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challenges by helping to put IoT systems in the sufficient addressing resources are available
hands of individuals, care-givers, doctors and to accommodate the millions of connected
hospitals. Connected devices such as insulin devices). Enabling peer-to-peer connections
pumps and blood-pressure cuffs can monitor between devices can increase the reliability of
patients and report warning signs of conditions communications, compared with requiring a large
such as diabetes and heart disease. and complex global network. But when devices
must be globally reachable – most commonly, via
Both the public and private sectors are continuing the Internet – a large address space is required
to fund significant levels of IoT research and to individually identify each device. The need to
development in areas such as modularity, meet this requirement underlines the benefit of
reliability, flexibility, robustness and scalability. But globally adopting the next version of the Internet
the basic capabilities needed for many applications Protocol, IPv6.
are already well understood and becoming
available through smart phones and other The purpose of this chapter is to raise awareness
standard platforms. These devices also will address among the ICT regulatory community of the
some of the cost issues that have held back growth changes prompted by the advent of IoT. It will
in the past, although cost and reliability remain examine the current and future challenges
issues for large-scale systems, as dœs connectivity. and opportunities in an effort to understand
One significant opportunity is the greater use how IoT is impacting consumers, businesses,
of open data and Application Programming governments and society at large. There are
Interfaces (APIs), which can enable a higher level particular regulatory implications for licensing and
of innovation in IoT systems. spectrum management, switching and roaming,
addressing and numbering, competition, security
As IoT systems grow, two types of issues and privacy. Some of these issues are familiar to
become more urgent: connectivity issues (i.e., telecommunication regulators and others may be
between machines and between machines and areas in which different regulators typically take
humans) and addressing issues (i.e., ensuring the lead.

The Internet of Things Figure 3.1: The Internet of Things, in a
nutshell
What Is It?
Anything
Any Device
“A global infrastructure for the information
society, enabling advanced services by
interconnecting (physical and virtual) things Anytime Anyone
based on existing and evolving interoperable Any context The Anybody
information and communication” (ITU-T) INTERNET
of
Who Makes It? THINGS

Any Service
Device manufacturers, network operators, Any Place Any Business
Anywhere
application platforms, software developers
and (cloud-based) data analytics services Any Path
providers Any network

How Is It Accessed?

Connection of IoT devices via Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, mobile phone networks,
specialized radio networks, global Internet

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