Internet of Things: three major business opportunities four challenges to welcome 6 development areas

After years of concept, the Internet of things began to enter people's lives, there are industry insiders said 2014 will be the first year of the Internet of things, whether it is the internet of things industry smart home or car networking, are fired in full swing. What will the Internet of things be like in the future? How to get to the road? This article will introduce the future development of Internet of things and face the dilemma.

1. There will be three levels of business opportunities in the future of IoT

The business opportunity of the Internet of things can be divided into three levels the first layer is to establish a network for all objects connected to the network infrastructure, embedded network system plays an important role, Asiainfo, Machine-to-machine, Rui Yu and so on nearly 3 years has been successful card-embedded network IC market, especially in 10/ 100M embedded Ethernet and USB Ethernet and other markets have a high share, will become the most direct beneficiary groups.

The second layer is the Terminal object Interconnection architecture, mainly lets each kind of application terminal and other terminal or the Bureau to carry on the network communication, this year already looked obtains the real order the domain, including the LED illumination, the wisdom electricity net, takes the IPSTB or the IPTV as the main body three nets fusion and so on application. In addition to the Asia letter and Lian Jie and other industries have been ordered by the infrastructure to feed up, the main application of the end of the Internet chip Intelligence, creativity, Holtek, F-Si, Sheng, Chuang Jie, respectively, in the special application of Chip (ASIC), microcontroller (MCU), Bluetooth network and other markets have a place.

The third tier is an integrated system architecture, the main is to integrate software or operating systems in the hardware to facilitate the promotion of services, this market now appears to be by Intel, Apple, Google and other international manufacturers led, but the manufacturers to build their own complete ecosystem, still need all parties to cooperate, such as Google's Googlewear platform in the wearable device, Intel's Edison platform, built on the quark processor, is aligned with the domestic ASUS, MediaTek and Acer.

2, the Internet of things faces four challenges

Infrastructure is a less appealing topic than the technology of Google Glass or wearable biosensors such as temporary tattoos, but innovation at the core technology level is critical to becoming the mainstream of IoT technology.

Get rid of smartphones

For newcomers, if the Internet market is to fully develop its potential, it must sever its links with smartphones; people just don't want to walk around with their phones, especially the big size smartphones. If smartphones are a must, wearable devices are just accessories to the phone.

Wearable devices need to have their own communication capabilities in order to break the link with the mobile phone and directly with the cloud online, in addition, those smart devices can be directly linked to each other, rather than through the cloud, and of course not through two smartphones. To become truly practical, wearable equipment is also necessary to have GPS functions; Imagine a watch that tells you how far you've come, how high altitude you are, or how many steps you've climbed.

Innovative standby Power/Low-power Solutions

Future wearable devices need to be able to gain power through alternative schemes, such as longer distance wireless charging, energy acquisition, solar energy, or energy conversion through user action. These devices also require a new type of energy storage device, such as a soft battery, and are in line with commercial standards for quality and price; it is also best to support the GPS function at the same time as the power consumption can be lower than the existing solution. These innovations are not science fiction and are already under development.

The ability to control large data

Today's infrastructure, from wireless network operators to data centers, and all the nodes between the two are not enough to multiply the mass of data streams generated when the IoT system becomes mainstream; This involves not just data transmission from a variety of devices to the cloud, but also technology for all data processing and storage in the cloud.

The current data Center architecture is the inability to deal with the vast amounts of heterogeneous data that will be generated and that need to be addressed, and don't forget that the energy supply challenge is to make those large data centers run.

Tapping Innovative energy sources

The innovations that are said here will be produced in many ways, and the current industry leaders will do their part, but I am afraid they can only be gradual on the basis of what is already available. The main drivers of innovative energy will come from intelligent entrepreneurs and a handful of industry leaders willing to take risks, try new businesses, and innovate in new models.

3, the future of the Internet of things development has 6 important areas

The internet of Things is not a single industry, it is finally embodied in each specific application industry. At the China Internet of Things Networking conference, Wang Huan, of the China Electronic Society, said that there are 6 important areas in the future of the Internet of things.

One is intelligent transportation. Car networking is a development focus, its market prospects are very good, but the development process must be very tortuous. Because the current car networking industry applications are mainly the government will promote, such as the dangerous operation of vehicles or long-distance bus of the Beidou system, the government-led affirmation of the development of a smooth. But real civil markets, such as joint ventures in cars, and even big-brand cars, the real car interactive system is not many, coupled with thousands of dollars per year of service fees, not many people accept the service to continue to pay, so according to China's national conditions to analyze, car networking real development in the civil market, there is a long way to go.

The second is the intelligent industry. Especially refers to the industrial and intelligent management, intelligent management mainly refers to the intelligent production process management and intelligent Logistics management.

Third, intelligent environmental protection. The quality of air and tap water needs to understand the pollution through the technology of IoT.

Four is intelligent home. Including home security or home robots, some enterprises in Shenzhen can be exported to Europe and the United States every year of domestic robots. Now the sweeping home robot exports up to hundreds of thousands of units a year. The application of object networking for civil use must be the most hopeful and promising field in the future.

Five is the intelligent medical care. The main areas are two, one is wearable and the other is portable medical services in the community.

Six is the modernization of urban governance system. The modernization of urban governance system is the concept put forward in the recently concluded national "two sessions".

There are also many challenges to the development of the Internet of things, including the reasons for technology, standards and markets and business models.

"The challenge is not only in the sensing layer, but also in the network of operators," said Li Anmin, an expert committee on Internet of things in China's electronic society. ”

The original design core of communication network is the communication service of the people, it does not match the many applications of the Internet of things now. Because the Internet communication features are often small flow, but need to be online forever, some also require wide coverage. and operators to sustainable development network, the core motivation is to have the flow, can bring data, but small flow of large-scale economic recovery problems. So this presents a very big challenge to operators and to the entire network provider.

At present, the business model of the Internet of Things is not mature, for example, many places put forward the construction of Intelligent city, but the data of the city authority and the Public Security Bureau are all system, and the health medical data information is an island of information, which does not form a comprehensive platform and the data is not open. Experts call for a real data platform, as to how these data can be used, how to dig, should be given to the market to do, the government as long as the establishment of reasonable rules.

Expert opinion

Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Hequan

Ternary data synthesis to obtain valuable content

Big data, Smart city, intelligent, mobile internet, cloud computing together called Big Wisdom Move Cloud, now big data, cloud computing and so on has already become a new round of innovation platform.

Internet of Things is also the source of large data, there are a variety of sensors to collect a lot of data, in order to explain these large data, need to use cloud computing, data mining and other technologies. As large data analysis often needs to come from three levels of data, the first is the network level, is collected from the Internet, the second is the physical level, from the Sensor network collection; The third is the social dimension, such as the Government's implementation through system promotion. By combining this ternary data, we can come up with something of value. Wearable terminals are actually the combination of the Internet of things and portable terminals, can be directly connected to the mobile communication network, some through Bluetooth connected to the portable mobile phone, through the mobile phone connected to the Internet, sensor equipment to become the Internet of things.

Zhang Chenghai, Director of China Goods Coding Center

Coding requires uniform standards

In recent years, the content of the Internet of things, the extension of a relatively large change, but the most basic technology involved has not changed, the requirements of the logo has not changed, the requirements for standardization has not changed. The general identification of the time is to identify several locations, such as in the logistics industry, a car's goods sent to the need to identify identification, including location, time, reason and so on. Later on the internet of things to identify one or more of the seven elements, we have to promote the coding process in the logo put forward requirements. The Goods Coding Center undertakes part of the project of the National Development and Reform Commission on Internet, including standard setting, coding design, platform construction and demonstration project. The first thing we have to do is to do the identity of the unified Object network, which is characterized by unity, compatibility, innovation, especially the identification of the article code.

The code identification standard of the Internet of things is very important, and the unification of object coding is the inevitable trend of the development of the Internet of things. Small range of time without coding, but in the public domain when calling to unify the language, the process of translation is a complex process, is an easy to produce differences between time-consuming and laborious process, so there must be a unified standard. In addition, the compatibility of the code is also inherent requirements, can not use some of the code is not used, this is not possible, so we have to establish a unified identity. In addition, the Internet of things in the application of perception, cognition, will involve the bar code, such as two-dimensional barcode, identity, etc., these recognition technology and it technology to enhance the integration is also a significant feature of the application of the Internet of things.

Enterprises and users must be prepared to deal with IoT's many risk problems. The following list of seven risk issues to be faced in the field of Internet of things, and recommendations that can help companies deal with these risks.

1. Destructive attacks and denial of service attacks

To avoid potential operational failures and enterprise service outages, the focus of the enterprise is to ensure the continued availability of IoT devices. Even the seemingly simple process of adding new terminals to the network (especially automated devices that use machines to communicate with machines, such as those that help run power stations or build environmental controls), enterprises must focus on physical attacks on devices deployed at remote locations. This will require the enterprise to strengthen physical security to prevent unauthorized access to devices outside of the perimeter of the security.

Destructive network attacks, such as denial of service attacks, can have serious consequences for the enterprise. If thousands of IoT devices try to access the corporate Web site or data feed, and find that it is not available, the company has satisfied customers will be dissatisfied, which will lead to loss of revenue, customer dissatisfaction, but also may affect the reputation of the enterprise in the market.

Many of the challenges facing IoT are similar to the challenges of carrying your own equipment to workplace trends. Managing the functionality of lost or stolen devices, whether remotely or at least disabling their connections, is critical to handling an attacked IoT device. Deploying such an enterprise strategy will help to reduce the risk of enterprise data falling into the wrong hands. Other policies that govern BYOD will help.

2. Understand the complexity of the vulnerability

Last year an unknown attacker took advantage of a known loophole in the popular networked baby monitor to spy on a two-year-old child. The incident suggests that IoT can pose a huge risk to businesses and consumers. Another more dramatic example is the idea of using simple IoT devices such as thermostat to operate temperature readings in nuclear power plants. If an attacker attacks the device, the consequences could be catastrophic. Therefore, it is very important to understand the vulnerabilities of these complex instruments and the severity of the threat they pose. To mitigate this risk, any project involving IoT devices must consider security considerations in the design and deploy security controls, as well as leveraging a predefined role-based security model. Because these devices may involve hardware, platforms, and software that the enterprise may never have seen, the type of vulnerability may also be different from the vulnerabilities that the enterprise has previously faced. Companies should never underestimate the risks that IoT devices can bring.

Pledge. IoT Vulnerability Management

Another big challenge in the IoT environment is figuring out how to quickly fix IoT device vulnerabilities and how to prioritize vulnerability fixes.

Since most IoT devices require a firmware upgrade to fix the vulnerability, remote completion of the repair process becomes complex. For example, if a printer requires a firmware upgrade, it is unlikely to install patches as quickly as a server or desktop system, and it usually takes extra time and effort to upgrade custom firmware.

Equally challenging is how to handle the default login credentials that are provided when the IoT device is first used. Typically, devices such as wireless access points or printers use a known administrator ID and password. In addition, the device may provide a built-in Web server that allows administrators to remotely connect, log on, and manage devices. However, this is a huge loophole that could allow IoT devices to fall into the hands of attackers. For this problem, the enterprise needs to develop a rigorous debugging process, and also need to create a development environment to test and scan the initial configuration of the device to identify vulnerabilities and resolve these issues before the device is transferred to the production environment. At the same time, it requires compliance teams to verify that the equipment is already available in the production environment, regularly test security controls, and ensure close monitoring and control of any changes to the equipment, as well as timely resolution of any identified operational vulnerabilities.

4. Identify and deploy security controls

In the IT world, redundancy is the key; If a product fails, another product should be able to replace it. The layered security concept works like this, but it depends on how the enterprise tiers security and redundancy to manage the IoT risk. For example, in the healthcare industry, medical devices can not only monitor patients ' health, but also dispense with analysis based on equipment execution. It is also not difficult to imagine how serious the consequences would be if these devices were attacked.

The challenge for businesses is to identify where security controls are needed for these emerging networked devices and how to deploy them effectively. Given the diversity of these devices, companies will need to conduct custom risk assessments to identify the risks and how to control them, a risk assessment that typically relies on third-party expertise. An interesting example here is that former Vice President Dick Cheney closed the remote connection function of the defibrillator because he feared that the terrorists would invade the medical defibrillator he implanted in his body. Unfortunately, most businesses cannot take these devices offline. In all cases, companies embracing IoT trends must define their own information security controls to ensure adequate and acceptable protection of IoT. As this trend matures, industry professionals will certainly develop best practices.

5. Meet the requirements of the security analysis function

For all the new Wi-Fi devices connected to the Internet, enterprises will need to collect, summarize, process and analyze massive amounts of data. While businesses will find new business opportunities in these data, it also means new risks.

Enterprises must be able to identify legitimate and malicious traffic patterns on IoT devices. For example, if a business tries to download a seemingly legitimate application to its smartphone, and the application contains malicious software, it is best for the enterprise to deploy operational threat intelligence measures to uncover the threat. The best analysis tools and algorithms can not only detect malicious activity, but also improve customer support and improve the services provided to customers.

To meet these challenges, organizations must build the right jobs and processes to provide adequate security analysis capabilities.

6. Modular Hardware and software components

Security should be considered and deployed in all aspects of IoT to better control the components and modules of networked devices. Companies should also expect attackers to attempt to disrupt the supply chain of IoT devices, embed malicious code and other vulnerabilities, and use them to launch attacks after the device is deployed in the enterprise environment. It may also be necessary for the enterprise to adopt a security model such as Forrester Zero Trust for IoT equipment.

If possible, organizations should also isolate these devices to their own network segments or VLANs. In addition, technologies such as microkernel or management programs can be used in conjunction with embedded systems to isolate the system in the event of a safety leak.

7. Rapid increase in bandwidth requirements

According to a study conducted by Palo Alto, network traffic increased by 700% in the network monitored by the supplier between November 2011 and May 2012, thanks largely to streaming media, peer-to-peer applications and social media. This number will continue to increase as more and more devices are connected to the Internet.

However, increased demand for the Internet may increase business continuity risks. If critical applications don't get the bandwidth they need, consumers will get a bad experience, employee productivity will be compromised and corporate profitability may fall.

To ensure high availability of services, organizations must consider increasing bandwidth and increasing traffic management and monitoring. This will not only reduce business continuity risks, but also prevent potential losses. In addition, from a project planning point of view, the enterprise needs capacity planning and checking the growth of the network to ensure that the fast-growing bandwidth requirements are met.