Lack of Effective Timing Signals Could Hamper ‘Internet of Things’ Development

Our fast-approaching future of driverless cars and “smart” electrical grids will depend on billions of linked devices making decisions and communicating with split-second precision to prevent highway collisions and power outages. But a new report* released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) warns that this future could be stalled by our lack of effective methods to marry computers and networks with timing systems.

Credit: K. Irvine-NIST/ ©dimedrol68 and Helen Sergeyeva / Fotolia.com

The authors, who include NIST’s Marc Weiss and seven experts from academia and industry, are concerned about the way most modern data systems are designed to process and exchange data with one another and what that could mean for a world of discrete processors and mechanical devices linked by an information network—the “Internet of Things” (IoT). In addition to giving you access to the status of your home appliances anywhere, anytime, the IoT encompasses many potentially important but delicate applications such as cars that drive themselves and telemedicine surgical suites that allow doctors to operate on patients from remote locations. People are still imagining applications for the IoT, but GE predicts that nearly half the global economy can benefit from it.

The trouble is that these applications frequently will depend on precision timing in computers and networks, which were designed to operate optimally without it. For example, for a driverless car to decide whether what it senses ahead is a plastic bag blowing in the wind or a child running, its decision-making program needs to execute within a tight deadline. Yet modern computer programs only have probabilities on execution times, rather than the strong certainties that safety-critical systems require.

In addition, many IoT systems will require precision synchronization across networks. “Imagine writing a letter to your friend saying it is now 2:30 p.m., and then sending it by snail mail so he can synchronize his watch with yours,” says Weiss. “That’s the equivalent of how accurate the timing of messages are in computers and systems right now. The transfer delay must be accounted for to do the things that are expected of the IoT.” For complete and original post see here