Nulltx报道 |IONChain离子链：用边缘计算开启消费级
本文转载自: nulltx.com（原merkle）
原文链接: https://nulltx.com/ionchain-ushering-in-the-future-of-ciot-with-edge-computing/
上周，专业的加密数字通证、金融和科技信息网站Nulltx(原Merkle)发表了"IONChain离子链：用边缘计算开启消费级物联网的未来"的报道。
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IONChain: Ushering in the Future of CIoT with Edge Computing
According toForecast and Analysis of Expenditure on Chinese IOT Platformsreleased by IDC, a well-known US market research institute, China’s IoT market will rank the first in the wordwith 6.22 billion US dollars (41.97 billion Yuan) by 2021.
The huge growth of its scale indicates that tens of billions of smart devices will be connected to the internet in the coming future, which requires extremely high load capacity. Currently, the mainstream architecture of IoT is cloud computing-based, in which response speed hinges on calculating performance of cloud servers and network delay from all links. However, with the delays being highly uncontrollable and link uncertainties even greater in IoMT (Internet of Mobile Things), results can range from degraded user experience to unavailable nodes.
Therefore, if the IoT continues to process the data by cloud computing and centralized method, it would be impossible to respond timely to the requests from a great number of terminal devices, which means, the burden of the internet must be reduced to a certain level if the IoT wishes to make real progress in the future.
Edge computing, with its core concept of “Decentralized” and “multi-center”, is exactly the effective solution. By services such as integrating data transfer and storage, it refers to the computing that’s done at or near the source of the data.
If the current IoT is dominated by cloud computing, the future will be edge computing. By contrast to the increasing burdens of could servers, most terminal devices of IoT remains idle. Therefore, a more reasonable and efficient solution is utilizing those idle computing resources and assigning partial or the majority of tasks to the device nodes. IONChain is the first team who discovered huge values out of edge computing and has been dedicated to apply this technology to the IoT as soon as possible.
IONChain is a new IoT infrastructure based on edge computing and blockchain technology. It aims at creating a bottom public chain under IoT , promoting common prosperity of its ecosystem and solving some existing IoT problems in data security, circulation, trading andsharing. At this stage, IONChain is focusing on CIoT market.
Compared with IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), CIoT (Consumer Internet of Things) is characterized by short processing distance to users, ample network nodes and easy access to power, etc. Therefore, it’s more possible to meet challenges such as the explosion of IoT applications and network overload that needs to be tackled down urgently. IONChain chooses dimensionality reduction on the current IoT data transfer volume by edge computing to realize burden reduction in CIoT.
The well-designed structure of network perfectly matches the structure of edge computing. The IONChian-based IoT can make full use of nodes’ computing capability, and fulfill the computing and storing tasks from terminal devices. After transferring computing tasks fromcloud serves to nearby nodes, the network burdens shortened. With high-reliability and high-responsiveness, IONChian greatly improves user experiences in the IoT.
In practice, the result of this “burden reduction” is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
1. Application Needs for vertical scenes: In the current cloud computing-based IoT, if two adjacent terminals cannot directly communicate, all information, which will eventually reach to the target device by cloud messaging or terminal pulling, must go through multi-routing services and relays to the cloud server. While multi-center, edge computing-based IoT is able to help devices to obtain required services nearby, realizing great improvement of speed and efficiency.
2. Requirements for smart industry: devices in the IoT need to quickly adapt to the changes in the environment and interactive mode, realizing “automation of things”: self-connection, self-discovery, self-learning, self-execution and independent decision-making, etc. The current IoT, which based on the network of cloud computing, finds it very hard to bear the huge and increasing demands of “automation of things”, while edge computing, a new method capable of reducing the computing burdens of the whole network, is expected to provide a sound environment for the development of the industry.
3. Data security and access control: Some of the information in the CIoT is highly sensitive, such as data in the medical equipment. For this kind of data, each time when they are transferred though a network segment, they will take the risk of being intercepted, tampered, or being copied illegally by some irrelevant nodes. Edge computing, to some extent, improve protection of data by reducing times and length of data transfer. However, it still cannot fundamentally eliminate the risk of data leakage.
In conclusion, the traditional edge computing, with its reasonable planning and date-distribution type, has given local networks and terminal devices computing tasks, which basically solved former two questions. However, for the last one, main edge computing only shortened the data transmission route, and avoided a part of the risks. They didn’t fully solve the problem.
The advanced vision and professional IONChain team skilfully combines edge computing and blockchain technology, trying to find a way to avoid the third problem from the source. The Blockchain encryption is conducive to solve the last problem: eliminating the data leakage in the transfer.
In addition, both the nodes in the IONChain and the devices in the edge computing network have certain autonomy: each device in the edge computing can independently determine what data is stored locally and what data is sent to the cloud. After technical innovation, IONChain involves data storage into “computing”, which in the past was merely for data input and result output. Data in the IoT, especially for the storage and output permission of sensitive data, are high protected.
Without strong R&D team, IONChain wouldn’t have reached so far. In the past three years, IONChain have provided systematic and integrated solutions for near 20 blockchain projects, helping them to launch their products. Two members in the team are the backbones of core team in Hyperledger.
The past twenty years have witnessed tremendous development in the internet, which has fundamentally changed our life. The “Internet of Things,” born out of the Internet, will be the future of us. IONChain, by integrating advanced technologies of edge computing and blockchain, might be the closest to the CIoT.
中文译文
IONChain离子链：用边缘计算开启消费级物联网的未来
近日，美国知名市场研究机构IDC发布了《中国物联网平台支出预测与分析》，该报告预测，到2021年，中国物联网市场将达到62.2亿美元（折合人民币419.7亿元），位列全球第一。
物联网市场规模的大幅增长意味着，未来将有数以百亿智能设备连接到网络中。而海量设备的接入，对网络的负载能力提出了极高的要求。截至目前，物联网的主流架构是基于云计算搭建的。这一传统架构中数据的响应速度取决于云端服务器的计算性能及全链路的网络时延，而后者恰恰可控性非常低，在移动物联网情况下链路的不确定性进一步放大，轻则降低使用体验度，重则使节点陷入不可用的境地。
因此，如果物联网络继续以云计算、中心化的方式处理数据，未来将极可能无法及时响应大量终端设备的请求。换言之，物联网想要取得真正的进步，网络“减负”变得迫在眉睫。
以“弱中心”、“多中心”为核心思想的边缘计算（Edge Computing）技术，恰好是一种有效的解决方案。边缘计算，是指通过融合网络传输、存储等服务，在靠近数据产生源头的网络边缘侧进行计算。
如果说云计算是物联网的现在进行时，那么边缘计算就是物联网的将来时。和云端服务器越来越不堪重负的情况相对的是，物联网中的绝大部分终端设备，其计算性能却处于闲置。因此，利用这些闲置的计算资源，围绕着设备节点完成部分甚至大部分的计算任务，无疑是更加合理、轻盈的方法。而离子链正是最早发现边缘计算巨大价值的区块链团队，并且他们正在全力将这一技术尽快应用于物联网领域。
离子链（IONChain），是一种基于边缘计算和区块链的新型物联网基础平台，旨在打造物联网生态底层公链。离子链致力于解决物联网数据安全、流通、交易、共享上的诸多问题，促进物联网生态链的共同繁荣。现阶段，离子链将主攻消费级物联网市场。
与工业级物联网相对，消费级物联网具有离用户近、网络节点丰富、电力获取容易等特点，因此更可能率先迎来物联网应用的爆发，以及亟需解决网络负荷过高的问题。针对这一日益突出的矛盾，离子链选择了利用边缘计算对当前的物联网数据传输量进行降维打击，从而实现为消费级物联网“减负”的目标。
经过离子链团队的精心设计，其网络结构恰好符合边缘计算架构。即基于离子链的物联网络，可以充分利用节点本身所具备的计算能力，就近完成终端设备计算存储的对接需求。离子链将计算压力由云计算向边缘计算转移后，网络实现了“减负”，并带来了高可靠性和高响应性两大优势，这为物联网的用户体验带来巨大提升。
从实际应用来看，边缘计算技术对物联网的“减负”效果，主要体现在以下三个方面：
1. 垂直场景的应用需要：在当前以云为中心的物联网络中，即使两个相临的物联网终端无法直接取得通讯，所有的信息都要到经过多重路由和中继转发到云服务器，再由云端推送或者终端拉取的方式，发送给目标设备。而基于边缘计算的多中心物联网络，可以帮助设备就近获得所需服务，速度和效率获得了极大提升。
2. 行业智能化的要求：物联网中的设备，需要能够快速应对环境和交互方式的变化，实现“物自主化”，即自主联接、自主发现、自主学习、自主决策、自主执行等。基于云计算搭建的物联网络，无法承受“物自主化”对于网络性能的海量需求。而能够为整体网络计算量减负的边缘计算，则有望为这一智能化的发展，提供充足的成长环境。
3. 解决数据安全和数据权限的需求：消费级物联网终端采集的部分数据是高度敏感的，如医疗设备终端内的数据。这类数据每多一次跨网段的传输，就会多一次被拦截和篡改的风险，以及被不相关节点非法保留数据复本的潜在风险。值得注意的是，基础的边缘计算能够帮助数据减少一些传输次数和传输长度，从而一定程度提升数据的安全性。但仍然无法从根本上消除数据泄露的风险。
综上所述，传统的边缘计算通过合理规划和区分数据类型，赋予局部网络和设备终端部分算力，基本解决了前两个问题，但对于最后一个问题，主流的边缘计算，只是缩短了数据传输路径，规避了部分风险，而未彻底解决。
眼光超前、技术扎实的离子链创始团队，创造性地将边缘计算与区块链相融合，使其突破性技术能够从根源上规避上述第三个问题中的风险。即以信息加密见长的区块链技术，将有助于解决最后一个难题：彻底消除数据在传输过程中的泄露问题。
除此之外，离子链上的节点和边缘计算网络中的设备都有一定的自主权：边缘计算中的各个设备，可以独立判断什么数据保存在本地，什么数据发到云端。因此，离子链通过技术革新，令边缘计算中的“计算”，并不是单纯的数据输入和结果输出，还包含了数据的存储环节。这使得物联网中的数据，尤其是敏感数据的存储与输出权限安全，得到了极大保障。
离子链之所以能够自如地结合与应用上述两大前沿技术，与其强大的研发团队密不可分。在过往三年中，离子链团队为近20个区块链项目提供了系统化、一体化的解决方案，并实现了产品落地。团队中有2名成员是超级账本全球CORE团队的核心骨干。
过去的二十年，是互联网的二十年。互联网技术以难以想象的程度，彻底颠覆了我们的生活与工作方式。而脱胎于互联网的“物联网”正在不远的路上向我们走来，充分应用了边缘计算和区块链两大先进技术的离子链，很可能是离消费级物联网未来最近的人。
