IoT Report: Characteristics, Examples, and University Applications

This report provides an overview of the Internet of Things (IoT), beginning with an introduction to its core concepts and evolution. It then delves into the key characteristics of IoT, including connectivity, safety, heterogeneity, enormous scale, and sensing, illustrating each with practical examples such as fitness trackers, connected cars, and smart cities. The report emphasizes the importance of IoT in the modern world and its growing use in various sectors. Furthermore, it explores the application of IoT within a university environment, highlighting how it is transforming campuses. Specific examples of IoT implementations within universities are provided, such as intelligent laundry systems and the development of smart campuses, showcasing how IoT enhances efficiency, convenience, and the overall student experience. The conclusion summarizes the main points and reiterates the significance of IoT in the context of higher education.

Basic concept of Information Technology

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Characteristics of IoT with examples..............................................................................................3
Connectivity.................................................................................................................................3
Safety...........................................................................................................................................3
Heterogeneity...............................................................................................................................4
Enormous Scale...........................................................................................................................5
Sensing.........................................................................................................................................5
Justification of IoT in university environment................................................................................6
Intelligent Laundry System..........................................................................................................6
A smart campus...........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
(Source: Patel, 2016)
The IoT concept was developed by one of the member of development community of RFID i.e.
Radio Frequency Identification in the year 1999 and has become extremely recognized and
relevant in the present world with the growth of data analytics, cloud computing, ubiquitous
communication and mobile devices (Patel, 2016). Internet of Things can be understand as the
common idea of things comprising of objects which are addressable, locatable, recognisable and
readable by the means of information sensing device as well as controllable through internet. IoT
is a new revolution of internet. The objects are recognisable and possess intelligence by making
decisions related to context and communicating information. The aim of Internet of Things is to
connect things at anyplace, anytime and with anyone and anything by taking use any network.
The Internet of Things is a system of connected people, objects, digital machines, mechanical
machines and computing devices and the competence to transfer data over a network without the
need of human-to-computer interaction or human to human interaction (Cui, 2016). The purpose
of this report is to understand the significance and importance of IoT i.e. Internet of things in the
modern world and its growing use. The paper will present the characteristics of IoT with
appropriate examples explaining the aspects of Internet of Things in the practical world. The

later part of the report will explain the manner in which IoT will change the environment of the
university in present time by explaining with the help of appropriate examples.
Characteristics of IoT with examples
There are various characteristics of Internet of Things which describes the diverse aspects of the
system and helps in fetching better understanding of IoT. Following are few of those
characteristics:
Connectivity
The connectivity characteristic enables the network compatibility and network accessibility. The
accessibility offers the common capability of producing as well as consuming data. It does not
require huge explanation as it can be explained as the sensors. Devices and sensors are required
to be connected to the actuators, to an item and a process and to any network and internet
(Greengard, 2015).
Example: The one of the best and most renowned example of the connectivity characteristics of
Internet of Things is the fitness trackers bands which are the wireless enabled and wearable
technology bands that tracks your activities for measuring the data such as the personal metrics
in fitness, number of steps climbed, quality of sleep, heart rate, number of steps walked and they
total calories burned. These fitness trackers along with the activity trackers also offer few more
services such as the mobile applications or to the smart phones and the computers for
transmitting the data in the form of charts for monitoring the progress. There can be set weekly
goals and have a complete data of all the fitness related activities with these fitness bands.
Therefore, these fitness bands are the most recognized example in the current time of the
connectivity aspect of Internet of Things which is well used in the practical world (Medaglia and
Serbanati, 2010).
Safety
One of the most vital characteristics of IoT is safety. There are number of benefits of using
Internet of Things but at the same time it is also essential to not sideline the safety aspect of the
users. There are well designed aspects of IoT atht are in respect with the safety. This comprises
of the safety of the physical well being as well as the safety of the personal data (Kortuem, et al.,

2010). It is necessary to secure the data, the networks as well as the endpoints which sin moving
across so that a security and safety paradigm can be scale. There are number of threats of IoT
that comprises of three particular categories comprising of safety, security and privacy. There are
number of safety concerns and threats which are associated with IoT and the network systems.
With huge and critical infrastructure components there is a direct connection with industrial as
well as national espionage and thus the threat of security and safety attacks are high (Feki, et al.,
2013).
Example: Among a number of examples, there is a recent example of the safety characteristic of
Internet of Things that involves the researchers who have hacked through these network systems
into two cars and have wirelessly switched the brakes full on, turned the lights off as well as
disable the brakes all beyond the control of the person driving the car. In another case, a luxury
yacht was allured by the researchers by hacking the GPS signal which was used for the purpose
of navigation. These are few examples of the safety concerns of IoT. There are also examples of
increasing safety related measures in the IoT systems to have a better safety and security of the
personal well being as well as personal data such as there has been started using data
verification, authentication, validity checks and better code development standards so that such
incidents can be minimized and there can be better and improved use of IoT systems (Datafloq,
2017).
Heterogeneity
All the devices in IoT are heterogeneous in nature and are based upon on diverse set of networks
and hardware and so heterogeneity is one of the vital characteristics of Internet of Things. There
is a need of diverse networks on which the different networks and platforms can interact. The
architecture of IoT systems are required to support the network connectivity among the
heterogeneous networks. The major design requirements for the various heterogeneous aspects in
IoT include interoperability, extensibility, modularity and scalabilities (Sawicki, 2016).
Example: The connected cars are the most recognized and strong example of the heterogeneity
characteristics of the Internet of Things. These connected cars are well equipped with strong
internet access and can have easy share that access with others similar to a connection to a
wireless network in any office of home. There are increasing numbers of vehicles to be equipped
with similar functionality as a business purpose. The cabs are the most efficient example of these

characteristics of Internet of Things which are flourishing their businesses through this
technology by connecting with diverse set of networks and platforms and offering the users with
high accessibility (Li, Da Xu and Zhao, 2015).
Enormous Scale
The enormous scale characteristics of Internet of Things is present when the number of the
devices which are required to be managed and that which communicate with each other are
higher in comparison with the number of devices that are connected to the internet in present
time. The data generated from the devices by the management of the data and their interpretation
becomes highly difficult and complex. As per the reports of the enormous scale of IoT, it is
identified that there are 5.5 million new things which will be getting connected on every day
basis and there is a regular use of those connected 6.4 billion things. Across the world in the year
2016 which is regarded as thirty percent from the year 2015. And it is also stated that the number
will have an increase to 20.8 billion by 2020 (Chandrashekhar, 2016).
Example: The most significant and recognized example of the enormous scale characteristic of
Internet of Things is the smart cities. The IoT has the potential and capability to transform the
cities by solving a number of issues and problems faced by the masses every single day. With
effective connections and data, the IoT can solve the issues of traffic congestion and can help in
reducing pollution, crime and noise (Want, Schilit and Jenson, 2015).
Sensing
Internet of Things is not possible is not possible without sensors that are required to measure and
detect the various changes taking place in the environment for the generation of data which can
help in reporting on the status and can even interact with the environment. The various sensing
technologies of Internet of Things offer the means for creating capabilities which reflects a true
responsiveness of the people and the physical world. The sensing information is the
characteristic of Internet of Things which is the analogue input acquired from the physical world
but it can offer the rich understanding of the environment (Jin, et al., 2014).
Example: One of the examples of sensing characteristic of Internet of Things in the practical
world is the Amazon Echo which is basically a voice assistant named Alexa which is used by the
users by talking to them for making it perform a number of functions. The sensing characteristic

is that it senses the echo or the voices of the users and work accordingly. There are various
functions which could be performed by it such as playing a particular song, booking a cab,
getting news about sport scores, weather report and many more (Meola, 2016).
Justification of IoT in university environment
It has been analysed that the use of Internet of Things has been widened and it has also
touched the education sector too. It has been seen that a number of universities and
colleges have already experimented with various approaches of IoT which is rapidly
changing the university environment (Waltzman and Shen, 2015). There are number of
internet of things related approaches have been used such as various fitness devices for
recording the health indicators of the students, devices for tracking the temperature
readings in the labs and many more. It is not necessary that all the devices or IoT solutions
are through extra devices but there are number of students in the universities as well as the
administrators are themselves carrying these devices which are powerful and are used on a
regular basis in the form of mobile devices (Asseo, 2016). In future, there will be seen that
almost all the campuses and the universities taking good advantage of the Internet of
Things and considering it as one of the essential and mandatory element in the universities
(Wortmann and Flüchter, 2015). There can be increased use of IoT in universities which can
completely change the environment of the campus and the universities such as by
connecting a database of the submitted work of the students, schedules of the students,
various alerts related to a number of important things etc. (McKelvey, Curran and Subaginy,
2015). As well as by employing few of the aspects of gamification, there can be a way to
reward the students for effective completion of tasks. There are number of aspects of
Internet of Things which are continuously changing be the environment of the universities.
Following are two examples of such scenario in context with the university settings:
Intelligent Laundry System
The intelligent laundry system is one of the great example of Internet of Things changing the
university environment as there are universities that have started using this system in order to let
the students monitor the adequate availability of the dryers and the washers in their respective
dorms so that they do not have to wait for their turn or for the availability of the dryers and can

work on other activities. This is the aspect of Internet of Things which makes a more
comfortable environment of University for the students residing there.
A smart campus
With the use of Internet of Things and various other smart technologies used through networks,
there have been developed smart campuses and universities. One of the examples is that with the
use of a smart phone application in the mobiles, ten students can find as well as reserve the seat
in a library, they can even record the class attendance as well as enter secure buildings. All these
are the aspects of Internet of Things used by the universities and have developed a more smart
and improved environment (Rose, Eldridge and Chapin, 2015).
Conclusion
From this report, it can be concluded that there has been a wide and 3xtended use of Internet of
Things in last two decades which is completely ruling the lives and everyday working of the
masses. Not only the business world but also the personal lives have been impacted with the IoT
systems and approaches. The report also concluded that even the environment of the universities
is also changing with a faster pace as the universities are also implementing a number of
technologies and IoT for a number of things. Thus, it acne b stated that the globalised and the
modernized world is improving with an upsurge speed with the use of Internet of Things.

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