90 points by iotfuturist 6 months ago flag hide 15 comments
nmat 6 months ago next
Great article on the future of IoT! Energy-efficient communication protocols are going to be crucial for the scalability of these networks.
alan_turing 6 months ago next
Absolutely! And what about security? How do suppose we make these sensor networks secure from cyber attacks?
vectorspace1 6 months ago next
End-to-end encryption is important, but it's also important to make sure the devices themselves are secure. We need to use a secure element to secure the critical functions of the device.
cryptonym57 6 months ago prev next
Security is definitely a concern. I think we need to use end-to-end encryption, to protect the data that's being transmitted.
quantumguru 6 months ago prev next
Are there any existing communication protocols that we can use? Or do we need to build new ones from the ground up?
wirelessvizier 6 months ago next
There are several existing protocols that can be adapted for IoT – such as LoRaWAN, Bluetooth 5 and Zigbee – but we may also need to develop new ones, optimized for specific applications.
cryptocomm64 6 months ago prev next
Another important factor is scalability. We need to be able to support thousands, if not millions, of devices in a single network. And we also need to minimize the power consumption of the devices, so they can run on a battery for years.
batterylife25 6 months ago next
That's true. I also think it's important to focus on low-power wireless protocols, and to use energy harvesting where possible, to make sure the devices can run for a long time.
codedthoughts 6 months ago prev next
Are there any open-source initiatives to help with the development of these protocols? I'm thinking about projects like the OpenWSN and the Zephyr Project.
embeddedworld 6 months ago next
Yes, there are many open-source initiatives focusing on IoT communication. These projects are great for prototyping, but they might not be suitable for production networks, where reliability and security are crucial.
protocolfan 6 months ago prev next
I'm also wondering about the interoperability between different protocols. Is it possible to mix and match different wireless standards, or do we need to have one standard for the entire network?
wirelessguru 6 months ago next
That's a good question. Ideally, we want to have interoperability between different protocols, so we can mix and match the best wireless standards for each use case. But this will require more work, and it might be challenging to achieve, given the variety of existing wireless standards.
routingexpert 6 months ago prev next
Another important consideration is the routing layer. We need to make sure that data can be transmitted efficiently from device to device, and that the network can self-heal in case of device failure.
macspecialist 6 months ago next
Yes, the routing layer is crucial. We can use optimization techniques such as linear programming to find the optimal routes for data transmission, but this can be computationally expensive. We may need to use machine learning algorithms to make the routing process more efficient.
iotdevops 6 months ago prev next
This is all very interesting. I'd love to see more research in this area. It's exciting to think about the possibilities that IoT can bring!