Control of environmental parameters interiors can also be regulated according to data coming directly from the “responsible” of thermal loads, as servers of a data center based on the intensity of electricity consumption, or by revealing the number, position and activities of the occupants through smartphone applications.
Internet of Things is an unstoppable phenomenon that is going to overwhelm us, even if we do not fully understand yet the potential and developments. The network will enter progressively in technological systems, in vehicles and even in many objects and everyday materials of use, changing forever the way we exist and relating ourselves with the world around us.
For some time, all the HVAC systems can be managed remotely using electronic controls and special software interfaces: today it becomes possible, thanks to the network interconnection of devices outside the system, adding very important new features for energy efficiency and occupant comfort.
For most of us, especially for technicians who have been working for years in industrial or civil plants, the media clamor that surrounds the IoT phenomenon certainly appears a bit exaggerated and factitous. Basically, there are at least forty years which make the remote management of systems, although over time it has gone from analog phone lines to digital and then to cellular networks, faster than ever, while sensors and actuators have become modern and reliable. Now we have a graphic of the software more enjoyable and elaborate and the whole is easier to implement and manage; in practice there is only a few more amenities, but nothing substantially different out of the ordinary.Where then is all this great revolution? In fact, the truly innovative aspect and perhaps disconcerting, is that the objects do not communicate only with their “master,” but they are all potentially able to connect with each other and with other different entities, such as processing centers, control authorities, private entities or state management, study and research, authorized users, and so on, sharing data that can be processed and exploited in a shared way for multiple purposes.
The potential and developments of such a system are immense, where the limit is represented only by the fantasy of the operators involved and the technological limits (evolving). In reality, we must keep in mind that the Interconnection via the internet of some technological networks and other services has been underway for many years, and today the whole system can allow access to an impressive amount of data: by now, virtually every type of infrastructure (military and civilian, communications, transport, energy, financial, health, weather, etc.) uses the network. Everything is information and this myriad of data travels and is stored, more or less permanently, within the same network. Currently, the ability to manage this amount information is close to saturation, which means having to put the hand quickly to the structure of the Internet to allow the interconnection of billions of new devices: for this reason, it is premature to think that it is now possible to interconnect in masses all home technological systems, home appliances or their car without incurring heavy delays or blocks in the data flow. So before observing a real and proper development of IoT technology we must still wait for greater dissemination of communications networks to fiber optics and the ultimate generation high speed wireless networks, as well as the generalized activation of the IPV6 new standard IP address management, or the “nominal plate numbers” that must be affixed to each device connected to a network: in practice the current IPV4 standard a 32-bit code, provides a number of identification numbers that is by now almost depleted (approximately 4.3 billion), while the new IPV6 is a 128-bit code able to supply an enormous reserve of combinations (for lovers of numbers, around 7×1023 IP addresses for every square meter of the terrestrial surface … it seems extraordinarily exaggerated value but there is one who is already thinking of how to connect a network of “clouds” of micro-devices, so it is better to provide a good reserve of addresses). The IPV6 standard is already partly active, but its generalized adoption is planned not until 2025.
The actual situation
Among the objects connected to the Internet must include all devices for traffic control (traffic lights, speed detectors, etc.), For management of distribution networks of gas, electricity and drinking water, sanitary services, relief and civil protection, street lighting, rail transport, to which we must add industrial type control systems for processing and centralized facilities for energy production. In addition, on civil ground we can count a very high amount of public surveillance systems supplied with telecameras, while home automation systems and other applications related to private users, such as alarm systems and surveillance, conditioning, televisions, refrigerators, represent for now a marginal share (but intended in short times to a notable increase, according to the planned investments by a large manufacturing groups of consumer electronics).
If we consider, however, the “traceable” objects in the network such as all the goods stored or in shipment (by now every product type is marked by at least a bar code, or from a radio frequency identification label which allows traceability) the numbers already become so high as to make a reliable estimate very difficult.
The benefits that we can expect
As we have seen, the real revolutionary aspect of the internet connection of objects consists in the sharing of information, which must no longer be only processed locally: this will in essence, to reveal the trend of all the variables of interest to us and to take appropriate short time decisions in order to govern the processes at our will. To give some examples, the production and the distribution of energy will always be more able to be modeled based on the performance of consumption and the latter can be expected with high accuracy based on the weather trend and other influential factors; the vehicular traffic can be automatically adjusted remotely, eliminating congestion, the causes of accidents and at the same time reducing energy consumption; even the construction building materials will have been dispersed within the micro-sensors, so that it can constantly monitor their internal conditions and solicitations to which they are subjected; search engines will not be limited to make available to us documents, images, videos and maps, but will be able to find all the devices of free network access and establishing a connection with them.
The unknowns and dangers to consider
As long as they go experiencing object network connections, the vulnerability and the various problems affecting this technology are widely raised in all their dangers. The overall reliability of the network system and data security and access devices remain for now unsolved aspects, even if there had been a time of great progress. They remain still to confront several issues related to the privacy and the responsibilities of the actions conducted by the connected devices, also with regards to insurance issues.
The network is unfortunately still lacking in those international legal instruments and of individual countries, which permit to effectively protect users who take advantage of them: right now, it is very lively discussions on very important and delicate aspects, such as the permissible level of data encryption and which may have the power of legally accessing without the consent of those whom have generated them. Under present conditions, even the simple network connection of technological household systems, just think, for example, to an ultimate generation intelligent thermostat, may expose the potential risk of illicit use of the device, which could be used to montior unconscious user habits even as environmental bugging device (just as can happen with all terminals of cellular phones). Not surprisingly, the European Agency for Network and Information Security recently issued a document (Privacy and Data Protection by Design) containing the reference guidelines on the protection of exchanged data between connected objects in the network and abuse prevention.
