Ron Sege, Echelon’s CEO, wrote an article for IoTpedia.com where he talks about the past, present, and future of the Internet of Things. The problem today, as Sege writes, is that: “…we have a billion devices operating in many islands of networks. Air-conditioning systems cannot communicate with lighting systems, even in the same building. Security systems talk yet another language on another island. And, with the advent of the Internet of Things, new devices and new applications for local operating networks are being developed all the time.”
The challenge lies in bringing all of these devices together so they can communicate and capture the benefits of the IoT. This challenge is similar to that of the “Internet of Computers” challenge in the 1980s, when IBM, DEC, Data General, and WANG systems converged with the emerging networks of PCs.
Challenge Echoes What Cisco Faced
“This is the challenge we have taken on in the next chapter at Echelon. In many ways it is the same challenge faced by companies like Cisco in the 1980s and 1990s: Offer a way to bring the installed legacy base together, and onto common new technologies,” Sege says.
Sege writes that Echelon has expanded its sights “...beyond LonWorks to embrace the variety of protocols that make up the legacy installed base of devices, as well as the emerging language of the Internet of Things – IPv6.
“By creating a platform for building device networks that embraces multiple protocols, we can bring together the vast installed base with the quickly emerging Internet of Things, and jumpstart an industry that is full of potential and bound to be the next phase of the Internet: The Internet of Things.”
You may also like:
- Press release on Echelon’s IzoT platform
- IzoT family of chips and the FT 6050 SoC web page
- IzoT platform web page