I am back from Vancouver where attended the Cisco Connect Roadshow
event where I was able to get a feel of what they think is innovation
of today thanks to the excellent presentation of Victor Woo, General
Manager, Industry Transformation at Cisco Canada: "Fueling Innovation with the Internet of Everything". Notes below are some thoughts arising from and illustrating Victor's talk and other sessions.
Thanks to widespread Internet adoption and over 10 billion connected
devices around the world, companies today are more excited than ever
about the Internet of Things. Add in the hype about Google Glass and the
Nest Thermostat, and nearly every business, including those from
traditionally low-tech industries, wants to get on the cloud, track a
group of devices, and gather data. The question, however, is not if a
device can be connected, but why the company is connecting a previously
“dumb” product to the cloud. Or stated differently, if a company invests
in making my toaster talk to my lawnmower, is that really a good
business model and why?
Companies that are successfully adapting and innovating Internet of
Things platforms are focused on identifying meaningful opportunities,
not just technologies.
Various forms of
post-implementation maintenance will become more common, and may change
how you deal with your vendors. The Internet of Things (IoT) goes well
beyond human Internet users.
Some predict that by 2015, not only will 75% of the world population
have access to the Internet, so will 6+ billion devices.
Traditional business models focused on the sale of an item, with
post-sale revenue coming from maintenance. The maintenance was usually
an on-call service without real-time monitoring. Many will still follow this business model, however this model is
vulnerable to shrinking profit margins in very competitive markets.
The world we live in is becoming increasingly complex and increasingly connected.
More than 12 billion people and things are communicating today via the Internet; yet it is estimated that more than 99% of objects are still unconnected.
Advanced standardization of communication protocols and the
consequent rapid global adoption of IP and the Internet is moving from
the information age into the networking age. The Internet provides the
technical and human network to connect people with processes with data
and things. As the Internet of Everything
(IoE) connects the unconnected, it is expected that more than 50
billion smart objects will communicate freely over the Internet by 2020
and early indicators show that it might be a conservative estimate.
Acknowledgement: Victor Woo, Rick Huijbregts, Gary Audin
Showing posts with label CISCO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CISCO. Show all posts
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Internet of Things and other things
In the article The Cognitive Net Is Coming published in the recent IEEE Spectrum, the author (Antonio Liotta from the Eindhoven University of Technology) states:
Perhaps as early as the end of this decade, our refrigerators will e-mail us grocery lists. Our doctors will update our prescriptions using data beamed from tiny monitors attached to our bodies. And our alarm clocks will tell our curtains when to open and our coffeemakers when to start the morning brew. (I would say, coffeemaker and curtains should be smart enough - if they are not yet - to know when to start brewing or when to open. Rather than be hard programmed by time, they should sense when these functions are needed).
By 2020, according to forecasts from Cisco Systems, the global Internet will consist of 50 billion connected tags, televisions, cars, kitchen appliances, surveillance cameras, smartphones, utility meters, and what not. This is the Internet of Things, and what an idyllic concept it is.
But here’s the harsh reality he says: Without a radical overhaul to its underpinnings, such a massive, variable network will likely create more problems than it proposes to solve. The reason? Today’s Internet just isn’t equipped to manage the kind of traffic that billions more nodes and diverse applications will surely bring.
Then the author proceeds to devise a more intelligent (cognitive) Internet protocol which would presumably solve the problems of today's global networks. Not going into the details of the cognitive protocol we may find some useful (even though not necessarily totally new) idea to endow every connected computer/processor equipped device with the ability to route data. Given the computational capabilities of today’s consumer devices, there’s no reason for neighboring smart gadgets to communicate over the core network. They could instead use any available wireless technology, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, to spontaneously form “mesh networks.” This would make it possible for any terminal that taps into the access network—tablet, television, thermostat, tractor, toaster, toothbrush, you name it—to relay data packets on behalf of any other terminal.
By off-loading local traffic from the Internet, mesh networks would free up bandwidth for long-distance services, such as IPTV, that would otherwise require costly infrastructure upgrades. These networks would also add routing pathways that bypass bottlenecks.
To handle data and terminals of many different kinds, it is suggested that the routers (including the terminals themselves) use methods for building and selecting data pathways borrowed from a complex network that already exists in nature: the human autonomic nervous system.
Comparing a complex system to a human body is a popular metaphor. The human body system controls breathing, digestion, blood circulation, body heat, the killing of pathogens, and many other bodily functions. It does all of this, as the name suggests, autonomously—without our direction or even our awareness. Most crucially, the autonomic nervous system can detect disturbances and make adjustments before these disruptions turn into life-threatening problems.
In fact, the parts of the brain that control this process rely on a multitude of inputs from many subsystems, including taste, smell, memory, blood flow, hormone levels, muscle activity, and immune responses. Does the food contain harmful bacteria that must be killed or purged? Does the body need to conserve blood and fuel for more important tasks, such as running from an enemy? By coordinating many different organs and functions at once, the autonomic system keeps the body running smoothly.
By contrast, many current systems (the Internet included) address a disturbance, such as a spike in traffic or a failed node, only after it starts causing trouble. Routers, servers, and computer terminals all try to fix the problem separately, rather than work together. This often just makes the problem worse rather than to fix it.
One idea, proposed by IBM, is the Monitor-Analyze-Plan-Execute (MAPE) loop, or more simply, the knowledge cycle. Algorithms that follow this architecture must perform four main tasks:
First, they monitor a router’s environment, such as its battery level, its memory capacity, the type of traffic it’s seeing, the number of nodes it’s connected to, and the bandwidth of those connections.
Then the knowledge algorithms analyze all that data. They use statistical techniques to determine whether the inputs are typical and, if they aren’t, whether the router can handle them.
Next, they plan a response to any potential problem, such as an incoming video stream that’s too large. For instance, they may figure the best plan is to ask the video server to lower the stream’s bit rate. Or they may find it’s better to break up the stream and work with other nodes to spread the data over many different pathways.
Lastly, they execute the plan. The execution commands may modify the routing tables, tweak the queuing methods, reduce transmission power, or select a different transmission channel, among many possible actions.
An integrated building energy technology advanced system architecture (ASPA) can utilize some of these principles above. For example, above mentioned curtains can react on the level of light and open when needed, but also close when the temperature in the room is raising due to excessive sunlight approaching the limit when air-conditioning needs to be turned on. In the hydronic systems, why do we need to maintain the maximum level of the temperature in the storage tank during the period of low or no demand for hot water - only to waste energy to the heat loss? Instead, the system can monitor the pattern of daily use and predict the demand, reducing the energy use to the minimum. Outside temperature follows the pattern but can be of course a subject of significant variations. A combination of knowledge-based algorithm with a feedback loop including adaptive capability would control the air circulation. An irradiation sensor can tell the solar thermal collector if it needs to adjust the flow rate in the system in order to either increase efficiency or prevent overheating.
An evolution of this system architecture, Advanced Sustainable Control Energy Network Technology, will be key to keeping the system in check. Not only will it help prevent individual components from failing, but by monitoring data from neighboring nodes and relaying commands, it will also create feedback loops within the local network. In turn, these local loops swap information with other local networks, thereby propagating useful information across the Sustainable Network.
Perhaps as early as the end of this decade, our refrigerators will e-mail us grocery lists. Our doctors will update our prescriptions using data beamed from tiny monitors attached to our bodies. And our alarm clocks will tell our curtains when to open and our coffeemakers when to start the morning brew. (I would say, coffeemaker and curtains should be smart enough - if they are not yet - to know when to start brewing or when to open. Rather than be hard programmed by time, they should sense when these functions are needed).
By 2020, according to forecasts from Cisco Systems, the global Internet will consist of 50 billion connected tags, televisions, cars, kitchen appliances, surveillance cameras, smartphones, utility meters, and what not. This is the Internet of Things, and what an idyllic concept it is.
But here’s the harsh reality he says: Without a radical overhaul to its underpinnings, such a massive, variable network will likely create more problems than it proposes to solve. The reason? Today’s Internet just isn’t equipped to manage the kind of traffic that billions more nodes and diverse applications will surely bring.
Then the author proceeds to devise a more intelligent (cognitive) Internet protocol which would presumably solve the problems of today's global networks. Not going into the details of the cognitive protocol we may find some useful (even though not necessarily totally new) idea to endow every connected computer/processor equipped device with the ability to route data. Given the computational capabilities of today’s consumer devices, there’s no reason for neighboring smart gadgets to communicate over the core network. They could instead use any available wireless technology, such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, to spontaneously form “mesh networks.” This would make it possible for any terminal that taps into the access network—tablet, television, thermostat, tractor, toaster, toothbrush, you name it—to relay data packets on behalf of any other terminal.
By off-loading local traffic from the Internet, mesh networks would free up bandwidth for long-distance services, such as IPTV, that would otherwise require costly infrastructure upgrades. These networks would also add routing pathways that bypass bottlenecks.
To handle data and terminals of many different kinds, it is suggested that the routers (including the terminals themselves) use methods for building and selecting data pathways borrowed from a complex network that already exists in nature: the human autonomic nervous system.
Comparing a complex system to a human body is a popular metaphor. The human body system controls breathing, digestion, blood circulation, body heat, the killing of pathogens, and many other bodily functions. It does all of this, as the name suggests, autonomously—without our direction or even our awareness. Most crucially, the autonomic nervous system can detect disturbances and make adjustments before these disruptions turn into life-threatening problems.
In fact, the parts of the brain that control this process rely on a multitude of inputs from many subsystems, including taste, smell, memory, blood flow, hormone levels, muscle activity, and immune responses. Does the food contain harmful bacteria that must be killed or purged? Does the body need to conserve blood and fuel for more important tasks, such as running from an enemy? By coordinating many different organs and functions at once, the autonomic system keeps the body running smoothly.
By contrast, many current systems (the Internet included) address a disturbance, such as a spike in traffic or a failed node, only after it starts causing trouble. Routers, servers, and computer terminals all try to fix the problem separately, rather than work together. This often just makes the problem worse rather than to fix it.
One idea, proposed by IBM, is the Monitor-Analyze-Plan-Execute (MAPE) loop, or more simply, the knowledge cycle. Algorithms that follow this architecture must perform four main tasks:
First, they monitor a router’s environment, such as its battery level, its memory capacity, the type of traffic it’s seeing, the number of nodes it’s connected to, and the bandwidth of those connections.
Then the knowledge algorithms analyze all that data. They use statistical techniques to determine whether the inputs are typical and, if they aren’t, whether the router can handle them.
Next, they plan a response to any potential problem, such as an incoming video stream that’s too large. For instance, they may figure the best plan is to ask the video server to lower the stream’s bit rate. Or they may find it’s better to break up the stream and work with other nodes to spread the data over many different pathways.
Lastly, they execute the plan. The execution commands may modify the routing tables, tweak the queuing methods, reduce transmission power, or select a different transmission channel, among many possible actions.
An integrated building energy technology advanced system architecture (ASPA) can utilize some of these principles above. For example, above mentioned curtains can react on the level of light and open when needed, but also close when the temperature in the room is raising due to excessive sunlight approaching the limit when air-conditioning needs to be turned on. In the hydronic systems, why do we need to maintain the maximum level of the temperature in the storage tank during the period of low or no demand for hot water - only to waste energy to the heat loss? Instead, the system can monitor the pattern of daily use and predict the demand, reducing the energy use to the minimum. Outside temperature follows the pattern but can be of course a subject of significant variations. A combination of knowledge-based algorithm with a feedback loop including adaptive capability would control the air circulation. An irradiation sensor can tell the solar thermal collector if it needs to adjust the flow rate in the system in order to either increase efficiency or prevent overheating.
An evolution of this system architecture, Advanced Sustainable Control Energy Network Technology, will be key to keeping the system in check. Not only will it help prevent individual components from failing, but by monitoring data from neighboring nodes and relaying commands, it will also create feedback loops within the local network. In turn, these local loops swap information with other local networks, thereby propagating useful information across the Sustainable Network.
Monday, June 10, 2013
CaGBC Conference: Lessons Learned - Part 2
Another very important lesson, which confirmed what I have been becoming increasingly convinced in from my own experience - THERE IS PRACTICALLY NO PERFORMANCE MONITORING after the building or system has been commissioned. All kind of reasons can be put forward for that - from lack of time, resources to confidentiality considerations. However, sustainable technology and "green" industry can not evolve or even properly function without a feedback loop ! Lack of consistent real-life data is a major factor slowing down progress of the industry.
Here is what I propose should be done. A network of performance (a.k.a. "green" or "sustainable") buildings and facilities should be created. They should be connected via centralized online data and performance optimization repository in a "smart info-grid" of a sort. The data obtained from each node (facility-member) should be presented in (or translated into) the universal consistent format and made available for other facility-members for comparison, benchmarking and cross-reference.
One of the good examples of guidelines for implementing the intelligent network infrastructure is Unified Access Network Design based on the CISCO concept of Borderless Campus Architecture.
University and college facilities, such as CIRS at UBC in Vancouver and Centre of Excellence at Okanagan College in Penticton, BC must collaborate with the industry on creating such a network and become first nodes of such network. The network should utilize Systems Architecture principles of expandabikity (i.e. allow adding new nodes), and evolvability (i.e. allow seamlessly adding new functionality). This can become a major factor in propelling the sustainable (high-performance, "green", alternative) technology and buildings industry, which is currently threading the water.
Here is what I propose should be done. A network of performance (a.k.a. "green" or "sustainable") buildings and facilities should be created. They should be connected via centralized online data and performance optimization repository in a "smart info-grid" of a sort. The data obtained from each node (facility-member) should be presented in (or translated into) the universal consistent format and made available for other facility-members for comparison, benchmarking and cross-reference.
One of the good examples of guidelines for implementing the intelligent network infrastructure is Unified Access Network Design based on the CISCO concept of Borderless Campus Architecture.
University and college facilities, such as CIRS at UBC in Vancouver and Centre of Excellence at Okanagan College in Penticton, BC must collaborate with the industry on creating such a network and become first nodes of such network. The network should utilize Systems Architecture principles of expandabikity (i.e. allow adding new nodes), and evolvability (i.e. allow seamlessly adding new functionality). This can become a major factor in propelling the sustainable (high-performance, "green", alternative) technology and buildings industry, which is currently threading the water.
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