Deploying the First PSTN-Based IoT Mechanism

Existing IoT services are based on data communications technologies that do not involve the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Since the telephone numbers have been assigned to machine-type devices, PSTN switches can play a role in IoT service routing. In this article we deploy a PSTN-based IoT mechanism where the interaction between the users and the IoT devices is achieved through PSTN switches. To our knowledge, this is the first PSTN-based IoT solution in the world. With this mechanism, all PSTN customer premises equipment (CPE; fixed-line and mobile phones) can access IoT services without installing any software (mobile apps). By reusing the existing PSTN infrastructure, PSTN-based IoT offers telecom-grade service, security, and network management for IoT, which are very expensive to build in non-PSTN-based IoT. Our approach conveniently enables the existing CPE to access IoT applications, which will significantly promote the IoT service industry.