Hot-in-Tech Talk Series – The Internet of Things & the Wireless Infrastructure Behind it by Waqas Akbar.

When was the last time you attended a live talk? Or how many live talks have you attended? Let me guess, very few? We do have exceptional people among us who have lots of cool things to share, yet we don’t see the culture of talks taking off in our society. So isn’t it time someone took a step in this regard? Luckily, someone just did!

On 26th March 2014, Peshawar 2.0 launched the first ever dedicated technology lecture series in Peshawar called the ‘Hot-in-Tech’ (HIT) talk series. The main underlying aim of this lecture series is to cultivate a healthy culture of talks, seminars, discussion and debate in our city, especially outside the classroom. The first HIT talk was delivered by Waqas Akbar, a telecom expert based in Texas who was generous enough to give us a good chunk of his time out of his family vacation (thank you Waqas!). Let me try to give you the highlights of his talk in case you missed it!

The Internet of Things

The talk kicked off with the Internet of Things (IoT). “The Internet of Things is an elephant…” says Waqas Akbar “its huge! In order to fully understand it, we will have to disassemble it part by part and then put it all together and you will see that it makes a lot more sense.” For an object to fulfil the definition of Internet of Things, it must have the ability to sense, communicate data through wired or wireless networks. The closest we have for instance are automatic sliding glass doors which have sensors installed in them and which open when someone approaches, but that’s all it does hence you can’t categorize it as IoT. On the other hand, take a more common example of your smartphone. It has the sensors, it can communicate, and even store and analyse data. So, this one does fall under the category of IoT. Fairly simple, isn’t it?

Data Analytics

Data analytics is about examining a large amount of raw data in order to identify patterns and trends or to formulate conclusions. If you are wondering why data collection is an important tool for IoT, take a look at the following example:

In the above picture, a registered user has mentioned the word ‘laptop’ in the search bar. The raw results are huge but he will get the most relevant material on top. In addition to that, Amazon (the online shopping website) identifies the location of the customer, analyses the routes, estimates the time of delivery and provides options accordingly (see the 3 hours example). That is how data analytics can be of great value and unsurprisingly, businesses have actively used data analytics to gain an advantage over their competitors.

Wireless Infrastructure

A proper wireless infrastructure is of utmost importance for the IoT to function. You cannot expect the IoT phenomenon to operate at full potential when the wireless infrastructure behind it is inefficient. So how do we decide if the wireless infrastructure we have is good enough? The picture below will give us an idea.

Now we have the information on wireless communications, from the 1st generation (1G) to the fourth generation (4G). The picture itself is self-explanatory and requires little explaining. The basic idea we get is that as we move from the obsolete 1G to the latest technology of 4G, the throughput increases drastically. At 2G, we might be able to do our daily browsing and maybe check our facebook regularly but that’s pretty much it. In order to advance beyond this level, we will require a wireless network that has the capability to deliver the speed that can sustain and execute our required tasks efficiently. For example, a 2G network will hardly be able to execute live streaming and m-commerce whereas a 4G network will do it without any difficulty. So what do we get in return? Our usage pattern will change dramatically. Things that we did not consider doing on our cell phones might turn out to be our top priority if the wireless infrastructure we have is capable enough to support it.

NEST

The talk ended with a fascinating case study which stitched together all the concepts explained earlier and made a compelling case for the internet of things.

NEST, a really cool thermostat with a very slick minimal design, helps you control the temperature of your house (by regulating your heaters/air-conditioners). A device that has ‘convenience’ written all over it.  The basic purpose of this device is to allow you a wider range of control in regulating the temperature of your house. You can control it through your cell phone by installing its app (communicate). Moreover, it analyses your usage pattern (data collection) and regulates the temperature (sensors) accordingly (remember IoT?). Say, if you have to leave your house for 8 hours or so, you can let NEST take charge of the temperature. It will turn the heating/cooling system off and you can turn it on via your cell phone ten minutes before your arrival. Result? Less cost & more efficiency. In fact it is said that the amount of power all NEST thermostats have saved since October 2011 is enough to power Brazil for 36 hours! No wonder Google bought this startup for a staggering $3.2 billion!

What Next?

So what is the purpose of explaining all this in a 60-minute talk? Like it or not, the technology is prospering at a frightening pace and it is very unfortunate that we are not keeping up with it. The world is manufacturing products that are not just technologically advanced but also eco-friendly (for e.g. NEST). Not only are these super-profitable (Whatsapp acquisition), but also provides convenience for users. While we are content with our 9 to 5ers, the world is churning out start-ups worth billions of dollars. It is time to break this shell we’ve built around us and start thinking about how we can capitalize on the countless opportunities that are hovering around us. HIT talks is just one platform which we have introduced for this to happen, the question is, are you willing to step up?

Attached below is the full presentation (slides) that Waqas used in his talk. If you have stayed with me up till now then I’m sure you’d love to check it!

If you have any questions or thoughts you’d like to share, then please leave a comment or tweet us @peshawar2o.