Introduction: What is the Internet of Things? One of the most diligent and exciting developments in information and communication technology is the source of the Internet of Things (IoT).
However, networking technologies have become increasingly ubiquitous over the past two decades, most recently in traditional end-user devices, such as mainframes, desktop and laptop computers, and, more recently, smartphones and tablets.
The Internet of Things permits people to live and work better and gain complete control over their lives. Apart from offering smart devices to automate homes, IoT is essential for business.
IoT gives businesses a real-time view of their system’s work, providing insight into everything from machine performance to provide chain and logistics processes. The Internet of Things helps companies to automate processes and reduce labor costs. It also decreases waste and improves service delivery, making manufacturing and delivery of goods less expensive and offering transparency in buyer transactions.
As such, IoT is one of the essential technologies in everyday life. It will continue to gain steam as more and more businesses understand the potential of connected devices to keep them competitive.
In this article, you will learn a lot about IoT that will surprise you; let’s dive in.
IoT Network
IoT network refers to the communication technologies used by Internet of Things (IoT) devices to transmit data to other devices or interfaces that are available within reachable distance.
Different types of IoT networks are available for IoT devices/sensors to communicate. Choosing the right networking protocol for the given requirements is critical to collecting real-time data and accessing insights through IoT applications.
In order to choose wisely which network adequately supports the needs of an industry, it is advisable to be aware of the network layers in the IoT space. IoT involves a lot of machine communication, device recognition, and communication with active machine learning tools for data analytics and therefore requires a robust network to support it.
Types of IoT Networks
The wireless network is not a new invention in the technology field but has been evolving and innovating from time to time to meet the increasing challenges with increasing devices/systems in communication. Major types of wireless networks can facilitate the deployment of IoT applications and IoT sensors in industries.
From RFID scanning and transmission to Bluetooth (BLE/NFC) data communication, developed standards are being introduced for enlightenment. Although BLE/NFC is focused on mobile phone operation, other network protocols serve the purpose of IoT deployments according to the industry’s advanced requirements.
IoT deployments support cellular (2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G) network protocols with Wi-Fi/LoFI by providing efficient short-range local area networking between devices and Internet access.
MESH protocols consisting of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology connect devices and nodes for data transfer and communication that can be selected in an IoT deployment based on user needs.
LPWAN (LoRa, sigfox) is a futuristic invention for Low Power Wide Area Networks that reduces power consumption while offering a modern network for connectivity. It is designed to facilitate long-range wireless communication at low bit rates between connected devices/systems.
IoT devices
Today it is a fact that a large number of IoT products have overtaken a large number of humans on this planet. There are about 7.62 billion people on our planet, but to your surprise, with the growing graph of IoT devices, by the year 2022, around 20 billion IoT smart devices could be up and running with the increasing demand for 5g networks.
Apart from this information, there are some benefits of the Internet of Things devices that can greatly impact the present and future generations of mankind.
Advantages of IoT Devices
These smart devices have many advantages, some of which are given below.
• IoT encourages interaction between devices, known as machine-to-machine interaction.
• It provides good automation and control.
• More technical information is integrated, so it is better to work.
• IoT is characterized by strong monitoring.
• It saves a lot of time.
• IoT helps save more money by reducing manual work and time.
• Automating daily life tasks guides to better monitoring of devices.
• Increase efficiency and save time.
• Build a better quality of life with good features.
Top IoT Devices
• Google Home Voice Controller
• Amazon Echo Plus Voice Controller
• Amazon Dash Button
• August Doorbell Cam
• August Smart Lock
• Belkin WeMo Smart Light Switch
• Footbot Air Quality Monitor
• Flow by Plume Labs Air Pollution Monitor
• Nest Smoke Alarm
• Nest T3021US Learning Thermostat Easy Temperature Control
• Philips Hue Bulbs and Lighting System
What tecnology are used in IoT
The advancement of technology has been with us since the mid-20th century. Still, the technology behind the Internet of Things was developed long before PCs were available to every Tom, Dick, and Harry.
The science of telemetry (from the Greek tele = remote and metron = measure), the earliest precursor to the IoT, has been measuring and collecting weather data over wire phone lines, radio waves, and satellite communications since the second half of wildlife.
IoT has been used to track the 19th century. Despite all its technical limitations, it laid the groundwork for machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, which gradually evolved with advances in connectivity solutions, giving birth to the vision of the Internet of Things as we know it.
IoT is a procedure of interconnected digital devices, machines, objects, animals, or people with special identifiers and the ability to transfer and share data over a human-to-human network.
IoT technology stack
It can prove daunting if you want to find your way via the IoT technological maze, given the diversity and the sheer number of technology solutions around it.
However, for the sake of simplicity, we can divide the IoT technology stack into the four core technology layers involved in making the Internet of Things work. These are as follows.
Device Hardware
Devices are the objects that constitute the ‘things’ within the IoT or the Internet of things. Working as an interface between the real and digital worlds, they can take on different sizes, shapes, and levels of technical complexity depending on the task they need to perform within a specific IoT deployment.
Whether pinhead-sized microphones or heavy construction machines, virtually every material object can be manipulated by adding the necessary hardware (by adding sensors or actuators with appropriate software), and it can be converted to a connected device. To measure and collect the necessary data.
Device software
This is what makes connected devices ‘smart.’ The software is responsible for implementing communication with the cloud, data collection, connecting devices, and real-time data analysis within the IoT network.
Moreover, device software provides application-level user capabilities to view data and interact with IoT systems.
Communication
After the device hardware and software are in place, another layer must provide ways and means for the smart object to exchange information with the rest of the IoT world. While it is true that communication mechanisms are tightly coupled with the hardware and software of the device, they must be considered as a separate layer.
The communication layer contains physical connectivity solutions (cellular, satellite, LAN) and precise protocols used in IoT environments (ZigBee, Thread, Z-Wave, MQTT, LwM2M). Choosing the appropriate communication solution is one of the key parts of building any IoT technology stack.
The chosen technology will determine how data is sent/acquired from the cloud, how the devices are handled, and how they communicate with third-party devices.
Platform
An IoT platform is where all this data is collected, managed, processed, analyzed, and presented in a user-friendly way. Thus, what makes such a solution particularly valuable is its data collection and IoT device management capabilities and its ability to capture the data provided by the devices through the communication layer.
Again, there are many IoT platforms on the market, with the choice depending on the needs of the specific IoT project and factors such as architecture and IoT technology stack, reliability, custom features, protocols used, hardware agnosticism, Depending on security and cost. Effectiveness It is also worth noting that the platform can be installed on-premise or cloud-based.
Wi-Fi is an essential IoT enabler.
Wi-Fi has played a fundamental role in enabling IoT innovations, providing widespread connectivity to connect various “things” to each other. The Internet and 18 billion Wi-Fi devices are in use worldwide.
The financial potential of the Internet of Things is immense. Wi-Fi offers vast opportunities in different sectors, having smart homes, smart cities, automotive, healthcare, enterprise, government, and industrial IoT backgrounds.
Wi-Fi encourages users to automate their smart homes and connect multiple household items in real-time to industrial facilities, monitor supply chains and other critical operations, and increase productivity and efficiency for both enterprises and hybrid operations.
Enables unlocking business value. Scenarios The integration and interoperability provided by Wi-Fi will enable IoT solutions to connect securely to each other and unlock the greatest value from billions of user-centric devices to IoT applications and environments.
Wi-Fi provides a strong IoT benefit.
Wi-Fi is one of the most widely manipulated technologies worldwide, and integration with existing Wi-Fi networks, a broad technology portfolio, and a strong legacy of interoperability allows it to unlock the greatest value from the IoT.
Wi-Fi will function in almost every IoT environment, alone or with more specialized protocols or technologies. Several unique capabilities that make Wi-Fi unique for IoT include:
• Standards-based, interoperable technology
• Pervasive connectivity
• Proven WPA3™ security
• Cost-effective, simple deployment
• Backward compatibility
• Location Awareness
• Reliable, sophisticated connectivity
• Flexible network topology
IoT platform
A multi-layer technology used to manage and automate connected devices is known as an IoT platform. In other words, it’s a service that helps you bring physical objects online. This platform will provide services to connect devices from machine to machine.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is software that connects edge hardware, access points, and data networks to the other end, typically an end-user application.
The most popular IoT platform
Below is a list of the most popular open-source Internet of Things platforms.
Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud provides a multi-layered secure infrastructure.
It helps in improving operational efficiency. It facilitates predictive maintenance of equipment, resolutions for smart cities and buildings, and real-time support tracking.
Components:
• Machine learning capabilities for any IoT requirement.
• Real-time business insights for globally dispersed devices.
• AI capabilities.
• Delivers support for a wide range of embedded operating systems.
• Location intelligence.
Price: Pricing starts at $1758 per month.
Open Remote
Open Remote is a 100% open-source IoT platform for building many applications. They are adopted in major professional IoT applications such as energy management and crowd management.
Features:
• IoT-based protocols such as HTTP, TCP, UDP, Websocket, or MQTT, connect your IoT devices, gateways, or data services or create a missing vendor-specific API.
• Other protocols, such as KNX or Modbus
• A flow editor, WHEN-THEN, and a rules engine with Groovy UI.
• Mobile application for Android and iOS, including the option to use geofencing and push notifications.
• Edge gateway solution for connecting multiple instances with a central management instance.
• Ability to create multiple realms combined with account management and identity service.
Cost: Completely free under open source license.
IBM Watson IoT
The platform will help you capture and analyze data from devices, machines, and equipment and make better-informed decisions.
This platform will permit you to optimize operations and resources. Facilitating the right business insights and two-way communication will help increase revenue substantially.
Features:
• AI and Analytics.
• Domain expertise.
• Provides flexible solutions.
• Provides security.
• Captures real-time data.
• Provides an analytics service as an add-on.
Cost: Starts at $500 per instance/month.
IoT Edge
IoT edge devices move data processing capabilities to the network’s edge rather than centralizing them on cloud-based servers. This change has both positive and negative impacts on IoT and data security, including:
Data minimization:
IoT edge devices perform pre-processing and basic analytics on collected data before sending it to cloud-based infrastructure. This pre-processing helps reduce the volume of data and the amount of sensitive information transmitted over the network and processed at a central location, reducing the likelihood that sensitive data will be leaked.
Decentralized infrastructure:
IoT edge devices distribute data processing across multiple devices at the network’s edge, which has advantages and disadvantages. Decentralization helps in the reliability and fault tolerance of the data processing infrastructure. However, this makes security more difficult because parameter-based defenses cannot protect devices.
Edge-based security:
IoT gateways and solutions help address the security issues of IoT edge devices.
Moving security functionality to the edge of the network and providing security directly to IoT devices, these solutions help identify and block potential threats, improving the overall corporate security posture.
IoT Security
IoT is a field of security technology that focuses on protecting connected devices and networks in the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT involves adding Internet connectivity to systems of interconnected computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals, and people.
Each “thing” is assigned a unique identifier and the ability to transmit data automatically over the network. It lets devices connect to the Internet and exposes them to several serious risks if they are not properly secured.
IoT security refers to security methods used to secure Internet-connected or network-based devices. The term IoT is incredibly broad, and as technology continues to evolve, the term has only gotten broader. From thermostats to video game consoles, almost every technological device can communicate with the Internet, or other devices, to some degree.
IoT security is a family of techniques, strategies, and tools to protect these devices from being compromised. Ironically, the connectivity inherent to the IoT makes these devices increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
IoT Security Issues and Challenges
The more ways devices can connect, the more ways threat actors can intercept them. Protocols such as HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and API are some channels IoT devices rely on that hackers can intercept.
The IoT umbrella also does not strictly include Internet-based devices. Devices using Bluetooth technology also count as IoT devices and therefore require IoT security. Such surveillance has contributed to the recent surge in IoT-related data breaches.
Additional IoT security practices
Other ways to implement IoT security include:
Network access control
NAC can help identify and list IoT devices connecting to the network. This will deliver a baseline for tracking and monitoring devices.
Discontinuity
IoT devices that require to connect directly to the Internet should be segregated into their networks and restricted access to the enterprise network. Network segments should be monitored for unusual activity, where action can be taken if a problem is detected.
Security Gateways
As an intermediary between IoT devices and the network, security gateways have more processing power, memory, and capabilities than the IoT devices themselves, allowing them to implement features such as firewalls to ensure that hackers cannot gain access to the IoT devices they connect to.
Integrating teams
Along with training, it can be useful to coordinate different and regular silent teams. For example, programming developers working with security experts can help ensure that appropriate controls are added to devices during the development phase.
Consumer Education
Users should be aware of the vulnerabilities of IoT systems and provide measures to stay secure, such as updating default credentials and applying software updates. Consumers can also prevent device manufacturers from creating secure devices and refusing to use those not meeting high-security standards.
Final Words: What is the Internet of Things
IoT is the tag attached to various everyday objects, from bicycles to industrial HVAC systems, which the wide spread of the Internet has enabled to connect through integrated circuits, sensors, and network connectivity.
This connectivity then allows for the seamless exchange of mountains of data generated by these systems to improve the performance, efficiency, and user experience of these devices. The ultimate goal of such connectivity is a process of endless optimization to increase the tangible value added to the end user of these systems.
Also read: About us