Why Internet of Things
Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the latest technologies that have been developed in recent years and already find extensive use in various sectors including industrial, domestic, educational and others. The main concept of IoT is to connect physical devices with a single electronic network so that they can be controlled using wireless remote controlled devices (Ansari et al., 2015). IoT devices are often called “smart” as they can manage themselves with a single click from a remote controller or a simple command sent to it wirelessly. The IoT devices within one small area (for instance, an office room) are collectively known as device group and are all interconnected to each other such that one wireless controller is able control all the devices in the group with the pressing of particular keys.
This report is based on the analysis and development of IoT device group in a small business that currently consists of two offices and one shared kitchen. With the current development in the IoT market, there are a number of potential devices that can be used in this existing office room setup. In this report, the initial devices that can be first used in the office setup to form the initial device group within limited budget has been discussed and analyzed.
2.1 Why Internet of Things
Before discussion about the implementation of IoT in the small business office, question may arise as “why internet of things?” The first reason for this question comes from the fact that IoT is a very recent technology and all young technologies are sufficiently expensive. On the other hand, the focus of this report is on small business that operates through only two adjacent offices and have limited budget for investment in technical upgrade. However, the selection of IoT is justified by the fact it provides a huge number of benefits to the user that any other normal device (Da Xu, He & Li, 2014). Not only IoT binds all the smart devices into one common device group, it also enables the user just send a simple command to the device through a wireless devices or even wifi and the IoT devices will start working automatically. Furthermore, due to the formation of device group, all the devices will be bound together within one central server and hence, one control device is sufficient to change the working of the smart devices.
Current Devices to be Used
There are a number of devices that have been selected for the use in the office rooms forming a common device group. The suggested IoT devices that can now be used are as follows.
Security Cameras – Security cameras are required for surveillance inside the office rooms and coupled with IoT, security cameras can be controlled and managed accordingly.
Sensitive Planters – According to the initial plan, several plants will be kept in the office and with the help of IoT, a user can be notified regarding when it time to water the plants and other similar activities (Bonomi et al., 2012).
Lighting System – The lighting system refers to the internal lights that will be used inside the office rooms. If the switching of the lights can be done using IoT, there will be no further requirement for manual switching of the lights.
Air Conditioner – Similar to the lighting system, the air conditioner can also be controlled using the IoT such that it can be switched on and off and the temperature can be adjusted using the IoT technology.
Doorbell – This is another convenient IoT device that lets the user attend and talk to a visitor who presses the doorbell even if the user is not present in the office. Whenever the visitor presses the bell, it sends a signal to the IoT controller of the user, which then notifies him regarding the presence of the visitor.
Smart Door Lock – Smart door lock is a recent invention of IoT device specially made for the security of office chambers (Gubbi et al., 2013). In this system, the door of the office is digitally locked (the locking mechanism is controlled and managed by a digital pad that sends or receives signals regarding locking and unlocking of the door. The locking command is also protected by a password that the user must enter in other to open or close the door.
Smart Window Shades – Smart window shades help to conserve energy that is consumed in lighting the room. These shades automatically adjust themselves according to the intensity of light coming from the sun and hence, the lighting requirement inside the room is reduced.
Motion Sensors – Motion sensors can be used inside the office so that it can detect entry and exit of people in the room and automatically turn the lights on and off, thus saving power significantly (Chandrakanth et al., 2014).
Smart Chimney – Smart chimney is specifically for the common kitchen where it can be automatically turned on or off depending on the amount of smoke generated from cooking inside the chimney. It can also help avoid suffocation as it will automatically open to drain out foggy air, smoke and other harmful gases.
Discussion and Justification
Most of IoT devices are used because of their ease of use and their wide range of advantages over other devices. Generally in single private IoT network, all the devices are connected together in one long control loop and can be controlled by one common controller device using a wireless internet connection (wifi). For instance, for a smart lighting system, the lights can be turned on or off using a common switch from the controller or through motion sensing (by detecting entry and exit of a person inside the room) (Stankovic, 2014). For the given organization, several IoT devices have been suggested that can make use in their office rooms.
However, it is to be noted that the purchase and installation of the IoT devices will consume significant amount of funds and it may require additional investment from the organization. Of the nine device groups mentioned above, the organization should consider the smart door lock, smart air conditioning system, surveillance cameras and the lighting system as the primary requirements for the proposed IoT. The smart door lock can utilized as a security option so that the entry inside the office can only be restricted to the internal employees only (Zanella et al., 2014). The smart air conditioning system and lighting systems can be utilized to save power consumption and reduce the annual expenses for the power supply. Surveillance cameras will be used for monitoring the office and catch any wrongdoers inside the office premises,
Although the use of IoT in the organization will present a large number of benefits including reduction of power consumption, ease of use, smart control and others. However, there are several risks associated with it as well. Some of the main risks related to the scenario are discussed below.
Usage – In spite of ease of use of smart IoT devices, there are many usage issues and risks. Firstly, these devices are significantly expensive and the devices additionally require wifi connection so that they can be controlled with wireless controller (Perera et al., 2014). Furthermore, these devices consume additional power for running themselves and they require constant maintenance. Real time data monitoring is also necessary for viewing their usage rates and operations. This issue can be solved by providing the users with detailed user manuals and providing them with free usage training demonstrations. In addition, further research activities should be undertaken to increase the efficiency and decrease the cost of the IoT devices.
Control – Controlling the working of IoT devices is a very tough task, especially for those users who are not very technically proficient. These users may face significant problem during controlling the IoT devices and hence, for them, the IoT device groups are not suitable (Madisetti& Bahga, 2014). Again, the IoT devices are connected together using a long control loop. Occasionally, complications may arise as the control loops may be too long or the sent command cannot enter the right path in the long control loop. This issue can be solved by reducing the lengths of the control loops and adding specific paths inside the loop so that the sent commands do not get misplaced.
Connectivity – Connectivity can be a serious issue for IoT devices. The control of IoT devices requires internet connection (using wifi technology) and hence, the connectivity issues of the internet will seriously disrupt the working of the devices. For maintaining a steady and continuous working of the devices, it is necessary for the organization to have a stable internet connection with high speed with minimum chances of disconnection (Miorandi et al., 2012). Further, wifi router may also cause problems if it malfunctions or gets broken at a certain point of time. The main solution of this problem is to use a very stable and high speed internet connection that will not have disruptions in service. Also, the wifi router device should be maintained regularly and replaced if there are severe damages in it.
Security – Security is one of the major issues of Internet of Things. Since, the entire device group is controlled through wireless internet connections, they are easy to be manhandled and controlled by external people. Some unethical people may break into the IoT connection network using hacking techniques and control the devices themselves (Jing et al., 2014). The solution to this issue is to develop better technologies to control the access of the IoT network such that no external agents are able to hack into a private IoT network.
Privacy – The privacy issues in cloud computing arise from the security issues that have been discussed above. During installation of the IoT devices, the users are required to enter their personal information like name, phone number, email address, fingerprints and others. If one private IoT network gets compromised, the attacker gains access to the information uploaded by the users, which they can then use for unethical and illegal purposes (Frost, 2015). The solution to this problem is to limit the requirement of personal information to be entered into the network and increasing wireless data security by adding strong encryptions before the commands are sent from the controller to the devices.
Conclusion
In this report, a list of IoT devices has been provided that can be implemented and used in the small business organization. The list of IoT devices mentioned include smart lighting system, surveillance cameras, motion sensors and smart door locks among others. All these devices can be connected together using one single IoT network and a common long control loop that carriers the commands sent by the user through wireless transmission medium (wifi). The main purpose of installation of these devices is to provide security as well as save power consumption of the office. However, in addition to the advantages, there are several drawbacks and issues as well.
The first issue that the organization may face is the limitation of budget. This is mainly because the purchase and installation costs of IoT devices are extremely high and small organizations may not be able to afford the devices mentioned in the list. However, the organizations should look at the long term benefits of IoT and use sufficient funds for the development of IoT inside the office. In addition, for solving the privacy and security issues associated with the IoT, the organization should ensure suitable security measures are taken for restricting access of use of the central IoT network.
References
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Atzori, L., Iera, A., & Morabito, G. (2014). From” smart objects” to” social objects”: The next evolutionary step of the internet of things. IEEE Communications Magazine, 52(1), 97-105.
Bonomi, F., Milito, R., Zhu, J., & Addepalli, S. (2012, August). Fog computing and its role in the internet of things. In Proceedings of the first edition of the MCC workshop on Mobile cloud computing (pp. 13-16). ACM.
Chandrakanth, S., Venkatesh, K., Uma Mahesh, J., & Naganjaneyulu, K. V. (2014). Internet of Things. International Journal of Innovations & Advancement in Computer Science, 3(8), 16-20.
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Jing, Q., Vasilakos, A. V., Wan, J., Lu, J., & Qiu, D. (2014). Security of the internet of things: Perspectives and challenges. Wireless Networks, 20(8), 2481-2501.
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Perera, C., Zaslavsky, A., Christen, P., & Georgakopoulos, D. (2014). Context aware computing for the internet of things: A survey. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 16(1), 414-454.
Stankovic, J. A. (2014). Research directions for the internet of things. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 1(1), 3-9.
Suryadevara, N. K., Kelly, S., & Mukhopadhyay, S. C. (2014). Ambient assisted living environment towards internet of things using multifarious sensors integrated with XBee platform. In Internet of Things (pp. 217-231). Springer International Publishing.
Zanella, A., Bui, N., Castellani, A., Vangelista, L., & Zorzi, M. (2014). Internet of things for smart cities. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 1(1), 22-32.
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