Electric Vehicles, the Smart Grid and the Internet of Things- How Everything will be Integrated in the Smart City of Tomorrow - Part II

Stogner begins his webinar with an overview of “Electric Vehicles and the Smart Grid”, part 1 of his series, stressing the work the IEEE is doing to empower cities by creating standards to generate energy and connect it to vehicles. He then jumps into the world of IoT describing its potential, opportunities, challenges, and the role IEEE plays.

As stated earlier, the IoT market is forecasted to explode. With the convergence of low cost sensors, availability of networks, high powered computer processing, and data centers, a perfect storm is created that allows us to attack issues and problems we could not afford to or have the capacity to process the data in a real-time format that would actually solve the problem. For example, farms can use sensors to determine exactly the best places to plant to yield a better harvest. This combination of cheap sensors, fast networks and brand new applications encourages IoT.

Stogner urges his listeners to pay attention to IoT because it is the biggest business trend in the world and the opportunities stretch through many industries such as communications, retail, vehicles, industrial and medical. These IoT applications allow sensors to collect information and use it to solve problems. For example, with a smart car, local authorities could be contacted if you slipped off an icy road or in healthcare, sensors can monitor how people are doing and track these things over time hopefully diagnosing ailments sooner or avoiding them all together. The opportunities and possibilities are nearly endless with IoT.

Next, Stogner addresses the many challenges IoT faces. IoT will inherit the drawbacks of the current Internet on an infinitely larger, but more invisible scale. Privacy will be a major issue in IoT implementation. With an increase in speed and efficiency, a person can lose identity and just becomes an IP address. Marking a balance in decision-making, so that the freedom of choice isn’t left up to things and machines is another challenge. Lastly, establishing a common set of standards between companies, education, systems and nations is very important, but is a challenge that must be addressed.

There is a great need for IoT standards and this is where the IEEE steps in. IoT requires an end-to-end standard structure and the IEEE has already done this with wireless and Ethernet, so they are capable of successful IoT standards. With over 50 IEEE standards in place that address aspects of IoT, the foundation of standards for IoT is already here. The IEEE is very active in the development of IoT and Stogner ends his presentation with a call to participate in the work IEEE is doing in the IEEE Internet of Things Initiative. More information on the Initiative can be found at, http://iot.ieee.org.