Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) encompasses almost every "thing" - not just computers - that now connect to the internet, which is becoming increasingly limitless. 

Your cell phone is the IoT device most often associated as your direct internet identifier, as most users today are literally "glued" to a mobile device(s) they continually carry with them connection to the internet by multiple means. An enterprise-level digital twin may employ your phone to record when you are at the office or working from home, in order to determine if you should be asked to present at a meeting in-person or left out, if a colleague is available to meet with the client. 

In optimizing infrastructure systems: electric utilities, water supply and distribution, wastewater recovery (sewer and treatment), telco tower, cable and fiber and other types of network communication systems, as well as, smart buildings and smart cities and farms, there may be thousands and soon, MILLIONS of devices (for reporting physical assets state of performance) and actuators (activators that make the things change operation). 

Each device, like the asset to which it is attached, is also a thing  in our Enterprise-Level Digital Twin model with its own digital thread. In AWS-based IoT management, the cloud-based IoT management system with which I am most familiar, AWS IoT Core is a managed cloud service to allow all of an enterprise's connected devices to easily and security interact with cloud applications and other devices. MIT's FreeRTOS (real-time operating system on the edge) is an operating system for microcontrollers that makes small, low-power (often a critical requirement!) edge devices easier to program, deploy, secure, connect and manage. AWS Greengrass can be used instead of or in conjunction with FreeRTOS to better manage the huge volumes of data devices deliver by culminating, summarizing, culling or otherwise alter the data generated to provide only the most essential information to the cloud (saving on telecommunications traffic, computing and storage space.

Security both at the device or actuator, as well as, in transmission and use in the cloud is often extremely critical when physical infrastructure systems upon which thousands or even millions of citizen are dependent must perform perfectly 24/7. With AWS IoT Core, the digital thread from the device to the cloud is protected by SSL, and in the cloud, every system or user is authenticated in order to be granted access to the resulting data the device transmits or is able to cause the device to request a change in a physical asset.

As in most modern IoT management systmes, AWS IoT Core information received from devices is access through a pub/sub method. Permitted users, other devices, SaaS, and other management systems of any type anywhere in the world subscribe to receive only the most necessary information broadcast by the device.

GIS is used to include every device in place on its physical asset in the virtual model so that today a user with META googles may begin to feel that they are acting upon the physical system itself, while working from the comfort of their home or office, anywhere else in the world!