The Problem With the Internet of Things-And Why It‘s Still Good to Be Connected

By 2020, more than 50 billion unique devices will be connected to the Internet. From cars and passports, to smart cards and toasters, almost everything will communicate electronically or connect to the Web. At least, that’s the prediction. But what can we learn from our devices? And what are the practical technological advances that have to happen in order to realize this vision?

So, What’s the Problem?

With all the hype around the Internet of Things (or IoT), you can be forgiven for asking why your toaster and refrigerator haven’t been speaking to one another all that much already. It’s complicated. For home devices, there often needs to be translation of the wireless protocol to something that is recognizable and addressable from the Internet. In addition, there needs to be some kind of cloud service support in order to ensure that communication can circumvent the serpentine world of ISP assigned IP addresses, home routers and firewalls.

Read more of this blog by NXP VP Drue Freeman on Wired.