What is Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet (early 80’s) :

• Interconnection of worldwide networks, or a net of nets.

• As end users, we also know that the most interesting part of this network is not
the infrastructure itself, but the smart devices and smart applications that it connects
with and that make our work easier and our life better [1].
• The Internet started to connect computers, mobile phones, and more recently
tablets, and smartphones [1].

Internet of things :

• IoT is becoming another word for IT (Information Technology). Information

automation has not stopped with the server room, computers, or smart phones and is
now reaching all objects around us [1].
• Most devices around us are either already or will become connected in the coming
years and in future they will be able to sense and exchange all sorts of useful data
information with smart applications.
• Telecommunications, databases, and applications are becoming such an important
part of our everyday life that they will become a sort of digital net, or skin, to our lives.
 What is Internet of Things ( IoT )
There is no single precise definition
In a November 2014 Harvard Business Review article, Michael Porter and James
Heppelmann describe IoT devices as
“smart, connected products [that] have three core elements:

1. Physical : components [that] comprise the product’s, mechanical and electrical

parts.
2. Smart: components [that] comprise the sensors, microprocessors, data storage,
controls, software, and, typically, an embedded operating system and
enhanced user interface.
3. Connectivity: components [that] comprise the ports, antennae, and protocols
enabling wired or wireless connections with the product.”

IoT is creating a new world — a quantifiable and measurable world — in which people can
better manage their lives and companies can better manage their businesses [3].
This new “smart,” connected world will offer fundamental changes both to society and to
consumers and will profoundly transform entire businesses and industries [3].
The rise of the IoT will create many practical and significant improvements in our world
and our daily lives by helping us make better decisions faster with timely, higher‐quality
information [3].
 Examples Of The Internet Of Things [1]

Imagine a world where

❖ A vending machine tells you when it needs

to be refilled, or a garbage bin that it needs
to be emptied.
❖ Your home calls you when it detects
unusual heat or a water leakage.
❖ Your home has a smart connected rat cage. A pest control service employee installs, a rat
cage at a customer facility plagued with rats. At the very moment that a rat is being
caught, the cage sends a signal to the pest control company. An employee can
immediately drive to the site to remove the cage, resulting in improved customer
experience and service efficiency.

❖ your child’s baby suit constantly monitors his/her movements and breathing, and alerts
you when needed.
 IoT Paradigm [2]
▪ The future Internet will connect billions of personal and
professional devices, diminutive sensors and actuators,
robots, and so on, and trillions of smart, and digitized objects.

▪ Researchers, Engineers, industrialists are working hard to

exploit this growing technology for business benefits and for
users comforts

▪ Industry standards are being formulated

▪ There will be a seamless and spontaneous merger of

everyday technologies to fulfill our personal as well as
professional requirements.
 IoT Paradigm [2]
▪ There comes the possibility of the transparent merging of our
minds with machines.

▪ Learning will be an everywhere and every time affair because

we will have intimate and real-time access to the world’s
information assets and knowledge.

▪ Auto identification tags carrying our personal profile and

preferences digitally will map with others.

▪ Our daily tools and products can be converted into smart

products by attaching ultra-small computers e.g. our coffee
cups, dinner plates, tablets, and clothes will be empowered to
act smart in their operations and interactions with other
products in the vicinity or even with the human beings.
 IoT Paradigm*
Future IoT smart homes (or buildings) might also

1. Proactively detect, alert, and even prevent hazardous conditions such

as faulty electrical wiring, an unattended stove or iron, or a
dangerous buildup of combustible or toxic fumes in a closed space.

2. Interactively direct occupants along the safest and most expedient

escape route, while also venting smoke away from the escape route.

3. Shut down electrical, ventilation, and gas systems that might

otherwise provide additional fuel and oxygen to the fire.

4. Instantaneously transmit home or building schematics to a heads‐up

display in every emergency responder’s helmet, complete with
real‐time information about hot spots, environmental conditions, and
structural damage.

[*3]
 IoT Paradigm*
6. Location of occupants collected by home/ building sensors.

7. Securely send information about any special health conditions or

injuries of individuals in the home or building to emergency
responders, collected by personal wearable devices that are
geographically fenced so that only data about individuals who are
in the home or building is sent.

8. Automatically transmit all pertinent health and injury information

about victims, and route paramedics along the most expedient
route to the nearest hospital or trauma center based on its
current helping aid capabilities and load.

9. Proactively reroute civilian traffic away from the route to the

emergency scene and to the hospital, by sending detour alerts to
smart phones and vehicle navigation systems in the area and
changing traffic signals and lane directions as appropriate.

[*3]
 IoT Paradigm*
• In the near future, storage and communication services will be
highly pervasive and distributed: people, machines, smart
objects, surrounding space and platforms connected with
wireless/wired sensors, M2M devices, RFID tags will create a
highly decentralized resources interconnected by a dynamic
network of networks.

• In the IoT, the communication language will be based on

interoperable protocols, operating in heterogeneous
environments and platforms. IoT in this context is a generic
term and all objects can play an active role to their connection
to the Internet by creating smart environments.

[*4]
 IoT Paradigm*

• The potentialities offered by the IoT make it possible to

develop numerous applications. In future, there will be
intelligent applications for smarter homes and offices, smarte
transportation systems, smarter hospitals, smarter enterprises
and factories.

[*4]
 Future IoT
Aerospace and aviation industry
IoT can help to improve safety and security of products and services by
reliably identifying forge products and elements.
The aviation industry, e.g., is vulnerable to the problem of Suspected
Unapproved Parts (SUP).

Apart from time-consuming material analyses, verifying the authenticity of

aircraft parts can be performed by inspecting the accompanying documents,
which can be easily forged.

It is possible to solve this problem by introducing electronic pedigrees for

certain categories of aircraft parts, which document their origin and safety-
critical events during their lifecycle (e.g., modifications).
By storing these pedigrees within a decentralized database as well as on RFID
tags, which are securely attached to aircraft parts, an authentication of these
parts can be performed prior to installing them in an aircraft. In this way, safety
and operational reliability of aircrafts can be significantly improved.

[*5]
Automotive industry
Advanced cars, trains, buses as
well as bicycles are becoming
equipped with advanced sensors,
actuators with increased
processing powers. Applications
in the automotive industry
include the use of smart things to
monitor and report various
parameters from pressure in tyres
to proximity of other vehicles.
RFID technology has already been used to streamline vehicle
production, improve logistics, increase quality control and improve
customer services. The devices attached to the parts contain
information of the manufacturer and when and where the product
was made, its serial number, type, product code, and in some
applications the precise location in the facility at that moment. [*5]
Automotive industry

RFID technology provides real-time data in the manufacturing

processes, maintenance operations and offers new ways of
managing recalls more effectively.

Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) technology will

possibly help in achieving higher bit rates and reducing
interference with other equipment.

Vehicle-to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)

communications will significantly advance Intelligent
Transportation Systems (ITS) applications such as vehicle safety
services and traffic management and will be fully integrated in the
IoT infrastructure.

[*5]
Telecommunications Industry

IoT will create the possibility of merging of diverse

telecommunication technologies and create new services.

An illustrative example is the use of GSM, NFC (Near Field

Communication), low power Bluetooth, WLAN, multi-hop
networks, GPS and sensor networks together with SIM-card
technology.

The mobile phone can therefore be used as an NFC-reader

and transmit the read data to a central server.

When used in a mobile phone, the SIM-card plays an

important role as storage for the NFC data and authentication
credentials (like ticket numbers, credit card accounts, ID
information etc.).
[*5]
Medical and healthcare industry
IoT will have many applications in the healthcare sector, with the
possibility of using the cell phone with RFID-sensor capabilities as a
platform for monitoring of medical parameters and drug delivery.

The advantage gained is in prevention and easy monitoring of

diseases, ad hoc diagnosis and providing prompt medical attention
in cases of accidents.
Implantable and addressable wireless
devices can be used to store health
records that can save a patient’s life in
emergency situations, especially for
people with diabetes, cancer, coronary
heart disease, stroke, chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease,
cognitive impairments, seizure disorders
and Alzheimer’s disease.
[*5]
Medical and healthcare industry

Edible, biodegradable chips can be introduced into human body

for guided actions.

[*5]
Independent living

IoT applications and services will have an important impact on

independent living by providing support for an aging population
by detecting the activities of daily living using wearable and
ambient sensors, monitoring social interactions using wearable
and ambient sensors, monitoring chronic disease using
wearable vital signs sensors, and in body sensors.

With emergence of pattern detection and machine learning

algorithms, the things in a patient’s environment would be
able to watch out and care for the patient. Things can learn
regular routines and raise alerts or send out notifications in
anomaly situations.

[*5]
 Pharmaceutical industry

For pharmaceutical products, security and safety is of utmost

importance. In IoT paradigm, attaching smart labels to drugs,
tracking them through the supply chain and monitoring their
status with sensors has many potential benefits.

Counterfeiting is a common practice in this area and it particularly

affects the developing countries. The smart labels on the drugs
can also directly benefit patients, e.g. by enabling storing of the
package insert, informing consumers of dosages and expiration
dates, and assuring the authenticity of the medication.
In conjunction with a smart medicine cabinet that reads
information transmitted by the drug labels, patients can be
reminded to take their medicine at appropriate intervals and
patient compliance can be monitored.
[*5]
Retail, logistics and supply chain management
IoT can provide several advantages in retail and supply chain
management (SCM) operations.

For example, with RFID-equipped items and smart shelves that track
the present items in real time, a retailer can optimize many
applications. For example, he can make automatic checking of
goods receipt, real time monitoring of stocks, tracking out-of-
stocks or the detection of shoplifting.

IoT can provide a large savings potential in a retail store, IoT can
help making the data from the retail store available for optimizing
the logistics of the whole supply chain. If manufacturers know the
stock and sales data from retailers, they can produce and ship the
right quantities of products, thus avoiding the situation of over-
production or underproduction.
[*5]
Retail, logistics and supply chain management
Environmental issues can be better tackled. The carbon footprint
of logistics and supply chain processes can be optimized based
on the availability of dynamic and fine-grained data collected in
the real world directly by some of the things of IoT, such as
trucks, pallets, individual product items etc.

In the shops, IoT can offer many applications like guidance in the
shop according to a pre-selected shopping list, fast payment
solutions like automatically check-out using biometrics, detection
of potential allergen in a given product, personalized marketing,
verification of the cool chain, etc.
[*5]
Manufacturing industry

By linking items with information technology, either through embedded smart devices
or through the use of unique identifiers and data carriers that can interact with an
intelligent supporting network infrastructure and information systems, production
processes can be optimized and the entire lifecycle of objects, from production to
disposal can be monitored.

By tagging items and containers, greater transparency can be gained about the status of
the shop floor, the location and disposition of lots, and the status of production
machines. The fine grained information serves as input data for refined production
schedules and improved logistics.

Process Industry:

In many plants of the oil and gas industry, scalable architectures are being used that
consider possibilities for plug-and-play new ID methods combined with
sensing/actuating integrated with the IoT infrastructure and integrate the wireless
monitoring of petroleum personnel in critical onshore and offshore operations, container
tracking, tracking of drill string components pipes, monitoring and managing of fixed
equipment etc.

[*5]
A review of high-impact accidents in the chemical and petrochemical sectors in
the UK has observed some common features in these disasters, such as lack of
understanding as well as poor management of storage, process, and chemical
segregation.

IoT can help in reducing the number of accidents in the oil and gas industry by
equipping the containers of hazardous chemicals with intelligent wireless
sensor nodes.
[*5]
Environment monitoring
Utilization of wireless identifiable devices and other IoT technologies in green
applications and environmental conservation are one of the most promising market
segments in the future. There will be an increased usage of wireless identifiable devices
in environmentally friendly programs worldwide.

Transportation industry
IoT offers solutions for fare collection and toll systems, passengers screening and bags
boarding commercial carriers and the goods moved by the international cargo system
that support the security policies of the governments and the transportation industry, to
meet the increasing demand for security in the globe.

Monitoring traffic jams through cell phones of the users and deployment of intelligent
transport systems (ITS) will make the transportation of goods and people more efficient.

Transportation companies would become more efficient in packing containers since the
containers can self- scan and weigh themselves. Use of IoT technologies for managing
passenger luggage in airports and airline operations will enable automated tracking and
sorting, increased per-bag read rates, and increased security.
[*5]
Agriculture and breeding

The regulations for traceability

of agricultural animals and
their movements require the
use of technologies like IoT,
making possible the real time
detection of animals, for
example during outbreaks of
contagious disease. Moreover,
in many cases, countries give
subsidies depending on the
number of animals
in a herd and other
requirements, to farms with
cattle, sheep, and goats.
As the determination of the number is difficult, there is always the possibility of
frauds. Good identification systems can help minimize this fraud. Therefore, with
the application of identification systems, animal diseases can be controlled,
surveyed, and prevented.
[*5]
Agriculture and breeding

Identification of livestock that are

vaccinated or tested under
official disease control or
eradication is also possible. Blood
and tissue specimens can be
accurately identified, and the
health status of herds, regions,
and countries can be certified by
using IoT.
With the Internet of Things,
single farmers may be able to
deliver the crops directly to the
consumers not only in a small
region like in direct marketing or
shops but in a wider area.
This will change the whole supply chain which is mainly in the hand of large companies,
now, but can change to a more direct, shorter chain between producers and
consumers.

[*5]
Media, entertainment industry

Deployment of IoT technologies will enable ad hoc news gathering based on locations
of the users. The news gathering could happen by querying IoT, to see which multi-
media-capable devices are present at a certain location, and sending them a
(financial) offer to collect multimedia footage about a certain event. Near field
communication (NFC) tags can be attached to posters for providing more information
by connecting the reader to a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) address that contains
detailed information related to the poster.

[*5]
Insurance industry

Often the introduction of IoT technology is perceived as a grave invasion on privacy of

individuals. However, sometimes people are willing to trade privacy for a better service
or a monetary benefit.
One example is car insurance. If insurance clients are willing to accept electronic
recorders in their car, which are able to record acceleration, speed, and other
parameters, and communicate this information to their insurer, they are likely to get a
cheaper rate or premium. A part of the savings can be given to the customers through
discounts on insurance premiums. The same applies for other assets such as buildings,
machinery, etc., that are equipped with IoT technology.

[*5]
Recycling
IoT and wireless technologies can be used to advance the efficiency and
effectiveness of numerous important city and national environmental programs e.g.

monitoring of
• Vehicle emissions to help supervise air quality
• The collection of recyclable materials
• The reuse of packaging resources and electronic parts
• The disposal of electronic waste (RFID used to identify electronic subcomponents
of PCs, mobile phones, and other consumer electronics products to increase the
reuse of these parts and reduce e-waste)

RFID continues to provide greater visibility into the supply chain by helping
companies more efficiently track and manage inventories, thereby reducing
unnecessary transportation requirements and fuel usage.

[*5]
Recycling

[*5]
 Generic Layered Architecture of IoT*

Implementation of IoT is based on an

architecture consisting of several
layers:

From the field data acquisition layer to

the application.
The layered architecture has two
distinct divisions with an Internet layer
in between to serve the purpose of a
common media for communication.

• The two lower layers contribute to data capturing

• The two layers at the top is responsible for data utilization in applications.

[*5]
 Architecture of Internet of Things
The functionalities of the various layers are discussed briefly in the following:

Edge layer

This hardware layer consists of sensor networks,

embedded systems, RFID tags and readers or other soft
sensors in different forms. These entities are the primary
data sensors deployed in the field. Many of these
hardware elements provide identification and
information storage (e.g. RFID tags), information
collection (e.g. sensor networks), information processing
(e.g. embedded edge processors), communication,
control and actuation.

Access gateway layer

The first stage of data handling happens at this layer. It
takes care of message routing, publishing, subscribing
and performs cross platform communication, if required.

[*5]
Middleware layer:

It is responsible for critical functions such as device

management and information management and also
takes care of issues like data filtering, data
aggregation, semantic analysis, access control,
information discovery such as EPC (Electronic Product
Code) information service and ONS (Object Naming
Service).

Application layer:

This layer is responsible for delivery of various

applications to different users in IoT. The applications
can be from different industry verticals such as:
manufacturing, logistics, retail, environment, public
safety, healthcare, food and drug etc. With the
increasing maturity of RFID technology, numerous
applications are evolving which will be under the
umbrella of IoT.
[*5]
 IoT Layer/ Stack Architecture

• Communication network is the backbone of any IOT system. (Without

internet network, IOT is nothing)
• Any internet network is a stack of technologies.
• These are technologies to connect devices physically, assign them logical
addresses, route data through the network and manage data exchange at
the client ends.
• For standardization and sake of implementation of protocols, these
technologies are arranged in different layers.
• Typical internet networks follow Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model.
• The OSI model, architectures the internet into seven layers.
• The actual implementation of OSI model is done through TCP-IP
model, which simplifies the seven-layer OSI model to four-layer

[11]
 IoT Layer/ Stack Architecture

[11]
Layer/ Stack Architecture
 Layer/ Stack Architecture
The networks for IOT ecosystems practically do not have any standard
architecture as these networks are highly customized environments with
variable complexities.
Various architecture models for IOT systems can be compared with typical OSI
or TCP-IP models due to similar implementation of architecture layers.
Generalizing various architecture models deployed or recommended by standard
organizations, an IOT network architecture would have the following four layers –

1) Infrastructure layer
2) Service Discovery/Service Management/Discovery Layer
3) Application Layer
4) Business Layer
 Layer/ Stack Architecture

• Each layer has various protocols for handling data transfer

• The protocols are set of rules which are predefined and the devices
must follow them to communicate with each other or communicate
over the network
1) Infrastructure layer: In this layer, IOT devices (including sensor networks) and
technologies physically connecting co-located devices, or devices to standard internet
network, are included.
Compared to OSI model, this layer merges physical, data link, network and transport
layers of typical internet network.
On comparing with TCP-IP model, this layer merges physical&network access,
internet and transport layers.
a. Physical Layer
In this layer, bits are encoded and arranged in data link layer frames subsequently
the frames are pushed to the wired or wireless data communication link. Similarly,
the physical layer also decodes the incoming bits and bytes and transfers them to
the sitting processor or controller of the IOT device.
b. Data Link/ MAC/ Network Access Layer
The data link layer is responsible for encapsulating data packets into frames, access
data link through Media Access Control (MAC) protocol and deliver or receive data
over the communication link. Some of the standard protocols defined for physical
and network access layers are Ethernet, Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, RFID, IEEE
802.11.ah, IEEE 802.15.4e, LTE-A (Long-Term Evolution), NFC, LTE-MTC (LTE-Machine
Type Communication), DigiMesh
c. Network or Network Encapsulation or Adaption Layer: This layer is responsible
for addressing of data packets over the internet. The incoming datagrams from
transport layer contain source and destination addresses. At network layer, the
packets are encapsulated with unique addresses which are called IP addresses.
Earlier IPv4 was used and now a new network layer protocol IPv6 has been
specified which will have 128 bit addresses.
6LoWPAN is another network layer protocol for low power wireless personal
area networks. It is an IPv6 protocol developed for wireless sensor networks
and home area networks.
d. Transport or Routing Layer: This layer is responsible for routing of data packets.
At this layer, ordering of packets, error detection and correction in delivery of
data packets is performed. Some of the popular protocols specified for Transport
layer are TCP, UDP, DTLS, uIP, ROLL, Aeron, CCN (Content Centric Networking)
NanoIP, TSMP (Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol)
2. Service Discovery or Service Management Layer

This layer differentiates the IOT networks or cloud networks from typical internet
networks. The IOT devices need to find other devices, services and resources over
internet. So, there is a need for resource management and registration process
on IoT network. For this purpose, service discovery and management protocols
are specified. Some of the popular protocols for service discovery in IOT systems
are DNS-SD (DNS-Service Discovery), mDNS (Multicast Domain Name System),
uPnP. Some of the currently available service discovery platforms and technologies
are HyperCat, Wi-Fi Aware, Bluetooth Beacons, Chirp etc.
3) Application Layer
This is the interface between the (IOT) devices and the network. This layer is
implemented through a dedicated application at the device end.
Like for a computer, application layer is implemented by the browser. It is the
browser which implements application layer protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, SMTP and
FTP.
Same way, there are application layer protocols specified in context to IOT namely
MQTT, SMQTT , CoAP, RESTful HTTP, MQTT-SN, SOAP, Websocket, HTTP/2.
4. Business Layer

This layer actually is not part of communication network. It lies at the IOT end point. It
can be a cloud or server implementing dedicated applications or providing specific
business or industrial solutions within the IOT system. It may be interconnecting various
IOT devices to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Knowledge Management (KM)
solution. This layer is actually responsible for integrating devices, services and solutions
seamlessly and integrating cloud and devices for vertical specific (Health, Transport,
Energy, Education etc.) implementation.
 Building Block of IoT*
IOT is developed as a package with integration of various technologies. Each technology
has its own principle role within the IOT system.

IOT allows things in the physical world (IOT devices/objects) to interact with the
virtual world (cloud services, platforms and applications) through a communication
network enabling exchange and sharing of context aware information with each
other.

*10
Building Block of IoT*
Basic building blocks of IoT are
• Physical world
• Virtual world
• Communication network

Things: - In context to Internet of things, any object of the physical world or the
information world that has a unique identity and can be integrated in a communication
network is called 'Thing'.

The Things can be physical things as well as virtual things.

The physical things are generally referred to '(IOT) devices’. While things can be virtual
or physical things.

Things can also be virtual things like cloud service solutions. Such virtual things are
software applications, APIs or application solutions that exchange and process data in
their own authority

When the term devices are used, it refers to physical equipment that can communicate
in a network and may be equipped with sensors, actuators, processors, memory and/or
controllers.
*10
 Building Block of IoT*
Physical World: - The physical world in an IOT system refers to the collection of physical
things or devices. Physical things are capable of sensing, collecting, storing, sharing and
processing information and may be capable of operating one or more actuators to
impact in the real world.

3) Virtual World - In IOT systems, virtual world refers to the collection of virtual things.
These virtual things are generally web, cloud or mobile applications, APIs or application
platforms. The prime role of Virtual world is data logging, data mining and analytics in
an IOT system.

Communication Network - In IOT, communication network is the link that allows

interaction between the physical world and the virtual world.
Practically, it is a wide area network or internet network that allows IOT boards to
communicate with web or cloud servers or allow them to communicate with each
other.
It is not different than typical internet network implemented through multiple layers
(Physical, Link, Network, Transport and Application Layers). At each layer there are
various communication protocols to facilitate secure and efficient data exchange.

*10
 Building Block of IoT*
At physical or link layer, some of popular communication protocols are
• LR-WPAN
• Bluetooth/LE
• 6LoWPAN
• LTE (Long-Term Evolutio)
• GPRS
• CDMA
• NFC
• Zigbee
• 802.11 Wi-Fi
• Zwave
The most common network layer protocols are
• IPv4
• IPv6.
Some of the common transport layer protocols include
• TCP
• UDP
• DTLS
• TLS.
• Some of the popular application layer protocols are
• DDS, MQTT, REST, CoAP, LLAP, XMPP, SSI, AMQP, XMPP-IOT and MQTT-SN.
*10
 Architecture of an IOT System -

The basic architecture of an IOT system comprises of four-layer model as follow

1) IOT devices and Gateways 2) Communication Network

3) Cloud or Server 4) IOT application

The data is generated, transported, processed and converted to useful insights by an IOT
system.

*10
 Building Block of IoT*

IOT devices - Any device or equipment counts as an IOT device if it satisfies the
following requirements -

a) It is capable of communicating with other devices and connects with an

internet network. It must have hardware interfaces and firmware or operating
system which can set up communication with other devices or connect to an
internet network.

b) It must be equipped with sensors and/or actuators. The sensors may be

collecting static or dynamic information from the physical world. The information
or data collected by the sensor should be shared or exchanged with a server or
cloud. The device may also have actuators to act upon or according to
the processed data or insights sent back by the cloud or server.

c) The device must have a controller or processor to capture data, memory to

store it (often temporarily) and firmware or operating system to process captured
data or data received from the server or cloud.

*10
Building Block of IoT*
Based on the hardware design and capabilities, the IOT devices can categorized
broadly as follow -

1) General Devices 2) Sensing and Actuating Devices

General Devices - A general device under IOT application domain is the device
which has embedded processing and communication capabilities. A general device
can process some information and connect to a communication network through
wired or wireless interfaces. Basically, these devices only collect data and insights
from a cloud or server and operate or perform data processing accordingly.
For example, web controlled industrial machines or home appliances can be
considered as general IOT devices.

Sensing and Actuating Devices - The sensing and actuating devices are equipped
with sensors and actuators that enable them to interact and impact the real world.
The sensors collect information pertaining to real physical quantities and pass it to
the on-board controller/processor. The controller or processor stores the
information (temporarily) and passes it on to the communication network.
Through various layers of communication network, it is received at the cloud or
server. The cloud process information and send back useful insights to operate
actuators.
*10
 Building Block of IoT*

Gateways

The IOT device may setup communication with other devices through a
gateway or without a gateway. The gateways are basically required for
protocol conversion.

Since the communication network and the on-board network of the IOT
device are different, the Gateway acts as a two-way bridge between the
two networks.

The Gateway collects and extracts the (sensor) data as per the device
protocol, wrap and format it according to the protocol the
communication network be operating at and push data to the
communication network for transmission to the cloud or server. Same
way, it receives and extract data, insights or information from the cloud
or server, wrap and format it according to the network protocol utilized
by the on-device network and push the cloud processed data to the IOT
device.
*10
 An IoT scenario

In an industrial IoT scenario, there are many sensors and actuators that interact
with the machinery. Each machine would typically have multiple sensors
tracking its health and monitoring the key parameters related to the
production.
• Each sensor and actuator is attached to a microcontroller that is responsible
for acquiring the data or controlling a switch through a pre-defined
instruction set.
• The microcontroller — along with the sensors, power and a radio — is called
a sensor node.
• It is a self-contained, deployable unit that captures the data generated by
sensors.
• The sensor node doesn’t have enough processing power, memory, and
storage to deal with the data locally.
• It uses a low-energy radio communication network to send the data to a
central location.
• The communication link between the sensors’ nodes and the central hub is
based on ZigBee, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or Power over Ethernet (PoE).
• The hub that acts as an aggregator of multiple raw datasets generated by
the sensor nodes is called an IoT gateway.
*10
 Gateways

An IoT gateway has multiple roles to play.

• One of the first jobs of the gateway is to transform and normalize the data.
The datasets generated by the sensor nodes will be in disparate formats.
Some of the legacy nodes use proprietary protocols, while the contemporary
ones may rely on JSON or CSV. The gateway acquires heterogenous datasets
from multiple sensor nodes and converts them to a standard format that is
understood by the next stage of the data processing pipeline.
• The second role of an IoT gateway is protocol transformation. Since the
sensor nodes cannot use power hungry Wi-Fi or ethernet, they use low-
powered communication networks. A gateway supports multiple
communication protocols for accepting the inbound data sent by the sensor
nodes. It uses a variety of protocols for the outbound communication, which
typically connects the gateway to a process running in the cloud.
• Some of the popular outbound protocols used in the context of IoT are REST,
MQTT, CoAP, STOMP and even SMS.
• In some scenarios, the gateway may also process the data and raise alerts in
real time. But this is best left to the powerful stream processing pipelines
*10 running in the cloud.
 • Gateways act as an edge device, obscuring the sensor nodes from the public
internet. Though the sensor nodes can make outbound connections to the
internet and cloud through the gateway, they cannot be accessed directly.
Thus, gateways play the dual role of routers and firewall securing the sensor
nodes and internal network.
• Sensor nodes that are capable of connecting to the Internet still need a
gateway for data aggregation and transformation.

*10
 Building Block of IoT*

*10
 Building Block of IoT*

Communication With Other Devices Through A Gateway

So, a gateway may be required in either of the two scenarios -

1) When the IOT device and the communication network may be operating at different
protocols. Often, these protocols may be at different network layers. Like the Zigbee is a
physical layer protocol while the TCP-IP is a transport layer protocol. A wireless sensor
network is another example of device to network communication through gateways.

2) One IOT device may need to communicate with another IOT device operating at
different protocol. For example, a Bluetooth device may communicate with other
BLE(Bluetooth Low Energy) devices over the air using a gateway.

*10
 Building Block of IoT*
Communication without Gateway

An IOT device can also connect to a cloud or other IOT device directly i.e without
Gagteway. In such case, the device and the communication network or the devices
communicating with each other must be sharing and exchanging data using same
protocol.
Usually, such device to device or device to network communication is possible through
application layer protocols like

• Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT)

• Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)
• Data Distribution Service (DDS)
• Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)
• Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)

*10
 Building Block of IoT*

2) Communication Network - The communication network is generally the typical

internet network having different layers (Physical, Link, Network, Transport and
Application) and communication protocols operating at different layers.

3) Cloud/Server - The cloud or server is the edge of the IOT system. A cloud stores
data collected from different and numerous IOT devices and perform data mining
and analytics to derive useful insights from it. It is also responsible for managing the
connected devices and networks, manage device to device communications and
implement IOT applications by operating and synchronizing different IOT devices
and communication between them. The cloud may also communicate with other
private and public cloud services to enable an IOT application.

4) IOT Application - The processing, mining and analysis of the data at the cloud is
done by the IOT application. The IOT application is the piece of software at the
cloud server which extracts data, manipulate it, to derive useful insights and
manage to securely push insights to the target IOT devices. For example, an IOT
application designed for home automation might process data from sensors and
send commands from the cloud to operate home appliances.

*10
 Challenges and Applications of
IoT in Modern World*

[*4]
1. Gilles & Robert, (15th November 2016), “Mastering The IoT: | Connectivity |
Technology”, Amsterdam / The Hague.
2. Pethuru Raj, Anupama C. Raman, “The Internet of Things: Enabling Technologies,
Platforms, and Use Cases”, CRC Press, New York
3. Lawrence Miller, “Internet of Things for Dummies”, Wiley Brand
4. Zeinab Kamal Aldein Mohammeda, Elmustafa Sayed Ali Ahmedb, “Internet of
Things Applications, Challenges and Related Future Technologies”
5. Debasis Bandyopadhyay · Jaydip Sen, (2014), “Internet of Things: Applications and
Challenges in Technology and Standardization”
6. M.A. Matin and M.M. Islam, “Overview of Wireless Sensor Network”
7. D. Stephan, H Paul, (2005), “Introduction to Wireless Sensor Networks”
8. White Paper on “Machine-to-Machine Communication (M2M)”
9. Machine-to-Machine Communications: Architectures, Standards and Applications
10. Building block of IoT
11. IoT standards and Protocols
12. Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks: Enabling Wireless Sensors with IEEE
802.15.4 [Book]