NIST takes a stab at defining IoT

A new publication from the National Institute of Standards and Technology seeks to define the building blocks of the Internet of Things with an eye toward security and scalability.

"There isn't a formal, analytic or descriptive set of building blocks that oversee the operation, trustworthiness and life cycle of IoT components," said Jeffrey Voas, a computer scientist at NIST and author of "Networks of 'Things.'"

Voas based his IoT building blocks on the elements of the familiar distributed computing model, in which computer components are connected via local-area networks and share information among themselves.

His Network of Things serves as the underlying model for larger IoT networks. NoT's four fundamentals are sensing, computing, communication and actuation. Its five building blocks, called "primitives," are core components of distributed systems.

For example, the primitives in a home's motion-activated lighting system begin with the motion sensors and include the communications channel and software that process the sensor's data and turn off lights in the room if no one is present.

NIST said the NoT model will give researchers a common language to use in solving security and other problems that arise as the IoT burrows deeper into the devices and networks we use every day.