UNIT-1
Introduction to IoT
Introduction to IoT, Characteristics, IoT enablers, IoT components and implementation, IoT
layered architecture, Challenges for IoT
1.1 Introduction to IOT
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and
other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators and network connectivity
which enables these objects to get connected and exchange data. Each thing is uniquely
identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the
existing Internet infrastructure.
Internet of Things can also be defined as an Internet technology connecting devices, machines
and tools to the Internet by means of wireless technologies like Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee etc.
The IoT allows objects to be sensed or controlled remotely across existing network
infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into
computer-based systems and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit
in addition to reduced human intervention.
IoT-based applications such as Innovative Shopping System,Infrastructure Management in
both urban and rural areas, Remote Health Monitoring & Emergency Notification Systems and
Transportation Systems are gradually relying on IoT based systems.
1.2 Characteristics of IOT
Things-related services: The IoT is capable of providing thing-related services within the
constraints of things, such as privacy protection and semantic consistency between physical
things and their associated virtual things
(i) Connectivity: Things in I.O.T. should be connected to the infrastructure, without connection
nothing makes sense.
(ii) Intelligence: Extraction of knowledge from the generated data is important, sensor generate
data and this data and this data should be interpreted properly.
(iii) Scalability: The no. of things getting connected to the I.O.T. infrastructure is increased day
by day. Hence, an IOT setup shall be able to handle the massive expansion. Unique Identity:
Each IOT device has an I.P. address. This identity is helpful in tracking the equipment and at
times to query its status.
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(iv) Dynamic and Self-Adapting: The IOT device must dynamically adopt itself to the changing
context. Assume a camera meant for surveillance, it may have to work in different conditions
and at different light situations (morning, afternoon, night).
(v) Heterogeneity: The devices in the IoT are heterogeneous as based on different hardware
platforms and networks. They can interact with other devices different networks.
(vi) Safety: Having got all the things connected with the Internet possess a major threat, as our
personal data is also there and it can be tampered with, if proper safety measures are not taken.
1.3 IOT enablers
IOT enablers can be looked upon based on three factors namely (a) Implementation Perspective
Connectivity Methods (c) Enabling Technologies. Figure 1.4 shows various IOT enablers.
IoT enablers can be looked upon based on three factors namely (a) Implementation Perspective
(b) Connectivity Methods (c) Enabling Technologies. Figure 1.4 shows various IOT enablers.
Fig 1-IOT ENABLERS
The implementation perspective includes smart industries, smart homes, smart factories, smart
vehicles, smart healthcare etc. Connectivity methods in Internet of Things include ZigBee, RFID,
Bluetooth, WiFi, 6LoWPAN, LoRa etc. Enabling technologies include cloud computing, artificial
intelligence, big data, machine learning, deep learning, fog computing etc.
1.4 IOT components and implementation
Before Internet of Things is implemented we need to know the functional components of loT.
Fig 2-Functional components of IOT
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They can be classified as shown in Figure below. The functional components include the
following.
• Devices (Things): Various devices connected to loT forms the components for
interaction and communication with other loT devices. It may include various
mobile, non-mobile devices fitted with sensors.
• Local Network: This is the component for processing and analysis of local
operations
• Internet: This is the outside network through which the data is transferred for
remote processing and analytics.
• Back-end services: Components for handling Web services of applications
comprising of processors, servers etc. Based on the data received some actuators
may be activated
• Applications: This includes various applications for communications,
processing, analytics and storage.
• User Interface: This is the interface between humans and machines to access loT.
Now we will see the implementation of the lnternet of Things.
Fig 3-Implementation of IOT
Figure above an example for loT implementation. On one end, we have various devices which
include processors, sensor fitted equipments, radios etc which senses the data. They can also be
called loT nodes. These devices can talk to each other but they are under the jurisdiction of a
gateway.
This gateway takes care of the addressing of the devices in that particular local area network. From the
gateway, the sensor data passes through a proxy server to reach the Internet. Then the data passes
through a Web socket. From the Web socket, the data moves on to the cloud server. It is in this
cloud server back-end processing and analytics take place. Based on the analytics and inferences,
the actuation takes place on the sensed data. Actuation for example may be lighting a lamp or
turning off a motor or fan etc.
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Service Oriented Architecture
The service oriented architecture has four layers namely sensing layer, network layer,
service layer and interface layer. Figure 1.12 shows the diagrammatic representation
of service oriented architecture in loT.
Fig 4-Service oriented architecture
The bottom most layer is the sensing layer whose prime responsibility is data sensing
or taking care of the acquisition protocols. Various sensing devices like RFID tags,
intelligent sensors, RFID readers, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices, wireless sensor
networks etc constitute the sensing layer. The network layer above the sensing layer
comprises of wireless sensor networks, Internet, mobile networks, databases, social
networks and wireless LANs. The service layer comprises of the business logic, service
repository, service division and service integration. The application front end, contract,
API and interface forms the top most layer called the interface layer. Security is a matter
of concern in all layers from top to bottom.
1.5 IOT layered architecture
According to some researchers, IoT architecture has three layers, but some researchers support
the four-layer architecture. They think that due to enhancement in IoT, the architecture of three
layers cannot fulfil the requirements of applications. Due to a challenge in IoT regarding
security and privacy, the architecture of four layers has also been proposed.
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Fig 5-Architecture of IOT
The layered architectures of IoT (three, four and five layers).
(i) Three Layer Architecture
It is a very basic architecture and fulfills the basic idea of IoT. It was proposed in the early
stages of development of IoT [32–34]. It has three layers. The names of these three layers are
perception, network and application layer as shown below
Fig 6-Three-layered architecture
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The three-layered architecture of IoT.
Perception Layer
It is also known as a sensor layer. It works like people’s eyes, ears and nose. It has the
responsibility to identify things and collect the information from them.
Network Layer
Network layer is also known as transmission layer. It acts like a bridge between perception
layer and application layer. It carries and transmits the information collected from the physical
objects through sensors. The medium for the transmission can be wireless or wire based.
Application Layer
Application layer defines all applications that use the IoT technology or in which IoT has
deployed. The applications of IoT can be smart homes, smart cities, smart health, animal
tracking, etc. It has the responsibility to provide the services to the applications.
(ii) Four Layer Architecture
The three-layer architecture was the most basic architecture. Due to continuous development
in IoT, it could not fulfil all the requirements of IoT. Therefore, researchers proposed an
architecture with four layers. It has three layers like the previous architecture, but it also has
one more layer called a support layer.
Fig 7-Four layered architecture
The four-layered architecture of IoT along recommended security mechanisms
In four-layer architecture, information is sent to a support layer that is obtained from a
perception layer. The support layer has two responsibilities. It confirms that information is sent
by the authentic users and protected from threats. There are many ways to verify the users and
the information. The most commonly used method is the authentication. It is implemented by
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using pre-shared secrets, keys and passwords. The second responsibility of the support layer is
sending information to the network layer.
1.6 Challenges for IOT
(i) 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.
(ii) 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.
(iii) 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.
(iv) 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.
(v) 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 bandwidthintensive
IoT applications such as video streaming will soon struggle for space on the IoT’s current
server-client model.
(vi) 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.
(vii) 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
