[LINK] RFC: It's NoT IoT

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Mon Jul 15 10:24:47 AEST 2019


I'm trying to compose a short para. that explains why 'IoT' is a 
misnomer, and should instead be 'NoT', i.e. 'Net' not necessarily 
'Internet'.  (Yes, the use of 'NoT' is also a handy way of conveying a 
degree of scepticism about some of the claims of IoT's proponents).

I'd appreciate the Link Institute's assessment of the following:


 >The term 'IoT' is misleading.
 >
 >Although inter-connection is a defining characteristic, this does not 
need to be achieved by means of the Internet – which necessarily implies 
use of the Internet Protocol (IP) and either the TCP or the UDP protocol.
 >
 >In fact, many 'IoT' devices lack the capacity to achieve 
Internet-connection, and some communicate with other devices using 
channels and protocols that involve lower overheads than UDP/IP, such as 
Zigbee.


(Clear explanations of the relationship of Zigbee and other contenders 
with the OSI and/or Internet Models' layers are surprisingly hard to 
come by, but see http://www.libelium.com/802-15-4-vs-zigbee/ ).

(Note:  I'm aware of 6LoPAN and the potential migration of Zigbee back 
into the Internet fold and/or extension of the definition of the 
Internet protocol suite beyond the TCP/IP and UDP/IP sets.  I'm 
intending my short para. to cover the general case of 'not-Internet', 
and use the original/current form of Zigbee as an example.  But maybe 
there are additional, or even better, examples than Zigbee?).


-- 
Roger Clarke                            mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916   http://www.xamax.com.au  http://www.rogerclarke.com

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA 

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University



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