IoT (Internet Of Things)

Architecture

To be honest, I don't know if I can call this 'Architecture' or 'Buisness Structure' or 'Business Model'. I am just a person who is interested in IoT, but my domain knowledge is very restricted. To be more specific, my domain (technical area) is with 'Connectivity' section. To be more specific, my experty is with Cellular technnology. It means my domain is just a single / thin line in the Connectivity section in the following diagram. So it is very difficult (almost impossible) for me to grasp the full picture of this industry. As I do almost always when I am trying to learn a new thing, I just watched a lot of workshops / conference /tutorial videos on YouTube and trying the understand the whole picture of IoT industry. This page will be my personal notes that I will keep updating as I learn.  The first note taking started in Mar 2017.

After watching around 10 videos at first, I forgot almost every details as everybody does :). But there was a one image that is imprinted in my brain is an illustration shown below. Almost every slides in those video shows a little bit different variations but following is the one that is still remaining in my brain.

As I mentioned above, my experties is a small sector in 'Connectivity' area, but I am just a layman in Platform and Service area.

Based on my observation as of Mar 2017 and as most of the workshop video that I saw (mostly released within one year) indicates, IoT industry is at the status and it has following challenges to overcome.

• The critical point/requirement to trigger IoT industry is that 'the cost of the components in Connectivity sector (i.e, IoT chipset, module, connectivity cost)' should be lower than a certain critical point.
• There are many chipsets / modules that meets this criteria in Short Rage (e.g, Bluetooth module, WiFi module) and LPWN (e.g, LoRa, SigFox).
• There are a lot of chipsets and modules that are available for developers at a very low cost (You can at least try out many things even with price of a fast food meal).
• Modules / Chipset in Cellular area hasn't reached this point yet.
• Cost for air charge (i.e, cost for connection) hasn't reach this point yet. (Especially the cost for cellular connectivity seems to be a little distant from the expectation).
• So the total cost for connectivity (from IoT module cost through air charge) might haven't reached the desired point yet.
• Eventually the cost for Air charge would reach the point of zero (almost free) eventually.
• Then how those company providing the connectivity (e.g, Network Operators) would make profit ?
• Those companies should make profit from Platform or Service sectors, but no clear idea on how to achieve this yet.
• The initial trigger for IoT industry would be 'Connectivity', but the most critical factors for the success of the industry is 'Service sector'. There are a lot of idea being talked about in this area, but no specific killer apps or services found yet.

Reference (documents/video)

[1] The Rise of IoT Platforms

[2]