UNIT I FUNDAMENTALS OF IoT

Introduction to IoT – IoT definition – Characteristics – IoT Complete

Architectural Stack – IoT enabling Technologies – IoT Challenges. Sensors
and Hardware for IoT – Hardware Platforms – Arduino, Raspberry Pi,
Node MCU. A Case study with any one of the boards and data acquisition
from sensors.

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO IoT:

IoT comprises things that have unique identities and are connected to internet.
By 2020 there will be a total of 50 billion devices /things connected to internet.
IoT is not limited to just connecting things to the internet but also allow things
to communicate and exchange data.

Today the Internet has become ubiquitous, has touched almost every corner of
the globe, and is affecting human life in unimaginable ways.

We are now entering an era of even more pervasive connectivity where a very
wide variety of appliances will be connected to the web.
The Internet of Things represents the whole way from collecting data,
processing it, taking an action corresponding to the signification of this data for
storing everything in the cloud. All this is made possible by the internet.

The Internet of things has become a very widely spread concept in the last few
years. The reason for this is mainly the need to computerize and control most of
the surrounding objects and have access to data in real time.

We use these capabilities to query the state of the object and to change its state
if possible.

In common parlance, the Internet of Things refers to a new kind of world where
almost all the devices and appliances that we use are connected to a network.
We can use them collaboratively to achieve complex tasks that require a high
degree of intelligence.

For this intelligence and interconnection, IoT devices are equipped with
embedded sensors, actuators, processors, and transceivers.

IoT is not a single technology; rather it is an agglomeration (combination) of

various technologies that work together in tandem.

Sensors and actuators are devices, which help in interacting with the physical
environment.

The data collected by the sensors has to be stored and processed intelligently in
order to derive useful inferences (presumption, guessing) from it.

Note that we broadly define the term sensor; a mobile phone or even a
microwave oven can count as a sensor as long as it provides inputs about its
current state (internal state + environment).

An actuator is a device that is used to effect a change in the environment such

as the temperature controller of an air conditioner.

The storage and processing of data can be done on the edge of the network itself
or in a remote server.

If any preprocessing of data is possible, then it is typically done at either the

sensor or some other proximate device.
Example: Parking sensors which can check the weather and so on.

The processed data is then typically sent to a remote server.

The storage and processing capabilities of an IoT object are also restricted by
the resources available, which are often very constrained due to limitations of
size, energy (solar, wind,light), power and computational capability.
As a result the main research challenge is to ensure that we get the right kind of
data at the desired level of accuracy.

Along with the challenges of data collection and handling, there are challenges
in communication as well.

The communication between IoT devices is mainly wireless because they are
generally installed at geographically dispersed locations.

The wireless channels often have high rates of distortion (change or loss of
quality) and are unreliable.

In this scenario reliably communicating data without too many retransmissions

is an important problem and thus communication technologies are integral to
the study of IoT devices.

We can directly modify the physical world through actuators or we may do

something virtually. For example, we can send some information to other smart
things.

The process of effecting a change in the physical world is often dependent on its
state at that point of time. This is called context awareness. Each action is taken
keeping in consideration the context because an application can behave
differently in different contexts.

For example, a person may not like messages from his office to interrupt him
when he is on vacation. Sensors, actuators, compute servers and the
communication network form the core infrastructure of an IoT framework.
However, there are many software aspects that need to be considered.

First, we need a middleware that can be used to connect and manage all of these
heterogeneous components. We need a lot of standardization to connect many
different devices.
The Internet of Things finds various applications in health care, fitness,
education, entertainment, social life, energy conservation, environment
monitoring, home automation, and transport systems.

1.2 Definition & Characteristics of IoT :

We are entering an era of the “Internet of Things” (abbreviated as IoT). There

are 2 definitions: First one is defined by Vermes an and second by Penelope
1. The Internet of Things as simply an interaction between the physical and
digital worlds. The digital world interacts with the physical world using a
plethora of sensors and actuators.
2. Another is the Internet of Things is defined as a paradigm in which
computing and networking capabilities are embedded in any kind of
conceivable object.

A dynamic global n/w infrastructure with self configuring capabilities based on

standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual
things have identities, physical attributes and virtual personalities and use
intelligent interfaces and are seamlessly integrated into information n/w, often
communicate data associated with users and their environments.

Characteristics of IoT
i) Dynamic & Self Adapting:
IoT devices and systems may have the capability to dynamically adapt with the
changing contexts and take actions based on their operating conditions, user‘s
context or sensed environment.
Eg: The surveillance system comprising of a number of surveillance cameras.
The surveillance camera can adapt modes based on whether it is day or night.
The surveillance system is adapting itself based on context and changing
conditions.
9) Self Configuring:
IOT devices have self configuring capability, allowing a large number of
devices to work together to provide certain functionality. These devices have
the ability configure themselves setup networking and fetch latest software
upgrades with minimal manual or user interaction.
9) Inter Operable Communication Protocols: support a number of
interoperable communication protocols and can communicate with other
devices and also with infrastructure.

iv) Unique Identity: Each IoT device has a unique identity and a unique
identifier (IP address).
v) Integrated into Information Network: that allow them to communicate and
exchange data with other devices and systems.

Applications of IoT:
1) Home
2) Cities
3) Environment
4) Energy
5) Retail
6) Logistics
7) Agriculture
8) Industry
9) Health &LifeStyle
\

1.3 IoT COMPLETE ARCHITECTURAL STACK

The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is an ISO-standard abstract

model is a stack of seven protocol layers.

From the top down, they are: application, presentation, session, transport,
network, data link and physical. TCP/IP, or the Internet Protocol suite,
underpins the internet, and it provides a simplified concrete (solid)
implementation of these layers in the OSI model.
 OSI and TCP/IP networking models
The TCP/IP model includes only four layers, merging some of the OSI model
layers:
Network Access & Physical Layer
This TCP/IP Layer subsumes (includes) both OSI layers 1 and 2. The physical
(PHY) layer (Layer 1 of OSI) governs how each device is physically connected
to the network with hardware, for example with an optic cable, wires, or radio
in the case of wireless network like wifi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n). At the link layer
(Layer 2 of OSI), devices are identified by a MAC (Media Access Control)
address, and protocols at this level are concerned with physical addressing, such
as how switches deliver frames to devices on the network.

Internet Layer
This layer maps to the OSI Layer 3 (network layer). OSI Layer 3 relates to
logical addressing. Protocols at this layer define how routers deliver packets of
data between source and destination hosts identified by IP addresses. IPv6 is
commonly adopted for IoT device addressing.
Transport Layer
The transport layer (Layer 4 in OSI) focuses on end-to-end communication and
provides features such as reliability, congestion avoidance and guaranteeing that
packets will be delivered in the same order that they were sent. UDP (User
Datagram protocol) is often adopted for IoT transport for performance reasons.

Application Layer
The application layer (Layers 5, 6, and 7 in OSI) covers application-level
messaging. HTTP/S is an example of an application layer protocol that is
widely adopted across the internet.

Although the TCP/IP and OSI models provide you with useful abstractions for
discussing networking protocols and specific technologies that implement each
protocol, some protocols don’t fit neatly into these layered models and are
impractical. For example, the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol that
implements encryption to ensure privacy and data integrity of network traffic
can be considered to operate across OSI layers 4, 5 and 6.

NETWORK ACCESS AND PHYSICAL LAYER IOT NETWORK

TECHNOLOGIES
IoT network technologies to be aware of toward the bottom of the protocol
stack include cellular, Wifi and Ethernet (wired LAN), as well as more
specialized solutions such as LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network),
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ZigBee, NFC (Near Field Communication) and
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).
The following are network technologies with brief descriptions of each:
LPWAN
Low Power Wide Area Network is a category of technologies designed for low-
power, long-range wireless communication. They are ideal for large-scale
deployments of low-power IoT devices such as wireless sensors. LPWAN
technologies include LoRa (Long Range physical layer protocol), Haystack,
SigFox, LTE-M (Long Term Evolution for Machines) and NB-IoT (Narrow-
Band IoT).

Cellular
The LPWAN NB-IoT and LTE-M standards address low-power, low-cost IoT
communication options using existing cellular networks. NB-IoT is the newest
of these standards and is focused on long-range communication between large
numbers of primarily indoor devices. LTE-M and NB-IoT were developed
specifically for IoT, however existing cellular technologies are also frequently
adopted for long-range wireless communication. While this has included 2G
(GSM) in legacy devices (and currently being phased out), CDMA (also being
retired or phased out), it also includes 3G, which is rapidly being phased out
with several network providers retiring all 3G devices. 4G is still active and will
be until 5G becomes fully available and implemented.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

BLE is a low-power version of the popular Bluetooth 2.4 GHz wireless
communication protocol. It is designed for short-range (no more than 100
meters) communication, typically in a star configuration, with a single primary
device that controls several secondary devices. Bluetooth operates across both
layers 1 (PHY) and 2 (MAC) of the OSI model. BLE is best suited to devices
that transmit low volumes of data in bursts. Devices are designed to sleep and
save power when they are not transmitting data. Personal IoT devices such as
wearable health and fitness trackers often use BLE.
ZigBee
ZigBee operates on 2.4GHz wireless communication spectrum. It has a longer
range than BLE by up to 100 meters. It also has a slightly lower data rate (250
kbps maximum compared to 270 kbps for BLE) than BLE. ZigBee is a mesh
network protocol. Unlike BLE, not all devices can sleep between bursts. Much
depends on their position in the mesh and whether they need to act as routers or
controllers within the mesh. ZigBee was designed for building and home
automation applications. Another closely related technology to ZigBee is Z-
Wave, which is also based on IEEE 802.15.4. Z-Wave was designed for home
automation. It has been proprietary technology, but was recently released as a
public domain specification.
NFC
The Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol is used for very small range
communication (up to 4 cm), such as holding an NFC card or tag next to a
reader. NFC is often used for payment systems, but also useful for check-in
systems and smart labels in asset tracking.
RFID
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. RFID tags store identifiers and
data. The tags are attached to devices and read by an RFID reader. The typical
range of RFID is less than a meter. RFID tags can be active, passive, or assisted
passive. Passive tags are ideal for devices without batteries, as the ID is
passively read by the reader. Active tags periodically broadcast their ID, while
assisted passive tags become active when RFID reader is present. Dash7 is a
communication protocol that uses active RFID that is designed to be used
within Industrial IoT applications for secure long-range communication. Similar
to NFC, a typical use case for RFID is tracking inventory items within retail and
industrial IoT applications.
Wifi
Wifi is standard wireless networking based on IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n
specifications. 802.11n offers the highest data throughput, but at the cost of
high-power consumption, so IoT devices might only use 802.11b or g for power
conservation reasons. Although wifi is adopted within many prototype and
current generation IoT devices, as longer-range and lower-power solutions
become more widely available, it is likely that wifi will be superseded by lower-
power alternatives.
Ethernet
Widely deployed for wired connectivity within local area networks, Ethernet
implements the IEEE 802.3 standard. Not all IoT devices need to be stationery
wireless. For example, sensor units installed within a building automation
system can use wired networking technologies like Ethernet. Power Line
Communication (PLC), an alternative hard-wired solution, uses existing
electrical wiring instead of dedicated network cables.

INTERNET LAYER IOT NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES

Internet layer technologies (OSI Layer 3) identify and route packets of data.
Technologies commonly adopted for IoT are related to this layer, and include
IPv6, 6LoWPAN, and RPL.
IPv6
At the Internet layer, devices are identified by IP addresses. IPv6 is typically
used for IoT applications over legacy IPv4 addressing. IPv4 is limited to 32-bit
addresses, which only provide around 4.3 billion addresses in total, which is
less than the current number of IoT devices that are connected, while IPv6 uses
128 bits, and so provides 2 128 addresses (around 3.4 × 10 38 or 340 billion)
addresses. In practice, not all IoT devices need public addresses. Of the tens of
billions of devices expected to connect via the IoT over the next few years,
many will be deployed in private networks that use private address ranges and
only communicate out to other devices or services on external networks by
using gateways.

6LoWPAN
The IPv6 Low Power Wireless Personal Area Network (6LoWPAN) standard
allows IPv6 to be used over 802.15.4 wireless networks. 6LoWPAN is often
used for wireless sensor networks, and the Thread protocol for home automation
devices also runs over 6LoWPAN.

RPL
The Internet Layer also covers routing. IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power
and Lossy Networks (RPL) is designed for routing IPv6 traffic over low-power
networks like those networks implemented over 6LoWPAN. RPL (pronounced
“ripple”) is designed for routing packets within constrained networks such as
wireless sensor networks, where not all devices are reachable at all times and
there are high or unpredictable amounts of packet loss. RPL can compute the
optimal path by building up a graph of the nodes in the network based on
dynamic metrics and constraints like minimizing energy consumption or
latency.

TRANSPORT LAYER IOT NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES

It provides end-to-end message transfer capability independent of the
underlying n/w. Set up on connection with ACK as in TCP and without ACK as
in UDP. Provides functions such as error control, segmentation, flow control
and congestion control.
TCP
Transmission Control Protocol used by web browsers (along with HTTP and
HTTPS), email (along with SMTP, FTP). Connection oriented and stateless
protocol. IP Protocol deals with sending packets, TCP ensures reliable
transmission of protocols in order. It avoids n/w congestion and congestion
collapse.

UDP
User Datagram Protocol is connectionless protocol. It is useful in time sensitive
applications and very small data units to exchange. Transaction oriented and
stateless protocol. It does not provide guaranteed delivery.

APPLICATION LAYER IOT NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES

HTTP and HTTPS are ubiquitous across internet applications which is true also
within IoT, with RESTful HTTP and HTTPS interfaces widely deployed. CoAP
(Constrained Application Protocol) is like a lightweight HTTP that is often used
in combination with 6LoWPAN over UDP. Messaging protocols like MQTT,
AMQP, and XMPP are also frequently used within IoT applications:
MQTT
Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is a publish/subscribe-based
messaging protocol that was designed for use in low bandwidth situations,
particularly for sensors and mobile devices on unreliable networks.
AMQP
Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) is an open standard messaging
protocol that is used for message-oriented middleware. Most notably, AMQP is
implemented by RabbitMQ.
XMPP
The Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) was originally
designed for real-time human-to-human communication including instant
messaging. This protocol has been adapted for machine-to-machine (M2M)
communication to implement lightweight middleware and for routing XML
data. XMPP is primarily used with smart appliances.
Your choice of technologies at this layer will depend on the specific application
requirements of your IoT project. For example, for a budget home automation
system that involves several sensors, MQTT would be a good choice as it is
great for implementing messaging on devices without much storage or
processing power because the protocol is simple and lightweight to implement.
Physical Design of IoT :
The "Things" in IoT usually refers to IoT devices which have unique identities
and can perform remote sensing, actuating and monitoring capabilities.
IoT devices can:
 Exchange data with other connected devices and applications (directly or
indirectly), or

 Collect data from other devices and process the data locally or

 Send the data to centralized servers or cloud-based application back-ends for

processing the data,

 Perform some tasks locally and other tasks within the IoT infrastructure,
based on temporal and space constraints
Generic block diagram of an IoT Device
• An IoT device may consist of several interfaces for connections to other
devices, both wired and wireless.
• I/O interfaces for sensors
• Interfaces for Internet connectivity
• Memory and storage interfaces
• Audio/video interfaces.

• HDMI: High definition multimedia Interface.

• 3.5mm: Audio Jack which headphone adapter.

• RCA: Radio corporation of America.

• UART: Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter.

• SPI: Serial Peripheral Interface.

• I2C: Inter integrated circuit

• CAN: Controller Area Network used for Micro-controllers and devices to
communicate.

• SD: Secure digital (memory card)

• MMC: multimedia card

• SDIO: Secure digital Input Output

• GPU: Graphics processing unit.

• DDR: Double data rate

IoT Protocols:
a) Link Layer:
Protocols determine how data is physically sent over the network‘s physical
layer or medium. Local network connect to which host is attached. Hosts on the
same link exchange data packets over the link layer using link layer protocols.
Link layer determines how packets are coded and signalled by the h/w device
over the medium to which the host is attached.
Protocols:
802.3-Ethernet: IEEE802.3 is collection of wired Ethernet standards for the
link layer. Eg: 802.3 uses co-axial cable; 802.3i uses copper twisted pair
connection; 802.3j uses fiber optic connection; 802.3ae uses Ethernet overfiber.
802.11-WiFi: IEEE802.11 is a collection of wireless LAN(WLAN)
communication standards including extensive description of link layer. Eg:
802.11a operates in 5GHz band, 802.11b and 802.11g operates in 2.4GHz band,
802.11n operates in 2.4/5GHz band, 802.11ac operates in 5GHz band, 802.11ad
operates in 60Ghzband.
802.16 -WiMax: IEEE802.16 is a collection of wireless broadband standards
including exclusive description of link layer. WiMax provide data rates from
1.5 Mb/s to 1Gb/s.
802.15.4-LR-WPAN: IEEE802.15.4 is a collection of standards for low rate
wireless personal area network(LR-WPAN). Basis for high level
communication protocols such as ZigBee. Provides data rate from 40kb/s
to250kb/s.
2G/3G/4G-Mobile Communication: Data rates from 9.6kb/s(2G) to up
to100Mb/s(4G). B)

b) Network/Internet Layer:
Responsible for sending IP datagrams from source n/w to destination n/w.
Performs the host addressing and packet routing. Datagrams contains source
and destination address.
Protocols:
IPv4: Internet Protocol version4 is used to identify the devices on a n/w using
a hierarchical addressing scheme. 32 bit address. Allows total of 2*32addresses.
IPv6: Internet Protocol version6 uses 128 bit address scheme and allows
2*128 addresses.
6LOWPAN:(IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Network)
operates in 2.4 GHz frequency range and data transfer 250 kb/s.

c) Transport Layer:

Provides end-to-end message transfer capability independent of the underlying

n/w. Set up on connection with ACK as in TCP and without ACK as in UDP.
Provides functions such as error control, segmentation, flow control and
congestion control.
Protocols:
 TCP: Transmission Control Protocol used by web browsers (along with
HTTP and HTTPS), email(along with SMTP, FTP). Connection oriented and
stateless protocol. IP Protocol deals with sending packets, TCP ensures reliable
transmission of protocols in order. Avoids n/w congestion and congestion
collapse.
 UDP: User Datagram Protocol is connectionless protocol. Useful in time
sensitive applications, very small data units to exchange. Transaction oriented
and stateless protocol. Does not provide guaranteed delivery.

d) Application Layer:
Defines how the applications interface with lower layer protocols to send data
over the n/w. Enables process-to-process communication using ports.
Protocols:
 HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol that forms foundation of WWW.
Follow request response model Stateless protocol.
 CoAP: Constrained Application Protocol for machine-to-machine(M2M)
applications with constrained devices, constrained environment and constrained
n/w. Uses client-server architecture.

 WebSocket: allows full duplex communication over a single socket

connection.

 MQTT: Message Queue Telemetry Transport is light weight messaging

protocol based on

-subscribe model. Uses client server architecture. Well suited for constrained
environment.

 XMPP: Extensible Message and Presence Protocol for real time

communication and streaming XML data between network entities. Support
client-server and server-server communication.

 DDS: Data Distribution Service is data centric middleware standards for

device-to-device or machine-to-machine communication. Uses publish-
subscribe model.
 AMQP: Advanced Message Queuing Protocol is open application layer
protocol for business messaging. Supports both point-to-point andpublish-
subscribe model.

LOGICAL DESIGN of IoT

Refers to an abstract represent of entities and processes without going into the
low level specifies of implementation.
1) IoT Functional Blocks
2) IoT Communication Models
3) IoT Comm. APIs

1) IoT Functional Blocks:

Provide the system the capabilities for identification, sensing, actuation,

communication and management
 Device: An IoT system comprises of devices that provide sensing, actuation,
monitoring and control functions.

 Communication: handles the communication for IoT system.

 Services: for device monitoring, device control services, data publishing

services and services for device discovery.

 Management: Provides various functions to govern the IoT system.

 Security: Secures IoT system and priority functions such as authentication,

authorization, message and context integrity and data security.

 Application: IoT application provide an interface that the users can use to
control and monitor various aspects of IoT system.
2) IoT Communication Models:
A) Request-Response
B) Publish-Subscribe
C)Push-Pull
D) Exclusive Pair

A) Request-Response
Request-Response is a communication model in which the client sends requests
to the server and the server responds to the requests. When the server receives a
request, it decides how to respond, fetches the data, retrieves resource
representations, prepares the response, and then sends the response to the client.

B) Publish-Subscribe communication model:

a. Publish-Subscribe is a communication model that involves publishers,
brokers and consumers.

b. Publishers are the source of data. Publishers send the data to the topics which
are managed by the broker. Publishers are not aware of the consumers.

c. Consumers subscribe to the topics which are managed by the broker.

d. When the broker receives data for a topic from the publisher, it sends the data
to all the subscribed consumers
C) Push-Pull communication model:
a. Push-Pull is a communication model in which the data producers push the
data to queues and the consumers pull the data from the queues. Producers do
not need to be aware of the consumers.

b. Queues help in decoupling the messaging between the producers and

consumers.

c. Queues also act as a buffer which helps in situations when there is a

mismatch between the rate at which the producers push data and the rate at
which the consumers pull.
D) Exclusive Pair communication model:
a. Exclusive Pair is a bidirectional, fully duplex communication model that uses
a persistent connection between the client and server.

b. Once the connection is setup it remains open until the client sends a request
to close the connection.

c. Client and server can send messages to each other after connection setup.
3) IoT Communication APIs:
a) REST based communication APIs(Request-Response Based Model)
b) WebSocket based Communication APIs(Exclusive PairBasedModel)
Request-Response model used by REST:

a) RESTful webservice is a collection of resources which are represented by

URIs. RESTful web API has a base URI(e.g:
[Link] The clients and requests to these URIs
using the methods defined by the HTTP protocol (e.g: GET, PUT, POST
or DELETE). A RESTful web service can support various internet media
types.

b) WebSocket Based Communication APIs: WebSocket APIs allow bi-

directional, full duplex communication between clients and servers.
WebSocket APIs follow the exclusive pair communication model.
1.4 IoT Enabling 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.
1.4.1 Wireless Sensor Networks
A wireless sensor network comprises of distributed devices with sensors which
are used to monitor the environmental and physical conditions. A WSN consist
of a number of end nodes and routers and a co-ordinator. The coordinator
collects the data from all the nodes. Coordinator also acts as a gateway that
connects the WSN to the internet.
WSNs used in IoT systems are described as follows:
• Weather Monitoring System: in which nodes collect temp, humidity and other
data, which is aggregated and analyzed.

• Indoor air quality monitoring systems: to collect data on the indoor air quality
and concentration of various gases.
• Soil Moisture Monitoring Systems: to monitor soil moisture at various
locations.

• Surveillance Systems: use WSNs for collecting surveillance data(motion data

detection).

• Smart Grids : use WSNs for monitoring grids at various points.

• Structural Health Monitoring Systems: Use WSNs to monitor the health of

structures(building, bridges) by collecting vibrations from sensor nodes
deployed at various points in the structure.

WSNs are enabled by wireless communication protocols such as IEEE

802.15.4. Zig Bee is one of the most popular wireless technologies used by
WSNs .Zig Bee specifications are based on IEEE 802.15.4. Zig Bee operates
2.4 GHz frequency and offers data rates upto 250 KB/s and range from 10 to
100meters.
1.4.2 Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is a transformative 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”.
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 services are offered to users in different forms.
• Infrastructure-as-a-service(IaaS):Provides users the ability to provision
computing and storage resources. These resources are provided to the users as a
virtual machine instances and virtual storage.
• Platform-as-a-Service(PaaS): Provides users the ability to develop and
deploy application in cloud using the development tools, APIs, software
libraries and services provided by the cloud service provider.

• Software-as-a-Service(SaaS): Provides the user a complete software

application or the user interface to the application itself. The cloud service
provider manages the underlying cloud infrastructure including servers,
network, operating systems, storage, and application software.
1.4.3 Big data Analysis
Big data is defined as collections of data sets whose volume , velocity or variety
is so large that it is difficult to store, manage, process and analyze the data using
traditional databases and data processing tools.
Some examples of big data generated by IoT are Sensor data generated by IoT
systems.
• Machine sensor data collected from sensors established in industrial and
energy systems.

• Health and fitness data generated IoT devices.

• Data generated by IoT systems for location and tracking vehicles.

• Data generated by retail inventory monitoring systems.

The underlying characteristics of Big Data are

Volume: There is no fixed threshold for the volume of data for big data. Big
data is used for massive scale data.
Velocity: Velocity is another important characteristics of Big Data and the
primary reason for exponential growth of data.
Variety: Variety refers to the form of data. Big data comes in different forms
such as structured or unstructured data including test data, image , audio, video
and sensor data .
1.4.4 Communication Protocols:
Communication Protocols form the back-bone of IoT systems and enable
network connectivity and coupling to applications.
• Allow devices to exchange data over network.

• Define the exchange formats, data encoding addressing schemes for device
and routing of packets from source to destination.

• It includes sequence control, flow control and retransmission of lost packets.

1.4.5 Embedded Systems:
Embedded Systems is a computer system that has computer hardware and
software embedded to perform specific tasks. Key components of embedded
system include microprocessor or micro controller, memory (RAM, ROM,
Cache), networking units (Ethernet Wi-Fi Adaptor), input/output units (Display,
Keyboard, etc..,) and storage (Flash memory). Embedded System range from
low cost miniaturized devices such as digital watches to devices such as digital
cameras, POS terminals, vending machines, appliances etc.,

Challenges of IoT
1. Security: Security is the most significant challenge for the IoT. Increasing
the number of connected devices increases the opportunity to exploit security
vulnerabilities, as do poorly designed devices, which can expose user data to
theft by leaving data streams inadequately protected and in some cases people’s
health and safety can be put at risk.
2. Privacy: The IoT creates unique challenges to privacy, many that go beyond
the data privacy issues that currently exist. Much of this stems from integrating
devices into our environments without us consciously using them. This is
becoming more prevalent in consumer devices, such as tracking devices for
phones and cars as well as smart televisions.
3. Scalability: Billions of internet-enabled devices get connected in a huge
network, large volumes of data are needed to be processed. The system that
stores, analyses the data from these IoT devices needs to be scalable.
4. Interoperability: Technological standards in most areas are still fragmented.
These technologies need to be converged. Which would help us in establishing
a common framework and the standard for the IoT devices. As the
standardization process is still lacking, interoperability of IoT with legacy
devices should be considered critical. This lack of interoperability is preventing
us to move towards the vision of truly connected everyday interoperable smart
objects.
5. Bandwidth: Connectivity is a bigger challenge to the IoT than you might
expect. As the size of the IoT market grows exponentially, some experts are
concerned that bandwidth-intensive IoT applications such as video streaming
will soon struggle for space on the IoT’s current server-client model.
6. Standards: Lack of standards and documented best practices have a greater
impact than just limiting the potential of IoT devices. Without standards to
guide manufacturers, developers sometimes design products that operate in
disruptive ways on the Internet without much regard to their impact. If poorly
designed and configured, such devices can have negative consequences for the
networking resources they connect to and the broader Internet.
7. Regulation: The lack of strong IoT regulations is a big part of why the IoT
remains a severe security risk, and the problem is likely to get worse as the
potential attack surface expands to include ever more crucial devices. When
medical devices, cars and children’s toys are all connected to the Internet, it’s
not hard to imagine many potential disaster scenarios unfolding in the absence
of sufficient regulation.

SENSOR
Sensor is a device used for the conversion of physical events or characteristics
into the electrical signals. This is a hardware device that takes the input from
environment and gives to the system by converting it. For example, a
thermometer takes the temperature as physical characteristic and then converts
it into electrical signals for the system.
Characteristics of Sensors
1. Range: It is the minimum and maximum value of physical variable that the
sensor can sense or measure. For example, a Resistance Temperature Detector
(RTD) for the measurement of temperature has a range of -200 to 800oC.
2. Span: It is the difference between the maximum and minimum values of
input. In above example, the span of RTD is 800 – (-200) = 1000oC.
3. Accuracy: The error in measurement is specified in terms of accuracy. It is
defined as the difference between measured value and true value. It is defined in
terms of % of full scale or % of reading.
4. Precision: It is defined as the closeness among a set of values. It is different
from accuracy.
5. Linearity: Linearity is the maximum deviation between the measured values
of a sensor from ideal curve.
6. Hysteresis: It is the difference in output when input is varied in two ways-
increasing and decreasing.
7. Resolution: It is the minimum change in input that can be sensed by the
sensor.
8. Reproducibility: It is defined as the ability of sensor to produce the same
output when same input is applied.
9. Repeatability: It is defined as the ability of sensor to produce the same
output every time when the same input is applied and all the physical and
measurement conditions kept the same including the operator, instrument,
ambient conditions etc.
10. Response Time: It is generally expressed as the time at which the output
reaches a certain percentage (for instance, 95%) of its final value, in response to
a step change of the input.
Classification of sensors:
Sensors based on the power requirement sensor is classified into two types:
Active Sensors, Passive Sensors.
Active Sensors: Does not need any external energy source but directly
generates an electric signal in response to the external.
Example: Thermocouple, Photodiode, Piezoelectric sensor.
Passive Sensors: The sensors require external power called excitation signal.
Sensors modify the excitation signal to provide output.
Example: Strain gauge.
Sensors based on output sensor is classified into two types: Analog Sensors,
Digital Sensors.
Analog Sensors
• Analog Sensors produces a continuous output signal or voltage which is
generally proportional to the quantity being measured.
• Physical quantities such as Temperature, speed, Pressure, Displacement,
Strain etc. are all analog quantities as they tend to be continuous in nature.
• For example, the temperature of a liquid can be measured using a
thermometer or thermocouple (e.g. in geysers) which continuously responds to
temperature changes as the liquid is heated up or cooled down.

Digital Sensors
• Digital Sensors produce discrete output voltages that are a digital
representation of the quantity being measured.
• Digital sensors produce a binary output signal in the form of a logic "1"
or a logic "0" ("ON" or "OFF).
• Digital signal only produces discrete (non-continuous) values, which
may be output as a signal "bit" (serial transmission), or by combing the bits to
produce a signal "byte" output (parallel transmission).

Based on type of data measured sensor is classified into two types: Scalar
Sensors and Vector Sensors.
Scalar Sensors
• Scalar Sensors produce output signal or voltage which generally
proportional to the magnitude of the quantity being measured.
 • Physical quantities such as temperature, color, pressure, strain, etc. are
all scalar quantities as only their magnitude is sufficient to convey an
information.
• For example, the temperature of a room can be measured using
thermometer or thermocouple, which responds to temperature changes
irrespective of the orientation of the sensor or its direction.

Vector Sensors
• Vector Sensors produce output signal or voltage which generally
proportional to the magnitude, direction, as well as the orientation of the
quantity being measured.
• Physical quantities such as sound, image, velocity, acceleration,
orientation, etc. are all vector quantities, as only their magnitude is not
sufficient to convey the complete information.
• For example, the acceleration of a body can be measured using an
accelerometer, which gives the components of acceleration of the body with
respect to the x,y,z coordinate axes.

ACTUATOR
Actuator is a device that converts the electrical signals into the physical events
or characteristics. It takes the input from the system and gives output to the
environment. For example, motors and heaters are some of the commonly used
actuators.
Types of Actuators
1. Hydraulic Actuators: Hydraulic actuators operate by the use of a fluid-filled
cylinder with a piston suspended at the centre. Commonly, hydraulic actuators
produce linear movements, and a spring is attached to one end as a part of the
return motion. These actuators are widely seen in exercise equipment such as
steppers or car transport carriers.
2. Pneumatic Actuators: Pneumatic actuators are one of the most reliable
options for machine motion. They use pressurized gases to create mechanical
movement. Many companies prefer pneumatic-powered actuators because they
can make very precise motions, especially when starting and stopping a
machine. Examples of equipment that uses pneumatic actuators include: Bus
brakes, Exercise machines, Vane motors, Pressure sensors
3. Electric Actuators: Electrical actuators, as you may have guessed, require
electricity to work. Well-known examples include electric cars, manufacturing
machinery, and robotics equipment. Similar to pneumatic actuators, they also
create precise motion as the flow of electrical power is constant.
4. Thermal and Magnetic Actuators: Thermal and magnetic actuators usually
consist of shape memory alloys that can be heated to produce movement. The
motion of thermal or magnetic actuators often comes from the Joule effect, but
it can also occur when a coil is placed in a static magnetic field. The magnetic
field causes constant motion called the Laplace-Lorentz force. Most thermal and
magnetic actuators can produce a wide and powerful range of motion while
remaining lightweight.
5. Mechanical Actuators: Some actuators are mostly mechanical, such as
pulleys or rack and pinion systems. Another mechanical force is applied, such
as pulling or pushing, and the actuator will leverage that single movement to
produce the desired results. For instance, turning a single gear on a set of rack
and pinions can mobilize an object from point A to point B. The tugging
movement applied on the pulley can bring the other side upwards or towards the
desired location.
6. Soft Actuators: Soft actuators (e.g., polymer based) are designed to handle
fragile objects like fruit harvesting in agriculture or manipulating the internal
organs in biomedicine.
They typically address challenging tasks in robotics. Soft actuators produce
flexible motion due to the integration of microscopic changes at the molecular
level into a macroscopic deformation of the actuator materials.
IOT COMPONENTS
Four fundamental components of IoT system, which tells us how IoT works.
i. Sensors/Devices
First, sensors or devices help in collecting very minute data from the
surrounding environment. All of this collected data can have various degrees of
complexities ranging from a simple temperature monitoring sensor or a complex
full video feed.
A device can have multiple sensors that can bundle together to do more than
just sense things. For example, our phone is a device that has multiple sensors
such as GPS, accelerometer, camera but our phone does not simply sense
things.
ii. Connectivity
Next, that collected data is sent to a cloud infrastructure but it needs a medium
for transport.
The sensors can be connected to the cloud through various mediums of
communication and transports such as cellular networks, satellite networks, Wi-
Fi, Bluetooth, wide-area networks (WAN), low power wide area network and
many more.
iii. Data Processing
Once the data is collected and it gets to the cloud, the software performs
processing on the acquired data.
This can range from something very simple, such as checking that the
temperature reading on devices such as AC or heaters is within an acceptable
range. It can sometimes also be very complex, such as identifying objects (such
as intruders in your house) using computer vision on video.
iv. User Interface
Next, the information made available to the end-user in some way. This can
achieve by triggering alarms on their phones or notifying through texts or
emails.
Also, a user sometimes might also have an interface through which they can
actively check in on their IOT system. For example, a user has a camera
installed in his house, he might want to check the video recordings and all the
feeds through a web server.