1. Helpful Technology
and the
Internet Of Things
Robert Poor <r@robertpoor.com>
NBT Group
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

2. Smart versus Helpful
• smart: CLEVER
“mentally quick and resourceful but
often lacking in depth and soundness”
• helpful: USEFUL
“serviceable for an end or purpose”
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

3. Helpful Technology
• Connectivity is more important than
local processing power.
• Embedded Wireless Networking
– Cost
– Technology
– Standards
• Commercial Results
• Areas for further research
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

4. Bob Lucky’s Hierarchy
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
Signal
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

5. The Internet Of Things
150M
“The overarching promise CPUs
driving [low rate, low
power wireless systems] is
low cost, self-installing
wireless technology that
links devices, systems and 7.5B embedded
human operators and runs microcontrollers
ostensibly on common
batteries for months or
even years.” [WDRG
2003]
Units manufactured in 2001 (projected)
Source: DARPA / Tennenhouse 2000
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

6. Wireless Embedded
Networking
• Moore’s Law: The cost of silicon-based
systems decreases exponentially with time.
• Result: Wireless Embedded Networks will
continue to become cheaper due to reduced
silicon costs.
• Metcalfe’s Law: The value of connecting to a
network increases as the square of the
number of connections.
• Result: Wireless Embedded Networks will
continue to become more valuable as they
grow.
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

7. Vanishing Cost of Processing
Cost of Computing: $/MIPS
$1,000,000,000.00
$100,000,000.00 10x reduction every 7.5 years
$10,000,000.00
(2x reduction every 27 months)
$1,000,000.00
$100,000.00
$10,000.00
$1,000.00
$100.00
$10.00
$1.00
10x reduction every 4 years
$0.10 (2x reduction every 15 months)
$0.01
1959 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009
Source: Hans P Moravec, http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

8. Mesh Technology
A
95% B
40%
95%
C
Star Architecture: 40% reliable at node B
In a Star Architecture, link reliability is limited by SNR
between each node and its Access Point.
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

9. Mesh Technology
A 95%
95% B
40%
95%
C
Mesh Architecture: 94% reliable at node B
In a Mesh Architecture, nodes cooperatively route
messages, resulting in increased reliability.
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

10. Mesh Technology
A 95%
95% B
40%
95%
95%
C
Mesh Architecture: 99.4% reliable at node B
In a Mesh Architecture, nodes cooperatively route
messages, resulting in increased reliability.
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

11. Standards
• IEEE 802.15.4: low-rate (250 Kbits/sec),
2.4GHz DSSS. Multiply sourced
(Chipcon, Ember, FreeScale, others).
• ZigBee: Defines compatible profiles on
top of 802.15.4 for specific applications.
Over 150 member companies. See
www.zigbee.org.
• WINA: Wireless Industrial Network
Alliance. Best practices for Industrial
Applications. See www.wina.org.
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

12. Some Commercial Products
Philips Lighting: Wireless
Lighting Control
Nuri Telecom: AIMIR
Automatic Meter Reading
Eaton Corporation: Home
Heartbeat Home Awareness
Raymarine: S1000 Wireless
Autopilot System
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005

13. Selected Research Topics
• Alternative power sources, including
energy scavenger systems.
• Ranging Systems based on Ultra-
WideBand (UWB) and other
technologies
• Smart Radio and efficient spectrum
usage.
• High-level software interfaces:
connecting to the Enterprise
• June 2005 is the “TCP/IP” 2005 the Internet Of
14
What NOST Spring
for
Things?

14. Thank you. Questions?
Robert Poor <r@robertpoor.com>
14 June 2005 NOST Spring 2005