Hello Muhammad Shafiq 

 Internet of Things (IoT)

Devices, computers, and machines were already connected by the time Kevin Ashton coined the term Internet of Things. The concept gained steam for its ability to connect the unconnected – physical-first objects previously incapable of generating, transmitting and receiving data unless augmented or manipulated. Embedding sensors, control systems, and processors into these objects enables horizontal communication across a multi-node, open network of physical-first objects.

The term is also vaguely used to describe connected digital-first devices such as wearable gadgets that may be classified as Internet of Digital while offering the same functionality as its physical-first counterpart developed into a smart connected technology. The meaning and application of the term IoT will continue to evolve as new connected technologies emerge, replacing physical-first objects with smart connected devices and use-cases to constitute all new “Internet-of-X” classifications. Examples of IoT includeconnected cars, smart meters, and smart cities, among others.

The Internet of things (stylised Internet of Things or IoT) is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data. In 2013 the Global Standards Initiative on Internet of Things (IoT-GSI) defined the IoT as "the infrastructure of the information society.The IoT allows objects to be sensed and/or controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit.When IoT is augmented with sensors and actuators, the technology becomes an instance of the more general class of cyber-physical systems, which also encompasses technologies such as smart grids, smart homes, intelligent transportation and smart cities. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.

Typically, IoT is expected to offer advanced connectivity of devices, systems, and services that goes beyond machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and covers a variety of protocols, domains, and applications. The interconnection of these embedded devices (including smart objects), is expected to usher in automation in nearly all fields, while also enabling advanced applications like a smart grid, and expanding to the areas such as smart cities.

"Things," in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters,automobiles with built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring or field operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescue operations. Legal scholars suggest to look at "Things" as an "inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service".These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices. Current market examples include home automation (also known as smart home devices) such as the control and automation of lighting, heating (like smart thermostat), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and appliances such as washer/dryers, robotic vacuums, air purifiers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers that use Wi-Fi for remote monitoring.

As well as the expansion of Internet-connected automation into a plethora of new application areas, IoT is also expected to generate large amounts of data from diverse locations, with the consequent necessity for quick aggregation of the data, and an increase in the need to index, store, and process such data more effectively. IoT is one of the platforms of today's Smart City, and Smart Energy Management System

The term “Internet of Things” coined by British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton in 1999 described connectivity among physical objects and no longer holds in its original form. It is now largely overlapped, confused and even mystified with the term Internet of Everything (IoE). IoE is considered a superset of IoT and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication considered a subset of IoT. Let’s take a closer look into differences between IoT, IoE, and M2M, which has impacted consumers and businesses alike.

 Internet of Everything (IoE)

Although the concept of Internet of Everything emerged as a natural development of the IoT movement and is largely associated with Cisco’s tactics to initiate a new marketing domain, IoE encompasses the wider concept of connectivity from the perspective of modern connectivity technology use-cases. IoE comprises of four key elements including all sorts of connections imaginable:

People: Considered as end-nodes connected across the internet to share information and activities. Examples include social networks, health and fitness sensors, among others.

Things: Physical sensors, devices, actuators and other items generating data or receiving information from other sources. Examples include smart thermostats and gadgets.

Data: Raw data analyzed and processed into useful information to enable intelligent decisions and control mechanisms. Examples include temperature logs converted into an average number of high-temperature hours per day to evaluate room cooling requirements.

Processes: Leveraging connectivity among data, things and people to add value. Examples include the use of smart fitness devices and social networks to advertise relevant healthcare offerings to prospective customers.

IoE establishes an end-to-end ecosystem of connectivity including technologies, processes and concepts employed across all connectivity use-cases. Any further classifications – such as Internet of Humans, Internet of Digital, Industrial Internet of Things, communication technologies and the Internet itself – will eventually constitute a subset of IoE if not considered as such already.

A cyber-physical system (CPS) is a mechanism controlled or monitored by computer-based algorithms, tightly integrated with internet and its users.

Nirmala S.V.S.G : Thanks a lot for the feedback.

IoT and IOE describe very similar concepts, there is actually a large difference between these terms; “Internet of Everything” and “The Internet of Things.” It’s important to get these right, as everyone is getting into the internet of things concept.

The main concept to consider, when thinking of the Internet of Everything versus Internet of Things, is that “Things” are physical objects, this means anything that has a real life presence, such as a computer, mobile phone, smart watch etc, can be regarded as a “Thing."It just takes into consideration the physical entities and the basic ones with respect to how these things can communicate ;but the Internet of Everything connects up all of the physical things , wires users etc. into one cohesive whole. It’s not just about allowing devices to talk to each other, it’s about allowing everything to talk about each other. In some ways, you can see the Internet of Things as the equivalent of a rail road line, including the tracks and the connections, whereas the Internet of Everything is all of that, and the trains, ticket machines, staff, customers, weather conditions, etc.

IOT is focused on M2M; whilst ,IOE is focused on P2P, P2M, M2M include 4 parts ( People, Machine, Things, Data). Cyber refers to use the machine for interaction.

Both IoT and IoE deals with the integration of Information Technology and Operational Technology (and hence the name of IoT). The current trends to connect the unconnected things in the cyber world.

Thank you Dr.Mohammed I. Younis.

Hi Muhammad

We have heard some really good explanations of the differences between all three parts of your questions.

I am instead going to mention something you did not ask about, namely some similarities beetween all three, all of which give rise to more than a considerable amount of concern, namely issues of security and privacy.

Some of the early work on connectable systems started in the field of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, where live data was collected from remote locations in industries such as oil and gas refining, power plants, telecommunications, transportation, and water and waste control. In the early days, personnel would be sent to the remote location to download accumulated data as required. Later, someone hit on the bright idea of using the internet to connect these devices, since it would be far cheaper than sending personnel every day to collect the data. While this did indeed work out more efficient and cost effective, unfortunately, it also exposed everything to potential attack. Often, the hardware in use before internet connection took place had been running for decades, without the need for update. Since the software running on these systems had never been designed to be exposed to the internet, security and privacy had never been thought about, resulting in SCADA systems becoming very vulnerable to attack.

Similarly, with the development of the IoT, IoE and Cyber-physical systems, many of the small components, such as sensors, cameras and so on, are specified with lightweight levels of system resources, no doubt in the interest of cost economies, which has helped to popularise the take up of these systems. However, this results in insufficient security controls, and with many having insufficient resources to support proper levels of encryption, privacy can also be compromised.

Recently, we have seen a number of examples of the Mirai virus being used to compromise over a million IoT devices such as routers, digital video recorders (DVRs), and webcams/security cameras, enslaving vast numbers of these devices into a number of botnets, which have been used to conduct DDoS attacks. In a recent attack in September perpetrated by only 152,463 cameras and over a million IP addresses, the DDoS attack achieved attack speeds which exceeded 620Gbps. The following month, the same botnet shut down the Dyn DNS company with an attack of an unprecedented 990Gbps. It is suspected that the same source was responsible for shutting down an entire country, namely Liberia just last week.

Just because the IoT uses hardware with a small footprint, does not mean it is not a danger. Clearly there is huge danger in the volumes that attackers can harness, and this is becoming a more and more menacing problem for society as a whole. Indeed, as the IoT, IoE and Cyber-physical systems continue to evolve and expand across the globe, the problem will only get worse.

As you can see, all is not rosy in the garden. Just a little food for thought.

Regards

Bob

Dear Bob Duncan,

Your point is valid. But the hope is due to the huge research in the cyber security.

Hi Muhammad

A slim hope indeed. Sadly, in addition to malicious actors, we must also contend with: management who refuse to take security seriously, or pass responsibility to IT, without providing adequate guidance, budget, or authority to enforce security and privacy discipline; sysadmins who fail to apply security patches; sysadmins who fail to analyse system logs properly; ill trained staff who don't understand the risks they face from failure to adhere to security policies and procedures; well trained staff who persistently behave in a promiscuous security fashion; staff who don't understand the risks from social engineering ............. but, we keep on trying.

Regards

Bob