Internet of Things : I would love to call it SCADA of Everything

IoT as SCADA of Everything?

SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. In a chemical plant or a factory, typically there will be a network of computers, sensors and actuators that will help the operator monitor the health of the whole plant continuously and take appropriate actions as needed. We call it a SCADA system.

With SCADA, all critical elements of the plant are networked together. Sensors are kept at critical points to measure parameters like temperature, pressure, flow, level, etc. All major components like pumps, valves, tanks, boilers, chambers, etc are equipped with appropriate measurement devices or sensors and such data are connected to a central server. All these measurement devices could communicate to each other or to a host machine through what we call as Machine to Machine (M2M) communication.

Most of the M2M communications were traditionally limited to communication between devices inside a plant network. This has served as the backbone for all SCADA systems, and even higher level systems like MES and ERP systems inside plants and factories.

Now, take the M2M out of the plant network. Think of the possibility of connecting various things that we encounter in our day-to-day lives to a server on cloud through internet. This is what we call the Internet of Things (IoT).

In very simple terms, you can call it as the Next Generation SCADA system where virtually everything in this world can be connected, monitored and supervised. You can think of numerous scenarios where this can change our lives.

How does it change our lives?

IoT is expected to change the way we lead our lives in the near future. It is expected that there will be around 50 billion connected devices by 2020.

All vehicles on the road can be connected. You can have a program that helps you choose the road with the least traffic based on the collective information available from all vehicles. Your car’s manufacturer can advise when you should replace the brake liner, or when the oil has to be changed, based on the latest, accurate on the road data readily available with them.

You could be living in a connected home. Just before you start from your office, you could turn on the room heater at home from your smart phone so that your home is warm enough as you arrive.

You will probably have your aged father wear a watch that can measure his blood pressure, sugar levels and heart rate and continuously send them to the local health center who can send help as soon as there is an emergency.

Even business models can change

As new communication technologies emerge and as bandwidth becomes cheaper, more and more data will be sent to the cloud making the devices leaner. Even CT and MRI scanners could send the scan data to the cloud to make it accessible for doctors on the go. Suppliers could reduce the equipment prices and charge hospitals based on the amount of data or the number of scans. Suppliers can continuously monitor the health of the equipments from diagnostics data on the cloud and suggest replacements well ahead in time.

Businesses can reduce upfront investments on equipments and can follow a pay-as-you-go model since it will be easier for the equipments to upload usage data regularly to the cloud.

And we could soon see smart cities that are run in a synchronized and coordinated way using data from connected devices at various points - traffic, waste management, housing, water supply, power distribution, etc.

Challenges ahead

But there are quite a few challenges ahead in the IoT roadmap.

Standardization of communication protocols and data representation

There are hundreds of ways to connect devices, wireless or wired. The techniques and protocols differ in terms of hardware, software, data formats and hand shake processes. Different techniques suit different purposes. It is hard to arrive at a common standard that suits everything.

Apart from the protocols, there is also a need to arrive at standard data models that will promote open frameworks and solutions to handle information from ‘unknown’ devices. Solutions can become scalable only through such high levels of standardization.

Technology and Bandwidth challenges

As the amount of data required to be sent across the cloud becomes more, the bandwidth requirements also increase. It needs considerable amount of bandwidth for a digital fault recorder in an electric line to upload its heavy data log files. As communication technologies evolve to become cheaper and faster, device manufacturers can minimize local storage requirements and push as much data as possible to the cloud that allows central processing. 

Having long duration battery power is another technology challenge, especially for field devices. Technologies like 6LoWPAN lead the way here to help designing low power devices that can communicate across wireless networks.

Analytics

Large amounts of data are going to be pushed to the cloud with this revolution. Analytics tools and frameworks are further evolving to meet the challenge here.

Security

Security becomes a major challenge as everything gets ‘connected’. Imagine that the windows of your house can be opened by some hacker, either for fun or on purpose.

Conclusion

The world is now busy solving these challenges. In less than a decade, we can see the whole world being supervised and controlled by this monster SCADA - Internet of Things.

Be ready !