Hardware components in IoT

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 Hardware components in IoT
solution
• An IoT system is comprised of a number of
functional blocks to facilitate various utilities to
the system such as,
• Sensing,
• Identification,
• Actuation,
• Communication, and
• Management 2
 Hardware components in IoT
solution
• In IoTs, hardware comes in many forms, whether
the underlying processors control the phones, the
sensors collecting information from the physical
world, or the edge machines processing and
analyzing the data.
• At the heart of any wired venture is IoT hardware
and the technical capabilities of these boards have
only become more important as the IoTs has
developed. 3
 IoT Hardware

IoT hardware involves the

tangible components and
devices used to enable
connectivity, such as IoT
sensors, computer chips,
actuators, cables, and
smart devices (such as a
tablet).

Check the link:

1. https://www.educba.com/iot-hardware/
2. https://data-flair.training/blogs/iot-hardware/
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IoT data processing

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 IoT data processing
• From the previous slid,
• The data is transferred from sensor devices to a
local edge computing system, which processes and
stores the data, and only then sends it to the cloud.
• Also, the system could compile the processed data
and send it to the cloud e.g. once a day.

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 About edge computing
• Edge computing allows the data to be processed near to its origin
(the sensor devices).
• The good thing about edge computing is that only the important
information is sent over the network.
• This requires less bandwidth from the network and also saves
the sensor devices’ batteries.
• Also, the data can be processed faster when it is done near the
sensor device.
• Check for the difference with cloud in
https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/cloud-computing/cloud-vs-
edge#:~:text=The%20edge%20refers%20to%20devices,running 7
%20workloads%20on%20edge%20devices.
 About edge computing
• One definition of edge computing is the use of any type
of computer program that delivers low latency nearer to the
requests
• Edge computing is a distributed computing paradigm that
brings computation and data storage closer to the sources of
data.
• This is expected to improve response times and
save bandwidth.
• Edge computing is an architecture rather than a specific
technology, and a topology- and location-sensitive form of
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distributed computing.
 About edge computing
according to Karim Arabi
• Edge computing broadly as all computing outside
the cloud happening at the edge of the network, and
more specifically in applications where real-time
processing of data is required.
• Cloud computing operates on big data while edge
computing operates on "instant data" that is real-
time data generated by sensors or users.

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 Edge vs Cloud
• Edges are also places where data is • Clouds are places where data can be
collected. They are physical stored or applications can run. They
environments made up of hardware are software-defined environments
outside a datacenter. created by datacenters or server farms.
• Edge computing is an act; the act of • Cloud computing is also an act; the
running workloads on edge devices. act of running workloads in a cloud
• An edge (location) is not the same thing
as edge computing (action).
• Collecting data at the edge of a network
and transferring it to a cloud with
minimal (if any) modification is not edge
computing—it’s just networking. • https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/clou
d-computing/cloud-vs-
• But, if that data is collected and edge#:~:text=Clouds%20are%20place
processed at the edge, then it’s edge s%20where%20data,of%20hardware%
computing. 20outside%20a%20datacenter. 10
Major components of Internet of
Things

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 Smart devices and sensors –
Device connectivity
• Devices and sensors are the components of the device
connectivity layer.
• These smart sensors are continuously collecting data from the
environment and transmit the information to the next layer
• Common sensors are:
1. Temperature sensors and thermostats
2. Pressure sensor
3. Humidity / Moisture level
4. Light intensity detectors
5. Moisture sensors
6. Proximity detection
7. RFID tags 12
 How the devices are connected?
• Most of the modern smart devices and sensors
can be connected to low power wireless networks
like Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, Z-wave,
LoRAWAN etc…
• Each of these wireless technologies has its own
pros and cons in terms of power, data transfer
rate and overall efficiency.
• For more info, check the
linkhttps://iot.telenor.com/iot-insights/what-is-13
 2. Gateway
• IoT Gateway manages the bidirectional data traffic between different networks
and protocols.
• Another function of gateway is to translate different network protocols and
make sure interoperability of the connected devices and sensors
• Gateways can be configured to perform pre-processing of the collected data
from thousands of sensors locally before transmitting it to the next stage
• Brief, An IoT gateway is a centralized hub that connects IoT devices and
sensors to cloud-based computing and data processing.
• Modern IoT gateways often allow bidirectional data flow between the cloud and
IoT devices.
Check the link for more detail: https://www.checkpoint.com/cyber-hub/network-
security/what-is-iot/what-is-an-iot-
gateway/#:~:text=An%20IoT%20gateway%20is%20a,the%20cloud%20and%20Io
T%20devices. 14
Raspberry Pi Gateway

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 Raspberry Pi Gateway
• A credit card size mini computer, operated in Linux OS.
• Easily Plugs into a TV or Monitor
• Supporting Operating System: Rasbian, Fedora, Debian, ArchLlinux
ARM, Windows 10 on Raspberry pi.

How to build a gateway with

Raspberry Pi and IC880A

Check the link bellow:

https://www.thethingsindustries.com/docs/gateways/models/raspb
erry-pi/ 16
 3. Cloud

• Internet of things creates massive data from

devices, applications and users which has to be
managed in an efficient way.
• IoT cloud offers tools to collect, process,
manage and store huge amount of data in real
time.
• Industries and services can easily access these
data remotely and make critical decisions when
necessary. 17
 4. Analytics

• Analytics is the process of converting analog data from

billions of smart devices and sensors into useful insights
which can be interpreted and used for detailed analysis.
• Smart analytics solutions are inevitable for IoT system
for management and improvement of the entire system
• Big enterprises use the massive data collected from IoT
devices and utilize the insights for their future business
opportunities
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 5. User interface
• User interfaces are the visible, tangible part of the IoT
system which can be accessible by users.
• Designers will have to make sure a well designed user
interface for minimum effort for users and encourage more
interactions
• User interface design has higher significance in today’s
competitive market, it often determines the user whether to
choose a particular device or appliance.
• Users will be interested to buy new devices or smart
gadgets if it is very user friendly and compatible with
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common wireless standards.
 IoT Device Block diagram
• 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
IoT devices can also be of varied types, for instance,
wearable sensors, smart watches, LED lights,
automobiles and industrial machines
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Generic Block Diagram of an IoT
Device

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 IoT block diagram and
architecture

For more details: https://www.etechnog.com/2021/05/iot-block-diagram-

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architecture.html
 Device Composition
• An IoT system is based on devices that provide sensing,
actuation, control, and monitoring activities.
• IoT devices can exchange data with other connected devices
and application, or
• IoT device collect data from other devices and process the
data either locally or send the data to centralized servers or
cloud based applications back-ends for processing the data,
• IoT device perform some tasks locally and other tasks within
IoT infrastructure based on temporal and space constraints
(i.e. memory, processing capabilities, communication 23
latencies, and speeds, and deadlines)
 IoT Data
• Almost all IoT devices generate data in some form of the
other data which when processed by data analytics
systems generate useful information to guide further
actions locally or remotely,
• For instance, sensor data generated by a soil moisture
monitoring device in a garden, when processed can help
in determining the optimum watering schedules.

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Soil moisture monitoring

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 IoT connection
• IoT is a transformation process of connecting our smart devices
and objects to network to perform efficiently and access remotely
• The modern smart sensors and devices use various ways to be
connected.
• The wireless networks like LORAWAN, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth
makes it easy for them to stay connected.
• They have their own advantages and drawbacks that are
classified in various forms like efficiency rate, data transfer, and
power

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Simplified block diagram of
basic building block of IoT

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 What is a Sensor

• A sensor is defined as a device or a module that helps

to detect any changes in physical quantity like pressure,
force or electrical quantity like current or any other
form of energy.
• After observing the changes, sensor sends the detected
input to a microcontroller or microprocessor.
• Finally, a sensor produces a readable output signal,
which can be either optical, electrical, or any form of
signal that corresponds to change in input signal.
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 Sensors categories
• Active and passive: they produce an energy output and
require an external power supply( active) or no required
external power supply( Passive)
• Invasive or non-invasive: sensor is part of the environment it
is measuring( invasive) or external to it( non invasive)
• Contact or non-contact: require physical contact or not
• Absolute or relative: measure on an absolute scale or based
on a difference with a fixed or variable reference value (
relative)
• Area of application: based on specific industry or vertical
they are being used 29
Different types of sensors

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Typical sensors type
Typical sensors type
 Temperature sensor
• A Temperature Sensor, as
the name suggests, senses
the temperature i.e. it
measures the changes in the
temperature
• In a Temperature Sensor,
the changes in the
Temperature correspond to
change in its physical
property like resistance or 33
voltage.
Temperature and Humidity
Sensors on Arduino

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 Proximity Sensors

• A Proximity Sensor is a non-

contact type sensor that
detects the presence of an
object.
• Some of the applications of
Proximity Sensors are Mobile
Phones, Cars (Parking
Sensors), industries (object
alignment), Ground Proximity
in Aircrafts, etc.
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 Ultrasonic Sensor

• An Ultrasonic Sensor is
a non-contact type device that
can be used to measure distance as
well as velocity of an object.
• An Ultrasonic Sensor works
based on the properties of the
sound waves with frequency
greater than that of the human
audible range.

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 How the devices are connected?
• Most of the modern smart devices and sensors can be connected
to low power wireless networks like Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth,
Z-wave, LoRAWAN etc…
• Each of these wireless technologies has its own pros and cons in
terms of power, data transfer rate and overall efficiency
• Developments in the low power, low cost wireless transmitting
devices are promising in the area of IoT due to its long battery
life and efficiency.
• Latest protocols like 6LoWPAN- IPv6 over Low Power Wireless
Personal Area Networks have been adapted by many companies
to implement energy efficient data transmission for IoT network
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 IoT Device Representation

• As you design your IoT project, you'll need to think about

the various levels of abstraction in your design and make
decisions about how to represent the physical things and
their relationships to each other.
• The specific requirements of your application will help
you understand whether something that generates
information should be treated as a device, and therefore
deserves its own ID, or is simply a channel or state detail
of another device.

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 Case 1: each sensor as a device
• Consider a project that has the goal of monitoring the temperature
of rooms in a hotel.
• In each room there might be three sensors: one at the floor by the
door, one on the ceiling, and one next to the bed.
• You can model this setup by representing each sensor as a device:
• {deviceID: "dh28dslkja", "location": "floor", "room": 128, "temp": 22
}
• {deviceID: "8d3kiuhs8a", "location": "ceiling", "room": 128, "temp":
24 }
• {deviceID: "kd8s8hh3o", "location": "bedside", "room": 128, "temp":
23 } 39
 Case 2: Entire room as a device
• You could also model the entire room as a device.
• While you usually wouldn't consider a room to be a device, in IoT
the device abstraction is really about what you manage and record
from as a unit.
• Viewed that way, you could model the hotel room as a device that
contains three sensors:
• {deviceID: "dh28dslkja", "room": 128, "temp_floor": 22,
"temp_ceiling": 24, "temp_bedside": 23, "average_temp": 23 }
• Depending on the goals, one of these two data representations might
be more correct than the other.
• Note the average temperature field in the second example. 40
• This might be what the hotel is looking for
 General considerations when
choosing hardware
• Cost. Given the value of the data provided, think about what cost can
be supported for each device.
• I/O roles. The device might be primarily a sensor, an actuator, or some
combination of the two roles.
• Power budget. The device might have access to electricity, or power
might be scarce. Think about whether the device will require battery or
solar power.
• Networking environment. Consider whether the device can be wired
directly to the Internet as TCP/IP routable. Some types of connections,
such as cellular, can be expensive with high traffic. Think about the
reliability of the network, and the impact of that reliability on latency
and throughput. If it is wireless, consider the range the transmission
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power achieves and the added energy costs
 Functional inputs and outputs
• The devices used to interact with the physical world
contain components, or are connected to peripherals, that
enable sensor input or actuator output.
• The specific hardware you choose for these hardware I/O
components should be based on the functional
requirements.
• For example, if you are doing gas detection, the type of
gases that the sensor can accurately detect matters.
• When using a device to produce output, you must consider
requirements such as how loud a buzzer needs to sound
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 Additional requirements
• In addition to the requirements determined by the
environmental performance, the choice of these I/O
components or peripherals might also be related to the type
of information they are associated with.
• For example, a stepper motor can be set to a specific
direction that might be represented in device state data,
while a microphone might be steadily sampling data in terms
of frequencies, which is best transmitted as telemetry.
• These components are connected to the logic systems of the
device through a hardware interface
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 Types of information

• Each device can provide or consume various types of

information.
• Each form of information might best be handled by a
different backend system, and each system should be
specialized around the data rate, volume, and preferred
API. Information categories are:
• Device metadata
• State information
• Telemetry
• Commands 44
 Device metadata

• Metadata contains information about a device.

• Most metadata is immutable or rarely changes. Examples of
metadata fields include:
✓ Identifier (ID) - An identifier that uniquely identifies a device.
✓ The device ID should never change for the lifespan of a deployed
device.
✓ Class or type
✓ Model
✓ Revision
✓ Date manufactured
✓ Hardware serial number 45
 State information

• State information describes the current

status of the device, not of the environment.
This information can be read/write.
• It is updated, but usually not frequently

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 Telemetry

• Data collected by the device is called telemetry. This is the

eyes-and-ears data that IoT devices provide to applications.
Telemetry is read-only data about the environment, usually
collected through sensors.
• Each source of telemetry results in a channel.
• Although each device might send only a single data point
every minute,
• when you multiply that data by a large number of devices,
you quickly need to apply big data strategies and patterns.

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 Commands
• Commands are actions performed by a device.
Commands often have traits that constrain the choices
available in your implementation.
• Examples of commands include:
-Spin 360 degrees to the right.
-Run self cleaning cycle.
-Increase the rate by ten percent.

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