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10 Internet of Things Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda
can be determined by connection, attractiveness and knowledge/information/
data flow.
The European Commission while recognizing the potential of Converging
Sciences and Technologies to advance the Lisbon Agenda, proposes a
bottom-up approach to prioritize the setting of a particular goal for convergence
of science and technology research; meet challenges and opportunities
for research and governance and allow for integration of technological potential
as well as recognition of limits, European needs, economic opportunities,
and scientific interests.
Enabling technologies for the Internet of Things such as sensor networks,
RFID, M2M, mobile Internet, semantic data integration, semantic
search, IPv6, etc. are considered in [1] and can be grouped into three categories:
(i) technologies that enable “things” to acquire contextual information,
(ii) technologies that enable “things” to process contextual information, and
(iii) technologies to improve security and privacy. The first two categories can
be jointly understood as functional building blocks required building “intelligence”
into “things”, which are indeed the features that differentiate the
IoT from the usual Internet. The third category is not a functional but rather
a de facto requirement, without which the penetration of the IoT would be
severely reduced. Internet of Things developments implies that the environments,
cities, buildings, vehicles, clothing, portable devices and other objects
have more and more information associated with them and/or the ability to
sense, communicate, network and produce new information. In addition we
can also include non-sensing things (i.e. things that may have functionality, but
do not provide information or data). All the computers connected to the Internet
can talk to each other and with the connection of mobile phones it has now
become mobile [2]. The Internet evolution based on the level of information
and social connectivity is presented in Figure 2.2.
With the Internet of Things the communication is extended via Internet to
all the things that surround us. The Internet of Things is much more than M2M
communication, wireless sensor networks, 2G/3G/4G, RFID, etc. These are
considered as being the enabling technologies that make “Internet of Things”
applications possible.
An illustration of the wireless and wired technologies convergence is presented
in Figure 2.3. In this context network neutrality is an essential element