Service Oriented Network - changing the way we work, live, play, and learn

Traditionally, The Internet is only a collection of interconnected computing device (PC, PDA, Telephone, etc.).

However, with the advance of new technologies, "things" and "information" could be networked as well:

• things could be networked by adding tag (i.e. RFID) : shipping containers, pallets, people, pets, ...., weapons, etc.
• information could be networked by adding sensors : temperature, location, speed, etc.

All of these things are not future technology, most are already happening, but only small portion of "things" and "information" are networked today. For example, a shipping company may put RFID tags to the shipping containers, so this company could track where the containers is located in realtime, and everyone in the world could also locate the containers as well (if they are permitted). Some of RFID has sensor also to detect the temperature inside the containers, so if we are sending meat, we (and anyone in the world that is authorized) could monitor the temperature of the meat during the storage or shipping...

This is the real power of networking - it changes the way we work, live, play and learn !

You could imagine if every "thing" and "information" are networked - you could telnet to your car and start the engine and aircon, and monitor the temperature, and stop the engine when the temperature is warm enough.... Another case, you could monitor where your dog is running to...., or you could see in realtime in a computer monitor (or PDA, whatever) if your desk or chair is moved by someone. A farmer could monitor the movement of his/her cattle, if one cattle stay still for too long period, the farmer could see the temperature of the cattle and see if it still alive or sick.

This network has a massive scalability, and must service oriented. The network must support services such as security, mobility, storage, unified communication, computing, identity, etc. and is included in the Cisco SONA (Service Oriented Network Architecture) framework.