The internet is getting bigger and the world is getting smaller.
As the internet makes communications between people and things easier than making a phone call, it makes the world a smaller place.
My dad often called me to change the television station when he, himself, was sitting directly 2 feet away from it. Now we have a device that’s able to control a TV 2000 miles away and further. The technology is known as Internet of Things, IOT . IOT, can be thought of as a powerful remote control system that allows two-way communication, all of which happens over the internet.
One key part of the communication which supports IOT is MQTT. Developed by IBM, MQTT is a lightweight communications message passing standard that sends/received data without gobs of unnecessary overhead to slow it down. What follows is the technical description of how it works. A sender or publisher delivers messages to the broker. The broker is the middle man between the one who sends a message and the one who receives the message. His job is to collect all messages and to delivers them to the proper subscribers. A subscriber is the recipient of a specific message. All messages between the publisher and subscriber passes through the broker. This methods of communication protects a WiFi networks as its security doesn’t have to be disabled for messages to transfer. All communication is through the broker which is cloud based.
There are many uses for IOT
- Grocery shoppers can remotely look into their refrigerator without having to go home first to learn what they need to buy.
- House plants can be watered remotely and soil status messages can be deliveredr to the owner that the soil is too dry.
- When a car incurs an impact greater than normal, multiple events can occur: alert the local hospital, contact 911 and send text messages to family and friends
As a child, our home required heating oil for the house to stay warm. Dad asked us not to turn up the thermostat until he returned home from work. He urged us to wear more clothes. Though we listened to Dad, the thermostat was still turned up, occasionally.
If Dad had access to IOT, he would have been able to monitor the house temperature and reset the thermostat manually while he was at work. I’m sure I would have gotten a personal text message too. It probably would have read, “I want to see you when I get home mister, the heat was again turned up.”