Industrial IoT, Industrial Internet, and Industrie 4.0

The IIoT digitally transforms industrial and enterprise operations by adding smarts and connectivity to machines, people, and processes. IIoT converges technical advancements in multiple areas, including:

• Innovations in network connectivity (low energy wireless, edge and cloud technologies)
• Low-cost sensing and computing with machine learning
• Sensor-generated big data
• Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications
• Automation technologies those have existed in the industry for many years

IIoT is also interchangeably referred to as the Industrial Internet, a term originally coined by General Electric (GE). GE defines the Industrial Internet as (GE-IIoT) "the convergence of the global industrial system with the power of advanced computing, analytics, low-cost sensing and new levels of connectivity permitted by the internet."

GE's Industrial Internet refers to the third wave of innovation in industrial environments, the first two waves being the industrial revolution, followed by the Internet revolution, as shown in the following diagram:

Industrie 4.0 is a digital transformation project that was launched (https://www.i-scoop.eu/industry-4-0/) by Germany in 2011 and widely referenced in Europe (ISP-4IR). It refers to connected cyber-physical systems (discussed later in this chapter). The Industrial Internet concept is comparable to the fourth revolution, as illustrated in figure 1.2.

Industrie 4.0 is primarily focused on the digital transformation of manufacturing by leveraging technologies such as big data/analytics and IoT. This transformation is catalyzed by the convergence of information technology (IT) and OT, robotics, data, artificial intelligence, and manufacturing processes to realize connected factories, smart decentralized manufacturing, self-optimizing systems, and the digital supply chain in the information-driven, cyber-physical environment of the fourth industrial revolution, sometimes called 4IR (ISP-IIoT):

According to top analyst firms, over the next decade, the number of connected machines is estimated to be in the order of tens of billions, while through accelerated productivity growth, the global gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to expand in double digits. Increases in efficiency, data management, productivity, and safety are the core drivers for IIoT adoption.

Interestingly, this wave of digital transformation in various industry verticals is also a key driver for safety and security technologies in order to realize reliable systems and architectures.