The past and present of the Internet of Things

With the vigorous development of 5G, the concept of the Internet of Things has gradually entered everyone's attention. I believe everyone has also heard of it. But what exactly is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an information carrier based on the Internet and traditional telecommunications networks, which allows all ordinary physical objects that can be independently addressed to form an interconnected network.

The editor will explain it in human terms. In layman's terms, the Internet of Things is to connect objects to the network so that information can be exchanged between objects and between objects and people. The Internet of Things is the Internet that connects all things, and is an extension and expansion of the traditional Internet.

1. The concept of the Internet of Things

To understand the Internet of Things, let's start with the Internet.

To put it simply, the Internet is a huge network that connects all computers together so that information can be exchanged between computers. Later, mobile terminals such as pads and cell phones successively connected to the Internet, forming the mobile Internet.

With the continuous development of science and technology, people have discovered that not only computers and mobile terminals, but also various objects in life, as long as they are equipped with chips, they can be connected to the Internet to realize the exchange and transmission of information. For example, the previous mechanical watches evolved into the current smart watches and bracelets.

For another example, if you install a smart chip on your gas meter at home, you can automatically copy the readings of the gas meter, eliminating the need for manual meter reading. We only need to pay in the APP.

Seeing this, you probably know what the Internet of Things is, right? Yes, the Internet of Things is to install chips on all kinds of equipment in production and life, so that they all have the ability to access the Internet, which is the so-called Internet of Everything.

Knowing what the Internet of Things is, the question is again: How does the Internet of Things work with so many things connected?

2. The operating mode of the Internet of Things

The editor takes shared bicycles as an example to give you a brief introduction to the current operating principles of the Internet of Things.

Bike sharing is a typical application model of the current Internet of Things, consisting of three elements: users, cloud servers, and bicycles.

User: To be precise, it is the APP in the user's mobile phone

Cloud server: the cloud server of the bicycle operator, used to store bicycle and user information

Bicycle: The core device is a smart lock with a chip inside. The chip is the "brain" of the bicycle, making the bicycle smarter while connecting to the network.

The operating principle of shared bicycles can be described by the following simple process:

In the above process, the user's mobile phone APP and the cloud server use 4G communication, and the cloud server and the bicycle smart lock use GPRS communication.

Having said that, will anyone have any questions: How does the shared bicycle power the chip in the smart lock?

In the past, power was generated by manpower. The cyclist acts as a human generator to charge the bicycle smart lock during riding. So the bikes used to be more tired and tired, now you know the reason. (Cover your mouth and laugh)

Nowadays, bicycles are powered by solar panels, which are located at the base of the cart. So this car basket can't be used indiscriminately.

As one of the four new inventions, bicycle sharing is a model of current IoT applications. Similar to shared bicycles, other IoT application models are also composed of three elements: device objects, cloud servers, and apps. This APP can be installed on the user's smart phone or other mobile devices to control and manage device objects. In the shared bicycle model, GPRS communication is used between the cloud server and the bicycle smart lock, and 5G communication is not used. So, what will the 5G-based Internet of Things look like in the future?

3. Looking forward to the future of the Internet of Things

In fact, mMTC (Massive Machine Communication), one of the three major application scenarios of 5G, is aimed at the Internet of Things. Based on the strong connection capability of the 5G network, 1 million devices can be accessed per square kilometer. The public infrastructure such as roadside manhole covers, street lights, and water meters all have the ability to connect to the intelligent management platform so that they can work together. This is the concept of a "smart city".

In the "smart city" scenario, only a small number of maintenance personnel are required to manage the public facilities of the entire city, which greatly improves the city's operational efficiency.

Smart cities are just a microcosm of the Internet of Things. Devices in other industries and fields can also be connected to the Internet to realize scenarios such as smart agriculture and smart home.

In the smart agriculture scenario, meteorological data, soil temperature and humidity and other data are collected through sensors. When there is no rain for a long time, the irrigation system can be automatically started; when there is a lot of rain, the drainage system can be automatically started, which significantly improves the efficiency of agricultural production and operation.

In the future, through the Internet of Things, household appliances and equipment can be centrally managed and controlled. Imagine the smart home scene: the alarm sounds on time every morning, and the electric kettle automatically starts to boil water. After you go to work, the lights, air conditioners, etc. are automatically turned off, the washing machine starts to wash clothes, and the sweeping robot cleans... And you can control these smart devices in your home at any time through the mobile phone APP at your work.

   Technology has changed life. With the rapid development of 5G, big data and artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things is bound to flourish and bring earth-shaking changes to our lives. Let us wait and see.