Beyond spurring sensor development and new data-gathering capabilities, such as geolocation and user activity tracking data, mobile technologies provided much needed connectivity for sensors placed practically anywhere.
"Mobility is crucial, considering IoT comprises of billions of wireless devices that require real-time connectivity while on the go -- specifically connected/autonomous vehicles and smart cities elements such as traffic lights, smart grid, public lighting, waste disposal, and parking solutions," said Darren Tan in an email interview. Tan is a Senior Intelligence Unit (IU) Director at Delta Partners, an advisory and investment firm specializing in the telecoms, media, and digital (TMD) space.
"Quite simply, the Internet of Things would not exist without mobile," said Alex Brisbourne, CEO of KORE, which provides wireless connectivity (cellular and satellite) for IoT devices, in an interview. "In fact, I consider terming it an 'Internet' as a bit of misnomer, because it largely consists of wireless-connected, non-phone mobile devices interacting in a client-server, or hub-and-spoke model. The Internet analogy does not, and should not, apply for most real-world applications coming online today.
The level of interconnectivity among devices that's needed for these applications is actually pretty low, as they tend to use dedicated point-to-point communication, and point-to-point service delivery. For example, an irrigation system that responds to physical weather conditions and decides, singularly, when to switch on a sprinkler system. The IoT requires a much simpler mobile architecture [than mobile phones] as the environment is quite closed, generally capable of flowing a particular type of data in one direction. It is not an extension of the Web into the life of devices."
In any case, it is clear that IT must change its view of mobile in light of its formative and essential role in IoT and all that entails.
Before we get there, though, there are three crucial ways mobile plugs into IoT for which IT must prepare:
- Apps designed to control things
- Data collection
- Apps designed to deliver big data analytics to the mobile user
Undoubtedly more than these three will evolve but these are the first set of challenges.
Fortunately, much of IT's experience with mobile will come in handy for successfully managing these issues in the IoT.
"The back-end systems for IoT will 'look' like traditional mobile back-end systems with much greater level of scale and support for device diversity," says 451 Research's Partridge. "Also important are cloud and big data, as they provide the tools and economics to handle the volume of data implied by IoT."
Much of app development and app management will also be similar, at least in part.
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