The Three Components of the Internet of Things

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What are the three components of the internet of things (IoT)?

  1. Sensor
  2. Connectivity
  3. Process and People

Sensor

The sensor is the key component of the IoT. This is the Brain and Digital Nervous system. This is the device (electronic circuit) in charge to collect and process the data of the “Thing”. The “Thing” is the physical object (e.g. person, animal, machine, telephone, etc.) with a device with its unique identification (known as ip-address).

Sensor Picture

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connectivity

This is the conduit used by the Things to transmit the data collected and processed by the sensors. In other words, these are networks transmitting the data using the internet. The types of networks used are:

  • Personal Area Network (PAN),
  • Local Area Network (LAN),
  • Metropolitan Area Network (MAN),
  • Wide Area Network (WAN)

These can be wired or wireless.

Network Picture

 

 

 

 

 

Process and People

Let’s start defining what a process is: A series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. A process can be associated to thing or to a business. In the case of a thing can be the process of a person running. The person will have as a goal to run specific distance in a specific time. Using an IoT device (e.g. fitbit tracker) the person can track in a daily basis distance, time, calories, water consumption, etc. until the goal is accomplished. The person can use all the information gathered by the device to monitor his or her progress during the process and make the necessary adjustment in order to reach the goal. In the past people were relying on manual tracking which was open to human errors.

In the case of a business process, it can be a manufacturing process for example service maintenance. In a lot of companies, manufacturing managers have specific dates defined to do preventive maintenance to a machine. But depending on the use of the machine, sometimes it is too late to perform a preventive maintenance, forcing the manager to invest more time and money in a major maintenance. With a sensor in the machine to check the condition of the different parts, now the machine can provide real time information to the manager and with this information he can determine if it is necessary to execute the preventive maintenance before the original set date and this way save time and money because major maintenance will not be necessary.

Process and People Picture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

The integration of these three components are revolutionizing the world. They are changing the way companies are using their business process, the information systems and the way projects are run. Companies are using these three components to create new types of applications. These applications are generating new products and services for consumers and industries.

Consumers and Industry Picture

 


 

 

 

 

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3 thoughts on “The Three Components of the Internet of Things”

  1. Fer Mora

    SAP has been releasing new products related to data warehouse such as HANA. Do you think BW still has a future within SAP roadmap?

  2. Albert Post Author

    Yes, but most likely will have a different name and way to manage the data. S/4 HANA will integrate a lot of the BW capabilities as part of the reporting capabilities. The vision announced by SAP in the Sapphire 2015 is to have the operational and decision making reporting in the core system.

  3. Pingback: Internet of Things (IoT) Big Data – What is Internet of Things Analytics? • The Internet of Things

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