Early adoption of Emerging Technologies is the engine for Growth and Carrier Success”
Internet of
Things (IoT) is the future #technology that is impacting our daily
life while at home, in transit or at the workplace. The term #“Things” relates
to #computing machinery, equipment, #vehicles, #intelligent devices, #sensors, #controllers and household appliances. In an # IoT environment, #communication from #Machine to Things, Things to Machine and Things to Things
take place in #autonomous mode. There is no human intervention since the
required logic is already #embedded in the #algorithms stored in the computing
machine, communication nodes and devices/equipment Various Things can be
interconnected through the internet or #mobile communication networks (4G or
5G). IoT system has connectivity with electro-mechanical and
electronic devices like smartphones, digital cameras, driverless cars, drones,
robots and household appliances. All these Things have sensors and actuators
installed in them. These Things are provided with Unique Identifiers
(UIDs) and have the ability to transfer data over the Internet /4G/5G Networks,
without any human intervention. All these home appliances can be controlled via
devices like smartphones, wireless/radio controllers. In simple
terms, the IoT environment is interconnecting all intelligent devices via
Internet/ 4G/5G mobile communication networks so that these devices can send
and receive data to enable Smart devices/ Sensors /Relays to make smart
predictions and take timely action. However,
for successful IoT functioning, all connected devices should be able to
communicate with each other effectively. One simple example is the App Life
360, freely available on all smartphones. This simple apps allows two or more
smartphones to globally track one another. This App helps the safety of people,
particularly, young children, who are on the move and away from their
homes.
IoT Sub-Systems. An IoT system has the following three major subsystems for autonomous
intercommunication and responds to any emerging situation:
· Things or Devices. Things or Devices are real physical objects
(Electro-mechanical devices) that can have sensors attached to them to get the
real-time data from others things/devices, equipment. Things can be vehicles,
ships, boats, office equipment, household appliances or even wearable
items like BP/pulse recorder, pacer indicating steps walked, calories burnt and
sugar level. All the devices which can be connected through
the internet/4G/5G mobile networks are smart objects/devices. These smart
devices can be allotted unique IP addresses for the exchange of data. All
the data collected from various sensors need to be quickly and accurately
analyzed by the computer for correct interpretation.
· Network. This is the communication link which could be an Internet or 4G/5G mobile
communication network. These communication networks interconnect
various physical components of IoT. The network collects data from the various
interconnected nodes and routes the right data to the right
destination and at the right time.
· Cloud. A normal hard drive of a computer workstation is highly
inadequate to handle Big Data. Therefore you need a scalable cloud-like
platform. The cloud collects real-time data in varying formats coming from a
huge number of sources and at a superfast speed. It processes the data speedily
and relays the outcome to the right devices.
IoT Enabling
Technologies. IoT environment
is dependent upon many technologies like Big Data
Analytics, Cloud computing, Embedded Systems, Data Security Protocols, and
System Architectures, Communication protocols, Web services, Mobile phone
(4G/5G) network web Apps and Internet web Apps.
IoT
Service Provider Requirements. Before
venturing as an IoT service provider, one should thoroughly scrutinize the
market for IoT clients. It is equally important to select a viable platform and
competent technical manpower. The most popular IoT platforms as per the
2018 survey report are listed below:
· Amazon Web Services (AWS).
· IBM Cloud
· Cisco IoT Cloud Connect.
· Google Cloud Platform.
· HP's Universal of Things
· Microsoft Azure IoT.
· Oracle IoT
· SAP Cloud Platform.
· Infosys ( India)
IoT creates
new jobs. Availability
of IoT is a big boost for job
creation and overcoming the shortage of human resources, in areas like
Agriculture, Healthcare, Transportation and Garbage disposal in various cities.
A study carried out by Research and Consultancy firm (Zinnov) in 2016,
indicates that IoT might take away 120,000 jobs in India by 2021. On the
brighter side, the Department of Telecommunications,(DOT), had stated in 2017
that about 10-15 million jobs would be created through IoT in the next 5-7
years. However, these estimates have been modified; post the 2020
Corona pandemic, which has been sweeping across the globe.
India has a lot of capability in software and
most of the technological inventions/innovations are driven by
software. In Mar 2020, Infosys (India), has already tied up
with USA based QUALCOMM, a technology company located in
California to support the GOI initiative on
building smart cities If India judiciously integrates its
telecom and computing capability, India can be a leader in IoT space. However,
security and data protection are two serious concerns, on which the Government
of India (GOI) is working on priority. Once a full-fledged data protection law
is in place, it will have a positive impact on the growth of IoT and job
creation.
IoT for Rural Economy. Many countries in Asia and Africa, urgently need
appropriate technologies to help them to uplift their rural masses. For
this purpose, IoT is one major economic booster for areas like
Agriculture, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Telecom, Transportation (Rail, Road.
Shipping), Smart Buildings and Smart Cities. Indeed, IoT can
have a huge impact on daily life, job creation and new business
opportunities. A new report published in Nov 2018 by Broadband India Forum
(BIF) had estimated that AI and IoT are going to create over 28 lakhs (2.8
million) jobs in rural India in the next 8-10 years. Out of these 28
lakhs jobs, nearly 21 lakh jobs will be in the agriculture sector and the
remaining 7 lakh will be in the healthcare and transport sector.
Value-wise, these jobs would have an annual worth of over ₹60,000
Crore (approx. US$ 8.9 billion). The GOI’s drive on job
creation will further accelerate during 2022-2023, by which time much-hyped 5G
technologies for mobile communication services will be in place.
IoT for Agriculture. Agriculture is the most important
component of many Asian and African economies. These countries need to be
supported with the best research work and technology. India has already
taken a big step for Digital Transformation in 2015. Since then India
has taken many initiatives in the research and implementation of newer
technologies. India's agriculture sector is comprised of many crops, like rice,
wheat, pulses, potatoes, sugarcane, oilseeds, fruit orchids and
some non-food items as cotton, tea, coffee, rubber, and jute. Agriculture
also includes fisheries, milk dairy farms, poultry farms, sheep /goat
farms. BIF’s data had highlighted that AI and IoT related applications
including satellite terrain mapping, electronic/digital marketing, livestock
traceability, climate sensing stations, product traceability, and smart farms
in agriculture are part of India’s digital revolution.
AI/ IoT driven systems will
improve harvest quality, detecting diseases in plants, pests and poor plant
nutrition in various farms. This will also help in accurate
predictability in agriculture yields which
will help organize proper storage and transportation of agriculture products. Smart
technologies like AI, Robotics and Drones are already enhancing the
efficiency of the agriculture business. Judicious implementation of
IoT will further help to produce a better quantity of healthy crops,
reduce the workload on farmers and help in better decision-making in crop
planning and sale. With the availability of GPS/GIS services at an affordable
cost, farmers can get more accurate weather data, field mapping and
planning crop rotation This helps in better crop planning and optimal use
of available resources. GPS allows farmers to work during low
visibility/rain/ dust, and fog. IoT
facilities will keep the farmers updated about agriculture data related to soil
condition, watering time, weather prediction, crop growth, harvesting time,
market selling rates. This helps to maximize their income from the sale of
their agricultural products. Major applications
of IoT for Agriculture are :
· Determining the right season and time to plant
and harvest a particular crop.
· Analyzing soil conditions and determining
the requirement of type and quantity of fertilizer.
· Sensing for soil moisture, nutrients and
determining the need for watering and manure.
· Selecting the right time for transporting
agricultural produce to the processing factories / open market sale.
· Tracking the movement of animals in grazing
land/farms and open jungle.
· Interlinking milk dairy farms, poultry
farms, piggery farms, sheep forms and planning shipment of farm produce to the
nearest market.
IOT for
Healthcare. In the healthcare environment, IoT refers to
monitoring/ measuring instruments like a thermometer, ECG
machine, weighing machine and sophisticated devices for monitoring
patients’ vital health parameters. These parameters could be like Glucose level
(Blood Sugar), Blood Pressure (BP), Pulse rate, Heartbeat rate, Oxygen Level etc.
These devices are interconnected through the intranet and internet /4G/5G networks.
These instruments /devices transform information from the physical form into
the digital form. IoT helps to capture real-time healthcare data, and
analyze it at a very high speed and with good accuracy. This data is largely
related to diagnostics and treatment given for various ailments to various
categories of patients.
IoT also facilitates
real-time health monitoring and access to a patient’s health data, particularly
of elder people. IoT will greatly help
in providing telemedicine and online medical assistance to PHC located in
remote/ rural areas. According to
Gartner, there will be nearly 26 billion devices interconnected in the IoT
environment by 2020. These
devices will directly collect and share information with each other This
information will provide insight into the health of various patients and
suggest follow up actions to improve the health and satisfaction level of
the community. The medical sensors
help to convert environment data like temperature, pressure, humidity,
heartbeat rate, blood pressure, blood sugar etc. to the digital form and
the actuators transform the digital data to physical actions by machines like
infusion pumps, dialysis systems, etc. Some of the healthcare
applications ( Apps) of IoT are briefly given below:
· Patient Radio monitoring: This application is for remote surveillance of
a patient’s vital functions by using internally and externally located patient
monitoring devices, interconnected through IoT. In this case,
healthcare information is shared in real-time between patients and health
caretakers. This is very useful for the management of chronic diseases like
hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, asthma.
· Mobile system access: This application is based on mobile technologies that enable
remote/virtual access to current clinical digital health records and those archived
earlier.
· Medical devices. This application is used to capture and track disease management
data. IoT linked medical devices
like digital glucometers, blood pressure devices, pedometers and wearable
devices can assist in performing surgeries and recording. Smart diagnostic devices are used for capturing
the data from the sensors for further analysis by a doctor
· Virtual consultation (telemedicine): This application uses remote connectivity
to provide multimedia solutions that enable virtual healthcare consultation,
health education, medicine delivery, and therapy procedures. Through
virtualization, the majority of routine care can happen within minutes. Remote
diagnostic screening has become common in some technologically advanced
countries. In near future, we may see telesurgery using robots.
· Monitoring aged people: These devices are very useful for monitoring
the elderly people who may be living independently. The vital data from
the elderly people can be acquired from the monitoring devices and transmitted
to a standard mobile HealthCare Van, which acts as a network
node for transmitting the real-time data to the doctor. The information can be
used to give medical assistance to needy people. For serious cases, the nearby
hospitals can be alerted and an ambulance dispatched to pick up an ailing elderly
person. This way, the hospitalization costs can be reduced and lives can be
saved through early intervention.
· Planning Healthcare Services. With rapid advances in electronics and embedded
software, a number of medical devices like glucose monitors, ECG monitors,
pulse oximeters, blood pressure monitors and so on are becoming wearable and WIFI enabled. All these devices
monitor, collect and store data in real-time. Thus IoT enables health
organizations to gather critical data from multiple sources in real-time. This
helps in better decision-making and forward planning. This way, IoT enables
hospitals to achieve higher efficiency, lowering costs and providing
better health care to the citizens.
Challenges for Implementing IoT. Building
an IoT system requires a multi-disciplinary approach. A basic IoT team includes
an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, an industrial designer, an
embedded systems designer, one back-end developer, one front-end developer, and
a product manager. Some of the challenges related to implementing
IoT are briefly given below:
· Privacy and Security of data. IoT environment has many
challenges including technical, regulatory, privacy, security and socio-ethical
issues. Protecting the privacy of citizens is the main challenge. It requires
the wholehearted participation of various government agencies, private sector
players and civil society to ensure privacy, secrecy, and security of data.
· Scalability. As the billions of IoT devices get connected to the Internet/5G network
by 2022, a large volume of data needs to be processed at a great speed. The
system which stores, analyses this information from the IoT devices need to be
fast and automatically scalable. This data deluge needs Big Data Analytics and
Cloud Computing for the storage, retrieval, processing and
interpretation of meaningful data.
· Interoperability. Technological standards for IoT are not yet finalized. Pending
standardization, interoperability of IoT with legacy devices is a big challenge. Some
countries are going ahead with their own standards. The convergence of various technologies
related to IoT and their international standards are to be expedited.
· Lack of government support. The government and the regulatory bodies
should come forward to play an active role in bringing up required regulations
and standards.
· safety of patient data. Most of the time, IoT devices are attached to
the patient. are left unattended. Hence there is a risk for
the safety and privacy of patient data.
· Security and personal privacy. The IoT in healthcare should ensure Confidentiality,
Integrity, and Availability of patients’ personal data.
Jobs offered by IoT. Despite a lot of fear
about privacy and security related to IoT
devices, IoT has been well recognized as a means for higher productivity and
efficiency. However, building an IoT system requires a multi-disciplinary
IoT team which includes an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, an
industrial designer, an embedded systems designer, one back-end
developer, one front-end developer, and a product manager If you are looking to
pursue a career in IoT environment, you should learn new skills and
upgrade your CV. Some of the highest paying and most lucrative jobs
related to IoT are given below:
· Product Managers. These are highly paid professionals having good IoT knowledge and
adequate experience. They plan and keep a close watch on the
implementation of the IoT project.
· SEO consultant. There is cut-throat competition among IoT service providers to
provide the fastest response to the end-users (Things). Therefore Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) has a lot of job potential.
· Data Scientists and Analysts. They are the key people who can quickly
analyze large data and present solutions which enable devices to interact and
take appropriate action in autonomous mode.
· App Developers. They are the front-end workforce and always in great demand. They
are the ones who develop and integrate various Apps. Their efforts
are linked to ever-growing smartphone users who like to load many
Apps for carrying out their daily needs. For example, most of us do not
bother to remember phone numbers and we fully depend on the address
book, stored in our mobile phone or maybe on the cloud. The app
market is booming as the younger generation wants to stay connected and well
informed, by using various freely downloadable Apps. It may be messaging
through What App, email, Facebook, Google maps, vehicle (
Uber Taxi) tracking, tracking the movement of your family
members/friends by using Life 360,, weather, sports news or music or a movie.
Today professionals who are good in Python like programming skills are in great
demand for developing communication/computing Apps.
· Business Intelligence (BI). BI relates to the fast collection,
storage, and analysis of market data, coming from smart devices and fast
decision making. It requires new skills to handle sensor data, data centre
management, predictive analytics,. They also need skills like
programming in python and proficiency in using software tools like Hadoop, No-SQL
and. Ruby. For learning such skills 0ne should take a basic online course like
Data Science, Hadoop, predictive analytics. BI experts act as eyes
and ears of the organization. They help the industries to improve their
outreach to customers, CRM, SCM, business alliances, and growth.
· Social Media Managers. In the fast-moving digital world,
social media is the most powerful tool to promote industrial products/
services. Companies are capitalizing on this global obsession of staying
connected through mobile communication networks. To manage these activities,
one needs social media managers. Infect it is a brand management role to
produce content, promote conversation and monitor various social media
platforms to get the best deal.
· Software Engineers. These are the software engineers or developers involved in coding
and developing various business applications. Experienced software
engineers create efficient programs that make computing faster and
reliable. If a software company builds bug-free software, it can
easily make a 10% return on its investment. They are an
evergreen task force and always in great demand.
· IoT Architect /designers. They plan appropriate configurations for IoT
and implement cost-efficient business solutions.
· Web developer. Web developers create web pages for business websites/portals
which users/customers can easily browse through. Web development continues
to be one of the most sought after skills in the job market. It is the web
browser that establishes an interface between the user/ customer and the
business entity/seller.
· Cloud services specialist. Big data related to
agriculture, healthcare, GIS, and the weather is distributed and stored on the
cloud (multi-server, multi-locations). This requires high-tech
professionals to handle such volume and variety of data. The
Cloud is using the internet to connect various devices and share information.
With an ever-growing demand for IoT services, the demand for IT professionals
specializing in cloud computing skills has got the boost.
· Information Security Professionals. IoT is already under threat from several
cyber-attacks. To keep information safe, the industry needs professionals who
have knowledge and experience in dealing with cyber vulnerability
assessment, public key infrastructure (PKI) security, ethical hacking, and
wireless network security. Knowledge of Cryptography, Authentication
and Encryption would ensure that you stay in demand,
· Hardware Interfacing. Assembly Language programming is essential to be an embedded
software engineer. Knowing at least one operating system, such as Linux and one
embedded system like Contiki and basic knowledge of Raspberry
Pi,, Bluetooth, and Microcontrollers would keep you in demand.
· IP Networking. In an IoT
environment, embedded sensors interact with other sensors/ devices configured
in the equipment. The information collected by these sensors is
automatically sent to the main processor for quick analysis. For
efficient working of IoT, the internet /
5G Network should be a fault-tolerant,
secure and reliable to efficiently handle large traffic. All
communication Networks associated with IoT should carry out correct
Routing, Switching, and Load Balancing. If you are looking for a job in an IoT
environment, you should do an IP Networking course and get
certified.
· UI/UX designers. For efficient Man-Machine interaction, in an IoT environment,
there is a need to design an efficient User Interface (UI) that is easy to
use with a faster response time. Likewise, it is very important to design
an IoT system that provides a good User Experience (UX). The
design of UI/UX is very intricate and requires professionals with good
programming skills. These designers are responsible for evolving interfaces
among machines/devices and among machines and humans. The interfaces
between the device and the user must be effective and
user-friendly. Knowledge of JavaScript, CSS, will help in
developing the required UI/UX interfaces.
IoT
applications in daily life. There
are many applications of IoT in our daily walks of life and in many sectors. It
solely depends upon consumer requirements and the ingenuity of the application
designer. Consumer connected devices include smart
refrigerators, smart television, , smart washing machine, smart
dishwasher, video doorbells, electronic toys, and other smart
appliances. In our daily life, it also includes smart meters for domestic
electricity, water/gas consumption, commercial security systems, smart city
technologies, road traffic monitoring, weather conditions and soil
moisture meters for smart agriculture farming. It is well established that in an IoT environment, physical objects /devices will work effectively with machine-to-machine
and human-to-machine interfaces. This level of inter-acting is a great boon for
healthcare services. However, it must be understood that IoT based mobile
doctor buddy apps are not a replacement for the experience of the
doctors. The creation of an IoT environment is only
complementing the doctor with the technology-based inputs. IoT healthcare
devices with wider reach are opening a new era of remote consulting, handling
diagnostic devices for detecting epidemic diseases like Malaria, Cholera, Corona
and its variants like Delta and Omicron.
Summary.
As we are moving faster towards the Digital World, various electrical,
electronic mechatronics and communication devices are becoming a part of the
digital environment around us. In this technology wave, people are rapidly
installing smart devices into their homes and workplaces.
As IoT devices collect more data about roads, railways, airports, seaports,
parking places, rest places, petrol pumps, hospitals, hotels, restaurants,
weather, IoT systems are becoming smarter and highly responsive to the needs of
various users/consumers. By judicious use of IoT, cities /towns will
transform into smart cities/towns. Likewise, ToT will transform agriculture
farms into Smart Farms, Homes to smart Homes. Similarly, Primary Health Centre
(PHC) in rural areas will be able to share valuable diagnostics and medical
expertise for the timely treatment of patients. Some advanced
countries are already planning to have pilot-less navigation of commercial
ships and boats. With the integration of GPS and GIS, IoT will become part of
our daily life, both at the workplace and at home. It is therefore
essential to embrace IoT technology early and reap maximum benefits in this
highly competitive global market.
According to a report by McKinsey, the internet accounted for a GDP growth of 21% between 2006 and 2011 and this trend is continuing to rise faster than expected. The same report revealed that the internet has created 2.6 jobs for every job lost as a result of the integration of many technologies which form IoT environment. Do not wait and watch for the market to stabilize since the technology wave is unstoppable and continuously mo. moving forward at a great speed. Therefore be quick to jump on the bandwagon and ride the Technology Wave
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