Li Youping (Center), an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, makes the remarks on China's IoT development in Beijing on Aug 16, ahead of the 2018 World Internet of Things Expo, which will be held in Wuxi next month. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

New ways of networking must be discovered as the internet of things (IoT) industry has experienced rapid development, said Li Youping.

Li, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, made the remarks ahead of the 2018 World Internet of Things Expo, which will be held in Wuxi next month.

Li holds that the IoT is a sub-net of the Internet but the number of nodes in the IoT will exceed that of the Internet as the IoT develops rapidly.

"For example, China has one billion mobile phone users, so there are one billion Internet nodes, but the number of IoT nodes can be 10 billion or even 100 billion," said Li in explaining the difference between the Internet and IoT.

"As the IoT has more nodes, another dilemma has emerged. It is more convenient for the IoT to set up networks according to content rather than according to address, the networking method of the Internet," Li said.

He said it was clunky to give each sensor an address and visit it from time to time, adding that sensors with content must be networked in case of emergency.

Li Youping gave an example to explain how the sensors are networked in accordance with content. "The sensors are networked to inform the house owner, property management company and fire fighters when a fire occurs in a house."

In addition, Li also emphasized the five elements of "Things" in the Internet of Things -- human, events, objects, time and space -- in studying the characteristics of IoT and being aware of the problems that the IoT must solve, especially human characteristics and behavior and how to identify the five elements.

Both Li and Zhang Changjiang, general manager of Dayou Digital Resources Co, agreed that a favorable environment is essential for innovation and entrepreneurship.

An institute specializing in the research of links among things in intelligent tourism will soon be launched in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. Li said he would devote maximum efforts to the research and use of the new networking mode to further develop the tourism industry in China.

Zhang said he hoped more talents will gather in Wuxi for the research.