The internet of things

The Internet of Things (IoT) also known as Web of Things (WoT) is a concept where everyday devices home appliances, sensors, monitoring devices can be accessed through the Internet using well known technologies such as URLs and HTTP requests (Gomez et al., 2013). It is estimated that more than 4 billion users of mobile phones already have the ability to access the Internet. Advances in technologies are changing i.e. the way we use the Internet. Intelligent devices found in devices such as fridge’s, machine’s, factories and even clothes are connecting and interacting automatically on their own without human interaction by use of sensors that transmit data. It is soon expected that there will be more devices or “things” on the Internet than there will be people (Ben-Saied et al., 2014). IoT has been emerged as one of the most important shifts of thought with regards to the future state of Internet. Its significance is described in terms of providing a different lens on how to link the Internet with real world’s objects. In a more comprehensive way, IoT transforms real world objects into smart objects and connect them through Internet. In contrast with the current Internet, IoT depends on a more flexible architecture where physical objects with embedded sensors will communicate with a cloud to send and analyse data using the Internet Protocol. IoT envisions a future in which digital and physical entities can be linked, through their unique identifier and by means of appropriate information and communication technologies (Montavont et al., 2014). There are still open issues regarding 5 IP-WSN (Internet Protocol Wireless Sensor Network) features in an IoT scenario: IPv6 Adaptation, Mobility, WEB Enablement, Time Synchronisation and Security. Before discussing how the Internet is evolving towards an Internet of Things it is important to understand how the Internet has changed from web 1.0 to web 2.0 and now to the Internet of Things we need to understand the technology and changes in society that have made this happen or even possible. Web 1.0 allowed people to communicate on a global scale by broadcasting their messages (Kalfoglou, 2012). It was focused more towards organizations than individuals. What was on the web or the content of what made up web 1.0 was not seen to be free to all user’s like it is today, organizations sought to control or have ownership of this content. Web 1.0 did not allow for personal interaction. User’s would have created HTML home pages listing whatever information they wanted about themselves but this information was static or read only. Anyone looking to obtain information over the web would probably have ended up paying a subscription to some on-line encyclopaedia company such as Britannica. Technologies such as JavaScript, XML, Ajax, RSS, Apache, MySQL and infrastructure improvements such as broadband has taken the power away form organizations in terms of content or ownership of information on the web and given it back to the people. Now users could create feature rich dynamic web content, allowing them to become contributors and producers of information. The emphasis was now based on the sharing of information and not ownership. Web 2.0 offers user’s and communities a global stage on which they could perform, weather it be posting videos on YouTube showing off there talents or lack of talent, or web forums offering advice or solutions to Nigel McKelvey Computer Science Department, Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Ireland