Internet of Things: an action plan for Europe

Summary:

Communication published by the European Commission on 18 June 2009, setting out an Action Plan concerning the development of an Internet of Things (IoT) to support addressing some of the fundamental societal challenges.

Further information:

The growth of the internet is an ongoing process. One major next step in this development is to progressively evolve from a network of interconnected computers to a network of interconnected objects, and thus create an Internet of Things (IoT). The scope of IoT applications is expected to greatly contribute to address a number of societal challenges. This interconnection of physical objects is expected to amplify the profound effects that large-scale networked communications are having on our society, gradually resulting in a genuine paradigm shift.

It is worth pointing to the complex nature of IoT. It should not be seen as an extension of today's Internet but rather as a number of new independent systems that operate with their own infrastructures. IoT is to be implemented in symbiosis with new services, and it is to cover different modes of communication. The advent of IoT is taking place in an ICT environment affected by scale, mobility, heterogeneity and complexity. The Internet of Things can help improve citizens' quality of life, business opportunities and growth for the industry, and a boost to Europe's competitiveness.

This Communication interacts with wider policy initiatives related to the Lisbon Strategy and with existing thinking on post-i2010 initiatives. It comes in response to the invitation made by the Council of the European Union to deepen the reflection on the development of decentralised architectures and promoting a shared and decentralised network governance for the Internet of things. It was first announced in the RFID Communication and it adds to previous considerations by the Commission within its Communication on future networks and the internet.