices employ communication services offered by the Internet protocols. Many of these devices, often called “smart objects”, are not directly operated by humans, but exist as components in buildings or vehicles, or are spread out in the environment.
Above concepts' definitions entail a much different variety of hardware, software and networking solutions in terms of cost, performance, power consumption, availability, bandwidth, and other key attributes.
The Visions of IoT
A variety of visions has been presented by researchers since the inception of the IoT concept. The vision of IoT in terms of things perspective and network-oriented perspective is substantial for stakeholders, business alliances, and research and standardization bodies (Sundmaeker, Guillemin, Friess, & Woelfflé, 2010; Ericsson Mobility Report, 2016; ITU Internet Reports, 2005).
There are three visions of IoT that are:
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Things Oriented
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Internet Oriented
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Semantic Oriented
Things Oriented Vision
Things Oriented vision that provided the foundations to connected devices concept, things are identified with unique IDs and RFID Tags were considered as the first identification technology. Later on, NFC (Near Field Communication) and WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks) are also considered for identification under this vision.
Internet Oriented Vision
The Internet as a global network is the core of the Internet-oriented vision. According to the Vision, all uniquely identified objects will be connected to the global network i.e. Internet. ITU described this vision as (ITU Internet Reports, 2005): “from anytime, anyplace connectivity for anyone, we will now have connectivity for anything”.
Semantic Oriented Vision
It is predicted that there will be 28 billion connected devices by 2021 (Ericsson Mobility Report, 2016). This huge number of devices will need to connect and communicate autonomously from anywhere by anyone leading to the consequences of scalability and interoperability. As per the researchers, semantic technologies may provide the solutions to the issues of storage, connectivity, representation, and organization of information generated by the plethora of connected devices. The Semantic oriented vision is based on semantic technologies that will be helpful in dealing with billions of devices expected to be connected to the global network in future.