IoT Enabled Technologies
IoT is enabled by several technologies including wireless sensor networks,
cloud computing, Big data analytics, Embedded Systems, Security Protocols
and architectures, communication protocols, web services, Mobile Internet, and
Semantic Search engines.
Wireless Sensor Networks
A wireless sensor network comprises of distributed device with sensor which
are used to monitor the environmental and physical conditions. A WSN
consists of a number of end-nodes and routers and a coordinator. End Nodes
have several sensors attached to them in node can also act as routers. Routers
are responsible for routing the data packets from end-nodes to the coordinator.
The coordinator collects the data from all the nodes. Coordinator also acts as a
gateway that connects the WSN to the internet.
Some examples of WSNs used in IoT systems are described as follows:
Weather monitoring system use WSNs in which the nodes collect temperature
humidity and other data which is aggregated and analyzed.
Indoor air quality monitoring systems use WSNs to collect data on the indoor
air quality and concentration of various gases
Soil moisture monitoring system use WSNs to monitor soil moisture at various
locations.
Surveillance system use WSNs for collecting Surveillance data (such as motion
detection data)
Smart grid use WSNs for monitoring the grid at various points.
Structural health monitoring system use WSNs to monitor the health of
structures ( buildings, bridges) by collecting vibration data from sensor nodes
de deployed at various points in the structure.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a trans-formative computing paradigm that involves
delivering applications and services over the Internet Cloud computing involves
provisioning of computing, networking and storage resources on demand and
providing these resources as metered services to the users, in a “pay as you go”
model. Cloud computing resources can be provisioned on demand by the
users, without requiring interactions with the cloud service Provider. The
process of provisioning resources is automated. Cloud computing resources
can be accessed over the network using standard access mechanisms that
provide platform independent access through the use of heterogeneous client
platforms such as the workstations, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
cloud computing
Cloud computing services are offered to users in different forms:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): hardware is provided by an external
provider and managed for you
Platform as a Service (PaaS): in addition to hardware, your operating system
layer is managed for you
Software as a Service (SaaS): further to the above, an application layer is
provided and managed for you – you won’t see or have to worry about the first
two layers.
Big Data Analytics
Big Data analytics is the process of collecting, organizing and analyzing large
sets of data (called Big Data) to discover patterns and other useful information.
Big Data analytics can help organizations to better understand the information
contained within the data and will also help identify the data that is most
important to the business and future business decisions. Analysts working
with Big Data typically want the knowledge that comes from analyzing the
data.
Some examples of big data generated by IoT systems are described as follows:
Sensor data generated by IoT system such as weather monitoring stations.
Machine sensor data collected from sensors embedded in industrial and energy
systems for monitoring their health and detecting Failures.
Health and fitness data generated by IoT devices such as wearable fitness
bands
Data generated by ioT systems for location and tracking of vehicles
Data generated by retail inventory monitoring systems
Characteristics
Big data can be described by the following characteristics:
Volume – The quantity of generated and stored data. The size of the data
determines the value and potential insight, and whether it can be considered
big data or not.
Variety – The type and nature of the data. This helps people who analyze it to
effectively use the resulting insight. Big data draws from text, images, audio,
video; plus it completes missing pieces through data fusion.
Velocity – In this context, the speed at which the data is generated and
processed to meet the demands and challenges that lie in the path of growth
and development. Big data is often available in real-time. Compared to small
data, big data are produced more continually. Two kinds of velocity related to
Big Data are the frequency of generation and the frequency of handling,
recording, and publishing.
Veracity – It is the extended definition for big data, which refers to the data
quality and the data value. The data quality of captured data can vary greatly,
affecting the accurate analysis.
Value -- Value is an essential characteristic of big data. It is not the data that
we process or store. It is valuable and reliable data that we store, process, and
also analyze.
Communication protocols
Communication protocols form the backbone of IoT systems and enable
network connectivity and coupling to applications. Communication protocols
allow devices to exchange data over the network. Multiple protocols often
describe different aspects of a single communication. A group of protocols
designed to work together are known as a protocol suite; when implemented in
software they are a protocol stack.
Internet communication protocols are published by the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF). The IEEE handles wired and wireless networking, and the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) handles other types. The
ITU-T handles telecommunication protocols and formats for the public
switched telephone network (PSTN). As the PSTN and Internet converge, the
standards are also being driven towards convergence.
In IoT we used MQTT, COAP, AMQP etc. protocols.
Embedded Systems
As its name suggests, Embedded means something that is attached to another
thing. An embedded system can be thought of as a computer hardware system
having software embedded in it. An embedded system can be an independent
system or it can be a part of a large system. An embedded system is a
controller programmed and controlled by a real-time operating system (RTOS)
with a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electrical system, often
with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete
device often including hardware and mechanical parts. Embedded systems
control many devices in common use today. Ninety-eight percent of all
microprocessors are manufactured to serve as embedded system component.
An embedded system has three components −
It has hardware.
It has application software.
It has Real Time Operating system (RTOS) that supervises the application
software and provide mechanism to let the processor run a process as per
scheduling by following a plan to control the latencies. RTOS defines the way
the system works. It sets the rules during the execution of application program.
A small scale embedded system may not have RTOS.
