The Internet of Things Everything: It’s Inevitable

Prof. Thomas H Lee EngX, 4 Dec. 2014

4 million cellphones are sold each day.

250,000 text messages are sent each second.

(ITU)

wired-wireless crossover: Dec 2001

We’ve Cut the Cord

There are now >6 billion mobile subscriptions.

• There were ~0 in 1981; 20 years later we became a mobile species.

2014: Wireless subscriptions will exceed the earth’s population of 7 billion.

Mobile Miracles

1st Age of Wireless: Station-to-Station

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ni, c

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Killer app: Maritime comms.

• Famously enabled rescue of Titanic survivors in 1912.

Station-to-station mode limited to kiloscale.

2nd Age of Wireless: Station-to-People

Expensive transmitters, but cheap receivers. Enables megascale reach and beyond.

Advertising makes startups like NBC/CBS much more valuable than wireless telegraph companies.

iPod, v0.0

E. Howard Armstrong and Marion on honeymoon, Dec. 1923

(Columbia Univ.)

iPod, v0.0

3rd Age of Wireless: People-to-People

(Ass

ocia

ted

Pres

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Rapidly achieved gigascale connectivity. There are clouds on the horizon, however…

Tea Leaves Tell a Tale

Voice-data crossover occurred last year We are now a mobile digital species.

Voice

Data

Q2 2013

End of the 3rd Age of Wireless

The 3rd Age is Long in the Tooth

New-subscription revenues have plummeted, marking the end of a phase of wireless history.

Adding things to the conversation will take us to the terascale.

It’s not just an Internet of Things, it’s the Internet of Everything (IoE).

• People-to-people, people-to-things and things-to-things.

• Wireless and wired.

• Nets of nets/webs of webs.

The IoE is the 4th Age

To connect a trillion devices, we first need to design and fab them.

A trillion devices can’t all be battery-powered.

A trillion devices constitute a large “attack surface”.

Many Challenges

Automated design tools as a “workforce multiplier.”

Field-programmable things arrays (FPTAs) to reduce the number of different chips.

RF-powered modules to supplement energy harvesting.

Low-power configurable security engines.

Possible Solutions

No Batteries!

Univ. of Washin Thing 1 Thing 2

5G tower

iThing

To Configure and Control

To Access Content

To Monitor and Alert

To Interact

Examples of Uses for the IoE

Courtesy of Ayla Networks

Smartphones/phablets will be the remote control for your universe.

Healthcare Example

Nelvin C. Cepeda, Union-Tribune – March 30, 2009

Patient ingests sensor which beams data to phone, then over network.

Remote monitoring (and

even control) is extremely

compelling for healthcare.

West Wireless Medicine Institute launched in March 2009 to develop these

kinds of technologies.

Healthcare Example #2

Future smartphones will have sensor suites to monitor health and communicate results.

Star Trek “Tricorder” is a driving vision for many.

Qualcomm sponsoring $10M prize.

Massive data collects will inform in new and powerful ways, and present

compelling business opportunities.

Qualcomm

Why Carriers will Embrace the IoE

Many applications served by low data rates. • Example:

Home Automation Logic unit says, “I’ve closed the garage door, Dave.” “Open the garage door, HAL.” “I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t do that.”

Great value will come from network effects, but not all communications

will need to go through basestations. • IP-based platforms will dominate, but… • Point-to-point technologies (e.g., Bluetooth, NFC) will also be very

important.

Can the IoE Truly Get Big?

“It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” – Mark Twain, Niels Bohr, Yogi Berra, etc.

• High correlation between certainty and foolishness in

predictions. Nevertheless…

How Big?

The worldwide semiconductor industry generated about $300B in revenues in 2013.

The diet and weight-loss industry is a $60B business in the U.S. alone.

IoE: Plenty of Visions and Work to Do

Extremetech

Qualcomm Cisco

“The future’s so bright,

I gotta wear shades.” -- Timbuk3