...The Internet of Things

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1 ...The Internet of Things Image courtesy of Pexels Why isn t my house Smarter yet? and other IoT challenges The Internet of Things (IoT), coined by Proctor & Gamble s Kevin Ashton in 1999, has opened up so many new possibilities in everyday life; from Smart homes and cities, to enhanced agriculture, more efficient logistics and transportation, even improved medical care. There s just so much to be gained. Despite all the people heralding a new golden era for industry, we re just not there yet. There s the security aspects, the skills shortage, and implementation, which are all holding back what could be a great advance for humanity. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a tricky topic; many people think they know what it means, and for those of us in the communications sector, that s probably true; but there are also many who don t quite grasp the fundamentals, or fully understand the extent of its potential reach. The IoT is a network of physical devices, be they vehicles, appliances, sensors, etc., which can connect and exchange data, or be remotely controlled, using existing network infrastructure. An example of truly game-changing technology, the IoT can improve efficiency, accuracy and economics for cyber-physical systems such as smart grids, homes and cities, intelligent transportation and virtual power plants. Market developments Considering the frequency with which we re all reading about the IoT, and the fact that the term has now come into everyday use for many, it s not surprising that, unlike fad technologies that cost a lot and deliver little, the IoT is going from strengthto-strength. Connectivity is a key question right now as far as IoT deployments are concerned. IoT solutions rely on a variety of connectivity solutions depending on their application; terrestrial networks like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth provide a lowcost alternative to satellite connectivity. Of the millions of new IoT devices coming online, just 5.8 million by 2023, are expected to rely entirely on satellite connectivity. NSR expects that of those, 93 percent will use L-band, 5.2 percent will use Ku-band, and less than one percent will use C-band and high throughput satellites (HTS). Indeed, the majority of new IoT devices will rely on terrestrial networks due to the lower cost of capacity and hardware. Only specialised devices, for example, personal safety hardware like GlobalStar s SPOT range and DeLorme s 38 January/February 2018

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3 ...The Internet of Things inreach products, and vehicles that range beyond terrestrial network connectivity, will use satellite with any regularity. 5G is going to be the real enabler of IoT technology in the years to come. Still very much in the early stages of development, 5G will be necessary in many aspects. As outlined by NSR, the vast majority of IoT devices will operate over terrestrial networks, but of course, right now, we don t have the capacity for hundreds of millions of devices or more. Nor we do we have the ultra-reliable low latency (URLLC 1ms) that will be required for so many future applications, such as the connected car, or commercial autonomous drones. Clearly, satellite cannot directly deliver this either. And that s where terrestrial 5G comes in. However, that s not to say satellite won t have a role to play in 5G deployment check out our Exploring 5G article in this issue for more information. Shipments of IoT-ready devices are booming right now. According to Berg Insight, global shipments of cellular IoT devices are expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.7 percent from million in 2016 to million in Fast-pace growth in China and the connected car industry is forecast to fuel much of the rise. Berg Insight believes that the maturity of the ecosystem is a crucial advantage for 3GPP-based standards in the IoT market. LTE-M (Long Term Evolution for Machines) and NB-IoT (NarrowBand IoT) are the latest in a long line of cellular standards already connecting hundreds of millions of devices worldwide, said Tobias Ryberg, Senior Analyst from Berg Insight. Alternative non-cellular LPWA (low power wide area) technologies have a very long way to go before they achieve the same prominence. Berg Insight estimates that annual shipments of noncellular LPWA devices for IoT reached 13.5 million units in WAN accounted for eight million units, while shipments of LoRa and Sigfox were around 4.0 million and 1.5 million units respectively. The vast majority of devices are smart energy meters deployed in North America and other regions. Looking ahead, Berg Insight believes that LoRa and Sigfox will outgrow WAN and achieve annual shipments in the range of million units each by A shortage of skills While the future is certainly looking positive for the IoT, there are a great many challenges on the horizon, not the least of which is a major skills shortage. Indeed, Inmarsat has identified that a significant proportion of global enterprises lack IoT skills at different levels in their organisations, as well as in key technical disciplines, which risks jeopardising the success of their IoT deployments and the security of their data. Inmarsat s The Future of IoT in Enterprise 2017 report stated that 76 percent of survey respondents in major organisations across the Americas, EMEA and APAC felt they needed additional senior and strategic level staff with the skills to set the objectives and priorities for IoT deployments. Meanwhile, 72 percent identified a shortage of staff with management-level experience of IoT deployments, and 80 percent lacked skills in hands-on delivery of IoT solutions. In addition, 60 percent stated that they needed extra staff experienced in cybersecurity, while 46 percent said there was a deficit of staff with experience in analytics and data science. Finally, 48 percent of respondents asserted that they lacked the technical support skills needed to make their IoT projects successful. There is a clear recognition by organisations from all industries that IoT will play a fundamental role in their digital transformation and in their ability to achieve competitive advantage, said Paul Gudonis, President of the Inmarsat Enterprise Business Unit. But for that to happen businesses need to have the correct skill sets in place, and, as our research demonstrates, many currently find themselves without the skilled staff required for this transformation, and unable to take advantage of the potential that IoT solutions offer. Unless this skills deficit is properly addressed, there s a risk that IoT projects will fail and that businesses will open themselves up to new security threats, putting an unwelcome brake on innovation. Security threats Security is another major challenge with IoT deployment. Today, its estimated that hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions, of people can be hacked via their wirelessly connected and digitally monitored implantable medical devices (IMDs). And that s limiting the scope to items such as cardioverter defibrillators (ICD), insulin pumps, pacemakers, etc., not to mention the hundreds of thousands of sensors and devices in play at enterprises around the world such as farms, power stations, and oil rigs. When it comes to consumer devices, such as lights, thermostats, electrical switches, fans, etc., most IoT devices work just fine as dumb devices with manual operation in the event of connectivity loss or security breach. However, increasingly we re observing a trend towards devices which are essentially useless in the absence of connectivity, such as the Amazon Echo, or else actively use connectivity to prevent users from getting the most out of their devices. For example, Hewlett-Packard s small home/office printers not only require proprietary ink and toner cartridges specific to each model, but now also employ validation technology to verify whether the refills are genuine OEM parts, and if not, will actually disable third-party cartridges. In May 2017, we saw the devastating effects of a major cyberattack in the UK, when the biggest ransomware offensive in history hit. The global cyberattack saw more than 300,000 computers infected in more than 150 countries, with Image courtesy of Pexels 40 January/February 2018

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5 ...The Internet of Things Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and India among the most affected. The NHS was crippled, and FedEx was hit severely. The ransomware, WannaCry, gained access via a Microsoft vulnerability, encrypting files on the computers and demanding payment in Bitcoin to regain access. In the UK, the NHS was in chaos as operations and appointments were cancelled, and ambulances were diverted as up to 40 hospital trusts were infected, with medical personnel unable to access patient records. It should be noted that, in this situation, only computers were targeted; imagine the devastation had hackers gained control of IoT devices such as medical implants or sensors, or, say, self-driving vehicles, or a nuclear plant. Maintaining and enhancing security is clearly paramount as we move towards an increasingly digital world. But the question is, how will we achieve the required security to ever fully implement the IoT in everyday life? Blockchain The future of the IoT? As many around the world have vocalised, today s centralised security model is likely to struggle to meet the exponentiallygrowing demands of the IoT. Blockchain, some have argued, could provide a viable path. You might remember first hearing about blockchain when Bitcoin came onto the scene; blockchain, first conceptualised in 2008, serves as the public ledger for Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies. For those not in the know, a blockchain is a continuouslygrowing list of records or blocks which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block contains a hash pointer to a previous block, a timestamp and transaction data. Blockchains are secure by design, an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. They can serve as an open distributed ledger, typically managed by a peerto-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks, that can record transactions between parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. Importantly, data cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks. The decentralised control aspect of blockchain is what makes it so appealing for the IoT; a security scheme based around it would thus be more scalable, while the strong protections against data tampering could help prevent a rogue or hijacked device from disrupting enterprises, homes, or transportation systems with misleading information. Many believe that blockchain is key for the IoT to move forwards, settling security, privacy and reliability concerns. This decentralized approach would eliminate single points of failure, creating a more resilient ecosystem for devices to run on, wrote Ahmed Banafa, IoT expert and Lecturer at San Jose State University, in OpenMind. The cryptographic algorithms used by blockchains would make consumer data more private. The ledger used in blockchain is tamper-proof and cannot be manipulated by malicious actors because it doesn t exist in any single location, and man-in-the-middle attacks cannot be staged because there is any single thread of communication that can be intercepted. Blockchain makes trustless, peer-to-peer messaging possible and has already proven its worth in the world of financial services through cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, providing guaranteed peerto-peer payment services without the need for third-party brokers, disrupting what we call FinTech (financial technology companies). Duly, in September 2017, the launch of the Trusted IoT Alliance was announced; a group of companies (Bosch, BNY Mellon, Cisco, Gemalto, US Bank, Bitse, Chronicled, ConsenSys, Ledger, Skuchain, Slock.it, HCM International of Foxconn Group, IOTA, Oaken Innovations, Qtum, Chain of Things, Big Chain DB) united to catalyse the development of an open source blockchain protocol to support IoT technology in major industries around the world. The membership is focused on working together to advance IoT and blockchain by leading pilots, publishing 42 January/February 2018

6 The Internet of Things... open source code, and coordinating standards and reference architecture. Members have already published a common API to register devices to both Hyperledger and Enterprise Ethereum blockchain networks. The Alliance plans to fund small grants to support open source development and is reviewing proposals from IoT and blockchain technologists. According to the Trusted IoT Alliance, proprietary technology and competing interests has made a truly open network difficult to develop, but open source is widelyrecognised as the solution to the development of robust IoT standards. The Alliance is, therefore, presenting itself as a solution to this problem, in terms of both developing technological standards and aiding collaboration between Fortune 5000 and startup companies. The entity will house intellectual property and open-source tools and standards that support trusted digital identities for IoT-connected products. These tools and standards will allow enterprises to represent physical world devices and event logs on a decentralized blockchain system. A trusted ecosystem which links cryptographic and registrant identities, along with metadata, to give objects the equivalent of digital, transferable birth certificates, that can be inventoried and managed across blockchain networks. On top of this trusted IoT platform, the group sees potential to automate business logic through smart contracts and building a thriving Machine-2- Machine economy. A big part of realizing the potential of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies will be linking these secure virtual systems to secure physical IoT systems, said Zaki Manian, Executive Director of the Trusted IoT Alliance. The Alliance s vision is to support the creation of a secure, scalable, interoperable, and trusted IoT ecosystem and to become a key forum for enabling rapid development of mature IoT enabled blockchain use cases and specifications. What does it all mean for my Smart house? Right now, a house can only be so Smart. Early adopters might have Smart thermostats, TVs, lighting systems, watches, etc., but we re quite limited in where we go next. We re in a sort of limbo as consumers. There s only so much capacity available before 5G comes into play, and the security just isn t there yet for many of us to be comfortable about connecting much more. And a surprising proportion of the general public is well aware of that fact. Even I, in the techsavvy millennial age bracket, wouldn t be ready yet to have a medical implant that could potentially be taken hostage by cyberattackers unknown. In the next few years, we can expect to see continued advances in the types of devices that can be connected, and, in parallel with the advancement of 5G and new security measures, more of those devices will be focused in the enterprise sector than the consumer sphere. Sensor manufacturers, in particular, can expect to benefit. Fingers crossed someone tells students of university age that there is a desperate need for more data scientists, programmers, software developers and IP engineers, to name a few, so that the IoT can continue to advance and develop well into the future. January/February