并沒有物聯(lián)網(wǎng)(Internet of Things，IoT)這種東西──關(guān)于物聯(lián)網(wǎng)，是太多的炒作以及紙上談兵，但它其實還不存在。不過市面上倒是有數(shù)種針對不同應(yīng)用領(lǐng)域的「物連網(wǎng)(Networks of Things)」；這種網(wǎng)絡(luò)的節(jié)點通常不知道該怎么與其他網(wǎng)路上的節(jié)點溝通，除非是出產(chǎn)自同樣的公司或是由同一個人安裝。
我們在iPhone、Android平板設(shè)備、Windows平臺PC、Macbook或是Linux工作站等不同設(shè)備上看到的網(wǎng)頁都是一樣的，這是因為網(wǎng)際網(wǎng)絡(luò)有一套共同的內(nèi)容建立、傳遞與呈現(xiàn)標準，例如IP、HTTP、HTML，這些共同標準還不存在于今日所謂的「物聯(lián)網(wǎng)」，卻有一些相當完整、但不相容的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)軟件堆迭，包括ANT、 ZigBee與Z-Wave。
根據(jù)筆者最近與幾位物聯(lián)網(wǎng)專家的交流，他們的意見都與一位參與兩項歐盟贊助大型物聯(lián)網(wǎng)專案的研究員Levent Gurgen相同：“物聯(lián)網(wǎng)涵蓋了許多應(yīng)用領(lǐng)域──如智能建筑、家庭自動化、智能城市以及工業(yè)自動化系統(tǒng)──其中每個環(huán)境都有許多不同的通訊協(xié)議，并沒有一個共同的溝通方法，這造成一個個不互通的應(yīng)用系統(tǒng)垂直井，也是物聯(lián)網(wǎng)的主要障礙?！?Gurgen的美國同行們也看到了相同的問題，為此他們成立了一個產(chǎn)業(yè)組織，名為工業(yè)網(wǎng)際網(wǎng)路(Industrial Internet，工聯(lián)網(wǎng))，并獲得大廠GE支持；可惜的是，他們打算建立的網(wǎng)絡(luò)框架結(jié)構(gòu)，僅被視為提升美國競爭力的工具，Levent Gurgen與他歐洲、日本等地的伙伴們也是差不多的打算。這應(yīng)該只是正常情況，據(jù)說中國也有自己國內(nèi)的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)計劃。
第二頁：缺乏黏著劑，物聯(lián)網(wǎng)還是一盤散沙
第三頁：各懷心思，產(chǎn)業(yè)結(jié)盟費力不討好
相關(guān)閱讀：
• 一個高智能化的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)樞紐--物聯(lián)網(wǎng)網(wǎng)關(guān)
• 讓智能照明與物聯(lián)網(wǎng)擦出絢麗的火花
• 物聯(lián)網(wǎng)應(yīng)用中各種無線連接技術(shù)對比Gfzesmc
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缺乏黏著劑，物聯(lián)網(wǎng)還是一盤散沙
美國柏克萊大學物聯(lián)網(wǎng)專家、也是物聯(lián)網(wǎng)新創(chuàng)公司Dust Networks創(chuàng)辦人Kris Pister表示：“這個領(lǐng)域被糟糕的標準以及實際安裝給拖累了。”好消息是，如同Pister所期望，與網(wǎng)際網(wǎng)絡(luò)使用的基礎(chǔ)標準相同的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)標準已經(jīng)呼之欲出。
Pister支持的是6LoWPAN，其最底層是以IEEE 802.15.4 MAC為基礎(chǔ)，最上層則為IETF的CoAP協(xié)議，其間則是正在成形中的6TSCH ──又稱IPv6的時間同步跳頻(time-synchronized channel hopping)，也是完成該架構(gòu)的最后一層必備協(xié)議。
此外Pister與同業(yè)也正推動一個開放源碼軟件堆迭OpenWSN，能將6LoWPAN應(yīng)用于無線感測網(wǎng)路：“我們即將完成第一個完全有效的堆迭，但仍不支援安全性──這是學術(shù)機構(gòu)比較沒有興趣的?！彼伎频裙疽彩?LoWPAN的大力支持者，但產(chǎn)業(yè)界還是缺乏一個共同協(xié)議，這也是物聯(lián)網(wǎng)成形的“黏著劑”。
舉例來說，IBM正在推動的信息序列遙測傳輸(Message Queuing Telemetry Transport，MQTT)標準，使用的是與6TSCH 不同的事件注冊模式(event subscription model)。而就算6LoWAN 的所有支持者達成共識，其他物聯(lián)網(wǎng)標準的支持者也會基于某些理由自稱他們的方案比較好，甚至只是因為歷史比較久。
無論是不是每個人都同意，實際情況是他們需要使用已經(jīng)安裝的網(wǎng)絡(luò)；因此我們還需要一些新的“粘著劑”來讓物聯(lián)網(wǎng)成形，這也是這個令人興奮的新議題背后最大的問題。
第三頁：各懷心思，產(chǎn)業(yè)結(jié)盟費力不討好
相關(guān)閱讀：
• 一個高智能化的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)樞紐--物聯(lián)網(wǎng)網(wǎng)關(guān)
• 讓智能照明與物聯(lián)網(wǎng)擦出絢麗的火花
• 物聯(lián)網(wǎng)應(yīng)用中各種無線連接技術(shù)對比Gfzesmc
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各懷心思，產(chǎn)業(yè)結(jié)盟費力不討好
另一家新創(chuàng)物聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司Millennial Networks 的創(chuàng)辦人Sokwoo Rhee則表示，初期對于通訊協(xié)議的關(guān)注并不是一件好事；該公司所打造的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)方案是一種表現(xiàn)出色的獨家網(wǎng)狀網(wǎng)絡(luò)技術(shù)；Rhee指出，發(fā)明一堆不同的通訊協(xié)議，還不如找對一種應(yīng)用程序：“我們也在應(yīng)用程序之前先定協(xié)議，結(jié)果讓我們的進度慢了幾年?！?
因此Rhee 指出：“從行銷的角度，人們會說物聯(lián)網(wǎng)正興盛，但以我的觀察，該領(lǐng)域還在早期階段；我跟其他一些同業(yè)甚至認為，物聯(lián)網(wǎng)雖然有在成長，但速度低于預期。”他有機會重新開始，現(xiàn)在正與新興的工聯(lián)網(wǎng)聯(lián)盟合作，期望能為物聯(lián)網(wǎng)找到“強力粘著劑”。
不過該聯(lián)盟面臨不少障礙，如花了七年時間推動6LoWPAN標準的Pister所言，產(chǎn)業(yè)標準訂定受限于許多政策；而聯(lián)盟的成員也將面臨挑戰(zhàn)，包括 AT&T、GE、IBM與Intel等。顧問公司PTR Group的共同創(chuàng)辦人Michael Anderson表示：“這種產(chǎn)業(yè)結(jié)盟將會消耗大量時間，所產(chǎn)生的效果卻有限?！?Anderson表示，產(chǎn)業(yè)界的觀點有太多分歧，而且占據(jù)物聯(lián)網(wǎng)市場其他98%版圖的代表都沒出聲，例如SCADA、制造業(yè)、還有汽車產(chǎn)業(yè)：“我期待他們也能有機會參與，但是我并不抱太大的希望?！?
編譯：Judith Cheng
參考原文： Internets of Things Need Glue，by Rick Merritt
相關(guān)閱讀：
• 一個高智能化的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)樞紐--物聯(lián)網(wǎng)網(wǎng)關(guān)
• 讓智能照明與物聯(lián)網(wǎng)擦出絢麗的火花
• 物聯(lián)網(wǎng)應(yīng)用中各種無線連接技術(shù)對比Gfzesmc
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There is no Internet of Things. There's a lot of hype and PowerPoint about the Internet of Things, but it does not exist -- yet.
Today a couple dozen Networks (plural) of Things are duking it out in as many market sectors. The typical node on one net doesn't know how to talk to nodes on another net unless it was made by the same company and installed by the same person.
You can view this Web page on your iPhone, Android tablet, Windows PC, Macbook, or Linux workstation because the Internet has a common set of standards for creating, transporting, and rendering content such as IP, HTTP, and HTML. These common standards do not exist in the Internet of Things today. Instead there are many fairly complete and incompatible IoT software stacks, from ANT to Zigbee and Z-Wave.
I have talked to a half dozen IoT experts in the past week, and they are all saying the same thing as Levent Gurgen, a researcher at CEA-Leti involved in two big IoT projects with backing from the European Union:
IoT covers a large number of domains -- smart buildings, home automation, smart cities, and industrial automation systems -- and there are many protocols in each of these environments. There is not one common way of communicating among them. This creates vertical silos of application systems that do not interoperate. This is the main roadblock in IoT today.
His colleagues over in the US. see this problem, too. To address it, they are putting together a consortium, calling it the Industrial Internet, a term favored by GE. Unfortunately they see the framework architecture they intend to develop as a competitive advantage for US companies. So much for Levent Gurgen and his partners in Europe and Japan.
I suppose it's only fair. I am told China has its own national IoT initiative based in Wuxi. I'd love to get details on it.
Here in Silicon Valley, I talked with Kris Pister, a Berkeley IoT researcher and founder of Dust Networks, one of the early IoT startups. He agreed with the assessment of Levent in Europe. "The [IoT] field is held back by lousy standards and lousy implementations," Pister told me.
The good news is the industry is close to finishing what Pister hopes is a winning standard based on some of the same underpinnings used in the Internet.
Pister backs 6LoWPAN. At its lowest levels it is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 media access controller. At its highest level is the IETF's Constrained Application Protocol. In between, work is about to start on something called 6TSCH (a.k.a. time-synchronized channel hopping for IPv6), one last layer needed to finish the architecture.
Separately, Pister and colleagues have been working on OpenWSN, an open-source software stack that implements the 6LoWPAN approach for wireless sensor networks. "We're approaching the point of having the first complete working stack, but we still don't have security -- something universities are less interested in," says Pister.
Cisco and others are big backers of 6LowPAN. But there's no universal agreement this will be the glue for IoT. IBM, for example, promotes Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), which uses an event subscription model that differs from the approach 6TSCH is taking.
Even if the 6LoWAN folks get consensus, no doubt backers of the other couple dozen IoT approaches out there will contend they are better for some reason, even if it is only because they have been around longer. Whether or not anyone agrees, the reality is they may need to work with the networks they have installed.
So we still need some new glue to unite the superset of IoTs out there, a sort of IoT super glue. And that's the big problem behind this exciting concept of the Internet of Things.
The early focus on protocols was not such a good thing, as it turned out, says Sokwoo Rhee. As founder of Millennial Networks, another one of the early IoT startups, he should know. His company created a whiz-bang, proprietary mesh networking technology for IoT.
A better approach would have been to "work on finding the right app rather than inventing a dozen different protocols," he said in an interview with EE Times. "The protocols were defined before the apps, and that put us back a few years."
As a result, "from a marketing perspective people would say [IoT is] exploding, but from my perspective of watching it since the early days, I and other entrepreneurs like me would say its growing slower than expected, but it's growing."
Rhee has an opportunity for a do-over. He is now one of two presidential fellows working with the emerging Industrial Internet consortium that aims to define the IoT superglue.
The consortium faces big hurdles. There's a lot of politics in setting industry standards, says Pister, who has spent seven years working on standards for 6LoWPAN. The group's membership holds challenges, too, says Michael Anderson a co-founder of the PTR Group, a consulting firm. It includes AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, and Intel.
"Such a marriage will burn lots of hours and produce little substance," Anderson told us.
"Their perspectives are too divergent, and there doesn't appear to be representation from the other 98 percent of the [IoT] marketplace. Where are the SCADA folks? Manufacturing? The auto industry?" he asks.
"I hope they'll be able to get something going, but I wouldn't hold my breath."
相關(guān)閱讀：
• 一個高智能化的物聯(lián)網(wǎng)樞紐--物聯(lián)網(wǎng)網(wǎng)關(guān)
• 讓智能照明與物聯(lián)網(wǎng)擦出絢麗的火花
• 物聯(lián)網(wǎng)應(yīng)用中各種無線連接技術(shù)對比Gfzesmc
責編：Quentin
