Two good infrastructure considerations for the internet of things from SXSW

We may accept that the internet of things will become commonplace in the next few years, but how do we build out the network and processing required to support it?When it comes to building out the broadband infrastructure, the data networks and the processing for the internet of things, we’re going to have to make some changes. That’s the message I got from conversations with a variety of people and from panels at South by Southwest in Austin this weekend.When considering washing machines that tweet, inventory-tracking sensors that send a few pieces of data or home health monitoring systems that are tracking someone’s heartbeat, most people assume the data is so small that the network can handle it. But today’s networks are designed to fulfill very different scenarios.However, Joe Weinman, the SVP of cloud services and strategy at Telx, noted that the old broadcast model employed by cellular networks (and even to an extent wireline networks) focuses on sending a piece of content down to many. In some cases it’s one piece of content down to one person, but with the internet of things the devices at the edge are sending many different chunks of data up to the core.That could require new ways of designing networks with a focus on uploads. There’s another element as well that wasn’t discussed too much at the panel, and that was the issue of quality of service and latency. In the heart monitoring example, that’s data that should have priority over other network traffic because it needs real-time monitoring. However, if it’s just gathering information for diagnostic purposes, then it’s fine if that traffic takes a back seat to other bits.
http://gigaom.com/2013/03/10/two-good-infrastructure-considerations-for-the-internet-of-things-from-sxsw/