The number of connected devices will soon be much bigger than the world population. The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the Internet at a much faster pace than ever expected, and we are experiencing only the beginning of a new trend leading up to an IoT paradigm. What the authors try to deliver--and masterfully succeed at--is (1) describing the possibilities of a new form of information technology (IT) and its impact on our lives; (2) providing a deep dive into the technological components of IoT; and (3) showing the current alignment of the technology with business outcomes to “appreciate its potency and power” (p. xix).
Although there is no specific reference to the book’s intended audience, business people and policymakers can profit from the introductory chapter and the chapters on use cases, while practitioners can find exhaustive and detailed discussions of platforms, protocols, and products in the remaining chapters. Considering that the book was written in 2015 (published in 2017), most of the technical topics are still very relevant today. Each chapter is self-contained, so IT practitioners can either use the book as a reference or read it cover to cover as a primer.
In an introductory chapter, “Demystifying the IoT Paradigm,” the authors discuss IoT in just enough detail so people new to the subject matter can get a good idea of the profound changes the Internet is expected to undergo when IoT finally becomes as pervasive and ubiquitous as it appears today. This chapter gives a high-level overview of technologies, platforms, and use cases (for example, supply chain, traffic, and healthcare). IoT enables pervasive connectedness, and the authors conclude: “the future Internet is, therefore, IoT” (p. 8). They describe a path from the Internet of (1) Computers (IoC), (2) Devices (IoD), (3) Services (IoS), and (4) Things (IoT) to, finally, (5) Energy (IoE) (p. 9).
While the authors provide a bird’s-eye view of the societal and economic impact of IoT by means of use cases, they get very granular and technical when it comes to the IoT stack. An IoT stack consists of layers for device software, device hardware, communications protocols, cloud platforms, and cloud applications. To start the technology part of the book, the authors discuss the implementation of IoT using wireless technologies. They present the challenges to, and possibilities for, supplying power to the myriad of interconnected devices, while contrasting networking technologies for machine-to-machine (M2M) interaction (for example, 5G, near-field communications (NFC), and ultra wideband (UWB)) with the low-power wide area network (LPWAN) (for example, Sigfox, LoRa, NWave) prevalent in IoT applications. Here, a discussion of why LPWANs are essential for certain applications that deal with in-room tracking (for example, high-value assets in hospital rooms) would have been helpful to highlight the commercial aspect of the technology.
Throughout the chapters that deal strictly with IoT technologies, the authors work with their own reference architecture since “there is no standard architecture for the IoT ecosystem” (p. 61). Using their reference stack, they discuss in great detail the protocols at work on each of the stack’s layers. The treatment of edge/fog computing is very insightful, especially contrasting the necessity for local processing performed in device clusters (that is, mHealth) vis-à-vis the orthodox hub/cloud computing methodology.
The chapters on big data analytics, wireless devices, and security aspects provide the reader with a solid understanding of broader issues pertaining to IoT. What’s missing is a more in-depth discussion of privacy issues, especially when it comes to healthcare applications. The recent revelations that insurance companies track the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices and throttle their payment based on nonuse is but one example of the danger of making everything trackable and quantifiable, especially in insurance-related domains. Ditto for wearables used in eHealth in danger of being hacked or the information on vital signs being used for insurance purposes. The use cases for healthcare, airports, and smart cities demonstrate the game-changing influx of IoT on everyday life.
The book is well written and transparently structured into four subject areas: (1) the IoT paradigm, (2) IoT stack components, (3) use cases, and (4) security. It is easy to read. However, the reader has to get used to the authors’ apparent predilection for a multitude of alliterations throughout the book, for example: “smarter systems will surround, support, and sustain us” (p. 3); “[smarter systems] will seamlessly connect, collaborate, corroborate, and correlate” (p. 3); and “the world of cognizant, connected, and cognitive computing” (p. 3).
The IoT is still very much in flux, and the authors caution the reader to expect both the “fission” and “fusion” of ideas as the IoT paradigm matures (p. xix). Their comprehensive treatment of the subject will satisfy practitioners needing a head start in developing applications as well as business people seeking to monetize IoT. The book provides a solid foundation for understanding this exciting technology.
More reviews about this item: Goodreads
