The relationship between the Internet of Things, RFID, sensor networks, and ubiquitous networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) is receiving increasing attention from governments and enterprises. In recent years, IoT related technologies and products have been developing at an explosive pace. At the same time, a variety of IoT related products are flooding the entire market, and various industry standards and other factors are gradually restricting the effective development of IoT. Based on the closely related characteristics of IoT technology and applications, we have formed a standard system that includes technical basic specifications such as system architecture, networking communication protocols, interfaces, collaborative processing components, network security, coding identification, backbone network access and services, as well as product and application subset specifications. This provides important support for the adoption of standards in our company's IoT product research and application development in the future. As a hot new product, the Internet of Things is inseparable from its core technology support. So, what is the relationship between the core technology of the Internet of Things and the Internet of Things? 

1. The relationship between sensor networks and RFID

RFID and sensors have different technical characteristics. Sensors can monitor and sense various information, but lack the ability to identify items. RFID technology, on the other hand, has a powerful ability to identify items. Although RFID is often described as a tag based sensor used to identify targets, RFID readers cannot sense changes in the current environment in real time, and their reading and writing range is affected by the distance between the reader and the tag. Therefore, improving the sensing capability of RFID systems and expanding their coverage is an urgent problem that needs to be solved. The longer effective distance of sensor networks will expand the application range of RFID technology. Sensors, sensor networks, and RFID technology are all important components of the Internet of Things technology. Their mutual integration and system integration will greatly promote the application of the Internet of Things, and their application prospects are immeasurable.

2 The relationship between the Internet of Things and sensor networks

The concept of Sensor Network was first proposed by the US military and originated in 1978 when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began funding a distributed sensor network research project at Carnegie Mellon University. At that time, this concept was limited to a network composed of several self-organizing sensor nodes with wireless communication capabilities. With the rapid development of Internet technology, multiple access networks and intelligent computing technology in recent years, ITU-T published the research report Ubiquitous Sensor Networks in February 2008. In the report, ITU-T pointed out that sensor networks have evolved towards ubiquitous sensor networks, which are networks composed of intelligent sensor nodes that can be deployed in the form of "anywhere, anytime, anyone, anything". This technology can drive new applications and services in a wide range of fields, from security and environmental monitoring to driving individual productivity and enhancing national competitiveness. From the above definition, it can be seen that sensor networks have been regarded as an important component of the Internet of Things. If the scope of intelligent sensors is extended to other data collection technologies such as RFID, from the perspective of technical composition and application fields, ubiquitous sensor networks are equivalent to the Internet of Things we are referring to now. 

3. The relationship between the Internet of Things and ubiquitous networks

Ubiquitous network refers to the ubiquitous network, also known as ubiquitous network. The definition given by Japan and South Korea, who first proposed the U strategy, is that the ubiquitous network society will be a technological social form armed with intelligent networks, the most advanced computing technology, and other leading digital technology infrastructure. According to this concept, the U-network will have the basic characteristics of "omnipresence", "omnipresence", and "omnipotence", helping humans achieve "4A" communication, that is, smooth communication at any time, any place, anyone, and anything. Therefore, compared to the current feasibility of IoT technology, ubiquitous networks belong to the ideal state and long-term vision of future information network technology development.