Page 24 - Unleashing the potenti al of the Internet of Things

1 Unleashing the potential of the Internet of Things

A physical thing may be represented in the information world via one or more virtual things
(mapping), but a virtual thing can also exist without any associated physical thing.
A device is a piece of equipment with the mandatory capabilities of communication and optional
capabilities of sensing, actuation, data capture, data storage and data processing. The devices collect
various kinds of information and provide it to the information and communication networks for
further processing. Some devices also execute operations based on information received from the
information and communication networks.

Devices communicate with other devices: they communicate through the communication network
via a gateway (case a), through the communication network without a gateway (case b) or directly,
that is without using the communication network (case c). Also, combinations of cases a and c, and
cases b and c are possible; for example, devices can communicate with other devices using direct
communication through a local network (i.e., a network providing local connectivity between
devices and between devices and a gateway, such as an ad-hoc network) (case c) and then
communication through the communication network via a local network gateway (case a).
NOTE 1 – Although Figure 2 shows only interactions taking place in the physical world (communications
between devices), interactions also take place in the information world (exchanges between virtual things)
and between the physical world and the information world (exchanges between physical things and virtual
things).
The IoT applications include various kinds of applications, e.g., "intelligent transportation systems",
"smart grid", "e-health" or "smart home". The applications can be based on proprietary application
platforms, but can also be built upon common service/application support platform(s) providing
generic enabling capabilities, such as authentication, device management, charging and accounting.
The communication networks transfer data captured by devices to applications and other devices, as
well as instructions from applications to devices. The communication networks provide capabilities
for reliable and efficient data transfer. The IoT network infrastructure may be realized via existing
networks, such as conventional TCP/IP-based networks, and/or evolving networks, such as next
generation networks (NGN) [b-ITU-T Y.2001].
Figure 3 shows the different types of devices and the relationship between devices and physical
things.

Communication networks
Sensing/actuating Data capturing
device device General device

Data carrying Data
device carrier
Physical Physical
Physical thing
thing thing
Y.2060(12)_F03
Figure 3 – Types of devices and their relationship with physical things

NOTE 2 – A "general device" is also a (set of) physical thing(s).
The minimum requirement of the devices in the IoT is their support of communication capabilities.
Devices are categorized into data-carrying devices, data-capturing devices, sensing and actuating
devices and general devices as described as follows:

10 Rec. ITU-T Y.4000/Y.2060 (06/2012)