Guest post: Internet of Things - why a talking fridge is not out of the question anymore

Imagine if the things in your house could talk to each other, if your TV upstairs could tell your TV downstairs that you are on the way down and to switch on to your favourite programme. And what about if your fridge could tell your phone you’re out of milk and pick some up on the way home?

Sounds a little far-fetched doesn’t it? Well, as our world becomes more connected and technology continues to motor on at an ever increasing pace, this might not seem so far away. A total of 15 billion connections to the internet were recorded just last year and this number is expected to explode to 80 billion by 2020, according to industry body IDATE.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has long been a term making waves in technology circles, but what does it actually mean? According to IDATE "The Internet of Things is a concept whereby any item can connect to the internet to retrieve information to enhance its intrinsic value".

These devices or items can be split into three categories:

Communicating devices such as phones, PCs and smart TVsMachine-to machine (M2M), which is when data flow from one machine to another without human assistanceInternet of Objects, which is basically anything that connects to the internet; even if it lacks electronics and relies on intermediate devices, such as routers or switches that act as a pathway to the internet.

We’re already seeing the benefits of this technology being used in everyday objects, such as the washing machine. Imagine loading your washing machine and heading out, as the device then talks with a national grid device about the best time to start when the grid is at a low rate. The hope of this is that it saves money on your electricity bill each year and this is already being seen. Particularly pertinent in the UK with the current furore over rising energy prices!

A trial on the Isle of Wight combined various energy saving devices and used the information to identify hotspots, or perhaps coldspots, which saved one household £170 a year on their electricity. Smart devices are also being used on buses to track their locations and relay this information back to a user’s smartphone so they know how long they have to wait for the bus.

We could all soon have our fridges ordering the week’s shopping in before we even realise we’re low on food. This is all well and good, but what still needs to happen to make this a reality?

Connecting more and more devices to the internet means there’ll be a massive influx in the amount of data flowing through our underlying networks. Without a strong foundation in place, the network could topple like a house of cards with the amount of pressure being put on it as a surge of data comes rushing through the pipes. So, for the Internet of Things to become a reality, a reliable and robust network infrastructure is essential to provide a much needed boost in capacity, as data consumption increases in each home.

Going one step further, virtualising your network infrastructure and storing data and applications in the cloud eases up the pressure being placed on the network. As long as you have an internet connection, you’ll be able to access the data from wherever you are.

To address this move to storing data in the cloud, it’ll be important that each physical device is given a new internet address. A new protocol system designed to assign addresses was launched last year – IPv6 – which will free up the necessary space and allow data to be stored in the cloud more easily.

The Internet of Things is an exciting prospect and is steadily growing as more and more devices become connected. Just think in a few years your smartphone might not be the smartest thing in your house – your fridge might have something to say about that!

Mark Lewis is VP of communications and networking at Interoute.

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