As you may know, Saturday April 9th is the 5th annual IoT Day 2016. Who would have believed a decade ago that the Internet of Things would have a dedicated day, says Jeremy Cowan?
It is testament to how much the IoT is already shaping our lives and bringing new technology to the world, that organisations worldwide both big and small are aligning themselves in this way. But what does the changing nature of IoT mean for everyone involved in delivering IoT networks and connecting the growing number of ‘Things’ as simply and quickly as possible?
Shane Buckley, president and CEO of one WiFi network specialist, Xirrus, tells IoT Now, “The Internet of Things fuels the explosion in the number of wireless devices used in the market. Think wireless environmental sensors, streetlights, garbage containers, and all manner of building automation devices. Then think sprinklers, cars, parking spaces, rail stress sensors, surveillance cameras and watches.
“Analysts predict that machine-to-machine (M2M) connections will represent 43% of all internet connections by 2019, and 90% of those connections will be wireless.” He continues, “A lot of those devices, however, do not connect easily to WiFi networks; many don’t even have keyboards or conventional operating systems. However, it still seems that, in the public’s mind at least, it’s up to the WiFi vendors – not the product developers – to make it as simple as possible to connect to the WiFi network.”
“Emerging WiFi standards cater to IoT requirements: Lower power, lower speeds, and longer range. Those in charge of WiFi networks need to make sure they can adapt for these trends and keep everything running smoothly, even while the number of ‘things’ continues to increase. To that end, they should prepare to keep pace with new standards, look for higher density WiFi solutions, and generally explore how to increase the amount of traffic that can be supported by each WiFi access point.”
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