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omentum isbuilding fastaround the nextbig broadbandadvancement: a

world where billions of intelligentsensors and devices produce the dataingredients for a quantum leap forwardin environmental intelligence,automation, predictability andubiquitous connectivity. Thesecapabilities will have dramatic andpositive impact on our economy and ourquality of life.

Already around the world, forward-thinking cities are managing everythingfrom vehicle traffic flows to air-qualitycontrols with the aid of real-timesensors communicating over broadbandnetworks. Farmers in the AmericanMidwest are optimizing fertilizationand water resources by letting network-connected devices determine when toapply either as conditions demand.Oceanographers are collecting newinsights about current patterns, animallife and coastal conditions by listeningin on the collective data hum producedby intelligent sensors. Wearable sensorspowered by embedded software systemsare helping patients monitor andrespond to key health indicators. Athome, it’s now possible for yourthermometer to adjust itself, your lightsto illuminate and your music system togreet you with a song from a favoriteartist, without you ever touching asingle object.

Rightly so, this “Internet of Things”(IoT) transformation has captured

tremendous interest, reflected byinvestment activity that’s rising fast. Theprivate-investment analysis firm CBInsight estimates financing for IoTcompanies rose to a record level in 2013,with $1.1 billion invested across 153different deals.

As the broadband Internet movesaway from its early conception ofcomputer-to-computer connectivity andinto a new arena sensor-produced,network-of-networks intelligence, it’stempting to think of the IoT as theultimate realization of our broadbandworld.

But I believe otherwise. While theidea of machines working in thebackground to monitor and automateeveryday functionality is tremendouslyprovocative, a bigger, more powerfulmovement is dovetailing at the sametime. And it’s one I’m convinced willtranscend anything the IoT by itself canachieve.

Internet of People

It’s what I think of as a broadband-powered network of human intelligence;colloquially, the Internet of People. It’s adata environment in which a singleindividual instantly can accessthousands of intelligent touch pointsand information resources drawing onbig-data analytics and powered by cloudcomputing. Its product is an economic,cultural and scientific renaissance madepossible by transcending priorlimitations of knowledge delivery andby empowering human beings with acollective, newfound intelligence. It is

where the IoT intersects with thehuman capacity for innovation andthoughtful creation.

Imagine, for example, what mighthappen if detailed knowledge aboutrelationships between roadway bridgeconditions and interstate truckingmishaps, captured from sensor-fed U.S.Dept. of Transportation databases,happened to be available to anyone witha broadband connection and a sense ofcuriosity. Would the realization ofinsights into possible causes andremedies for incidents be more likely toincrease or to decrease? Would thepossibility of creative solutions begreater, or would it be reduced? Wouldan ad-hoc group of students, armedwith computers and data analysis skills,be more likely or less likely to identifyan entrepreneurial opportunity as aresult? Or by examining differentsensor-powered databases, might ourteam forewarn of a looming healthcrisis? Or predict an asteroid’sapproach?

These are mere off-the-cuff examples– there are countless others – ofopportunities that will emerge as weapply our collective human creativity tosensor-gleaned data on a large scale.

Researchers are becoming excitedabout the possibilities. “Recently, theresearch trend has shifted from IoTdevices and resources to IoTinformation, since the ultimate goal ofthe IoT research is to enable ubiquitousaccess and utilization of the physical

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by Rouzbeh Yassini, Ph.D.

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world information,” wrote the Universityof Surrey’s Wei Wang in a 2013 paperpublished in the journal Automatika.

Outlines of possibility

The toolkit we are building in the formof broadband connectivity has thepotential to harness data sources andprovoke creativity on a massive scale thatI’m not certain we can yet begin toimagine. You can see the outlines ofpossibility, though, in early manifestations:Crowd-sourcing of capital. Open-sourcesoftware that invites collaboration fromcontributors across the world. Mash-upsof creative content that yield new andinteresting art forms. Open environmentsfor application development that allowanybody with a good idea to fulfill globaldemand – or delight a single individual. Awindow to global commerce for aninventive thinker working from a garage.Manufacturing of physical goodsanywhere from massively deployed 3Dprinters. A worldwide classroom forstudents everywhere.

Already, we’ve seen impressive waves ofinnovation sparked by the ready access,low entry barriers and wide marketplacereach of today’s broadband networks.Now, add in the unprecedented real-timeknowledge produced by billions ofconnected devices, and the ingredients areemerging for sweeping change in thenature of human productivity andcontribution.

It’s a revolution where “consumers,”having unprecedented access to real-timeintelligence, now become capable andprolific “producers.” Where economicopportunity that was unimaginable to apreceding generation is a click or twoaway to the current generation. Whererestrictions around access to marketsvanish. Where we collapse what used torequire decades of learning and educationinto a few compact years. Where a high-school sophomore knows more, and canaccomplish more, than a doctoralcandidate from a previous generation.

I don’t mean to suggest the IoT lacksthe makings of a transformationalmovement. But I submit that it’s thecoupling of sensor-derived intelligencewith human creativity that will power arevitalized, broadband-powered globaleconomy. Think about it in marketplace

terms: Rather than counting up“residential broadband RGUs,” let’s startto think about the economic power of 90million U.S. “home innovation centers”equipped with 3D printer farms andgigabit connections to an intelligent IoTnetwork. That’s a foundation that willequip the U.S. to grow its economy atwarp speed. That’s the power of theInternet of People.

Implications for cable

If my premise is true – thatbroadband’s real potential comes fromarming everyday citizens with knowledgeand productivity tools never beforeavailable – then there are interestingimplications for the development ofbroadband networks, and the role of cablecompanies in realizing them.

Paramount among them is theprogression of more robust broadbandnetworks, and particularly the drivetoward data symmetry, where today’simbalance between downstreamperformance and upstream performancebegins to even out. Symmetrical datatransmission capability has existed since

1986. Now it’s time to deploy it at a grandscale. If we are to move to an advancedgrowth economy, one of the propellantsmust be a network infrastructure thatreduces limitations on individualcontribution. The Internet of Peopleshould not favor downstream data“delivery,” but should invite upstream data“contribution,” without prejudice. Ourcurrent giddiness over 1 gigabitdownstream networks is understandable,but the real transformation will occurwhen we arm citizens with gigabitperformance in both directions.

So what are we waiting for? It’s plainto see from recent worries about anotherglobal economic slide that the world isbadly in need of an economic stimulantproducing real, positive and lastingimprovement. Noodling with interestrates and restructuring public debtobligations can only take the world so far.Nations today desperately need atechnology jump-start to transform theireconomies.

The broadband cable industry has thetools in hand to help advance this Internetof People transformation in positive and

profitable fashion. Of course, it won’t beeasy and it won’t be quick. It has to startwith a clear vision and a determination toempower all citizens of our nation. Weneed to align our service providers,government and business leaders toembrace the possibilities, and in my viewthe necessity, of the next broadbandprogression.

We can do it. As proven by the Route128 “Massachusetts Miracle” of the 1970sand the rise of Silicon Valley in the 1980s,when technology, entrepreneurs, networksand communities come together, theworld becomes an innovator’s paradise.The amount of innovation fostered bythese centers is immeasurable. Since then,Seattle, Austin, Portland and Raleigh,N.C., along with other cities anduniversities therein, have embraced themodel of innovation incubation and arepushing the concept deeper.

Now, we can go even further. In the1800s, the Morrill Acts triggered thecreation of American land- and sea-grantuniversities that transferred knowledge tomore individuals than ever before. Thatsame goal – imparting knowledge morewidely across the citizenry – can berealized fully when we arm everyAmerican citizen with gigabit broadbandand real-time services that enableeveryone to learn, to create and toproduce.

Cable industry role

The cable industry in particular has aunique opportunity to enable success andinnovation for every American householdif it can accomplish five critical tasks:• Connect every school in America to

one gigabit-per-second, two waycapability

• Collaborate with the software industryto build an open standard, embeddedsystem platform that supportsintelligent, real-life and real-worldapplications

• Having learned from managing andoperating 1 gigabit solutions toschools, deploy gigabit networks toevery home

• Connect the majority of the 30 million“forgotten” Americans using alternativemeans such as wireless, license-exemptspectrum solutions

• Most important of all, makebroadband universally attainable byinstituting affordable pricing, similar tothe $50 per month/per gigabitSingapore provides to its citizens

As the list above reflects, a key triggerfor the Internet of People is empoweringevery student in the nation with gigabitbroadband. This will serve as a catalyst tomultiply the innovations of today’s youthand instruct us in how to create theservice model, consumer care platform,and application suite that will yield a trueinformation economy and the benefits itconfers.

Connecting schools at gigabit speedsalso will provoke upgrades to serviceprovider backbones, provisioning systems,routing, switching, security and serviceactivation bases, while encouraging amuch-needed departure from cable’slegacy 6 MHz channel model. This newdigital highway is the foundation ofcable’s transformation to an Internet ofPeople model.

Technology isn’t the only importantingredient, however. We need to cultivateacross universities, community colleges andhigh schools a new generation of teachersskilled in educating students aboutembedded system (software andapplication) development. The goal: forevery valued function in our daily lives tobe transformed to a digital platform thatrepresents the foundation of the new smartcommunity. This digital platform also willextend to home services, where devices willinclude wearable sensors that measurehealth indicators, environmental sensors,household security, appliance operation,entertainment and learning tools.

The good news: It’s not as if we’restarting from scratch. The enablingelements of this broadband architecturehave been around since 2001, when thefirst large-scale residential broadbandnetwork platforms came to themarketplace. Now it’s time to start ournext digital transformation, beginningwith every school and university, and builtaround gigabit connections to everystudent. The Internet of People won’thappen without bold, ambitiousinvestment. But the rewards are huge.Building and empowering intelligentbroadband services that connect every

American household to massive real-timeanalytics will produce astonishing resultsin economic growth, social interaction andhuman potential. With the Internet ofPeople, we will create opportunity. We willbetter manage our resources in a worldwhere there are limits to raw materialsand a rising global population. A trueglobal economy will flourish. Andhumanity will thrive.

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Dr. Rouzbeh Yassini, Ph.D.

Dr. Rouzbeh Yassini is Founder and CEO ofYAS Capital Partners and is acting Execu-tive Director of the University Of NewHampshire Broadband Center Of Excellence,an interdisciplinary initiative devoted to theadvancement of broadband Internet technol-ogy and services. Dr. Yassini is widely knownas the “father of the cable modem,” reflectinghis pioneering work in cable broadband tech-nology as the founder and CEO of LANcityand as prominent contrib-utor to the CableLabs Dataover Cable Services Inter-face Specification (DOC-SIS), a pillar of today’sworldwide, multi-billiondollar broadband industry.

Cable Carnac the Magnificent

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