Slashdot Mirror
Cisco Launches Alliance For the 'Internet of Things'
Yannis B. writes "This week, a group of leading technology vendors that includes Cisco, Sun, Ericsson, Atmel, Freescale, and embedded open source developers, founded the Internet Protocol for Smart Objects Alliance to promote the 'Internet of Things,' in which everyday objects such as thermometers, radiators, and light switches are given IP addresses and are connected to the Internet. Such IP-enabled 'smart objects' give rise to a wide range of applications, from energy-efficient homes and offices to factory equipment maintenance and hospital patient monitoring. For Slashdot readers who are interested in the underlying technology, a white paper written by well-known embedded open source developer Adam Dunkels and IETF ROLL working group chair JP Vasseur establishes the technical basis of the alliance (PDF)."
you will wind up with a picture of the Goatse man emblazoned on your toast every morning.
Monstar L
"Hi, this is Sandra from accounting- my pencil has a virus! It won't write words anymore and just keeps drawing a picture of a man doing... SOMETHING to his anus!"
Sigh...
"I'll be right there."
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
Nobody wants to run ethernet cable to their toaster... so I really think that making cheap Wi-fi chipsets is the answer here. Unfortunately it still costs at a very minimum $5+ to add wireless to something, so it's going to take a little while for a $2 light switch to get these.
--
Hey code monkey... learn electronics! Powerful microcontroller kits for the digital generation.
over the prospect of all DVRs and DVD players having an internet connection. How long before your DVD player has to phone home to see if you're allowed to watch that DVD?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
This is an IETF working group - Routing Over Low power and Lossy networks (ROLL). Like all IETF WG, it has a Charter which you can read to find out more, and 4 outstanding Internet drafts (listed in the charter).
I've actually been waiting for both something like this and IPv6 for a long time, but I suspect the day when I can monitor the temperature of my fridge and oven as well as if they're powered on or not using SNMP is pretty far off.
/Mikael
Greylisting is to SMTP as NAT is to IPv4
Toastse! [3 (-o-) {]
You can already use electrical cabling for networking, and given that appliances are all going to have to be connected to power anyway that seems a logical method. It could also simplify discovery and autoconfiguration.
Broadband over power is already terrible, and it will only get worse as more and more people plug devices in.
Y'know those little filter plugs the DSL company gives you for your analog phones? Imagine doing the same to every AC-powered load in your house.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
IP addresses are a virtual commodity. if we run out of IPv4/IPv6 addresses, we'll simply create new address spaces as needed. that's not really a problem. it's like complaining about p2p file-sharers using too much bandwidth--these are infrastructure problems that aren't limited by physical resources. instead, this type of technological infrastructure naturally grows to meet demand.
it's not like we're facing an IP address shortage. AFAIK we haven't hit any technological hard limit regarding the maximum number of devices the internet is capable of supporting. and using more IP addresses doesn't pose any detrimental effects, so why not give it a try? if people find this concept useful, then it will be adopted; if not, it won't.
personally, i think it's a great idea. with the growing availability of wi-fi access (and the ubiquity of internet access in general), there's no better method for smart devices to communicate with each other or to be managed remotely. the development of the Internet of Things could also spur the adoption of municipal wi-fi or other public wi-fi infrastructure.
lots of smart devices already have wi-fi/internet capabilities, but there's not really enough wide-spread adoption to make full use of these capabilities. having a cross-industry consortium of like-minded organizations facilitates collaboration on developmental strategy and helps establish a concerted effort to take the technology in an organized direction.
imagine having a portable media player that can access your media library anywhere with wi-fi access, or maybe it can automatically download new music from your favorite artists via the internet. or perhaps you can remotely program your PVR to record a show while you're at work or on vacation, or check your fridge contents to see if you need to pick up some eggs on the way home from work. you could even check your answering machine or faxes over the internet. there are millions of ways in which this concept could make life more convenient.
making cheap Wi-fi chipsets is the answer here
If you read the announcement, you'll find that the major benefit of using a layered architecture such as IP is the ability to use different physical media, depending on the application.
For short-range applications, there are technologies that are both cheaper and more power-efficient than wifi. Off the top of my head, there's Zigbee, Bluetooth and probably lots of others.
And for even lower range applications, nothing beats the cost of an infra-red diode.
Yes THEORETICALLY it's not a problem, but in case you haven't noticed, the move to IPv6 hasn't exactly been lightning fast. The move to IPv7/IPv8 is unlikely to be faster.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
We will not run out of IPv6 addresses.
A 128bit addresses space really is enough for anyone. No, really.
I hate printers.
Alternatively you could use a firewall and a password.
Just sayin'.
I hate printers.
It's not moving fast because there is, as of yet, no real need for it.
It's not as if we're down to our last can of IP addresses and after that, the entire world is going to collapse on us.
Necessity is the mother of invention. In this case, we projected that at one point necessity would dictate we need more IP addresses. So we invented. But that doesn't mean we need them yet.
When that time comes, it'll happen. It's good that we planned in advance and started putting the pieces in place. But until we really need it, calm the fuck down and relax. It'll happen when it happens and there's no need to be all doom and gloom about it.
X10 might work better. ;)
Good - It's been minutes since we had a pointless fight over standards.
A quick look at the Internet of Things docs yielded no mentions of the existing Internet of Objects effort. The MIT AutoID consortium, followed by the EPCGlobal organization, have defined an Object Name Service, ECPIS, and Discovery Services.
Defining an orthogonal standard will lead to our poor entities having existential angst over whether they are an "object" or a "thing".
While I understand your humor, there are a few limiting factors about using X10 -- very little bandwidth and the inability to see the other "leg" of the house voltage -- which means that in a typical home in the US, half the outlets can't communicate with the other half*. X10 is also limited to 256 devices.
Supposedly, there are also reliability problems with the protocol, but I've never noticed them.
I use X10 at home for a few purposes, and it works well for what I need it to do (switching on/off lights and speakers), but it isn't made for an "internet of devices".
PS: X10 + heyu (x10 linux software) computer + wireless transceiver + lirc (linux infrared remote software) + universal remote == lazy geek goodness. :p
* There are devices that rectify this.