Author: Gong Ke
Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT), as a significant driving force for global digital transformation, has evolved from sensor technology to the deep integration of 5G and artificial intelligence. It has been widely applied in various fields. Despite the continuous expansion of its application scenarios, there are still shortcomings in standardization, privacy protection, and network coverage. This paper briefly reviews the development of IoT, summarizes the main challenges it currently faces, and focuses on the future trends of intelligent, secure, and green transformation of IoT, aiming to provide reference directions for relevant technology research and industrial development.
The Internet of Things (IoT), as an important branch of information technology, has gradually emerged since the 1990s, experiencing multiple technological breakthroughs and industrialization processes. From the early applications of sensor technology to the deep integration of 5G and artificial intelligence (AI), IoT is becoming a crucial driving force for global digital transformation.
Overview of IoT Development
The proposal of the IoT concept marks a new stage in the development of global information technology. Although IoT technology can be traced back to the 1990s, the concept was formally proposed in November 2005 at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) during the “World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)” with the release of the “ITU Internet Report 2005: Internet of Things.” This report not only elucidated the technical framework of IoT but also emphasized its strategic role in promoting the global information process, marking the internationalization and global promotion of the concept.
Subsequently, the concept and technology of IoT have received widespread attention from governments and enterprises worldwide. In the United States, after President Obama took office, he held a “roundtable meeting” with American business leaders, where the then CEO of IBM proposed the “Smart Earth” concept and suggested that the U.S. government increase investment in the next generation of smart infrastructure. The core of this concept is to embed sensors in various infrastructures such as power grids, railways, bridges, tunnels, highways, buildings, water supply systems, dams, and oil and gas pipelines to build an interconnected IoT system. This initiative not only provided directional guidance for IoT construction in the U.S. but also had a profound impact on the global development of IoT.
IoT has also become part of China’s national strategy. With the introduction of strategic goals such as “Smart China” and “Perceptive China,” China’s IoT industry has entered a rapid development track, providing new momentum and direction for global IoT development. In promoting IoT development, China focuses on technological innovation, application demonstration, and industrial collaboration, driving the rapid layout and development of the IoT industry chain.
(1) Continuous Growth and Technological Evolution of IoT
Since 2010, the global development of IoT has shown a trend of continuous growth. From the perspective of the application development of various networks, IoT has covered multiple fields including personal area networks, local area networks, low-power wide area networks (LPWAN), and wired networks, achieving an average annual compound growth rate of 11%. Although this growth rate is slightly lower than the approximately 20% growth rate of the internet during the same period, it still reflects the strong momentum of IoT technology and applications.
The position of IoT in the global information technology system is gradually rising, especially with the widespread application of 5G technology and breakthroughs in low-power wide area network technology, significantly enhancing the technical support capabilities of IoT. 5G technology promotes the application of IoT in smart cities, autonomous driving, smart healthcare, etc., by providing higher transmission rates and lower latency advantages. Meanwhile, the development of low-power wide area networks has created conditions for the widespread deployment of IoT, especially in scenarios where IoT devices require low power and long-distance communication, demonstrating its unique advantages.
Additionally, the rise of edge computing has also provided new momentum for IoT applications. With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, the integration of edge computing and IoT has enhanced the data processing capabilities of IoT, allowing data to be processed and decided at the network edge rather than solely relying on cloud computing. This trend further strengthens the application value of IoT in real-time, intelligent, and automated aspects.
(2) The Interrelationship Between IoT and Artificial Intelligence
With advancements in sensor technology, particularly the integration of artificial intelligence and IoT, we are entering a new stage of development for intelligent IoT. IoT and artificial intelligence are currently two core areas of information technology development, and their developmental histories exhibit distinct contrasts. The history of artificial intelligence can be traced back to the Dartmouth Conference in 1956, where a group of multidisciplinary young people first proposed the concept of “artificial intelligence,” experiencing numerous ups and downs over half a century. It was not until 2006 that artificial intelligence saw breakthroughs in deep learning algorithms, but its development remained relatively slow. Until 2012, with the combination of big data and deep learning algorithms, artificial intelligence achieved new breakthroughs and quickly entered the practical application stage, especially in areas like image recognition and speech recognition, achieving significant results. In recent years, generative artificial intelligence has made rapid progress, aided by semantic vectors, self-attention mechanisms, and large parameter models.
At the same time, IoT is also developing steadily and rapidly. Although the technology of IoT started slightly later, thanks to the cross-integration of information technology, communication technology, sensor technology, and other fields, the application scenarios of IoT have achieved remarkable breakthroughs in just a few years. Especially with the deep integration of technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, IoT is gradually evolving from a purely “sensing + communication” technology system to a system with intelligent and automated capabilities, opening a new era in fields like smart cities, intelligent manufacturing, and automated transportation.
Therefore, the development of IoT and artificial intelligence is not independent of each other, but rather complementary, jointly promoting technological innovation and application expansion. Artificial intelligence provides IoT with intelligent decision-making and data processing capabilities, while IoT offers a broader data source and application scenarios for artificial intelligence, and the integration of the two gives rise to the new development direction of intelligent IoT.
Future Trends of IoT Development: Intelligent, Secure, Controllable, Green
As IoT technology matures, it is about to enter a new stage of development. In the future, IoT will no longer be a single technology system but will integrate cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, forming a highly intelligent and collaborative comprehensive system. This paper believes that the future of IoT will embark on four important directions: intelligent, information security, autonomous controllability, and green transformation.
(1) Intelligent IoT: Deep Integration of AI and IoT
Intelligence is one of the core trends in the future development of IoT. The relationship between IoT and artificial intelligence is characterized by two-way interaction: on one hand, IoT provides the data foundation needed by artificial intelligence; on the other hand, artificial intelligence empowers IoT, giving it stronger intelligent processing capabilities. IoT is a network for data collection and transmission, involving a large number of sensing devices, sensors, and nodes, relying on their accuracy, real-time performance, and comprehensiveness to support artificial intelligence with data. The performance of IoT devices directly affects the quality of data that artificial intelligence systems can obtain. Therefore, the improvement and development of IoT provide a solid foundation for the application of artificial intelligence. The introduction of artificial intelligence technology can effectively address some of the bottlenecks currently faced by IoT. Through intelligent data processing, device control and maintenance, as well as intelligent resource scheduling and configuration, artificial intelligence can enhance the intelligent level of IoT systems, enabling them to reflect changes in the real world more effectively, accurately, and timely. Furthermore, the widespread connectivity of IoT also facilitates the interconnectivity between artificial intelligence systems and applications, forming a vast collective intelligence system.
(2) Information Security and Privacy Protection: Ensuring the Security of IoT
To enhance the security of IoT, it is first necessary to establish a more comprehensive encryption mechanism and data desensitization technology. Through intelligent technological means, IoT can achieve efficient encryption during data transmission, storage, and access processes, protecting data from unauthorized access and tampering. Additionally, security measures such as node authentication and access control should be further strengthened to ensure that the identity authentication of devices and users in the IoT system is stricter, enhancing the overall protective capability of the system. The introduction of intelligent technology can not only strengthen the security protection of IoT systems but also monitor potential security risks in real-time, quickly identifying and responding to possible security threats. This “intelligent security protection” will be a guarantee for the sustainable development of IoT in the future.
(3) Autonomous Controllable Information Technology: Innovation and Industrial Chain Assurance
In the current context of profound changes in the global political and economic landscape, the issue of autonomous controllability in information technology has become particularly prominent, especially in core technology fields such as chips and operating systems. The instability of the global supply chain and trade protectionism pose significant challenges to the autonomous development of IoT technology. Therefore, building an autonomous controllable technological system has become a necessary measure to promote the development of IoT. A key task in this field for China is to promote the construction of autonomous chips, operating systems, and hardware-software ecosystems. For example, domestic Haiguang chips and Feiteng chips are gradually gaining the ability to compete with similar international products, but achieving full-chain autonomy from hardware to software, particularly forming an industrial form, still faces many challenges. How to promote innovative applications of IoT while ensuring security and building applications on autonomous controllable chips and operating systems is an urgent problem that needs to be solved.
Developing autonomous controllable IoT technology is not only to meet domestic market security needs but also to facilitate the international application of China’s intelligent IoT technology. Through technological innovation and the accumulation of independent intellectual property rights, China is expected to occupy a leading position in the IoT field, pushing Chinese intelligent IoT technology, systems, products, and services to the world, contributing to global sustainable development.
(4) Green Transformation: IoT Supporting Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is the only choice related to human survival and development. With the continuous enhancement of global environmental awareness, IoT will play an important role in the green transformation. The core goal of green IoT is to promote efficient resource utilization, environmental protection, and ecological restoration through IoT technology, achieving a dual transformation of digitization and greening. IoT plays a significant role in energy management and environmental protection. In smart grids and energy monitoring, IoT achieves energy conservation and rational allocation through real-time data collection and analysis, as well as efficient resource scheduling. Meanwhile, IoT can optimize environmental monitoring and pollution prevention, protecting the green environment. Through intelligent garbage classification and recycling systems, it promotes efficient resource circulation, reduces environmental burdens, and monitors waste conditions in real-time, further advancing the development of the green economy.
As an important component of information technology in the new era, IoT is facing unprecedented development opportunities. With continuous technological advancements, IoT will achieve new breakthroughs in intelligence, security, and greening across various fields. In the future, IoT will not only promote the digital transformation of industries but also contribute to global sustainable development. However, to achieve this goal, the challenges of technology, standardization, and security faced by IoT need to be urgently addressed. Through technological innovation, policy support, and industrial collaboration, IoT is expected to become an important force in promoting global informatization and sustainable development.
This article is excerpted from the “New Economic Guide” 2024 Issue 11 article “Current Status, Challenges, and Future Trends of IoT,” with omissions.
“New Economic Guide” is a national-level authoritative journal supervised by the Development Research Center of the State Council, aimed at gaining insight into economic changes and innovation trends, focusing on new technologies, new industries, new business formats, new models, new scenarios, new management, and innovation and entrepreneurship, transformation and upgrading directions, and focusing on future industrial development. It is a source journal for the comprehensive evaluation database of Chinese academic journals, a source journal for the Scientific Citation Database (SCD), and an expanded journal of the A-class journal of Chinese Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as a journal on CNKI China Knowledge Network.
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