The 'Internet Of Things': A Hierarchy Of Opportunity

By Allan Griebenow, AXCESS International Inc.

President Obama recently opened new RF spectrum for wireless. Most citizens have developed their own personalized wireless worlds. Businesses, too, are adding solutions like mobility to bring greater productivity into operations; a recent study sized that investment at over $4,500 per worker. Wireless is certain to be pervasive in every enterprise, enabling every "thing" to "talk," automatically providing its ID, location, and status out to the network for operational uses. The trend is called "The Internet of Things." We've all heard the names of the many discrete wireless technologies vying for acceptance, yet most of us don't understand ZigBee, RuBee, Bluetooth, Ultra-WideBand, RFID (radio frequency identification), RTLS (real-time location systems), etc.