The concept of the Internet of Things, Internet of Things or IoT, refers to the possibility that "things" can be integrated into the Internet network . As such, it may not seem particularly relevant, but it opens up a wide range of applications. 

If the "thing" were a car, this technology could detect traffic jams or accidents in real time, so that the IoT system could automatically call the emergency services or suggest alternative routes. If the "thing" were the pantry or refrigerator of a household, it could automatically make the shopping list and, in the supermarket, suggest the optimal pathway to purchase the products. If by "thing" we refer to a company, we could even know at all times the state of the machinery and predict a possible breakdown, which would be corrected in a planned manner, avoiding unwanted stops in production. This same technology has improved the health of young trees in the German city of Erlangen. But how do IoT systems work?

To begin with, they represent a convergence of different technologies: electronics optimized for low power consumption, sensors, energy harvesting systems that capture energy from the environment, wireless communications systems, cloud platforms or data science. All of this is aimed at collecting, transmitting and processing large amounts of data efficiently. 

One of the outstanding technologies of modern IoT networks are their communications systems, known as Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN). These systems are capable of operating with very low power consumption and covering long distances. These two seemingly incompatible characteristics, low power consumption and long range, are possible in LPWANs because the size of the data they transmit is small. This is not a major limitation in IoT systems, since it is not a matter of sending large data, as would be the transmission of a video, but small data, such as those transmitted by devices with sensors to read temperature or humidity, for example. What LPWANs must ensure is the transmission of data from a large issue of devices, hundreds or thousands, reliably and over long periods of time, measured in months or years. 

In addition, these IoT systems are open to innovation. For example, using direct communications to satellites, which allows communication with devices deployed in large areas or in remote and difficult to access locations, such as forest areas, ships at sea, vehicles on transcontinental routes or critical infrastructures in isolated areas.

Examples of this subject of networks are LoRaWAN, Sigfox, NB-IoTe or Mioty which, indeed, allow devices powered by batteries or energy harvesting modules to collect energy from their environment: solar, thermal, kinetic energy..., and to operate autonomously for months or years transmitting small amounts of data over distances of several kilometers. 

A final practical example of the positive impact of IoT networks comes from the German city of Erlangen. In this city, the research center Fraunhofer IIS, in collaboration with the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, implemented a project to optimize water consumption in irrigation of the 1,500 young trees surveyed in the city, which require regular watering to promote the development of their roots. The project used the Mioty solution, one of the latest LPWAN systems, which stands out for its ability to manage massive, robust and secure IoT networks. The devices, equipped with this technology, continuously read and transmit soil moisture at different points in the wooded areas around Erlangen. The data received is analyzed and, by means of algorithms, automatically adjusts when the trees need to be watered. The project saved 250 m3 of water and improved the health of young trees, avoiding 20 replantings. Total cost savings were estimated at €80,000.