Internet of Things

2The Ecosystem of the Internet of Things

2.1. Introduction

The computing world has experienced an exponential evolution over time, from the first mainframe computers to cloud computing, not to mention workstations and mobile computing. The processes involved in these transformations have ended up making computing and communication networks ubiquitous. Objects in the physical world communicate with the digital world (computing) by becoming connected objects (COs) with enhanced functions. COs and devices make it possible to store, transmit and process data taken from the physical world, touching on many aspects of human life: food, agriculture, industry, health, wellbeing, sports, apparel, habitat, energy, video surveillance, pets, etc. According to a study done by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, in 10 years (2015–2025), 150 billion objects will be connected worldwide; the volume of data generated will double every 12 hours (versus around every 12 months in 2015). Technological innovation is plentiful and the market will then sort between gadgets and truly useful communicating objects.

Passive or active, identified and uniquely identifiable, COs have a direct or indirect link with the Internet. We are talking about the Internet of Things (IoT). The domain leads to major challenges with regards to our capacity to construct an optimal and safe ecosystem for the IoT. The “physical objects”/“associated virtual intelligence” pair, whether it is embedded, distributed ...