I have always been fascinated by the protocol that enables machine-to-machine (M2M) communications – specifically XMPP. Jeremy Miller announces the creation of the Jabber protocol in 1999 and development continued until the stable release of jabberd 1.6.1.1 in July 2007. XMPP is a chat and instant messaging protocol and it is perfect for machine-to-machine communication.
IoT was not a big ‘buzz’ word in the early 2010s, and all devices were connected via a cellular or wired network. The carriers and telecom vendors set the standards. 2015 was a defining year for M2M and IoT. In 2015, all M2M platforms were created and acquired and the IoT replace M2M as the buzzword of the day. On April 24, 2015, Apple watch series 1 was officially released and this started the wearable IoT era.
Current IoT devices include smartphones, wearables, smart home appliances, vehicles, and indoor and outdoor sensors. The number of IoT devices is projected to grow to 21.5 billion by 2025.
With so many connected devices, applications, and protocols need to address challenges, including data integrity, security, and robustness. The answer is a new database structure – Blockchain.