1.

Introduction to IoT:

The Internet of Things is the network of physical objects or “embedded with electronics,
software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and
exchange data. It allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network
infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world
and computer based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic
benefit.

 Nowadays, IoT is a common presence in households, transportation, markets, retail,

banking, industries, education, and logistics.
 The inclusion of IoT applications in these domains has resulted in facilitating their
automation, enhanced safety, and precision of operations and allowed the inclusion of
scientifically optimized practices.
 It is popularly considered that the rapid rise of IoT resulted from the inclusion of the
beneficial features from the paradigms and technologies of Internet computing, cloud
computing, wireless sensor networks (WSN), cyber-physical systems (CPS), and
machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

1.1 Main components used in IoT:

1. Low-power embedded systems: Less battery consumption, high performance are the
inverse factors that play a significant role during the design of electronic systems.

2. Sensors : Sensors are the major part of any IoT applications. It is a physical device
that measures and detect certain physical quantity and convert it into signal which
can be provide as an input to processing or control unit for analysis purpose.

3. Control Units : It is a unit of small computer on a single integrated circuit containing

microprocessor or processing core, memory and programmable input/output
devices/peripherals. It is responsible for major processing work of IoT devices and all
logical operations are carried out here.

4. Cloud computing: Data collected through IoT devices is massive and this data has to
be stored on a reliable storage server. This is where cloud computing comes into play.
The data is processed and learned, giving more room for us to discover where things
like electrical faults/errors are within the system.

5. Availability of big data: We know that IoT relies heavily on sensors, especially in
real-time. As these electronic devices spread throughout every field, their usage is
going to trigger a massive flux of big data.

6. Networking connection: In order to communicate, internet connectivity is a must

where each physical object is represented by an IP address. However, there are only a
limited number of addresses available according to the IP naming. Due to the growing
number of devices, this naming system will not be feasible anymore. Therefore,
researchers are looking for another alternative naming system to
1.2 Working with IoT Devices :

 Collect and Transmit Data : For this purpose sensors are widely used they
are used as per requirements in different application areas.

 Actuate device based on triggers produced by sensors or processing

devices: If certain condition is satisfied or according to user’s requirements if
certain trigger is activated then which action to performed that is shown by
Actuator devices.

 Receive Information : From network devices user or device can take certain
information also for their analysis and processing purposes.

 Communication Assistance : Communication assistance is the phenomena of

communication between 2 network or communication between 2 or more IoT
devices of same or different Networks. This can be achieved by different
communication protocols like : MQTT , Constrained Application Protocol,
ZigBee, FTP, HTTP etc.
1.3 Characteristics of IoT:

 Massively scalable and efficient

 IP-based addressing will no longer be suitable in the upcoming future.
 An abundance of physical objects is present that do not use IP, so IoT is made
possible.
 Devices typically consume less power. When not in use, they should be
automatically programmed to sleep.
 A device that is connected to another device right now may not be connected in
another instant of time.
 Intermittent connectivity – IoT devices aren’t always connected. In order to save
bandwidth and battery consumption, devices will be powered off periodically when not
in use. Otherwise, connections might turn unreliable and thus prove to be inefficient.

2. Sensing

A major chunk of IoT applications involves sensing in one form or the other. Almost all the
applications in IoT use sensing as the first step. Incidentally, actuation forms the final step in
the whole operation of IoT application deployment in a majority of scenarios.

2.1 Sensors:
Sensors are devices that can measure, or quantify, or respond to the ambient changes in their
environment or within the intended zone of their deployment.

• Sensors are everywhere. They’re in our homes and workplaces, our shopping centers
and hospitals. They’re embedded in smart phones and an integral part of the Internet
of Things (IoT).
• Broadly speaking, sensors are devices that detect and respond to changes in an
environment. Inputs can come from a variety of sources such as light, temperature,
motion and pressure.
• For Example, A microphone is a sensor that takes vibrational energy (sound waves),
and converts it to electrical energy in a useful way for other components in the system
to correlate back to the original sound.

Sensor is only sensitive to the measured property (e.g., a temperature sensor only senses the
ambient temperature of a room). It is insensitive to any other property besides what it is
designed to detect (e.g., a temperature sensor does not bother about light or pressure while
sensing the temperature). Finally, a sensor does not influence the measured property (e.g.,
measuring the temperature does not reduce or increase the temperature). Figure 1.1 shows the
simple outline of a sensing task. Here, a temperature sensor keeps on checking an
environment for changes. In the event of a fire, the temperature of the environment goes up.
The temperature sensor notices this change in the temperature of the room and promptly
communicates this information to a remote monitor via the processor.
 Figure 1.1 The outline of a simple sensing operation

2.1.1 Sensor Characteristics

All sensors can be defined by their ability to measure or capture a certain phenomenon and
report them as output signals to various other systems. However, even within the same sensor
type and class, sensors can be characterized by their ability to sense the phenomenon based
on the following three fundamental properties.

Sensor Resolution: The smallest change in the measurable quantity that a sensor can detect
is referred to as the resolution of a sensor. For digital sensors, the smallest change in the
digital output that the sensor is capable of quantifying is its sensor resolution. The more the
resolution of a sensor, the more accurate is the precision. A sensor’s accuracy does not
depend upon its resolution. For example, a temperature sensor A can detect up to 0.5 0C
changes in temperature; whereas another sensor B can detect up to 0.25 0C changes in
temperature. Therefore, the resolution of sensor B is higher than the resolution of sensor A.

Sensor Accuracy: The accuracy of a sensor is the ability of that sensor to measure the
environment of a system as close to its true measure as possible. For example, a weight
sensor detects the weight of a 100 kg mass as 99.98 kg. We can say that this sensor is 99:98%
accurate, with an error rate of ±0.02%.

Sensor Precision: The principle of repeatability governs the precision of a sensor. Only if,
upon multiple repetitions, the sensor is found to have the same error rate, can it be deemed as
highly precise. For example, consider if the same weight sensor described earlier reports
measurements of 98.28 kg, 100.34 kg, and 101.11 kg upon three repeat measurements for a
mass of actual weight of 100 kg. Here, the sensor precision is not deemed high because of
significant variations in the temporal measurements for the same object under the same
conditions.

2.1.2 Types Sensors

• Temperature Sensors – agriculture field to monitor soil temperature

• Humidity Sensors- Humidity sensors are commonly found in heating, vents and air
conditioning (HVAC) systems in both industrial and residential domains.
• Pressure Sensors- A pressure sensor senses changes in gases and liquids.
- Pressure sensors are also useful in the manufacturing of water systems as it is easy to
detect fluctuations or drops in pressure.
• Proximity Sensors- These types of sensors often emit electromagnetic fields or
beams of radiation such as infrared.
- used in the parking lots of malls, stadiums to indicate parking availability.
 • Level Sensors- used to detect the level of substances including liquids, powders and
granular materials.
• Accelerometers- Accelerometers detect an object’s acceleration i.e. the rate of
change of the object’s velocity with respect to time.
• Gyroscope- motion sensing for video games, and camera-shake
• Gas Sensors-detect changes in air quality, presence of toxic and hazardous gasses.
• Infrared Sensors- sensors sense characteristics in their surroundings by either
emitting or detecting infrared radiation.
- Infrared sensors are used in a variety of different IoT projects including healthcare
as they simplify the monitoring of blood flow and blood pressure. Televisions use
infrared sensors to interpret the signals sent from a remote control.
• Optical Sensors- vehicles use optical sensors to recognize signs, obstacles, and other
things that a driver would notice when driving or parking. Optical sensors play a big
role in the development of driverless cars.

2.2 Sensing Types

Sensing can be broadly divided into four different categories based on the nature of the
environment being sensed and the physical sensors being used. Figure 1.2 shows different
sensing types commonly encountered in IoT.

Figure 1.2 The different sensing types commonly encountered in IoT

Scalar sensing
Scalar sensing encompasses the sensing of features that can be quantified simply by
measuring changes in the amplitude of the measured values with respect to time. Quantities
such as ambient temperature, current, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, light, humidity, flux, and
others are considered as scalar values as they normally do not have a directional or spatial
property assigned with them. Simply measuring the changes in their values with passing time
provides enough information about these quantities. The sensors used for measuring these
scalar quantities are referred to as scalar sensors, and the act is known as scalar sensing.

Multimedia sensing
Multimedia sensing encompasses the sensing of features that have a spatial variance property
associated with the property of temporal variance. Unlike scalar sensors, multimedia sensors
are used for capturing the changes in amplitude of a quantifiable property concerning space
(spatial) as well as time (temporal). Quantities such as images, direction, flow, speed,
acceleration, sound, force, mass, energy, and momentum have both directions as well as a
magnitude. Additionally, these quantities follow the vector law of addition and hence are
designated as vector quantities. They might have different values in different directions for
the same working condition at the same time. The sensors used for measuring these quantities
are known as vector sensors.

Hybrid sensing
The act of using scalar as well as multimedia sensing at the same time is referred to as hybrid
sensing. Many a time, there is a need to measure certain vector as well as scalar properties of
an environment at the same time. Under these conditions, a range of various sensors are
employed (from the collection of scalar as well as multimedia sensors) to measure the various
properties of that environment at any instant of time, and temporally map the collected
information to generate new information. For example, in an agricultural field, it is required
to measure the soil conditions at regular intervals of time to determine plant health. Sensors
such as soil moisture and soil temperature are deployed underground to estimate the soil’s
water retention capacity and the moisture being held by the soil at any instant of time.
However, this setup only determines whether the plant is getting enough water or not. There
may be a host of other factors besides water availability, which may affect a plant’s health.
The additional inclusion of a camera sensor with the plant may be able to determine the
actual condition of a plant by additionally determining the color of leaves. The aggregate
information from soil moisture, soil temperature, and the camera sensor will be able to
collectively determine a plant’s health at any instant of time. Other common examples of
hybrid sensing include smart parking systems, traffic management systems, and others.

Virtual sensing
Many a time, there is a need for very dense and large-scale deployment of sensor nodes
spread over a large area for monitoring of parameters. One such domain is agriculture. Here,
often, the parameters being measured, such as soil moisture, soil temperature, and water
level, does not show significant spatial variations. Hence, if sensors are deployed in the fields
of farmer A, it is highly likely that the measurements from his sensors will be able to provide
almost concise measurements of his neighbor B’s fields; this is especially true of fields which
are immediately surrounding A’s fields. Exploiting this property, if the data from A’s field is
digitized using an IoT infrastructure and this system advises him regarding the appropriate
watering, fertilizer, and pesticide regimen for his crops, this advisory can also be used by B
for maintaining his crops. In short, A ’s sensors are being used for actual measurement of
parameters; whereas virtual data (which does not have actual physical sensors but uses
extrapolation-based measurements) is being used for advising B. This is the virtual sensing
paradigm.

3. Actuators
An actuator can be considered as a machine or system’s component that can affect the
movement or control the said mechanism or the system.
 • Actuators basically need a control signal and a source of energy. Upon receiving a
control signal, the actuator uses energy from the source to bring about a mechanical
motion.
• An actuator is a device that converts energy into motion. It does this by taking an
electrical signal and combining it with an energy source.
• In an IoT system, the actuator can act on data collected by sensors to create an
outcome as determined by the chosen settings of the user.

The control system of an actuator can be a mechanical or electronic system, a software-based

system (e.g., an autonomous car control system), a human, or any other input. Figure 1.3
shows the outline of a simple actuation system.

Figure 1.3 The outline of a simple actuation mechanism

A remote user sends commands to a processor. The processor instructs a motor controlled
robotic arm to perform the commanded tasks accordingly. The processor is primarily
responsible for converting the human commands into sequential machine-language command
sequences, which enables the robot to move. The robotic arm finally moves the designated
boxes, which was its assigned task.

3.1 Types Actuators

Broadly, actuators can be divided into seven classes: 1) Hydraulic, 2) pneumatic, 3)

electrical, 4) thermal/magnetic, 5) mechanical, 6) soft, and 7) shape memory polymers.

1) Hydraulic actuators
A hydraulic actuator works on the principle of compression and decompression of fluids.
These actuators facilitate mechanical tasks such as lifting loads through the use of hydraulic
power derived from fluids in cylinders or fluid motors. The mechanical motion applied to a
hydraulic actuator is converted to, linear, rotary, or oscillatory motion. The almost
incompressible property of liquids is used in hydraulic actuators for exerting significant
force. These hydraulic actuators are also considered as stiff systems. The actuator’s limited
acceleration restricts its usage.

2) Pneumatic actuators
A pneumatic actuator works on the principle of compression and decompression of gases.
These actuators use a vacuum or compressed air at high pressure and convert it into either
linear or rotary motion. Pneumatic rack and pinion actuators are commonly used for valve
controls of water pipes. Pneumatic actuators are considered as compliant systems. The
actuators using pneumatic energy for their operation are typically characterized by the quick
response to starting and stopping signals. Small pressure changes can be used for generating
large forces through these actuators. Pneumatic brakes are an example of this type of actuator
which is so responsive that they can convert small pressure changes applied by drives to
generate the massive force required to stop or slow down a moving vehicle. Pneumatic
actuators are responsible for converting pressure into force. The power source in the
pneumatic actuator does not need to be stored in reserve for its operation.

3) Electric actuators
Typically, electric motors are used to power an electric actuator by generating mechanical
torque. This generated torque is translated into the motion of a motor’s shaft or for switching
(as in relays). For example, actuating equipment’s such as solenoid valves control the flow of
water in pipes in response to electrical signals. This class of actuators is considered one of the
cheapest, cleanest and speedy actuator types available.

4) Thermal or magnetic actuators

The use of thermal or magnetic energy is used for powering this class of actuators. These
actuators have a very high power density and are typically compact, lightweight, and
economical. One classic example of thermal actuators is shape memory materials (SMMs)
such as shape memory alloys (SMAs). These actuators do not require electricity for actuation.
They are not affected by vibration and can work with liquid or gases. Magnetic shape
memory alloys (MSMAs) are a type of magnetic actuators.

5) Mechanical actuators
In mechanical actuation, the rotary motion of the actuator is converted into linear motion to
execute some movement. The use of gears, rails, pulleys, chains, and other devices are
necessary for these actuators to operate. These actuators can be easily used in conjunction
with pneumatic, hydraulic, or electrical actuators.

6) Soft actuators
Soft actuators (e.g., polymer-based) consists of elastomeric polymers that are used as
embedded fixtures in flexible materials such as cloth, paper, fiber, particles, and others. The
conversion of molecular level microscopic changes into tangible macroscopic deformations is
the primary working principle of this class of actuators. These actuators have a high stake in
modern-day robotics. They are designed to handle fragile objects such as agricultural fruit
harvesting, or performing precise operations like manipulating the internal organs during
robot-assisted surgeries.

7) Shape memory polymers

Shape memory polymers (SMP) are considered as smart materials that respond to some
external stimulus by changing their shape, and then revert to their original shape once the
affecting stimulus is removed. Features such as high strain recovery, biocompatibility, low
density, and biodegradability characterize these materials. SMP-based actuators function
similar to our muscles. Modern-day SMPs have been designed to respond to a wide range of
stimuli such as pH changes, heat differentials, light intensity, and frequency changes,
magnetic changes, and others.
4. Basics of Networking
Networking refers to the linking of computers and communication network devices, which
interconnect through a network (Internet or Intranet) and are separated by unique device
identifiers (Internet protocol, IP addresses and media access control, MAC addresses).

4.1 Network Types

Computer networks are classified according to various parameters: 1) Type of connection, 2)
physical topology, and 3) reach of the network. These classifications are helpful in deciding
the requirements of a network setup and provide insights into the appropriate selection of a
network type for the setup.

4.1.1 Connection types

Depending on the way a host communicates with other hosts, computer networks are of two
types. They are Point-to-point and Point-to-multipoint.

Point-to-point:
 Point-to-point connections are used to establish direct connections between two hosts.
 These networks were designed to work over duplex links.
 Day-to-day systems such as a remote control for an air conditioner or television are a
point to point connection, where the connection has the whole channel dedicated to it
only.

Point-to-multipoint:
 In a point-to-multipoint connection, more than two hosts share the same link.
 Point-to-multipoint connections find popular use in wireless networks and IP
telephony.
 The channel is shared between the various hosts, either spatially or temporally.

Spatial sharing – FDMA

Temporal sharing – TDMA
4.1.2 Physical topologies

Star topology:
 In a star topology, every host has a point-to-point link to a central controller or hub.
 The hosts cannot communicate with one another directly; they can only do so through
the central hub.
 The hub acts as the network traffic exchange.
 Advantages are easy installation and the ease of fault identification within the
network.
 The main disadvantage of this topology is the danger of a single point of failure. If the
hub fails, the whole network fails.

Mesh topology:

 In a mesh topology, every host is connected to every other host using a dedicated link
(in a point-to-point manner).
 This implies that for n hosts in a mesh, there are a total of n(n-1)/2 dedicated full
duplex links between the hosts.
 Even if a link is down or broken, the network is still fully functional as there remain
other pathways for the traffic to flow through.
 The second advantage is the security and privacy of the traffic as the data is only seen
by the intended recipients and not by all members of the network.
  The third advantage is the reduced data load on a single host, as every host in this
network takes care of its traffic load.

Bus topology:

 A bus topology follows the point-to-multipoint connection. A backbone cable or bus

serves as the primary traffic pathway between the hosts.
 The hosts are connected to the main bus employing drop lines or taps. The main
advantage of this topology is the ease of installation.
 Restriction on the length of the bus and the number of hosts.
 Signal loss over the extended bus.
 The installation is very easy and cheap. However, the Main drawback of this topology
is the difficulty in fault localization within the network.

Ring topology:

 A ring topology works on the principle of a point-to-point connection.

 Here, each host is configured to have a dedicated point-to-point connection with its
two immediate neighboring hosts on either side of it through repeaters at each host.
The repetition of this system forms a ring.
 The repeater at each host capture the incoming signal intended for other hosts,
regenerates the bit stream, and passes it onto the next repeater.
  However, the main disadvantage of this system is the high probability of a single
point of failure. If even one repeater fails, the whole network goes down.

4.1.3 Reach of the Network

The computer networks are divided into four broad categories based on network reachability.
 Personal area networks
• PANs are mostly restricted to individual usage.
• Example, wireless headphones, wireless speakers, laptops, smartphones,
wireless keyboards, wireless mouse, and printers.
• PANs are low-range and low-power technologies such as Bluetooth. The
reachability of PANs are limited.
 Local area networks
• A LAN is a collection of hosts linked to a single network through wired or
wireless connections.
• LANs are restricted to buildings, organizations, or campuses.
• They used a few leased lines connected to the Internet provide web access to
the whole organization or a campus.
• The data access rates within the LANs range from 100 Mbps to 1000 Mbps.
• Commonly used network components in a LAN are servers, hubs, routers,
switches, terminals, and computers.
 Metropolitan area networks
• MANs connect various organizations or buildings within a given geographic
location or city.
• Example of a MAN is an Internet service provider (ISP) supplying Internet
connectivity to various organizations within a city.
• MANs are costly, they may not be owned by individuals or even single
organizations.
• Typical networking devices/components in MANs are modems and cables.
 Wide area networks
• They connect diverse geographic locations and are restricted within the
boundaries of a state or country.
• WANs connecting two LANs or MANs may use public switched telephone
networks (PSTNs) or satellite-based links.
• WANs tend to have more errors and noise during transmission and are very
costly to maintain.
Interoperability in IoT

• The introduction of billions of connected devices under the IoT environment, which
may extend to trillions soon, has contributed massively to the evolution of
interoperability.

The various facets of interoperability in IoT

The urgency in the requirement for interoperability and interoperable solutions in IoT arose
mainly due to the following reasons:

(i) Large-scale Cooperation: There is a need for cooperation and coordination among the
huge number of IoT devices, systems, standards, and platforms; this is a long-standing
problem. Proprietary solutions are seldom reusable and economical in the long run, which is
yet another reason for the demand for interoperability.

(ii) Global Heterogeneity: The network of devices within and outside the purview of
gateways and their subnets are quite large considering the spread of IoT and the applications
it is being adapted to daily. Device heterogeneity spans the globe when connected through the
Internet. A common syntax, platform, or standard is required for unifying these
heterogeneous devices.

(iii) Unknown IoT Device Configuration: Device heterogeneity is often accompanied by

further heterogeneity in device configurations. Especially considering the global-scale
network of devices, the vast combinations of device configurations such as data rate,
frequencies, protocols, language, syntax, and others, which are often unknown beforehand,
further raise the requirement of interoperable solutions.

(iv) Semantic Conflicts: The variations in processing logic and the way data is handled by
the numerous sensors and devices making up a typical IoT implementation, makes it
impossible for rapid and robust deployment. Additionally, the variations in the end
applications and their supported platform configurations further add to the challenges.
The heterogeneity in IoT devices may arise due to several reasons. Some of the common ones
are as follows:
• Communication Protocols: ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4), Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1),
GPRS, 6LowPAN, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11), Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), and Higher Layer
LAN Protocols (IEEE 802.1)
• Programming Languages: JavaScript, JAVA, C, C++, Visual Basic, PHP, and
Python
• Hardware Platforms: Crossbow, National Instruments, and others
• Operating Systems: TinyOS, SOS, Mantis OS, RETOS, NOOBS, Windows 10 IoT
Core, and mostly vendor-specific OS
• Databases: DB2, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, and Sybase
• Data Representations: Comma separated values (CSV), text, rich text format (RTF),
open document format (ODF), strings, characters, floating-point values, integer
values, and others
• Control Models: Event-driven, publish–subscribe, client–server, and others
communication protocols
Network protocols
• IEEE 802.15.4
• Zigbee
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• Z-Wave
• ISA100.11A
• NFC
• RFID

IEEE 802.15.4
The IEEE 802.15.4 standard represents the most popular standard for low data rate wireless
personal area networks.
• This standard was developed to enable monitoring and control applications with lower
data rate and extend the operational life for uses with low-power consumption.
• This standard uses only the first two layers—physical and data link—for operation
along with two new layers above it: 1) logical link control (LLC) and 2) service-
specific convergence sublayer (SSCS)

Zigbee
• Zigbee radio communication is designed for enabling wireless personal area
networks (WPANs). It uses the IEEE 802.15.4 standard for defining its physical and
medium access control.
• Zigbee finds common usage in sensor and control networks. It was designed for low-
powered mesh networks at low cost, which can be broadly implemented for
controlling and monitoring applications, typically in the range of 10–100 meters.
• The Zigbee commonly uses 250 kbps data rate which is optimal for both periodic and
intermittent full-duplex data transmission between two Zigbee entities
• Zigbee supports various network configurations such as master-to-master
communication or master-to-slave communication. Several network topologies are
supported in Zigbee, namely the star and cluster tree.
 Wi-Fi
• Wi-Fi is technically referred to by its standard, IEEE 802.11, and is a wireless
technology for wireless local area networking of nodes and devices built upon similar
standards.
• Wi-Fi utilizes the 2.4 GHz ultra high frequency (UHF) band or the 5.8 GHz super
high frequency (SHF) ISM radio bands for communication
• For operation, these bands in Wi-Fi are subdivided into multiple channels. The
communication over each of these channels is achieved by multiple devices
simultaneously using time-sharing based TDMA multiplexing. It uses CSMA/CA for
channel access.

Bluetooth
• Bluetooth is defined by the IEEE 802.15.1 standard and is a short-range wireless
communication technology operating at low power to enable communication among
two or more Bluetooth-enabled devices.
• It was initially developed as a cable replacement technology for data communication
between two or more mobile devices such as smartphones and laptops.
• This standard allows the transmission of data as well as voice-over short distances.

Z-Wave
 Z-Wave is an economical and less complicated alternative to Zigbee.
 It was developed by Zensys, mainly for home automation solutions.
 It boasts of a power consumption much lower than Wi-Fi, but with ranges greater
than Bluetooth.
This feature makes Z-Wave significantly useful for home IoT use by enabling inter-
device communication between Z-wave integrated sensors, locks, home power
distribution systems, appliances, and heating systems.

ISA100.11A
 The ISA100.11A is a very low power communication standard and has been
developed and managed by ISA (International Society of Automation).
Similar to the previous protocols, it uses the IEEE 802.15.4 standard as a base for building
its protocol. The standard was mainly proposed for industrial plant automation systems.

RFID
 RFID stands for radio frequency identification. This technology uses tags and readers
for communication. RFID tags have data encoded onto them digitally .
The RFID readers can read the values encoded in these tags without physically touching
them.

NFC
 NFC Near field communication (NFC) was jointly developed by Philips and Sony as
a short-range wireless connectivity standard, enabling peer-to-peer (P2P) data
exchange network.
NFC can also be used with other wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi after establishing and
configuring the P2P network.

data communication protocols

AMQP
 AMQP or the advanced message queuing protocol is an open standard middleware at
the application layer developed for message-oriented operations .
It tries to bring about the concept of interoperability between clients and the server by
enabling cross-vendor implementations.
 It provides a wide variety of features such as flow-controlled communication,
message-oriented communication, message delivery
There are nine frame types in AMQP: (i) Open: responsible for opening the connection
between peers. (ii) Begin: responsible for setup and control of messaging sessions between
peers. (iii) Attach: responsible for link attachment. (iv) Transfer: responsible for message
transfer over the link. (v) Flow: responsible for updating the flow control state. (vi)
Disposition: responsible for updating of transfer state. (vii) Detach: responsible for
detachment of link between two peers. (viii) End: responsible for truncation of a session. (ix)
Close: responsible for closing/ending a connection.

MQTT
 MQTT Message queue telemetry transport or MQTT is a simple, lightweight publish–
subscribe protocol, designed mainly for messaging in constrained devices and
networks.
 It provides a one-to-many distribution of messages and is payload content agnostic.
 MQTT works reliably and flawlessly over high latency and limited bandwidth of
unreliable networks without the need for significant device resources and device
power.
 The MQTT paradigm consists of numerous clients connecting to a server; this server
is referred to as a broker.
Operational Principle
 Operational Principle MQTT is built upon the principles of hierarchical topics and
works on TCP for communication over the network.
  Brokers receive new messages in the form of topics from publishers. A publisher first
sends a control message along with the data message. Once updated in the broker, the
broker distributes this topic’s content to all the subscribers of that topic for which the
new message has arrived.
 This paradigm enables publishers and subscribers to be free from any considerations
of the address and ports of multiple destinations/subscribers or network considerations
of the subscribers, and vice versa.
The clients can have the roles of information publishers (sending messages to the broker) or
information subscribers (retrieving messages from the broker). This allows MQTT to be
largely decoupled from the applications being used with MQTT.

COAP
• CoAP The constrained application protocol, or CoAP as it is more popularly known,
is designed for use as a web transfer protocol in constrained devices and networks,
which are typically low power and lossy.
The constrained devices typically have minimal RAM and an 8-bit processor at most. CoAP
can efficiently work on such devices, even when these devices are connected to highly lossy
networks with high packet loss, high error rates, and bandwidth in the range of kilobits.

The CoAP is characterized by the following main features:

• (i) It has suitable web protocol for integrating IoT and M2M services in constrained
environments with the Internet.
• (ii) CoAP enables UDP binding and provides reliability concerning unicast as well as
multicast requests.
(iii) Message exchanges between end points in the network or between nodes is
asynchronous.
Operational Principle
Operational Principle CoAP is built upon the exchange of messages between two or more
UDP end points. Options and payload follow the compact 4-byte binary header in CoAP.
This arrangement is typical of request and response messages of CoAP. A 2-byte message ID
is used with each message to detect duplicates.

XMPP
 XMPP The extensible messaging and presence protocol, or XMPP, which was
initially named as Jabber, is designed for message-oriented middle wares based on the
extensible markup language (XML) .

Operational Principle
XMPP was developed for instant messaging, maintenance of contacts, and information about
network presence.
 A unique XMPP address, which is also referred to as a Jabber ID (JID), is assigned to
every user on the network. The JID, similar to an email address, has a username and a
domain name ([email protected]). The domain name is mostly the IP address of the
server hosting the XMPP service.
XMPP allows its users to login from multiple devices by means of specifying resources. The
resource is used to identify a user’s clients/devices (home, mobile, work, laptop, and others),
which is generally included in the JID by appending the JID with the resource name
separated by a slash.

REST
Representational state transfer or REST encompasses a set of constraints for the creation of web
services, mainly using a software architectural style [22]. The web services adhering to REST styles
are referred to as RESTful services; these services enable interoperability between various Internet-
connected devices. RESTful systems are stateless: the web services on the server do not retain
client states. The use of stateless protocols and standards makes RESTful systems quite fast,
reliable, and scalable.
RESTful systems are guided by six general constraints
(i)Statelessness: The statelessness of the client–server communication prevents the storage of any
contextual information of the client on the server. Each client request has to be self-sufficient in informing
its responders about its services and session state

(ii) Uniform Interface: Each part or component of a RESTful system must evolve independently
as a result of the decoupling of architectures and its simplification.
(iii) Cache ability: The responses have to be implicitly, or in some cases, explicitly clear on whether
they have to be cached or not. This helps the clients in retaining the most updated data in response to
requests. Caching also reduces the number of client–server interactions, thereby improving the
performance and scalability of the system as a whole.
(iv)Client–server Architecture: The user–interface interactions should be separate from data storage
ones. This would result in enhanced portability of user interfaces across multiple platforms. The
separation also allows for the independent evolution of components, which would result in
scalability over the Internet across various organizational domains.
(v)Layered System: The client in RESTful services is oblivious to the nature of the server to which it
is connected: an end point server or an intermediary server. The use of intermediaries also helps in
improving the balancing of load and enhancing security measures and system scalability.
(vi)Code on Demand: This is an optional parameter. Here, the functionality of clients can be
extended for a short period by the server. For example, the transfer of executable codes from compiled
components.

WebSocket
Websocket is an IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)-standardized full-duplex communication
protocol. Websockets (WS), an OSI layer seven protocol, enables reliable and full-duplex
communication channels over a single TCP connection [23]. Figure 8.24 shows the position of a
websocket layer in a stack. The WS relies on the OSI layer 4 TCP protocol for communication.
Despite being different from the HTTP protocol, WS is compatible with HTTP and can work over
 HTTP ports 80 and 443, enabling support for network mechanisms such as the HTTP proxy, which is
usually present during organizational Internet accesses through firewalls.

Operational Principle
A client initiates the WS connection process by sending a WS handshake request. In response, a
WS server responds with a WS handshake response. As the servers have to incorporate both
HTTP and WS connections on the same port, the handshaking is initiated by an HTTP
request/response mechanism. Upon establishment of a connection between the client and server,
the WS communication separates as a bi- directional protocol that is non-conformant with the
HTTP protocol.

Wireless Sensor Networks

 Wireless sensor networks (WSN), as the name suggests, is a networking paradigm that makes
use of spatially distributed sensors for gathering information concerning the immediate
environment of the sensors and collecting the information centrally.
 Here, the sensors are not standalone devices but a combination of sensors, processors, and
radio units—referred to as sensor nodes—sensing the environment and communicating the
sensed data wirelessly to a remote location, which may or may not be connected to a
backbone network. Figure shows the block diagram of the various standard components of a
typical WSN node.
The exact specifications of each of these blocks vary depending on the implementation requirements
and the network architect’s choice.
 Figure shows a typical WSN implementation, where the master node aggregates data from
multiple slave nodes, forwards it to a remote server utilizing access to the Internet through
cellular connectivity. The stored data on the server can be visualized by a user or a subscriber
to the system from anywhere in the world over the Internet.
 WSNs mainly follow a system of communication known as master–slave architecture. In a
master–slave architecture, a single aggregator node, the master, is responsible for collecting
data from various sensor nodes under its dominion or range of operations.
 The sensor nodes under the range of the master node are referred to as slave nodes. Multiple
slave nodes communicate to the master node using low power short-range wireless radios
such as Zigbee, Bluetooth, and WiFi for transferring their sensed data to a remote central
server. Often, in popular WSN architectures, the master node connects the WSN to the
Internet and acts as the gateway for the WSN.

 Upon collecting data from the slave nodes, the master node pushes the aggregated
data to a remotely located central server using the Internet. The master node may be
linked to the Internet through cellular connections, another gateway, or directly
through a backbone infrastructure.
  WSNs must have the following distinguishing features:
 i) Fault Tolerance
 ii) Scalability
 iii) Long lifetime
 iv) Security
 v) Programmability
 vi) Affordability
 vii) Heterogeneity
 viii) Mobility

Architectural components of WSN

 WSNs that are similar to regular computer network paradigms may be explained in terms of a
protocol stack, which is very similar to the ISO/OSI (Open Systems Interconnection
developed by the International Standards Organization) stack. However, instead of seven
layers similar to the OSI model, the WSN stack is made up of five layers :
 1) Physical, 2) data link, 3) network, 4) transport, and 5) application layer.
In addition to these five layers, the WSN stack further comprises five cross planes concerned with
management tasks such as 1) power management Introduction to Internet of Things plane, 2) mobility
management plane, 3) task management plane, 4) QoS management plane, and 5) security
management plane. This section is divided into three parts: 1) Components of the WSN stack, 2)
cross-layer management planes, and 3) WSN types.
 Classes of Wireless Sensor Networks
 Classes of Wireless Sensor Networks The portability and robustness of WSN solutions, in
addition to the significantly enhanced operational lifetimes, made WSNs quite a popular
choice for applications in various diverse areas. Some of the applications of WSNs include
the following:
 (i) Military Applications: WSNs are used for the detection of enemy soldiers, vehicles,
intrusion, weapon systems, and armaments.
 (ii) Health Applications: WSNs in healthcare are being used to monitor patients in hospitals,
ambulances, and homes. Nowadays, a new class of healthcare devices—wearable appliances
—enable a user to have a miniature health sensor on them without additional discomfort.
 (iii) Environmental Applications: WSNs are used for environmental monitoring of pollution,
tracking of wildlife, forests, and others.
 (iv) Home Applications: WSNs in the home have given rise to home automation systems and
smart home connectivity systems.
 (v) Commercial Applications: WSNs are used for tracking of vehicles, packages in transport,
logistics, and others.
 (vi) Industrial Monitoring: WSNs in industries keep track of various industrial processes,
monitor factory floors, ensure worker safety, and performance.

WSNs can be organized broadly into the following domains of

implementation:
 1) Wireless multimedia sensor networks
 2) underwater sensor networks
 3) wireless underground sensor networks
 4) wireless mobile sensor networks stock management
 i) Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSN): This class of WSNs boasts of the ability
to retrieve videos, audios, images, or all three in addition to regular scalar sensor readings.
The sensing range and coverage area of a camera based WMSN are defined by the field of
view (FOV) of the constituent cameras.
 ii) Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSN): This class of WSN is designed specifically to
work in underwater environments. Compared to terrestrial or aerial environments, wireless
underwater communications are severely restricted in terms of data rate, range, and
bandwidth due to the high underwater attenuation of electromagnetic signals.
 ) Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSN): This class of WSNs is designed to be
deployed entirely underground. The underground environment poses challenges of
attenuation due to the rocks and minerals in the soil. Another significant problem associated
with this class is the need for digging up of the nodes to replenish their energy sources.
 iv) Wireless Mobile Sensor Networks (MSN): This class of WSNs is characterized by its
mobility and low power requirements. The sensor nodes are mobile, which requires them to
rapidly connect to networks, disconnect from them, and then again connect to new networks
until the nodes are mobile.
Machine-to-Machine Communications Machine-to-Machine Communications Machine-to-
Machine Communications

Machine-to-Machine Communications
 Machine-to-Machine Communications: The machine-to-machine (M2M) paradigm, as the
name suggests, implies a system of communication between two or more machines/devices
without human intervention.
 Some basic examples of M2M communication in our daily lives include ATM machines
signaling banks about the need to refill them with cash, power line monitoring systems in a
house alerting a generator set of possible power failures and switching to generator-based
supply, vending machines updating stock of items in their inventory and alerting a remote
inventory of the need to refill certain depleting items, and others.
 Figure outlines the significant aspects of an M2M ecosystem. The task of any sensor network
system (be it WSN, M2M, CPS, or IoT) is the sensing of a physical environment and
converting the acquired data into a tangible output in the form of numbers using sensors.
 This sensing is followed by the transfer of sensed data to a remote device or location using a
network, which may be wired or wireless. The data collected at the remote device from
various sensors—homogeneous or heterogeneous—is converted to usable information, which
can be utilized to define the course of actions for individual scenarios.
 This information is processed to decide upon the most valid and optimum course of action
that must be undertaken to control the sensed environment desirably or as per requirements.
Finally, actuators are put to work to modify or adjust the sensed environment.

An overview of the M2M ecosystem

Features

• Negligible Mobility

• Time-restricted Transmissions

• Delay Tolerant

• Packet Switched

• Small Data Footprint

• Event Detection

• Low-power Requirements

Architectural components of M2M

  M2M being a complex paradigm is better understood if the components are grouped under the
following two categories:

 1) M2M networking model and

 2) M2M service ecosystem.

The networking model approaches the prospective scopes and features of the M2M platform in terms of the
networking components and their roles. The service ecosystem attempts to describe the M2M platform and
interactions in terms of the various service providers, their roles and responsibilities.

M2M Networking Model

 M2M Devices: M2M devices are those entities that are capable of responding to requests for data by
means of replying through networked messages almost autonomously. The devices at the end of the
network, which are tasked with sensing and actuation, also fall under this category.

 (i) Low-end Devices: This device type is typically cheap and has low capabilities such as auto-
configuration, power saving, and data aggregation. As devices of this type are generally static, energy-
efficient, and simple, a highly dense deployment is needed to increase network lifetime and
survivability

 (ii) Mid-end Devices: These devices are more costly than low-end M2M devices as they may
have mobility associated with them. However, these devices are less complex and energy-efficient
than high-end devices.
 iii) High-end devices: These devices generally require low density of deployment. They are designed
such that they can handle multimedia data (videos) with QoS requirements, even in mobile
environments.

 M2M Area Network: The M2M area network comprises multiple M2M devices, either communicating
with one another or to a connected platform, which is remotely situated. The local communication
between the M2M devices up to the M2M gateway can be considered as the M2M area network

M2M Gateway: It is responsible for enabling connectivity and communication between the M2M devices and a
global communication channel such as the Internet. The gateway is responsible for distinguishing between data
and control signals on the M2M platform to enable monitoring as well as maintenance of the M2M area network
remotely

M2M Communication Network: This is also referred to as the M2M network domain. It consists of the
communication technologies and paradigms for enabling connectivity and communication between M2M
gateways and various applications.

IP-based Networks: These networks are supported only by high-end M2M devices. As the other two
M2M device types—low-end and mid-end— are typically resource-constrained, IP-based addressing
over TCP is not supported Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported in IP-based M2M networks.
 M2M communication over an IP-based network

ii)Non-IP-based Networks: This scheme is generally used with low-end and mid-end M2M
devices as their configurations and capabilities do not support resource-hungry protocols such as
the TCP or UDP. A separate addressing scheme is designed for accommodating these resource-
constrained devices and is limited to the domain within the M2M gateways.

M2M Service Ecosystem

The functions and roles of the various domains are as follows.

 M2M Area Networks: These networks form the base of the M2M ecosystem. They are similar
to the M2M area networks previously described in the M2M networking model. The
constituent devices are classified as low-end, mid-end, and high-end based on their
functionalities and ability to handle mobility.
  Core Network: The core networks form the crux of the communication infrastructure of the
M2M ecosystem, and carry the bulk load of traffic across the M2M network. The core
network can be wired or wireless or both. Some of the conventional technologies associated
with the core networks include WLAN, LTE, GSM, WiMAX, DSL, and others.
 M2M Service Platform: The M2M service platform is further divided into the following four
parts:
 i) Device Management Platform: This platform enables anytime anywhere access between
Internet-connected platforms and registered objects or devices connected to the platform
 (ii) User Management Platform: Various service providers and device managers can maintain
administrative privileges over the devices or networks under their jurisdiction through the
platform’s device monitoring and control.
 (iii) Data and Analytics Platform: This platform provides integrated services based on device-
collected data and datasets. Heterogeneous data emerging from various devices are used for
creating new services.
(iv) User Access Platform: This platform provides a smartphone and web access environment
to users.
Stakeholders: The stakeholders in an M2M service ecosystem can be divided into five
different types: Device providers, Internet service providers (ISPs), Platform providers,
Service providers, and Service users.

Interoperability
Interoperability is considered as the interface between systems or products—hardware,
software, or middleware—designed in such a manner that the connecting devices can
communicate, exchange data, or services with one another seamlessly irrespective of the make,
model, manufacturer, and platform.

The urgency in the requirement for interoperability and interoperable solutions in IoT arose
mainly due to the following reasons:
• Large-scale Cooperation: There is a need for cooperation and coordination among the huge
number of IoT devices, systems, standards, and platforms; this is a long-standing problem.

• Global Heterogeneity: The network of devices within and outside the purview of gateways and
their subnets are quite large considering the spread of IoT and the applications it is being
adapted to daily.

• Unknown IoT Device Configuration: Device heterogeneity is often accompanied by further

heterogeneity in device configurations.

• Semantic Conflicts: The variations in processing logic and the way data is handled by the
numerous sensors and devices making up a typical IoT implementation, makes it impossible for
 rapid and robust deployment

Taxonomy of interoperability
• The significant range of interoperable solutions that has been developed for IoT can
be broadly categorized into the following groups:
• (i) Device: The existence of a vast plethora of devices and device types in an IoT
ecosystem necessitates device interoperability. Devices can be loosely categorized as
low-end, mid-end, and high-end devices based on their processing power, energy, and
communication requirements.
ii) Platform: The variations in the platform may be due to variations in operating
systems (Contiki, RIOT, TinyOS, OpenWSN), data structures, programming languages
(Python, Java, Android, C++), or/and application development environment.
• iii) Semantic: Semantic conflicts arise during IoT operations, mainly due to the
presence of various data models (XML, CSV, JSON), information models (◦C, ◦F, K,
or different representations of the same physical quantity), and ontologies [4].
• iv) Syntactic: Syntactic interoperability is a necessity due to the presence of conflicts
between data formats, interfaces, and schemas.
• v) Network: The large range of connectivity solutions, both wired and wireless, at the
disposal of developers and manufacturers of IoT devices and components, further
necessitates network interoperability.

Standards
EnOcean
EnOcean is a wireless technology designed for building automation systems, primarily based on
the principle of energy harvesting [6]. Due to the robustness and popularity of EnOcean, it is
being used in domains such as industries, transportation, logistics, and homes. As of 2012, EnOcean
was adopted as a wireless standard under ISO/IEC 14543-3-10, providing detailed coverage of the
physical, data link, and networking layers. EnOcean based devices are battery less. They use
ultra-low power consuming electronics along with micro energy converters to enable wireless
communication among themselves

DLNA
The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), previously known as the Digital Home Working
Group (DHWG), was proposed by a consortium of consumer electronics companies in 2003 to
incorporate interoperability guidelines for digital media sharing among multimedia devices such as
smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, multimedia servers, and storage servers. Primarily designed for
home networking, this standard relies majorly on WLAN for communicating with other devices in its
domain and can easily incorporate cable, satellite, and telecom service providers to ensure data
transfer link protection at either end.
DLNA outlines the following key technological components, which enable interoperability
guidelines for manufacturers [7].
(i) Network and Connectivity
 (ii) Device and Service Discovery and Control
(iii) Media Format and Transport Model
(iv) Media Management, Distribution, and Control
(v) Digital Rights Management and Content Protection
Manageability

Konnex
Konnex or KNX is a royalty-free open Home Automation Network (HAN) based wired standard
for domestic building and home applications. It relies on wired communication for achieving
automation [8]. Wired configurations such as a star, tree, or line topologies can be achieved by
using a variety of physical communication technologies involving twisted pair, power line, RF (KNX-
RF), or IP-based (KNX- net/IP) ones. KNX evolved from three previous standards: 1) BatiBUS, 2)
European Home Systems Protocol (EHS), and 3) European Installation Bus (EIB or Instabus).

UPnP
The Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) was designed primarily for home networks as a
set of protocols for networking devices such as PCs, printers, mobile devices, gateways,
and wireless access points. UPnP can discover the presence of other UPnP devices on
the network, as well as establish networks amongst them for communication and data
sharing [9]. Whenever they are connected to a network, UPnP devices can establish
working configurations with other devices.

Lon Works
Lon Works or local operating network, as it was initially named, is a protocol developed
by the Echelon Corp [10]. It was primarily developed for addressing the needs of
networked control applications within buildings over physical communication media such
as twisted pair, fiber optic cables, powerlines, and RF. The twisted pair uses differential
Manchester encoding and has a data rate of 78 kbit/s, whereas the powerline is much
slower and can have either 5.4 kbit/s or 3.6 kbit/s depending on the frequency of the
power line. This protocol was standardized by ANSI (American National Standards
Institute) as early as 1999 when it was known as Lon Talk and was used for control
networking.
Insteon
Insteon was developed as a home automation technology by Smartlabs in 2005 and
marketed under its subsidiary Insteon. Insteon enables interoperability and automation among
household devices such as lights, switches, thermostats, motion and gas sensors, and others
through RF or powerline communication. Insteon- connected devices act as peers and can
independently perform network-based functions such as message transmission and reception
by using a dual mesh network topology. These devices operating over the powerline have a
frequency of 131.65 kHz; the devices use binary phase shift keying (BPSK), with a
minimum receive signal level of 10 mV.
X-10
The X-10 protocol was developed by Pico Electronics (Scotland) in 1975 as a means of achieving
communicaton and automaton among household devices over powerlines. It was one of the
first home automaton technologies and yet it remains one of the most widely used even in the
present day [12]. Data and controls are encoded as brief RF bursts for signalling and control
over the powerlines. Household electrical wiring is used for sending data between X-10 devices
by encoding it over a 120 kHz carrier frequency which is transmited during zero crossings of
50–60 Hz consumer AC signals as RF bursts one bit per crossing. The data is made up of an
address and a command between the controller and the device.