Are we nearly there yet? Moving beyond the IoT hype
Mr Sergey Zhdanov, ITU-T SG20 Vice-Chairman, Russian Federation
What is the social impact of IoT? asked moderator Nasser S. Al Marzouqi, ITU-T SG20 Chairman, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), UAE. People mistakenly perceive IoT as just a technology, he stated, and for many it is not yet clear just how much it will change lives.
To illustrate its truly life-changing potential Sergey Zhdanov, Vice-Chairman, Business line Director, Rostelecom, likened the advent of IoT to the invention of electricity.
We are now connected 24hrs via our smartphones, and the potential of this is only just starting- it is not only technology but will also mean a new “art of civilization” or society. He explained: “The technology is important, and we have to understand how this will change our lives.” Mr Sergey Zhdanov, ITU-T SG20 Vice-Chairman, Russian Federation
Mr Sergey Zhdanov, ITU-T SG20 Vice-Chairman, Russian Federation
IoT can potentially impact on every industry sector to an almost limitless extent. Yet concerns persist about IoT. We need to communicate the benefits to users. “If we can´t communicate as an industry what the true benefits of IoT are, how can we make clear to end users what is the benefit of collecting data in a rapid environment in real time,” said Bettina Tratz-Ryan, Research VP, Gartner. Happy to share data within a social media environment, people get more risk averse when it comes to IoT. The answer to this is to communicate “that the ecosystem follows certain security roles and standards.” Here she touched on the crucial notion of trust, which she felt cannot be settled by the technology alone, as it is also a communications issue- even with the best technology in place, people will not buy it if they don’t consider it trustworthy.
Discussion moved to the crucial area of standardization, an area with which ITU has been very involved, explained Al Marzouqi, who is also chairman of ITU-T’s study group 20: IoT and its applications including smart cities and communities (SC&C).
Dr Ziqin Sang, Technical Director, FiberHome Technologies Group, gave more details on the work of the ITU-T focus group on smart, sustainable cities, which in 2014 agreed on the definition of a smart sustainable city. The focus group started its work two years ago, exploring the possibilities of standardization on smart cities. After two years, 21 technology reports on smart cities and communities were produced. In June ITU-T created a new study group to continue the work of the focus group.
Responding to the question of what kind of IoT platforms are being provided today, Kazuhiko Ogawa, Executive Fellow, Fujitsu Limited, outlined some of the capabilities of Fujitsu’s recently launched cloud IoT platform, which utilizes IoT data for the efficient and real time utilization of enormous amounts of sensor data from people and things, over Fujitsu’s public cloud.
On the subject of future challenges for IoT, Zhdanov noted the need to build digital assets, an IoT infrastructure to help businesses. This network will need to carry huge amounts of data, generating very heavy traffic. To significantly reduce traffic to the centre, processing power should be located at the edge of the network, added Ogawa.
Securing personal data is a key concern. Whilst business models such as location detectors for an aging demographic present many opportunities in terms of health monitoring, people still need to understand that personalized data could also be used in many different ways to make their lives easier, according to Gartner’s Tratz-Ryan. There is no doubt that IoT generated data enables new business models but privacy concerns are still emerging. “From a policy perspective we need to settle these concerns on how we can share data,” she noted.
The potential for IoT to change our lives is clear, said Al Marzouqi, but can things go too far? Will we lose control of our jobs, even lives in future? Tratz-Ryan sees two clear types of future interaction; virtually - here, she gave the example of the bottle cap which knows when you want or need to drink- and those that are more interactive, based around an activity of community, where “things” will physically communicate with you based on criteria such as peers, time of day, or behavior patterns. Is this good or bad? she asked delegates.
People are scared that machines will replace jobs, said Zhdanov, but they need to understand better what the impact is likely to be. Clear standards of interactivity between machines, and between people are required. If the rules are clear we will have less fears. For Tratz-Ryan, the answer is that is largely up to us. Yes, machines will be able to augment our work but we will never see a fully empty work place, as machines will not be able to produce everything and indeed, used correctly can even enable people to perform new, different skills.
In the near future we will have many connected “things,” and 5G will be a great enabler, according to Ziqin Sang, including within areas such as airplanes and railways. Within the automobile sector, unmanned vehicles will also need high speed connections, noted Ogawa. Summing up, Ogawa referred back to his opening remarks on human-centric technology, where he noted that “Technology exists only to amplify people’s intentions and help them achieve their goals.”
Moderator
Mr Nasser S. Al Marzouqi, ITU-T SG20 Chairman, Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), United Arab Emirates
Panellists
Mr Kazuhiko Ogawa, Executive Fellow, Fujitsu Limited, Japan
Dr Ziqin Sang, Technical Director, FiberHome Technologies Group, China
Ms Bettina Tratz-Ryan, Research VP, Gartner Deutschland GmbH, Germany
Mr Sergey Zhdanov, ITU-T SG20 Vice-Chairman, Russian Federation