Internet of things and smart cities standards to make cities sustainable and a place for development and growth

STANDARDS to make cities sustainable and a place for development and growth

adrian carballo – board member ccat lat

Olga Cavalli – Academic director south school on internet governance

Index

1. 
   Introduction
   
2. 
   Different scenarios of adoption of IoT
   
3. 
   Standardization efforts
   
4. 
   IPV6 adoption
   
5. 
   Conclusion
   
6. 
   References and consulted sources
   

1. 
   Introduction
   

Internet of Things means, in practice, the application of these technologies, new protocols and wireless communications, allowing the interaction between people and machines (P2M), and machines to machines (M2M).

New services and devices have already started to incorporate these technology elements and this incorporation will increase in the coming years. Users will start to see cars without drivers, working robots in big factories and also at home, and machines that can execute orders.

The development of standards is a fundamental part of this technology integration into the single concept of Interne of Things. Wireless communications will be relevant and the massive use of IPv6 will be the enabler of the Internet of Things impact.

This document will explore the present efforts toward the Internet of Things standardization and the status of the IPV4 /IPV6 transition, with a focus on its impact in smart cities.

Cities will be highly impacted by the intensive use of Internet of Things both in the urban organization and management and the services available for citizens that live in these cities.

2. 
   Different scenarios of IoT adoption
   

Different types of sensors are integrated with objects and provide information of various parameters that can be measured. This allows the creation of environments that can analyze and diagnose situations, minimizing errors. Any object can be connected to the Internet by using RFID tags (Radio Frequency Identification) which are added to the object that is required to collect information. Using a radio frequency communication, data collected information is sent to the Internet. Large amounts of data that will be generated and they must be stored, processed and presented in a transparent, efficient and easy way. This information must also be secure and respect the privacy rules that exist in most of the countries of the world.

The development of WiFi and 4G-LTE connectivity networks is relevant for the end user, but there will be also another evolution towards connectivity between objects. Internet of Things requires an understanding of the connectivity between devices, the development of standards for the transmission of information and tools that enable the autonomous behavior of objects according to the functions to be met and the instructions received from the network that interconnects. Transport and logistics have already long incorporated these technologies, particularly to improve service delivery, and the next evolution is towards the personal and professional environment.

There are a number of definitions and predictions regarding Internet of Things¹:

• 
  IoT and the cloud: within the next 5 years 90% of IoT data will be stored in the cloud.
  
• 
  IoT and security: in two years, 90% of all IT networks have caused security problems in IoT, so they must create new security policies related to IoT.
  
• 
  IoT and network capacity: within three years, 50% of the computer networks will experience problems handling a large amount of data produced by IoT.
  
• 
  IoT and diversification: IoT today focuses on manufacturing, transportation and intelligent cities, but within the next five years all industries will have their IoT infrastructures.
  
• 
  IoT and smart cities: Local governments are investing and will invested to develop, test and install IoT based infrastructure by 2018.
  
• 
  IoT and embedded systems: for 2018, 60% of IT solutions developed will become open allowing greater vertical integration using IoT.
  

While the Internet of Things is made by the interaction of existing technologies, its impact will be noticeable in terms of connectivity as it will generate increased Internet traffic. This increase in traffic will require investments in the infrastructure of the telecommunication networks, especially the wireless networks and the short range networks.

The growth of devices connected to IP networks will happen mainly in the segment of connections between devices, also called M2M or machine to machine, with an expected 43% of such connections to 2019.

Nearly half of the M2M connections will be made in homes and offices.

Regionally, M2M connection between machines will not be as relevant as global, but is expected to be significant, much of the connected devices will be smart phones, which use will be accentuated in the coming years with the spread of 4G and LTE networks in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The possible applications and uses of IoT are huge, although it is difficult to make an exhaustive list; some relevant categories can be defined:

Security

• 
  Network connectivity service
  
• 
  Service control: electricity, water, gas, heating
  
• 
  Control of electrical and household devices
  
• 
  Computers, printers, routers, other elements of connectivity.
  

• 
  Building security
  
• 
  Service control: electricity, water, gas, heating
  
• 
  Office Automation.
  

• 
  Transport
  
• 
  Automated Vehicles
  
• 
  Traffic management and measurements
  
• 
  Road signs and other traffic management measures
  
• 
  Fleet Management
  
• 
  Calls inside vehicles
  
• 
  Emergency management
  
• 
  Insurance Management
  
• 
  Monitoring
  
• 
  Telemedicine
  

• 
  Inventory Control
  
• 
  Product Safety
  
• 
  Building security
  
• 
  Billing Machines
  
• 
  Control of stock and supplies
  

• 
  The things connected through sensors
  
• 
  Data storage
  
• 
  Data processing systems
  

It is relevant to assess the different parts of the IoT ecosystem, and identify where there may be a greater risk for the security of the service, including data and individuals or organizations involved.

There are several industrial developments and others already commercially available, which allow the development of new devices at low prices. One of the most successful and well known is the multipurpose Arduino device, which incorporates wireless connectivity.

Arduino is an open hardware platform whose main element is a small hardware device with a programmable microcontroller through the use of open software. This device can be used to automate and control various objects and, it can be connected to different types of programs. The device can be purchased or put together as its design can be downloaded from the Internet for free. Arduino has its own software for programming, which can be downloaded from their official website.

Systems interconnect Internet of Things objects using WiFi networks and wireless Internet access using 4G-LTE (Long Term Evolution) networks.

In relation with smart cities, Internet of Things will have a direct impact in different components.

• 
  Infrastructure can benefit from a better energy control using meters of the electricity, water and gas use.
  
• 
  Transports will use real time data exchange from different vehicles in order to enhance general transport management and better traffic management.
  
• 
  Sensors can provide alerts about different environmental situations or can simply monitor de air quality or level of pollution.
  
• 
  City administration can benefit from better managed public services and an efficient infrastructure management.
  
• 
  Streets surveillance, streets lightning and cameras, safety warning systems, will be fundamental for enhancing the quality of life in smart cities, helping police work and law enforcement.
  
• 
  Public health can be improved with making information available about health records, and special patients in need can be monitored remotely.
  
• 
  Citizens can be empowered with special services and access devices to different public services to enhance their life experience in smart cities.
  

Additionaly, Internet of Things will be fundamental to achieve the newly defined Sustainable Development Goals, specially Goal 9 related with the enhancement of infrastructure and Goal 11 related with cities and human settlements.

These are the 9 and 11 goal and the main objectives or each one²:

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

• 
  Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and trans-border infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all
  
• 
  By 2030 upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities
  
• 
  Significantly increase access to ICT and strive to provide universal and affordable access to internet in LDCs by 2020
  

• 
  Provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons
  
• 
  Reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, special attention to air quality, municipal and other waste management
  
• 
  Increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change
  

3. 
   Standardization Efforts for IoT
   

Standards once established and followed can:

• 
  Drive competitiveness, for individual businesses and world economy
  
• 
  Lower prices
  
• 
  Reduce technical barriers
  
• 
  Foster interoperability
  
• 
  Help manufacturers, network operators and consumers
  
• 
  Reduce negative impacts on the environment
  

ITU-T SG20

SG20 addresses the standardization requirements of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, with an initial focus on IoT applications in smart cities and communities (SC&C).

SG20 promotes the development of standards that leverage IoT technologies to address urban-development challenges.

ZigBee

ZigBee is a specification of wireless communication protocols based on the IEEE 802.15.4 WPAN standard. They are intended for communications with low rate data applications with a focus on home automation. It aims to be a cheaper platform of communications than WiFi and Bluetooth, generating WPAN: wireless personal area networks.

It is based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard and allows robust real-time communications and it allows interoperability with other communication technologies.

It is a commercial solution consisting of an operating system and hardware products based on 6LoWPAN IP technology.

Architecture studies prepared by a technical committee of ETSI created in 2009 in order to study the machine-to-machine communications (M2M) to specify requirements for M2M, providing specifications and standards, coordination with other standards groups and develop and maintain one end to end architecture in high-level M2M.

The Internet Engineering Task Force, IETF, is one of the Internet standards organizations working in IoT, especially of great importance is the full development of IPV6 as it will be the only standard capable of connecting so many devices.

The OIC is developing a specification that is focused in the automotive, consumer electronics, enterprise, healthcare, home automation, industrial, and wearables verticals as prime targets.

The Thread Group is creating a networking protocol using IPv6, mesh-based and using 802.15.4 radios. It will enable IoT-equipped devices of all sorts in the home to discover and network with each other.

The All Seen Alliance is overseen by The Linux Foundation. Its open source project – called AllJoyn – is based on early work by the Qualcomm Innovation Center. The platform utilizes Wi-Fi, power line, Ethernet, and other transport layers.

Its work is focused on factories assembly lines and shipping docks. The IIC focus is creating “use cases and test beds” for real world applications, it describes in great detail how companies in specific verticals can leverage IoT.

The IPSO Alliance is a global, non-profit forum seeking to establish the Internet Protocol as the network for the connection of smart objects in energy, consumer, healthcare, and industrial applications.

IEEE P2413

Apple HomeKit

The importance of standards in the future development of Internet of Things is an essential part of it.

All the efforts that are moving forward should find a coordination space in order to understand the different developments and work on the interoperability of technologies and systems involved in the deployment of the Internet of Things.

4. 
   IPV6 adoption
   

The lack of IPV4 addresses has promoted the adoption of an intermediate solution called the Network Address Translation (NAT). It enables several users and devices to share the same public IP address. This solution is working as NAT users are sharing IP addresses with others, but this technique becomes completely unmanageable if the same end-points are to be used by many different services, which may occur in an IoT deployment where the same sensors are to be used by multiple, independent, applications.

IPv6 provides for end devices to have multiple addresses and allows different services to assign IoT end-device addresses that are consistent with their own applications. Different services can deploy their own applications, sharing a common sensor/actuation infrastructure, without impacting the technical operation.

Figure 1: Percentage of Users that access Google over IPV6

Source: Google

IPv6 provides a large number of addresses that enables the extension of the Internet to any device and service. As indicated by the IOT6 project in the European Union, experiments have demonstrated the successful use of IPv6 addresses to large-scale deployments of sensors in smart buildings, smart cities and even with cattle.

The industry and the experts agree about the relevance of IPV6 for Internet of things, however applicability by new entities would require even more dissemination of IPV6 enabled infrastructure and general adoption.

Figure 2: Per country IPV6 adoption

Source: Google

Figure 1 shows the evolution of IPV6 traffic received by Google, which results in an average of 10% worldwide by the end of year 2015. This IPV6 traffic is far from being high; on the contrary it has shown a slow growth since the IPV6 addressed started to be available.

Figure 2 shows a map with different colors for the IPV6 deployment. It is interesting to note that there are countries like Peru and Germany, which have an important IPV6 adoption but users experiment reliability or latency issues when connecting IPV6 enabled websites.

At a glance, the map shows a new divide in the world, those countries with highly evolved IPV6 networks and IPV6 enabled devices, and another world that is lagging behind this important change in the Internet infrastructure.

The slow IPV6 deployment may be an important limitation for the development of the Internet of Things, as the Internet and the new IP addresses result fundamental for the management and control of a large amount of sensors, devices and information.

It is expected that the lack of IPV4 addresses and a strong outreach campaign done by the five Regional Internet Registries (ARIN, APNIC, AFRINIC, RIPE NCC and LACNIC) and other organizations like the ITU and Internet Society, will close the significant gap that exist today in the adoption of IPV6.

5. 
   Conclusions
   

• 
  IoT will generate a large amount of data that must be managed and stored with the necessary safety and security.
  
• 
  IoT raises privacy dilemmas, how and when should something be monitored and be connected?
  
• 
  IoT will generate additional demand for energy and will generate a lot of technological waste.
  
• 
  The development of the IoT will require the full deployment of IPv6 standard, because it is the only way to connect so many devices to the Internet.
  
• 
  IoT will be a change for the whole society, everything will be connected, and everything can be detected and measured.
  
• 
  IoT means machines connected to machines, networks of sensors and machines without human interaction.
  
• 
  IoT must resolve interoperability between technologies and standardization.
  

The relevance of infrastructure through the IPV6 massive adoption and the definition of a set of unified standards, will be the key enablers for the enhancement of cities using the Internet of Things and becoming in the near future “Smart Cities”.

6. 
   References and consulted sources
   

https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS25291514

State of the Market THE INTERNET OF THINGS 2015 Discover how IoT is transforming business results

http://www.verizonenterprise.com/resources/reports/rp_state-of-market-the-market-the-internet-of-things-2015_en_xg.pdf

That 'Internet of Things' Thing - RFID Journal.

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/print/4986. [See: 22/05/2014] .2.

Smart M2M Solution

https://m2m.telefonica.com/telefonica-m2m/solutions/m2m-managed-connectivity/smart-m2m-solution

Rise of the Embedded Internet Embedded Processors Intel White Paper.

http://download.intel.com/newsroom/kits/embedded/pdfs/ECG_WhitePaper.pdf.

Internet of Things Global Standards Initiative

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/jca/iot/Pages/default.aspx

Open Interconnect Project

http://openinterconnect.org/

The Thread Group

http://www.threadgroup.org/

The Industrial Internet Consortium

http://www.iiconsortium.org/

Internet Protocol for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance

http://www.ipso-alliance.org

ITU SG 20

http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/studygroups/2013-2016/20/Pages/default.aspx

IEEE Standards Association

https://standards.ieee.org/develop/project/2413.html

Apple Home Kit

https://developer.apple.com/homekit/

Internet of Things 6 Project – European Commission

http://iot6.eu/ipv6_evolution

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview/post-2015-development-agenda.html