Ammar Rayes - Internet of Things From Hype to Reality

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In California, just a few months after two people stepped foot on the Moon for the first time, two computers began sending messages to each other using protocols designed to make it easy for other computers to connect and join the party (Leiner et al. 2009). On October 29, 1969, a computer in Leonard Kleinrocks lab at UCLA and a computer in Doug Engelbarts lab at SRI forged the first two nodes in what would become known as the Internet. Vint Cerf and two colleagues coined the term Internet as a shortened version of internetworking in December 1974. It did not take long for more computers and their peripherals, as well as more networks of computers, and even industrial equipment to connect and begin communicating messages, including sharing sensor data and remote control instructions. In early 1982, a soda machine at CMU became arguably the first Internet-connected appliance, announced by a broadly distributed email that shared its instrumented and interconnected story with the world. By 1991, it was clear to Mark Weiser that more and more things would someday have embedded computers, including mobile phones, cars, even door knobs, and someday even clothing (Weiser 1991). Today, spacecraft are Internet-connected devices on missions exploring other planets and heading to deep space beyond our solar system. Courtesy of NASA engineers, some are even sending tweets to millions of followers here on Earth about their progress.

The Internet of Things (also known as the Internet of Everything) continues to grow rapidly today. In fact, the Internet of Things (IoT) forms the basis of what has become known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution and digital transformation of business and society (Lee et al. 2014). The first industrial revolution was the steam engine as the focal machine, the second revolution included the machines of mass production, the third revolution was based on machines with embedded computers, and the fourth revolution (today) interconnected machines and things, including information about the materials and energy usage flowing into and out of a globally interconnected cyberphysical system of systems. The level of instrumentation and interconnection is laying the infrastructure for more intelligence, including cognitive computing to be incorporated.

Why does the IoT continue to grow so rapidly? What are the business and societal drivers of its rapid growth? How does IoT relate to the Internet, what types of things make up the IoT, and what are the fundamental and new protocols being used today? How do the specific layers of the IoT protocol stack related to each other? What is the fog layer? What is the Services Platform layer? How are the security and data privacy challenges being resolved? What are the economic and business consequences of IoT, and what new ecosystems are forming? What are the most important open standards associated with IoT, and how are they evolving?

In this introductory IoT textbook, Dr. Ammar Rayes (Cisco, Distinguished Engineer) and Samer Salam (Cisco, Principal Engineer) guide the reader through answers to the above questions. Faculty will find well-crafted questions and answers at the end of each chapter, suitable for review and in classroom discussion topics. In addition, the material in the book can be used by engineers and technical leaders looking to gain a deep technical understanding of IoT as well as by managers and business leaders looking to gain a competitive edge and understand innovation opportunities for the future. Information systems departments based in schools of management, engineering, or computer science will find the approach used in this textbook suitable as either a primary or secondary source of course material.

In closing, and on a personal note, it has been a pleasure to call Dr. Ammar Rayes a colleague and friend for nearly a decade. He has given generously of his time as founding President of the International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP.org), a professional association dedicated to helping multidisciplinary students, faculty, practitioners, policy-makers, and others learn about service innovation methods for business and societal applications. Ammar is one of those rare technical leaders who contributes in business, academics, and professional association contexts. My thanks to Ammar and Samer for this excellent introduction to Internet of Things, as it is one more in a line of their contributions that will help inspire the next generation of innovators to learn, develop professionally, and make their own significant contributions.