It has been a while since we have started to talk about revolutionary Industry 4.0 with 5G serving as a network enabler. Many arguments and debates suggested that having acquired both of these technologies the road ahead is clear, press the accelerator and off you go. Well may be it is not that simple.
I define Industry 4.0 as a new era of knowledge based society, where all the objects or rather "things" will have the capability from the day of being manufactured, to be aware of being themselves. In other words the thing will have the ability to have enough intelligence of being self aware with an added potential of understanding as well as making decisions with respect to the environment in which they operate. Therefore here is the question how much of the power of decision making will be back at the core of the network? Will there be enough speed to send and receive information as quickly as cases may require? Or should we allow the edge and the things to make predetermined judgement.
With in this respect vast amount of research is being put aside to "Edge Computing". Performing tasks as the need arises on the spot and report once all is done perfectly.
Therefore we have already started to witness a transposing of Internet towards the edge of the networks and to the devices and to the things. Every product that is being manufactured will be coded with an identity thus enabling things to migrate from being immigrants to natives. They will become ever more smarter and intelligent through advancements in microelectronics and quantum computing.
With this new concept native things acting together might present a real challenge to be managed, controlled towards common initiatives. They will also be immensely open to manipulation through cyber security.
One solution that is being suggested is the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and learning machines. What a confrontation will these new "Thing of Internet" present to vast, giant computing platforms.
It is now the time to understand "Things of Internet" products with native smart capabilities. Shaping the development seems mandatory, once out in the field it will be a lot more demanding to communicate with this swarm.
Technology is advancing forward with an ever lasting speed, keeping abreast is humankind's new frontier.
