The internet of things program: the finnish perspective

Recent advances in radio, network, mobile, and cloud technologies have supported the development of the first generation Internet of Things (IoT) services and products. IoT promises to connect various physical and digital objects to the Internet and thus enable a plethora of new innovative applications that enhance society and quality of life [1–3]. IoT and ubiquitous computing [4] extend the current mobile computing revolution by reaching beyond the current four billion mobile phones, connecting the phones, sensors, and other devices with the Internet. The resulting communications network is exponentially larger and more complex than the current Internet with potentially trillions of identifiers and communicating endpoints. This IoT revolution creates both technological and societal challenges that need to be addressed. IoT as a concept is not new as it was proposed over 10 years ago in the MIT Auto-ID Center. The concept has since gained momentum and importance, and now it is considered in Europe, the United States, and Asia, not only on the implementation and deployment level, but also on the societal level. From the telecommunications point of view, IoT pertains to the interconnection of physical objects in so called global machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. Previous telecommunications paradigm shifts have first involved the interconnection of physical locations, and then of people. The key challenges in IoT are in the fragmented nature of the solutions and its integration with everyday life. At the moment, traditional industrial IoT solutions are ossified and based on closed proprietary technologies, making it difficult to integrate them across application domains. New standards and enablers are needed to bridge these vertical silos. With the advent of mobile and IoT solutions, we are surrounded by a cloud of myriad devices that monitor us, control the environment, and interact with us in sectors such as healthcare, smart home, industry automation, and services. Thus, it is increasingly important to guarantee the correct operation of the IoT solutions, and ensure the required levels of security and privacy.