Information technology has advanced by delivering an exponential increase in computing power. Telecommunication technology has likewise advanced communicating capabilities. Convergence of these two technologies has become possible due to the rapid advancements made in the respective technology. This convergence is termed as information and communication technology as a discipline. Many concepts are emerging in this discipline. These concepts enable business, government, and human beings to reach new realities in their required activities. Some of these concepts have created various opportunities for designing and manufacturing electronic devices. When these devices are connected to other devices and systems over the internet, this is now known as internet of things (IoT). This chapter gives a brief overview of the concepts such as cloud computing and ubiquitous and pervasive computing in the context of internet of things. Further, this chapter discusses five case illustrations with the relevance of internet of things.
TopIntroduction
In the early years, the internet was mainly used by military and research institutions in the United States of America. Now it is being used across the globe in every activity under the sun. People prefer to be on the internet. One of the main reasons, it is simple to use. The internet is a good example of functional freedom. In principle any node can speak as a peer to any other node as long it obeys the rules of the TCP/IP protocols, which are strictly technical, not social or political. The Internet can be compared to a human language. Nether none hires a language nor no one owns a language. It is up to an individual to learn and to speak a language. People consider the internet as similar to a language. It belongs to everyone.
Ubiquitous and pervasive computing concepts have facilitated many manufacturers to design and develop electronic devices. Consequent to the advancements in the “Internet” many electronic devices are embedded with a feature of the “Internet”. When these devices are connected to other devices and systems over the internet, are referred to as the “Internet of Things” (Daniel Kellmerit, & Daniel Obodovski, 2013)
The importance of the “Internet of Things” is that data collected and analyzed to provide insights or actions. Integration of that data depends upon the management and security of the whole system related to that data. The choice of connectivity protocol plays an important role in the “Internet of Things” (Frank Dushlmann, Jim Moorish, & Rishi M Bhatnagar, 2016).
The important requirements such as sustainability and reliability in transmitting data over distances to heterogeneous devices need the attention of the developers of the system. The efficiency of the above requirements is important because of battery-operated sensors or electrically operated sensors embedded in stationary and moving objects.
Application updates, security patches, remotely managing the operations, and maintain ace of various devices require massive scalability and flexibility. The concept of cloud computing facilitates handling the above requirements. Robust and scalable architecture is available in private and public cloud environments.