K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
In August 2021, we published a report entitled “What is the ‘Thin IoT’ stack and why do I need it?” which examined the availability of a set of technologies spanning hardware, software and connectivity that are individually optimised for constrained environments and collectively will help to drive enormous growth in the market. The report considers them collectively under the name ‘Thin IoT’ because they are all developed to be as lightweight and undemanding on resources as possible.
The constraints that these technologies need to work under is a combination of limited access to power, low bandwidth connectivity, and limited processing and memory. In some cases, these limitations are in part due to the nature of the applications, for instance being located in a remote place with no ready access to power.
For the most part, however, the constraints are self-imposed, required in order to ensure that the application is as cheap to deliver as possible at the required scale. Many of the IoT applications with the greatest potential (in terms of volume of devices) are viable only if they can be delivered at very low cost. A good emerging example is the provision of printable smart labels for asset tracking as developed by Altair Semiconductor, ARM, Murata and Vodafone, and deployed by Bayer.
To a great extent, the ‘low hanging fruit’ of applications with ready access to power, processing and the other elements, and limited price sensitivity, have already been quite effectively addressed. The arguments over whether to connect aeroplanes, wind turbines and industrial compressors, for instance, have already been won. While not all have necessarily been connected yet, inertia being what it is, the argument over the value of doing so has certainly been overwhelmingly established.
What is required for the IoT market to boom is the expansion to new mass-adoption high volume applications where the use of IoT has been limited to date. To do that requires the simplification of the process of deploying IoT and a reduction in cost. This combination will open up a lot of new applications. That is where the Thin IoT Stack comes in. It is collectively aimed at reducing the complexity (by using off-the-shelf elements) and, particularly, the cost, of deploying IoT. In the case of cost, in large part this is by way of reducing the IoT application’s need for power, processing, memory and so forth.
Continue reading: https://www.toolbox.com/tech/iot/guest-article/thin-iot-will-accelerate-connected-devices-in-future/
The constraints that these technologies need to work under is a combination of limited access to power, low bandwidth connectivity, and limited processing and memory. In some cases, these limitations are in part due to the nature of the applications, for instance being located in a remote place with no ready access to power.
For the most part, however, the constraints are self-imposed, required in order to ensure that the application is as cheap to deliver as possible at the required scale. Many of the IoT applications with the greatest potential (in terms of volume of devices) are viable only if they can be delivered at very low cost. A good emerging example is the provision of printable smart labels for asset tracking as developed by Altair Semiconductor, ARM, Murata and Vodafone, and deployed by Bayer.
To a great extent, the ‘low hanging fruit’ of applications with ready access to power, processing and the other elements, and limited price sensitivity, have already been quite effectively addressed. The arguments over whether to connect aeroplanes, wind turbines and industrial compressors, for instance, have already been won. While not all have necessarily been connected yet, inertia being what it is, the argument over the value of doing so has certainly been overwhelmingly established.
What is required for the IoT market to boom is the expansion to new mass-adoption high volume applications where the use of IoT has been limited to date. To do that requires the simplification of the process of deploying IoT and a reduction in cost. This combination will open up a lot of new applications. That is where the Thin IoT Stack comes in. It is collectively aimed at reducing the complexity (by using off-the-shelf elements) and, particularly, the cost, of deploying IoT. In the case of cost, in large part this is by way of reducing the IoT application’s need for power, processing, memory and so forth.
Continue reading: https://www.toolbox.com/tech/iot/guest-article/thin-iot-will-accelerate-connected-devices-in-future/
