What is Internet of Things?

Devanshi Gupta (251601010)

University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra

Abstract The internet of things (IoT) is a computer technology inside it. Then to top it off,
computing concept that describes the idea of you add internet connectivity.
everyday physical objects being connected to
the internet and being able to identify Thing + Computational Intelligence + Network
themselves to other devices. The term is closely Connectivity = Internet of Things Device
identified with RFID as the method of
IoT doesn’t change the basic interface; it just
communication, although it also may include
improves the functionability and flexibility of the
other sensor technologies, wireless technologies
device.
or QR codes.
E.g.: The most modern cars are an IoT device
1.Introduction The internet of things, or IoT, is
as they have computational intelligence and
a system of interrelated computing devices,
network connectivity. They would have a remote
mechanical and digital machines, objects,
to start a car, anti-lock breaking etc.
animals or people that are provided with unique
identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data RFID tags instead of Bar Codes are used in
over a network without requiring human-to- logistics. RFID tag is an IoT device as it has a
human or human-to-computer interaction. The processor inside them , a remote antenna, and
IoT is significant because an object that can even has a flash memory to store information.
represent itself digitally becomes something
greater than the object by itself. No longer does Some Refrigerators are also IoT devices. They
the object relate just to its user, but it is now not only keep your stuff cold but can also do a
connected to surrounding objects and database variety of things. Like it'll warn you when the
data. When many objects act in unison, they are door is ajar; it might tell you when the water filter
known as having "ambient intelligence.” needs replacing; it could tell you when you're
low on butter.
An IoT ecosystem consists of web-enabled
smart devices that use embedded processors, 3.IoT devices versus Computer The main
sensors and communication hardware to collect, function of an IoT device is not to compute. It is
send and act on data they acquire from their the basic function of a computer to compute
environments. IoT devices share the sensor functions and run programs.
data they collect by connecting to an IoT
gateway or other edge device where data is If we consider the example of a Car and its IoT
either sent to the cloud to be analyzed or device; the main function of a car still remains to
analyzed locally. Sometimes, these devices be driven. An IoT device doesn’t change the
communicate with other related devices and act basic interface; it just improves the function
on the information they get from one another. ability and flexibility of the device.
The devices do most of the work without human
The IoT refrigerators have a computational
intervention, although people can interact with
intelligence that can help you, network
the devices -- for instance, to set them up, give
connectivity can improve its ability, but its main
them instructions or access the data.
function still remains the same i.e. to keep things
2.Examples of IoT devices You start with a cold. Whereas in a computer, its main function is
thing, you add some intelligence, some to run code.
Computers are made to be for general purpose. The major difference between an Embedded
They are made to run any type of code. But IoT System and an IoT device is that an Embedded
devices are generally special purpose things. So System may or may not have an internet access
they are made to do a particular task or set of but an IoT device surely has one. One of the
tasks that are all related to one thing. most important factors of an Embedded System
is its efficiency. Embedded Systems need to be
4.Trends in Adoption of IoT Cost: Things application specific. They have to be designed
have got a lot cheaper. The cost of for a specific application they are chosen to
computational technology has decreased a lot perform. The general purpose systems use
over time. hardware and software developed by different
companies; for example desktops and laptops.
Amount of wiring: The earliest computers like
Designing both the hardware and software
ENIAC used to have a lot of wires. Manual
together is a major task for the designers.
wiring was used for programming.
5.a. Generic Embedded System Structure
Hardware Size: The ENIAC was a very big
device with a weight of about 27 tons. But the IP (Intellectual Property) Core
laptop today is small and light. An IoT device is
even more smaller and lighter. An IP (intellectual property) core is a block of
logic or data that is used in making a field
Computational Ability: ENIAC- 5000 programmable gate array ( FPGA ) or
instructions/second application-specific integrated circuit ( ASIC ) for
a product.
Laptop- 18billion instructions/second
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)
Audio processing, network communication and
other things that you can do now require lots of It is a hardware that can be reconfigured or
computation and it just wasn’t possible with old rewired via RAM. It is faster than SW and slower
machines. The newer machines even have than Application Specific Integrated Circuit
faster clock rates and parallelism (ASIC).FPGA doesn’t require fabrication; they
just need to be reconfigured as required.
Internet Access: In 1945, internet didn’t exist.
Now internet access has improved and many Microcontrollers
countries have an access to it. Though the poor
parts of the world don’t have much internet A microcontroller is a compact integrated circuit
access but you can even access internet designed to govern a specific operation in an
wirelessly now. That actually helps a lot as embedded system. A typical microcontroller
running cables is expensive. includes a processor, memory and input/output
(I/O) peripherals on a single chip.
Data Cost: The cost of internet access is fairly
low so that large number of people can afford it. 5.b. Components of an Embedded System

Bandwidth is high: You can transmit lots of data General Purpose Processor
at a good speed.
Many features are included in the processor and
5.Embedded Systems IoT devices are typically can be used for a variety of functions.
embedded systems. Embedded Systems are
generally defined as computer based systems Digital Signal Processor
that don’t appear to be computers i.e. complexity
It is made to support the digital signal
is hidden from the user. These are much more
processing functions. They are processed using
common than desktops and laptops.
vector instructions. They are cheap but limited in
amount.
Sensors These convertors are used to read input from
analog sensors.
There are 2 type of sensors; simple and
complex. Low Power Modes

The simple sensors include photo resistors and In any Embedded System, power saving is the
thermistors whereas the complex sensors key.
include CMOS camera and Ethernet controllers.
6.Software Tool Chain The software is written
CMOS camera is used for capturing images and on a host platform like a desktop or laptop. The
Ethernet controller enables network code is then transferred to the flash memory in
communication. the microcontroller. The Tool Chain is the set of
tools needed to process the software. The IoT
Actuators devices apart from using microcontrollers and
other devices also need network connectivity i.e.
They are the devices which cause events to
they are connected to the giant World Wide Web
occur in the environment.
or the Internet.
Analog to Digital Convertors
7.Computer Network LAN: Local Area Network
They are used to interface with the analog
A local area network (LAN) is a group of
sensors as the sensors and actuators that we
computers and associated devices that share a
use are analog components whereas the
common communications line or wireless link to
processors we use are digital components.
a server. Typically, a LAN encompasses
5.c. Microcontroller Properties computers and peripherals connected to a
server within a distinct geographic area such as
Data Path Bitwidth an office or a commercial establishment.

It refers to the number of bits in each register WAN: Wide Area Network
and determines the accuracy and data
throughput. An Arduino Board has an 8 bit A wide area network (WAN) is a geographically
Datapath and a Raspberry Pi has a 32 bit distributed private telecommunications network
Datapath. Operating systems generally work on that interconnects multiple local area networks
a 32 bit Datapath. (LANs). In an enterprise, a WAN may consist of
connections to a company's headquarters,
Input/output Pins branch offices, colocation facilities, cloud
services and other facilities.
We need to have enough number of pins in the
microcontroller to support our application. MANET: Mobile Ad Hoc Network

Performance Stands for "Mobile Ad Hoc Network." A MANET

is a type of ad hoc network that can change
The clock rates of a microcontroller are slower locations and configure itself on the fly. Because
than a desktop. The 8 bit processors are in MANETS are mobile, they use wireless
4MHz, 8MHz, 16MHz clock range whereas the connections to connect to various networks.
32 bit processors are in 500MHz/GHz range.
8.Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP)
Timers is the method or protocol by which data is sent
from one computer to another on the Internet.
They are needed for real time applications.
Each computer (known as a host) on the
A to D convertors Internet has at least one IP address that
uniquely identifies it from all other computers on
the Internet.
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