1. © Copyright FeedHenry Ltd. 2014
Internet of Things
A Technical Overview
Dr Mícheál Ó Foghlú, CTO
May, 2014
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2. © Copyright FeedHenry Ltd. 2014
FeedHenry Platform
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A next-generation, cloud-based Mobile
Application Platform for Enterprises
leveraging the latest open technologies
across all major mobile platforms.

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TSSG Waterford Institute of Technology
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Agenda
• Context
• TSSG in WIT is a large R&D centre with many active projects, IoT
• FeedHenry is a spin-out from TSSG focused on mobile but applicable to IoT
• Internet of Things Overview
• Technical Review
• Implications for CIOs
• Summary

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Internet of Things Overview
• The fixed Internet was big
• The mobile Internet was bigger
• The Internet of Things is bigger again
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6. © Copyright FeedHenry Ltd. 2014
Internet of Things Overview
• Internet of Things (IoT) also called the Internet of Everything (IoE)
• Definition of Internet of Things – Ashton
“If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using data
they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count
everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost. We would know when things
needed replacing, repairing or recalling, and whether they were fresh or past their
best.” [Ashton, 2009]
• Definition of Internet of Things – Cisco
“According to the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), IoT is simply the
point in time when more “things or objects” were connected to the Internet than
people.” [Evans, 2011]
“Cisco IBSG estimates IoT was ‘born’ sometime between 2008 and 2009” [Evans, 2011]
• Scale of Internet of Things
“The Internet of Things (IoT), which excludes PCs, tablets and smartphones, will grow to
26 billion units installed in 2020 representing an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion
in 2009, according to Gartner, Inc.” [Gartner, 2013]
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Technical Review
• “Internet” = TCP/IP and requires IPv6 for IoT
• “Internet” means the TCP/IP protocol suite, originally developed in the early
1970s and popularised in the 1990s with the rise of the web
• IPv4 is what powers the majority of the Internet today, but it has fewer
available addresses than the population of the planet, and we already have
multiple devices
IPv4 space = 4.2949672 × 10^9
• IPv6 is what will need to power the Internet of Things, it is a huge scale
bigger than IPv4 and can comfortably allow all the world’s devices to
communicate with each other
http://www.ipv6.ie/about
IPv6 space = 3.4028236 × 10^38
“So, if all the IPv6 space was the size of earth, then you could fit IPv4 in 73.142
cubic centimetres.
An iPod is 2.4″×4.1″×0.55″ = 5.41 cubic inches = 88.68 cubic centimetres.
So, ball park, if all the IPv4 space would fit in an iPod, then all the IPv6 space is the
size of the entire Earth.” [ICANN, 2007]
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8. © Copyright FeedHenry Ltd. 2014
Technical Overview
• “of Things” = machine-to-machine without people
• The assumption is that many sensors and normal commercial electronic
and other equipment will be connected to a standardised world-wide
computer network using TCP/IP standards and thus ease the
automated gathering of data
• To date most such implementations have not used the standard Internet
technologies, and so inter-operability is severely hampered (e.g. home
security equipment, distributed metering, …)
• The real benefits accrue when the inert-operability is standardised so
that a whole slew of non-predicted applications and uses can be
generated, as has been done with generic mash-up using the Internet
and web standards today
• But the real value comes from linking Big Data to IoT – using the
automated gathering of key information from distributed “things” to
inform future decision making
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Technical Overview: Security
• Security is a huge challenge for the Internet of Things
• Ideally barriers would be low to allow devices to join networks and
exchange information – but what if the wrong people can then
access that information?
A young couple settled in for the night, only to be startled awake by a
disembodied voice screaming at their 10-month-old baby in her bedroom.
… Sometime around midnight, parents Heather and Adam Schreck said a
hacker accessed the Foscam Internet camera the couple was using as a
baby monitor, and yelled out, “Wake up baby! Wake up baby!”
Heather Schreck checked the camera through her smartphone and saw it
panning around. When Adam bolted into the baby's room, it pivoted to face
him and then started hurling a stream of epithets.
[Lee, 2014]
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10. [Dolin, 2012]
But the potential benefits outweigh the shorter term challenges, with the opportunity to
radically change the richness of data used to make a whole series of decisions
individually, locally and nationally.
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Technical Overview: Scope
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11. © Copyright FeedHenry Ltd. 2014
Technical Overview:
Protocols & Architecture
• Protocols
• As with the Internet itself, the IoT often uses HTTP/HTTPS
• However this can be too heavy-weight, especially for sensors
• New lighter-weight TCP/IP protocols are emerging such as MQTT
(OASIS):
“MQTT is a Client Server publish/subscribe messaging transport protocol.
It is light weight, open, simple, and designed so as to be easy to
implement. These characteristics make it ideal for use in many situations,
including constrained environments such as for communication in Machine
to Machine (M2M) and Internet Of Things (IoT) contexts where a small
code footprint is required and/or network bandwidth is at a premium.”
• Architecture
• Sometimes non-TCP/IP is used for sensors, and it’s the aggregation
layer that is truly Internet connected
• Personally, I believe the real IoT benefits will not emerge until it is IPv6
everywhere (potentially 6LoPAN, IPv6 optimised for sensors including
Zigbee)
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CIO Implications
• By some definitions the IoT is already here, but in terms of mature
products to be deployed in the enterprise we still have a way to go
• However, in the next 5 years we will have opportunities to deploy
IoT style solutions
• There are certain vertical sectors where IoT style solution have been
deployed for some time (such as some parts of logistics and of
retail)
• Investment in open interoperable standards based solutions will be
a much better long term investment than shorter term proprietary
solutions, though the business case for the latter may look strong
• Ideally use solutions that actually use the Internet (whether IPv4 or
Ipv6) and for long term investment go for Ipv6 enabled solutions
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13. © Copyright FeedHenry Ltd. 2014
CIO Implications
• The real value of all these devices generating data can only be
realized if
• The data are channeled into a big data store
• Middleware can analyse this data and generate insights
• Insights can trigger software enabled actions
• Thus the other big IT trends of the 2010s, mobile, big data and
cloud, are also an important part of the Internet of Things
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14. © Copyright FeedHenry Ltd. 2014
Summary
• Internet of Things is real – the basic vision is one of connected devices
generating information without the need for direct human intervention
(other than initial installation)
• By some definitions it is already here, but in reality there is as yet no
standardised way of doing these things, even the use of the “Internet” to
connect such devices has yet to become standard
• Thus, to date, it has been very hard to interconnect one system of
devices (e.g. a home security system) with another (e.g. a networked
thermostat)
• But the promise is, as happened with the standardisation of the Internet
and the web a technology suite for interconnecting computers,
connected devices will lead to another scale of magnitude of
interconnectedness that will dwarf “social” and “mobile” that are the
current big trends
• So CIOs should value systems that have potential to be interoperable
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15. © Copyright FeedHenry Ltd. 2014
Internet of Things
A Technical Overview
Dr Mícheál Ó Foghlú, CTO
micheal.ofoghlu@feedhenry.com
@mofoghlu
May, 2014
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Acknowledgements & References
Kevin Ashton, Auto-ID Center MIT, Jun 2009 "That 'Internet of Things' Thing, in the real
world things matter more than ideas”http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?4986
Randy Benn, Cisco, Jan 2014, “Cisco’s Internet of Things” (Slideshare Slides)
http://www.slideshare.net/CiscoPublicSector/cisco-internet-of-things-iot
Guthrie Dolin, Odopod, May 2012, “Internet of Things” (Slideshare Slides)
http://www.slideshare.net/gdolin/connected-personalobjects-planningness2012
Kim Escherich, IBM, Nov 2012, “Internet of Things” (Slideshare Slides)
http://www.slideshare.net/escherich/ibm-cio-forum-internet-of-things
Dave Evans, Cisco, Apr 2011, “The Internet of Things: How the Next Evolution of the
Internet Is Changing Everything” (White Paper)
http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/innov/IoT_IBSG_0411FINAL.pdf
Gartner, Dec 2013, “Gartner Says the Internet of Things Installed Base Will Grow to 26
Billion Units By 2020” (Press Release)
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2636073
ICANN, Jun 2009, “IPv6, the iPod and the Earth”
https://blog.icann.org/2007/06/ipv6-the-ipod-and-the-earth/
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Acknowledgements & References
Adriana Lee, ReadWriteWeb, Apr 2014, “Until We Fix Our Connected Homes, Hackers
Will Keep Screaming At Babies”
http://readwrite.com/2014/04/30/connected-home-hackers-stop-yelling-at-babies-foscam
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