INTRODUCTION TO

INTERNET OF THINGS
A DEFINITE GUIDE TO LEARN IOT -
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES,
CONNECTIVITY, PROTOCOLS AND
CLOUD

MONISHA MACHARLA VASU www.iot4beginners.com

PREFACE
This book provides insights on the Internet of Things, from the basics to intermediate knowledge,
for beginners. This book includes an overall aspect of the technology in the up-to-date world,
primarily for the students and hobbyists. Right from the architecture of the IoT to the cloud and
messaging platforms, this book incorporates all the essential topics.
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Contents

What is Internet of Things?

IoT enabled Vs. Non-IoT enabled Devices

Applications of IoT

How does the IoT system work?

IoT Sensors

IoT Development boards and Gateways

IoT Connectivity

IoT Communication Protocols

IoT Cloud

IoT Messaging Protocols

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INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 1

WHAT IS INTERNET OF
THINGS?

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 CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS INTERNET OF THINGS?

Just imagine, you are in the 1950s, and you had to wash your clothes with
your hand. We didn't have a telephone until 1875. Alexander Graham Bell
invented the first telephone when his assistant was trying to reactivate a
telegraph transmitter. In 1886, Karl Benz patented the first three-wheeled
motorcar known as "Motorwagen." Edison invented the incandescent light
bulb. There are so many inventions which made our lives easier and more
manageable. The world is moving fast; accordingly, we have to adapt to the
speed of the movement. All these devices and appliances have a specific
role that made millions of lives simpler. The accessibility of these devices is
getting closer to many people despite their financial backgrounds. The
usage of cell phones in the year 2000 is way more inferior when compared
to the current year. The scope of the usage became an obligation. Currently,
we are in the generation of making these devices communicate with us. We
will look through the devices which are enabled with IoT in the later
chapters.

For a simplistic explanation of the Internet of Things for a beginner, it is the

things or devices which function by connecting to the internet. Our day-to-
day life activities consist of a bread toaster that we use in the morning until
we set up our alarm clock in the night; this technology makes our lives
simpler. This technology can connect these devices to the World Wide Web,
i.e., extensive information generated in the "cloud" and communicate with
us. The Internet of Things is widely used in Industries, Logistics and
Transports, Smart homes, Wearables, Precision Farming, Environmental
Monitoring, Disaster Management, etc. The Internet of Things has a high
demand for technologies and solutions and a benefit for many sectors.
The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of all the web-enabled devices that
collect, send and act on data they acquire from their surrounding
environments using embedded sensors, processors and communication
hardware. The Sensors or the actuators play a vital role here, as it is directly
connected to the "things" and grasps the data from them. These
"connected" or "smart" devices can sometimes talk to other related devices
and act on the information they get from one another. For example, you can
control your home appliances through an application or website or even by
your voice. Another example is that you have a smartwatch that monitors
the health conditions of your body every day and gives statistical data. To
elucidate, the sensors are located in these devices that collect the data and
sends it to the cloud, which can be accessed only by the user. So here
comes the question, can anyone access this data? The answer is No. Only
the authenticated and authorized person can able to read and manipulate
the data of these devices. Many fundings and research are going on in
numerous firms toward the security of the data.

A little bit of History,

Kevin Ashton coined the term "The Internet of Things" in a presentation to

Proctor & Gamble in 1999. He is a co-founder of MIT's Auto-ID lab. Also, he
pioneered RFID use in supply-chain management. He started Zensi, a
company that makes energy sensing and monitoring technology. Besides
that, he later sold the company to Belkin. He has been involved in other
startups, such as ThingMagic. He is also the author of the book How to Fly a
Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery.
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 2

IOT ENABLED Vs. NON-IOT

ENABLED DEVICES

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 CHAPTER 2
IOT ENABLED Vs. NON-IOT ENABLED DEVICES

Gartner estimates that about 8.4 billion IoT devices were in use in 2017, up
31% from the previous year, and it will hit 20.4 billion by 2020. The whole
world spending on IoT hit about $2 trillion in 2017. Take this estimation on
the one hand, and on the other hand, let us think about our lives without
appliances or devices with IoT enabled. So, we will use an appliance that is
now IoT enabled and not before and compare their results and
effectiveness.

There are many examples of IoT enabled devices such as,

Pacemakers are now WiFi enabled; the doctors can now track the
information about the patients. All the implants are becoming IoT
enabled nowadays.
The ornaments and dresses we wear are also becoming IoT enabled as
IoT wearables.
Appliances such as Washing machines, refrigerators, Air Conditioners,
Thermostats, Security cameras, Lights are together as a setup now
known as Smart Home!
Agriculture or “Precision Agriculture” – sensors kept in the soil to sense
the moisture level, and self-driven tractors are implemented in the
farms. Also, it is mandatory in the USA to have sensors fed to the cattle
to track them from their birth.
Smart buildings or Smart parking garages that can talk with trucks and
vehicles.
Traffic lights and parking meters are IoT enabled that can communicate
with vehicles.
We will see an example of an appliance that has been made IoT enabled
now and which was not earlier.

Washing Machine
Non- IoT enabled: Example WW9000 Washing Machine with eco
bubble, 10 kg

The washing machine is primarily used for washing and drying clothes. It
comes with two steel tubs: an inner tub and the outer tub, whose role is to
prevent water spillage to other parts of the machine. There are so many
control knobs such as selecting the load, selecting the water inlet such as
hot or cold water, selecting the mode such as save mode or normal mode,
and finally a program to select which comes to heavy, normal, light or
delicates. In our modern-day non-IoT washing machine appliances, the
selectivity of the programs varies.
Operation
Fill, Agitate, Drain and spin are the main functions of a washing machine. It
comes with an embedded system where a microcontroller does all the
functions. All the operations are connected to the microcontroller; when the
machine is ON and the program is selected, the microcontroller is triggered,
and it functions.
About WW9000 Washing Machine with eco bubble, 10 kg:
Four sensing technologies detect the load size, the amount of water
needed and the degree of soil to select the best wash programme. It
even adds the right amount of detergent for you.
Comes with a Digital Inverter Motor and a spin speed of 1600 rpm.
IoT enabled: Example: SAMSUNG WW7800M
The new WW7800M with QuickDrive technology is Samsung’s latest
washing machine slated for release in 2019.
It has an AI-powered laundry assistant called Q-rator.
Three key smart features;
Laundry Planner
Laundry Recipe
HomeCare Wizard.
Laundry Planner:
It comes with a customized timing and a proper schedule for the time
period of each wash. It allows the users to manage the laundry schedule.
Laundry Recipe:
It provides automatic recommendations for optimal wash cycles based on
information such as colour, fabric type, and degree of soiling provided by
the user.

HomeCare Wizard:
Onboard support structures for alerts of any problems and to provide
troubleshooting support if needed. It also allows the users to monitor the
washing machine using a remote, i.e., from anywhere in the world.

Q-rator: Samsung’s new washing machine WW7800M comes with an

Artificial intelligence technology-powered laundry assistant known as Q-
rator.
QuickDrive technology: Innovative QuickDrive™ technology reduces the
washing time by up to 50% without compromising the cleaning
performance.
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 3

APPLICATIONS OF IOT

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 CHAPTER 3
APPLICATIONS OF IOT

As we all know, IoT (Internet of Things) in today's world is one of the most
renowned topics and is applied to make life easier. There are so many
applications of IoT in the market which is growing day by day. The devices of
IoT that connects our data to the devices are on demand. These devices are
called real-time devices or smart devices that reduce human efforts. In this
chapter, the real-time IoT applications are briefly described. So, now we are
going to discuss real-time IoT devices. The following is the applications.

SMART HOME

The smart home is one of the most valuable features of IoT devices on
demand. People are very much fond of it. So, it is nothing but an automatic
control of home appliances to make human life more straightforward, just
like it acts as a human-robot. It adds a wing to the real-time IoT after this
innovation.
Now, coming to the point, what makes the craze on smart home devices? It
is nothing but the savings of money, energy, efforts of the human being.
While sitting on the bed, we can switch off the light, fan, close the door,
make dinner, wash clothes, clean the floor and many more. Now think about
it, isn't this cool?
Now, so many companies have been developed by making smart home
devices. They are getting a huge profit every day by selling their products as
home automation become their building block. Some of the examples of
smart home devices are:

Amazon Alexa: It can play music, make a phone call, make a reminder,
tell about the news, find the nearby restaurants, get answers to your
question, turn on and off the light, lock the door and many more.
 Google Assistant: It is a voice control device. It has google cast plus voice
assistant with Bluetooth and USB charging, clock system, multiple alarm,
play music, control smartphones and tablet.
Amazon Echo: It can play music, make a phone call, make a reminder,
tell about the news, find the nearby restaurants, get answers to your
question, turn on and off the light, lock the door and many more.
Philips Hue lightbulbs: Gives a pre-set light need as required, stay
connected, gives many shades of white light.
Wink Hub 2: Add voice control by combing with Alexa devices.
Samsung SmartThings Hub: Connects the smartphones and make them
work together. It has a light, speaker, thermostat, sensor and more.

SMART CITY

IoT is exploring its area. Earlier, the smart home or home automation where
it operates a home. Now, it is managing a city. Just imagine how life has
become easier and simpler.
So, what are the features of a smart city?
It helps people overcome severe problems like pollution, traffic congestion,
shortage of energy supply, drainage system, municipal services, etc. People
can find the parking slots easily, the map by installing the application on
their smartphones. The Internet of Things connected devices connects
them.

For example, Smart City for Metropolitan Transportation with an application

for the public to view the timings of the Public transport, indicate if there is
any accidents or delays, etc. For the Traffic Control application, the citizens
can view the route or the directions on the map which is easier to reach the
destination.
SMART HEALTH

IoT has explored its area in well being of people. IoT technology impacts
great potential in connected healthcare services. It gives special care to
patients. It detects the health of the patients, consult the proper doctor and
also the proper treatments, location of the hospitals and store of medicines.
Therefore, collecting data helps in personalized analysis. In conclusion,
everyone is appreciating this new revolutionary invention of IoT dedicated
to peoples’ care. There are such companies and applications which helps
people in connected healthcare.

SMART AGRICULTURE

Due to the increase in population, the demand for food supply is increasing
day by day. In these conditions, the farmers need to apply some technical
support to produce more food. The countries are providing technical
support to the farmers. So that they can examine soil, control water usage,
keep in proper sunlight, moisture, fertilizer. Similarly, they can grow foods
sufficiently and are also supplying to the whole world. Smart agriculture
makes a productive infrastructure that connects our data to IoT devices
using sensors and installed apps. It is the key to the future agricultural
industry.

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

Industrial IoT or IIoT is a strategic priority for manufacturing companies. It

allows them to give an excellent experience to their customers and improve
the cost-efficiency of their internal operations. An outcome, by simplifying
field service and reducing TCO(Total Cost of Ownership) for the customer,
has become the modern industry's intelligent selling feature. Kaa delivers an
essential toolkit for the industrial Internet of Things.
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 4

HOW DOES THE IOT SYSTEM

WORK?

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 CHAPTER 4
HOW DOES THE IOT SYSTEM WORK?

IoT is a business solution to existing problems of the world. The following

diagram shows the basic bi-directional flow of an IoT system. A complete IoT
system Integrates distinct components: sensors/devices, connectivity, data
processing and a user interface.

The above diagram consists of various components such as sensors and

Gateways. Besides that, it is connected to the network. In this chapter,
each of the components is briefly explained.

SENSORS

Sensors or actuators can collect terabytes of data, including sensitive

information such as business data or customers' personal information.
Additionally, IoT platforms or dashboards can be connected to critical
systems, such as traffic, power or transportation processes, making it vital to
ensure their continuity and integrity.
IoT is a business solution to existing problems of the world. The following
diagram shows the basic bi-directional flow of an IoT system. A complete IoT
system Integrates distinct components: sensors/devices, connectivity, data
processing and a user interface. Many sensors are used in IoT Devices or
applications such as temperature sensors, pressure sensors, piezo-electric
sensors, magnetic sensors, etc.

Low power consumption has become an important design goal in many

electronic systems. The voltage obtained by the sensor is transduced to the
expected format. Initially, the embedded systems were standalone devices
running assembly or bare metal C code; as the technology evolved, the
embedded systems could run OS and connect to a wired or wireless
network. Now, it will gather this information from its surroundings with the
aid of sensors. Now, when we talk about sensors, we have to talk about
micro-controllers to interact with sensors, so indirectly, we are talking about
Embedded systems.

GATEWAYS

Internet of Things is an ecosystem of internet-connected devices. Any

communication device which connects end terminal devices like sensors or
even computers to the internet is called a gateway. It is like your modem or
router. It exactly works as an opening path from IoT enabled home or office
to the internet. Gateway, as it means, is used to bridge two different
environments to allow them to communicate with each other.

NETWORK

The Cloud is an advantageous way to create an IoT platform that monitors

different devices spread over a large area. The Cloud and the IoT are related
in that smart devices, like lightbulbs and thermostats, talk back to their
vendor in the Cloud to be accessible from outside the home. Your
smartphone can talk to the vendor’s cloud presence, allowing you remote
control, monitoring and more.
IoT requires to be operated in a hassle-free manner. Cloud helps by
providing device makers and service providers with access to advanced
analytics and monitoring. Cloud is used to store and manage data;
sometimes, complex calculations are made.
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 5

IOT SENSORS

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 CHAPTER 5
IOT SENSORS

In many cases, sensors are helpful and very important for the devices to
fetch the data. The data can be real-time, which includes the current
temperature, pressure or humidity. It can also sense the objects and
calculate the distance between them. For each purpose, there are sensors
available in the market. This article shall discuss various sensors and their
applications, which can be used in your DIY IoT projects.
Here is the list of Sensors most commonly used in the IoT devices,
TEMPERATURE SENSOR

A Temperature Sensor senses and measures the temperature and

converts it into an electrical signal.
They have a significant role in Environment, Agriculture and Industries.
For example, these sensors can detect the temperature of the soil,
which is more helpful in the production of crops.
There are many temperature sensors, such as NTC thermistors,
Resistance Temperature Detectors RTDs, Thermocouples and
Thermopiles. They are efficient, easy to install and reliable that responds
to human activity.
The RTDs work on the correlation between the metals and the
temperature, as the device's resistance is directly proportional to the
temperature.
The widely used DHT 11 is the temperature and humidity sensor is the
basic, low-cost, digital and capacitive sensor. No analogue pins are
required for this sensor.

PRESSURE SENSOR

A pressure sensor senses the pressure applied, i.e., force per unit area,
and it converts into an electrical signal.
It has high importance in weather forecasting. There are various
Pressure sensors available in the market for many purposes.
For example, if there are any water leaks in the residential or
commercial areas, a pressure sensor needs to be installed to check if
there are any leaks and measures the pressure.
Another example, all smartphones, wearables have these barometric
pressure sensors integrated into them.
PROXIMITY SENSOR

A proximity sensor is a sensor able to detect the presence of nearby

objects without any physical contact.
A proximity sensor often emits an electromagnetic field or a beam of
electromagnetic radiation and looks for changes in the field or return
signal.
The most common application of this sensor is used in cars. While you
are taking the reverse, it detects the objects or obstacles, and you will
be alarmed.

ACCELEROMETER AND GYROSCOPE SENSOR

The difference between Accelerometer and the gyroscope is

accelerometer measures linear acceleration based on vibration,
whereas; the gyroscope is intended to determine an angular position
based on the principle of the rigidity of space.
Accelerometers in mobile phones detect the orientation of the phone.
The gyroscope adds dimension to the information supplied by the
Accelerometer by tracking rotation or twist.
A 3D gyroscope has three gyroscopic sensors mounted orthogonally.
Accelerometers and gyroscopes are the sensors of choice for acquiring
acceleration and rotational information in drones, cell phones,
automobiles, aeroplanes, and mobile IoT devices.
INFRARED SENSOR

An Infrared Sensor is an electronic device that senses its surroundings'

specific characteristics by emitting Infrared radiation.
It can measure the heat emitted by an object and also measures the
distance.
Its uses in Radiation thermometers depend on the material of the
object. IR sensors also use in Flame monitors and moisture analysis.
IR sensors are used in gas analyzers which use absorption
characteristics of gases in the IR region. Two types of methods are used
to measure the density of gas such as dispersive and nondispersive.
IR imaging devices are used for thermal imagers and also for night
vision.

SMOKE SENSOR

A smoke sensor detects smoke and its level of attainment. Nowadays,

the sensor manufacturers implement it with a voice alarm through
ALEXA, which also notifies our smartphones.
The smoke sensor is of two types, Optical smoke sensor and ionization
smoke sensor.
The optical smoke sensor, also called photoelectric smoke alarms, works
using the light scattering principle.
The alarm contains a pulsed Infrared LED, which pulses a beam of light
into the sensor chamber every 10 seconds to check for smoke particles.
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 6

IOT DEVELOPMENT BOARDS

AND GATEWAYS

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 CHAPTER 6
IOT DEVELOPMENT BOARDS AND GATEWAY

Hardware platforms are the foremost part of your IoT project where your
components are connected with that. In this chapter, some of the primary
and commonly used hardware platforms for your IoT projects are
discussed. You can compare the hardware with the feature, size, cost,
power supply, etc. Most of the hardware development boards are
microcontrollers and microprocessors, and some of them have inbuilt
sensors, come with a very small size, say a coin size.

Some boards have a high bandwidth WiFi radio and Bluetooth, also have
USB embedded within the board. So there is plenty of development kits out
there in the market with various features integrated within them. At the end
of this chapter, you can be confident to choose the kind of hardware
platform you will be working on your projects.

Here is a list of IoT development kits for your projects:

Raspberry Pi
Arduino Uno
ESP8266
Banana Pi
NodeMCU Dev kit
BeagleBone Black (Beagleboard)
Panstamp
AVR IoT WG Development kit
Avnet BCM4343W IoT Starter kit
RASPBERRY PI

The Raspberry Pi, also known as RPi, is a small, “Single Board Computer”
(SBC) developed in the United Kingdom by Raspberry Pi Foundation. Their
main aim is to educate basic computer science in developing countries.
They had released several generations of Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi Model B (First generation) – February 2012

Raspberry Pi Model A – February 2013
Raspberry Pi Compute Model- April 2014
Raspberry Pi Model B+ – July 2014
Raspberry Pi 2 – February 2015
Raspberry Pi Zero- November 2015
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B – February 2016
Raspberry Pi Zero W – February 2017
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ – March 2018

The Raspberry Pi was first released on 29 February 2012 with an

introductory price of US$35. The System On Chip (SoC) used is Broadcom
BCM2837B0 and compatible with plenty of Operating Systems such as
Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Plan 9, RiscOS and Windows 10 IoT
Core. The Raspberry Pi 3+ uses a Broadcom BCM2837B0 SoC with a 1.4
GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor, with 512 KB shared L2
cache. Besides, it comes with a 40 pin General Purpose Input Output (GPIO)
connector.

The Keyboard and mouse can be connected with the USB, and other
components such as sensors can be connected with the GPIO pins. The RPi
has no built-in real-time clock, so it cannot track the time of the day. It
comes with lots of accessories like a Camera, SenseHat (which has lots of
built-in sensors), Gertboard, Official Display, etc.
ARDUINO

The Arduino Uno is open-source hardware developed by arduino.cc. It is a

microcontroller board based on a Microchip ATmega328P microcontroller.
It has SRAM memory, and it uses Flash and EEPROM for storage. Its
operating voltage is 5 volts, where you can plug it in your laptops for the
input voltage; also, you can use an external 9-volt battery as the Arduino
accepts voltage from 7 to 20 volts. The Arduino Uno has 6 Analog pins, 14
Digital pins, where 6 of them provide Pulse Width Modulation output. The
digital pin 13 is for LED; it works as if the pin is HIGH, the LED is ON, and vice
versa.
It comes with a ground pin and a reset button. The open-source Arduino
Software (IDE) makes it easy to write code and upload it to the board. It runs
on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. The environment is written in Java and
based on Processing and other open-source software. This software can be
used with any Arduino board.
BANANA PI

The Banana Pi is a low cost, Single Board Computer developed by a Chinese

company Shenzhen SINOVOIP Co. Ltd. The Raspberry Pi influences the
hardware design also; both are compatible with each other. It runs on
Operating systems such as Android, Ubuntu, Debian, Arch Linux, Raspbian
and NetBSD. The Banana Pi M2 is a single-board computer with a quad-core
version (A31S ARM Cortex-A7 Quad-Core) and supports onboard WiFi.
BPI-BC95 is an NB-IoT development board with rich features and a small
form factor. It supports 1080 HD video output. The SoC used is Allwinner
A31; later on, they have stopped the production of the boards since the
company Allwinner ran out of chips. Based on 96Boards’ specification, it
runs HuaWei LiteOS, and can easily port to other Real-Time Operation
Systems.

ESP8266

The ESP8266 is a coin-size, low-cost WiFi microchip with a TCP/IP stack and
a 32-bit microcontroller developed by a Chinese manufacturer called
Espressif Systems. A third-party company, Ai- Thinker, manufactured a
module called ESP-01, which allows the microcontroller to connect with the
WiFi connections and make simple TCP/IP connections. It has 16 GPIO pins
for inputs and outputs for Voltage, ground, receiver and transmitter data,
reset, chip power-down.
The VCC is +3.3 volt, and it can handle up to 3.6 voltage. It also has a Serial
Peripheral Interface (SPI), 32 KiB instruction RAM and an 80 KiB user-data
RAM. It has a Software Development Kit (SDK) in which there is no need for
a microcontroller and can be directly programmed. It has two versions, one
is from FreeRTOS, and another one is a callback. Also, there are many open-
source SDKs, which includes NodeMCU, Arduino, Sming and so on.

NODEMCU

The NodeMCU is an open-source, single-board microcontroller, low cost,

simple and smart IoT development board with a few simple Lua scripts. It
gives a high-level interface to hardware with simple configurations. Based
on the Lexin esp8266 NodeMCU development board, with GPIO, PWM, I2C,
1-Wire, ADC and other functions, combined with NodeMcu firmware to
provide the fastest way for your prototyping. It can be powered by USB, with
a memory of 128KByets and storage of 4MBytes.
WHAT IS AN IoT GATEWAY?
All data moving to or from a cloud goes through a gateway, a hardware
device or software program. An IoT gateway is a device or program that
connects the cloud and controllers, sensors or smart devices. This is also
known as an intelligent gateway or a control tier. A gateway also acts as a
platform to pre-process the data locally before sending it to the cloud. This
is particularly important when there is significant points of data is being
generated. The response time and network transmission costs are also
impacted by the depreciation of the volume of data being sent. The IoT
gateway can even provide additional security for the network and data in
both directions. IoT gateways have now become widely popular and have a
plethora of purposes. They have evolved to perform tasks from data filtering
and visualization to even complex analytics. Below is a simple pictorial
representation of an IoT gateway in a practical application. This makes it
evident that the gateway acts as a bridge.

What basic functionalities should an IoT gateway have?

Secure upstream Internet and downstream LAN connectivity

Like a router, the IoT Gateway provides Internet connectivity and packet
routing between the devices and IoT application servers using some other
type of internet connectivity like WiFi. The IoT Gateway creates a LAN (Local
Area Network) that can be wired, wireless or P2P. This is then used by
sensors or other devices to connect to it. It also provides secure data
connectivity between the device and the gateway and from the IoT Gateway
to the cloud/application server.
Edge embedded application
The edge application runs within an application environment that the inbuilt
microcontroller or microprocessor. This provides secure connectivity and
protocol implementation. Some gateways also provide storage within the
data and some logic control as part of the edge embedded applications.

HOW TO CHOOSE A GATEWAY?

If you are thinking about integrating an IoT gateway into your project, there
are a few factors you need to take into consideration. This will help evaluate
which will work best for the main objective and functionality that you.

IoT Gateway Certification

The gateway model should be FCC/CE/IC certified, following the standard
compliance required for electronic products. There are also certifications
such as Mobile PTCRB/GCF and safety certifications.

The volume of data collection

The number of sensors being used determines the volume of data. You may
require just a few sensors, a couple hundred or even thousands. The data
volume that results from these sensors is a question you need to ask
yourself seriously. This information is necessary for choosing which and how
many gateways you want to invest in.

Data storage within the gateway

If the data being transported through the gateway is sensitive, the gateway
may need to store the data in the case of network or power failure. Factors
like the duration over which it can be stored and expansion of memory
need to be taken into account.
Filtering
As we know, IoT gateways can perform some pre-processing analysis on the
data before it is sent to the cloud. Thus depending on the requirement, you
will have to look into edge-analytics-enabled gateways capable of complex
analysis.

Location and longevity

Hardly gateways are needed for usage in certain conditions and over a
duration of time. Some gateway models can operate in various conditions
regardless of pressure, temperature and other external factors. So
depending on your need, that too will have to be taken into account.

WHAT FEATURES DO YOU REQUIRE?

It may sometimes be sufficient for your project to use connectivity features

such as Bluetooth, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and LAN. However, in some cases, longer-
range options are needed as well. This increases the budget you will need
to purchase a versatile gateway.

Security

Most gateways now come with built-in security measures. But, depending
on the need, encryption standards, password protection, and tamper
detection are features not all gateway offers but some users might require.

In conclusion, IoT gateways are a helpful addition to your IoT project.

Depending on the scale and use, it might be a worthwhile investment.
Large industries very often turn to IoT gateways for smooth and secure data
transportation. Incorrect choice of the gateway can be a setback in effort
and financial strain. So, evaluating the criteria that to choose the right
gateway will make a huge overall difference.
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 7

IOT COMMUNICATION
PROTOCOLS

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 CHAPTER 7
IOT COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS

According to Gartner's statistics, nearly 20.4 billion IoT devices are

connected to the internet by 2020. These devices communicate with the
internet through various channels. It always depends on the application and
based on that the solution is provided. In the given image below, the left
blocks indicate the TCP/IP protocol and the right-side blocks indicate the
communication protocols for IoT.

Mostly the Internet of Things follows device-to-device communication. It is

about connecting various sensors/actuators or devices to the internet.
These are called sensor nodes or motes (used in America). They
communicate over many types of networks, including IP networks or the
Internet, but most often use protocols like WiFi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, and
ZigBee.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)

Bluetooth provides wireless communication through a radio frequency (2.45

GHz). It is low cost, highly reliable and low power usage. Bluetooth Low
Energy (BLE) is a modified version of Bluetooth that decreases power usage
and data rates by allowing incoming connections to control when the device
uses power. The Data Rate is up to 0.27 MB per second and the range is
medium up to 100 meters. The IoT product developers chose BLE for its
efficiency and small chip size.

Physical range: Typically less than 10 m (33 ft), up to 100 m (330 ft);
Bluetooth 5.0: 40–400 m (100–1,000 ft).

Applications
Audio Signal Transmission (Bluetooth Earphone, Bluetooth speaker),
Industrial ( Replacing the cable The original thought of Bluetooth, SPP
(Serial Port Profile), Multi UART Port, Makes it easy to transfer data
wirelessly to smartphones / PC, Makes it possible to upgrade
parameter/program wirelessly),
Smart Home ( Remote Control for A.C, TV, … Door Bell /Lock,
Illumination, Music /Audio, Security, Valve for Water/Gas,
Windows/Curtain, Power Socket )
Wearable Devices (Smartwatch, Smartpen, Smart shoes, etc)
BLE Broadcast
Short Range Real-time communications
Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity)

Wi-Fi is based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards originally released in

1997 to replace the ethernet. It uses wireless transmitters and radio signals
to transmit broadband Internet to devices. Wi-Fi is known for its high
bandwidth, ease of device operability and moderate cost. Wi-Fi is more
suitable for IoT applications, where more number of data transfer is made.
The data rate is high up to 54 MB per second and the range of Wi-Fi
technology is up to 50 meters but can be provided up to 30 kilometres by
private antennas.

The security standard, Wi-Fi Protected Setup, allows embedded devices with
a limited graphical user interface to connect to the Internet with ease. Wi-Fi
Protected Setup has 2 configurations: The Push Button configuration and
the PIN configuration. These embedded devices are also called The Internet
of Things and are low-power, battery-operated embedded systems. A
number of Wi-Fi manufacturers design chips and modules for embedded
Wi-Fi, such as GainSpan.

Applications
Office IoT
Smart Home IoT
Smart city (Public Wi-fi)
Zigbee

Zigbee is a short-range wireless communication protocol based on the IEEE

802.15.4 protocol, which is widely used in home automation and the
industry as a low-power, low-cost, low-bandwidth protocol. Zigbee uses
mesh networking–connections to other connected devices–to connect its
devices to each other and the Internet. Zigbee’s range is 10 meters, but this
range can be up to 100 meters in certain situations. Its maximum data rate
is 250 kbps. It is necessary only for small amounts of data transfer in a
short-range area.

Applications:
Home automation
Monitoring Sensor data
Industrial device sensing and controlling

Cellular (Mobile Network)

The cellular network or the mobile network connects to the internet by

sending a wireless signal to the nearby cell towers. The cellular network is
wireless communications protocols such as 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G. The fifth-
generation will be deployed in the year 2020 and will be a turning point for
all the IoT devices which is 20 times faster than the 4G (only 1 Gbps). The
cellular network uses significant amounts of power and however the IoT
devices should be within the network range. Hence the need for high power
is a disadvantage of this tech. The cellular network is known for its security,
reliability, and range of about 200 kilometres. The cost to set up with the
network is very complicated and should maintain relationships with the
network providers, and the cost alone subjects to more than $10000
excluding the monthly payments.
LoRa

LoRa (Long Range) network is a low power communication technology

patented and owned by a company called Semtech. It was first introduced
in the year 2008 and doesn't have much documentation on this protocol.
The advantage of this protocol is, it is highly reliable, medium cost, and has
low power usage with long-range. But it has a low data rate up to 50Kbps.

Application
Smart City
Energy Management
Supply Chain Management
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 8

IOT CLOUD

www.iot4beginners.com
 CHAPTER 8
IOT CLOUD

So why do we need a Cloud service?

Say for example, if you are connecting an LED to a Raspberry Pi and you
need that to blink whenever you get a notification from your Twitter
account. The platform for connecting the LED to the RPi is called the
Hardware platform. Besides, the platform for connecting your Twitter
account to your Raspberry Pi you need a Cloud platform obviously. There
are a billion things connected to the internet and for that, it is harder to
maintain the data. Also, sending the data, store, and process all your data is
not possible in your home and it's not practical. So there are great cloud
services available to upgrade, maintain and secure your data.

Here is a list of the best cloud platforms available today.

Amazon Web Services IoT Platform

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the best cloud services for its trusted
security of data. It offers computing power, database storage, content
delivery, and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow.
Companies like Netflix, Kelloggs, Philips, GE, Dropbox, Foursquare, etc rely
on the services of Amazon Web Services. In 2017, the famous Gartner
ranked AWS as the leading international provider of Cloud Computing. The
AWS cloud spans around 60 availability zones, 20 Geographic Regions and 1
Local region around the world (as of 2019).

The well-known services of AWS are EC2 and S3. The EC2 ( Elastic Compute
Cloud), the operation of non-persistent virtual servers with Windows or
Linux. The S3(Simple Storage Service) is a service for file hosting via
HTTP/HTTPS. AWS is not only for top companies like Netflix or Reddit, even
we can host servers on AWS. It is not a fixed contract, as it is billed monthly
or even hourly. The AWS provides certifications on various levels and
different domains.

Microsoft Azure IoT Hub

From the core point of view, Microsoft Azure is a public cloud computing
platform developed by Microsoft. Its initial release was in the year 2010 as
"Windows Azure" before that it had a name called "Project Red Dog". On
March 25, 2014, it was renamed "Microsoft Azure".

It is developed for building, testing, deploying and managing applications

through a global network of Microsoft managed data centres. It also
provides SaaS (Software as a Service), Paas (Platform as a Service), IaaS
(Infrastructure as a Service) and supports many programming languages
and Microsoft specific including third-party software and systems.
Google Cloud IoT

Cloud IoT Core is a fully managed service that allows you to easily and
securely connect, manage, and ingest data from millions of globally
dispersed devices. In combination with other services on Google Cloud
Platform, provides a complete solution for collecting, processing, analyzing,
and visualizing IoT data in real-time to support improved operational
efficiency. Cloud IoT Core - Secure device connection and management
service for the Internet of Things. cloud IoT Edge brings AI to the Edge
computing layer. Google Cloud Platform is available in 17 regions and 52
zones. They have different pricing methods.

IBM Watson IoT Platform

IBM Watson IoT Platform is a managed, cloud-hosted service designed to

make it simple to derive value from your IoT devices. Watson IoT Platform
and its additional add on services - Blockchain service and analytic service -
enable organizations to capture and explore data for devices, equipment,
and machines, and discover insights that can drive better decision-making.
IBM Watson captures real-time data helps to identify valuable insights,
optimizes operations and resources, analytics service and blockchain
service. Overall, it securely connects, manages and analyzes IoT data. You
will get 100 MB free every month.

Bosch IoT Suite

The Bosch IoT Suite is a cloud-ready software package for the development
of Internet of Things (IoT) services and applications. It is part of the Bosch
IoT Cloud and provides an open IoT platform for a variety of applications.
With its IoT Suite, the Bosch company offers a software package on the
basis of which applications and services of the Internet of Things (IoT) can
be developed and implemented. The Bosch IoT Suite is cloud-enabled and
integrated in the Bosch IoT Cloud. It is an open IoT platform that can be
classified as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) in the cloud computing model.
Cisco IoT

Cisco IoT accelerates digital transformation, delivering insight and action

from your data. It provides the Cisco Kinetic IoT platform to extract,
compute and move from data. It protects your IoT data with secure IoT
solution architecture enhanced with IoT security services. It uses familiar
tools like Cisco DNA Center and Field Network Director to integrate IT and
OT infrastructure. Control IoT edge applications with IOx. Cisco has a
solution in almost all the fields related to IoT in Energy, Manufacturing,
Transportation, Cities and communities, Retail, Education and much more.

Oracle IoT Cloud

Oracle IoT is more into logistics operations and supply chain management
derived data from the connected devices. It is secure and scalable with real-
time insights. It supports industrial protocols, backhaul WAN technologies,
and transport protocols like RESTful and MQTT.

Salesforce

Salesforce is an on-demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that

provides suites for small and midsize enterprises with a focus on sales and
support. The Cloud management of Salesforce is provided by Thunder
which is focussed on high speed and real-time decision making in the cloud.
Its motive is to create more customer interactions.
Some more examples of companies that have IoT platform

AT&T - AT&T IoT platform

Ericsson - Application Platform for IoT
Gemalto - SensorLogic
HPE - HPE Universal IoT platform
PTC- ThingWorx Technology Platform
SAP - SAP HANA Cloud Platform for the Internet of Things
Siemens - Mindsphere
Particle
KAA
Carriots
Axeda
INTRODUCTION TO INTERNET OF IOTEDU
THINGS

Chapter 9

IOT MESSAGING PROTOCOLS

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 CHAPTER 9
IOT MESSAGING PROTOCOLS

The IoT devices use these messaging protocols at various levels for
communication. There is a wide variety of protocols to choose from, in this
chapter, we will look at four of the most used protocols in today’s world
namely MQTT, DDS, XMPP and HTTP. The choice of messaging protocols
depends mainly on your use case. Here we will compare the protocols on
the basis of a few key parameters relevant to IoT.

MQTT - Message Queuing Telemetry Transport

MQTT is a messaging protocol that stands for Message Queue Telemetry

Transport. This messaging protocol is a publish-subscribe based messaging
protocol and is extremely simple to use. It is usually used to connect a huge
number of IoT devices together. This protocol is one of the most commonly
used in the industry. MQTT is a message centric protocol. MQTT is known
for its low power consumption and hence can save battery on IoT devices. It
also sends very few data packets and hence has low network usage.

HTTP

HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. It has been extensively used
to maintain connections between a client and a web server. It sends data
over in the ASCII format and hence the message sizes are comparatively
bigger. HTTP is also a document-centric transfer protocol.
XMPP

XMPP itself is very robust and powerful, owing mostly to its standardized
and decentralized nature. It stands for Extensible Messaging and Presence
Protocol. This messaging protocol is based on the Extensible Markup
Language (XML). XMPP is a Message Centric protocol. It also has no
provision for Quality of Service (QoS). XMPP is also extendable and
adaptable, allowing for the creation of bots in the lines of IRC bots.

DDS

Another frequently used messaging protocol is DDS. DDS stands for Data
Distribution Service. It enables scalable, real-time, reliable, high
performance and interoperable data exchanges between publishers and
subscribers. DDS is also a data-centric protocol. DDS is also one of the only
protocols that are both data-centric and provides extensive support for QoS
(Quality of Service).

Factors of Comparison

Here is a brief description of the factors considered in the comparison of

the previously mentioned protocols.

Centricity
The centricity of a protocol defines the broad purpose and use case of that
protocol. It is mainly of three types – Data-Centric, Message Centric and
Document Centric.

Data-Centric
In a data-centric system, the focus is mainly on the data defined by the user.
The unit of exchange in this type of system is the data.
 Message Centric
A message centric system requires the users to share data through the
exchange of messages. This makes message centric systems a little harder
to maintain as it requires the user to spend time writing message handling
logic.

Document Centric
A document-centric system is that system in which the major data type that
gets transferred is documents. HTTP has for long been used to transfer
HTML documents around the web. Essentially HTTP was built keeping in
mind the transfer of documents rather than messages or data (which is
important for IoT).

Quality of Service (QoS)

The Quality of Service (QoS) is an agreement between the sender of a
message and the receiver of a message that defines the guarantee of
delivery for a specific message. Here we will compare whether each of the
protocols has a provision to support QoS software.

Transport
Software at the transport layer is responsible for establishing temporary
communication sessions between two application programs and delivering
data as requested by those applications.

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is used for applications in which

reliable connections between hosts are necessary. TCP checks for
transmission errors, lost packets, packets out of order, etc.

The User Datagram Protocol (UDP), is an unreliable transport protocol with

no sessions or flow control and optional error checking. UDP just sends
packets as soon as requested and forgets about them. However, it is faster
than TCP.
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