Internet of Things and Data Analytics Handbook

11 IPv6 FOR IoT AND GATEWAY

GEOFF MULLIGAN

IPSO Alliance, Colorado Springs, CO, USA

11.1 INTRODUCTION

While many have declared the Internet of Things (IoT) revolutionary, it should instead be considered in the context of evolution of the current Internet. The Internet of today provides connectivity between people—sending email, sharing social information, exchanging pictures—whereas the main purpose of the IoT is and will be to interconnect devices and things, just as the name would suggest. Whether called the Internet of Things, the Internet of Everything, Industrial Internet, Cyber–Physical Systems, or Machine to Machine, utilizing open and interoperable standard protocols is critically important for the success of this next generation of the Internet. The reason for the success of today’s Internet was Interoperability. Prior to this there were many incompatible proprietary protocols that made interconnecting devices from different vendors a real nightmare and had stalled the expansion of local area and long‐distance networking. The advent and adoption of the Internet Protocol (IP) changed all of this, and such is necessary for the realization of the potential for the IoT.

11.2 IP: THE INTERNET PROTOCOL

On May 5, 1974, Vinton G. Cerf (known as the “Father of the Internet”) and Robert E. Kahn published the paper “A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection” which described a new protocol that provided the capability to connect disparate network to create a “network of ...