Internet of things opens the era of Internet of Everything.

The word "InternetofThings" was born 15 years ago. In recent years, this "tall thing" has gradually entered our lives. The Internet of Things can connect all objects in a specific space environment, carry out anthropomorphic information perception and collaborative interaction, and has the behavioral ability of self-learning, processing, decision-making and control, thus completing intelligent production and service. At present, the Internet of Things is promoting the transformation of human society from "informationization" to "intelligence" and promoting great changes in information technology and industry. In the near future, the Internet of Things will powerfully change the environment in which we live and work, and bring us into an intelligent world.

The technical idea of Internet of Things is "connecting everything according to demand"

At the World Summit on the Information Society in 2005, the International Telecommunication Union formally put forward the concept of "Internet of Things", suggesting that the ubiquitous communication era of "Internet of Things" is coming, and all objects in the world, from tires to toothbrushes, from houses to paper towels, can actively exchange information through the Internet.

The technical idea of the Internet of Things is "connecting everything on demand". Specifically, all objects (including all entities and virtual physical objects and terminal equipment) that can be independently identified, including people, machines and objects, are connected everywhere according to requirements through various network technologies and information sensing equipment such as radio frequency identification (data exchange through radio to achieve information identification), infrared sensors, global positioning systems and laser scanners, and information transmission and collaborative interaction are carried out. In order to realize the intelligent information perception, identification, location, tracking, monitoring and management of objects, and build an intelligent service environment with the ability of anthropomorphic knowledge learning, analysis and processing, automatic decision-making and behavior control among all objects.

The information society is developing from the Internet era to the Internet of Things era. If the Internet takes people as the object of connection and service, then the Internet of Things is to expand the object of information network connection and service from people to things, so as to realize the "Internet of Everything". There are also differences in the demand satisfaction between the two: in the Internet age, the task of information network is to meet the demand of public information transmission; In the era of Internet of Things, the task of information network is to meet the specific requirements of intelligent services, which are mutually supportive and indispensable.

The future intelligent service system under the Internet of Things environment will become an important infrastructure in the future society. As the key to the technological innovation of the Internet of Things, the intelligent service system maps and cooperates the physical space of the real environment with the information space of the virtual environment to realize the integration of communication, calculation and control. Intelligent service system enables things and people to interact actively in a new way, thus knitting an intelligent collaborative network with endogenous interconnection in the physical world.

Remodeling the mode of production organization and promoting the industrial revolution

The Internet of Things has become an important driving force for the new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. Driven by the rise of concepts, guided by demonstration applications, remarkable technological progress and gradual maturity of industries, the Internet of Things is accelerating its transformation into real scientific and technological productivity. If the technology that affects production tools and products will bring quantitative change, then the Internet of Things technology will bring qualitative change, because it will reshape the production organization. The technology industry of Internet of Things is developing rapidly around the world, and it is merging with manufacturing technology, new energy and new materials, stepping into the eve of industrial revolution and ushering in a great development era.

With the popularization of Internet of Things applications, trillions of new devices with different application requirements, such as smart wearable devices, smart home appliances, intelligent networked cars, intelligent robots, smart medical care, farmland water conservancy and municipal buildings, will be connected to the network. These applications are growing explosively and will form massive data, which will promote the production, life and social management to be more intelligent, networked and refined, and promote economic and social development to be more intelligent and efficient.

Integration and development with other high-tech technologies is an important feature of Internet of Things technology. At present, the Internet of Things is promoting the penetration of next-generation information technologies such as 5G, narrowband Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and edge computing into various fields, triggering major changes in the global industrial division of labor. In terms of networking, low-power WAN technology is rapidly emerging and gradually commercialized around the world, and the standardization process of 5G technology for wide coverage and low latency scenarios of the Internet of Things is accelerating. At the same time, industrial Ethernet, short-distance communication and other related communication technologies have developed rapidly, providing good technical support for the intelligent on-demand networking and interconnection of people, machines and things. In information processing, information perception, knowledge representation, machine learning and other technologies have developed rapidly, greatly improving the intelligent data processing capability of the Internet of Things. In terms of virtual platform of Internet of Things, digital twinning and operating system, based on the wide application of cloud computing and open source software, the ecological threshold for enterprises to build is effectively lowered, and the progress of public service platform and operating system of Internet of Things is promoted worldwide.

The Internet of Things brings digital and intelligent changes, which can change many industries. One of the most representative concepts is the "industrial Internet". In 2011, after the concept of "Industry 4.0" was first put forward by Germany, many countries have followed suit. The concept of "industrial Internet" proposed by General Electric Company of the United States is a high integration of global industrial systems with advanced computing, analysis, sensing technology and the Internet, which means connecting people, data and machines on the basis of the Internet of Things, so that equipment, production lines, factories, suppliers, products and customers can cooperate closely with each other on demand, comprehensively apply big data analysis technology and remote control technology, and optimize the operation and maintenance of industrial facilities and machines. Improve the intelligent level of industrial manufacturing through networked intelligent means, and form an interconnected industrial chain across equipment, systems, factories and regions, thus improving efficiency and promoting the intelligence of the entire manufacturing service system. As an important support for the development of China’s intelligent manufacturing industry, the industrial Internet has been highly valued by the Chinese government. The 13th Five-Year Plan, the State Council’s Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting internet plus Action and Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Integration and Development of Manufacturing Industry and the Internet all clearly put forward the development of industrial Internet.

Due to the bright future, all countries in the world are accelerating to seize the development opportunities of the Internet of Things industry. At the industrial level, related large companies have formulated the development strategy of the Internet of Things, and quickly laid out key industries and key links in the industrial chain through cooperation and mergers and acquisitions, so as to enhance their position in the whole industry. Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Amazon, Apple, Intel, Qualcomm and other world-renowned enterprises have all laid out the Internet of Things from different links and levels.

Intelligent production and intelligent life are opening.

The development of the Internet of Things has drawn a beautiful blueprint for the intelligent world for human society. Then, from the abstract concept to the concrete application, how does the Internet of Things relate to our production and life?

At present, the practical application of the Internet of Things has made remarkable achievements in manufacturing, agriculture, home, transportation and car networking, medical and health care and other fields. At present, the number of active Internet of Things terminal devices in the world has exceeded 50 billion, and the trillion-dollar vertical industry market is emerging.

In terms of production, the Internet of Things has a far-reaching impact on industry and agriculture. At present, the industrial Internet environment can obtain and analyze data from the terminal devices connected to the network. Combined with the remote monitoring and control equipment to monitor the industrial system, it can realize the seamless integration of various manufacturing equipment with sensing, identification, processing, communication, driving and networking functions. The related production materials are electronically identified by technologies such as radio frequency identification to realize the intelligent management of production process and supply chain, and the real-time collection and data analysis of production status information are strengthened by technologies such as sensors to improve efficiency and quality, and promote safe production and energy conservation and emission reduction.

In the field of smart agriculture, the Internet of Things helps "intensive cultivation". By collecting data of temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind speed, plant diseases and insect pests and soil content of planting environment, intelligent processing and decision-making of farming can be realized. Even the data obtained from the Internet of Things can be applied to the precise fertilization plan, so as to minimize the risk and waste and reduce the workload required for crop management.

In life, home, transportation, medical care and health are all places where the Internet of Things comes into play. Smart home integrates information technology with indoor goods and facilities, people’s indoor life, safety protection and other aspects to promote the informationization and intelligence of home and security services. For example, voice control can help users with poor eyesight or mobility difficulties, alarm systems can be connected to cochlear implants worn by users, and monitoring systems can also alarm health accidents such as falls or epilepsy. Intelligent transportation and car networking are also inseparable from the Internet of Things technology. Seamless connection between different elements can realize various scene applications such as in-vehicle and out-of-vehicle communication, intelligent traffic control, intelligent parking, electronic toll collection system, vehicle management control and so on. For example, in the management of logistics fleet, we can check the position and status of goods through wireless sensors and send an alarm when it is abnormal. Smart medical care can realize rapid tracking and positioning of drugs and health care products by using Internet of Things technology, and reduce supervision costs; By establishing a clinical data application center, precision medical applications based on intelligent perception of the Internet of Things and big data analysis can be developed; You can also make full use of smart wearable devices (smart bracelets, smart rings, etc.) and radio frequency identification technologies to collect residents’ health information and establish a cloud service platform for innovative management of health big data.

The Internet of Things has become one of the important trends in the development of global information technology, and its appearance and rise have brought rare opportunities for China’s scientific and economic development. We should seize the opportunity to create the future and build an intelligent digital China.(Author:Zhu Hongbo,Director of china institute of communications Internet of Things Committee)