UNIT 3 LOW-POWER NETWORKING FILTERS 9Hrs.

Backscatter communication - Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology overview -

Energy harvesting tags and applications- Internet-of-Things (IoT) - IoT protocol overview -
CoAP and MQTT - IPv6 networking in low-power PANs (6LoWPAN).

Backscatter communication

Backscatter method uses an incident Radio-Frequency (RF) signal to transmit data without a
power source. It employs passive reflection and modulation of the incoming RF signal and
converts into tens or hundreds of microwatts of electricity, that can be encoded for data
communications. It differs from other wireless networks since the communication is half duplex
in nature, i.e., both the sender and receiver cannot transmit at once. The mains advantage is that
it’s low energy requirements and low complexity of deployment.

Backscatter architecture

A basic backscatter communication system has two main components.

 Tags are encoded with a unique ID and are affixed on moving objects so that they can
be identified or tracked. Tags are passive nodes that don’t have their own power source.
The architecture of the tag consists of an RF energy-harvesting block, a battery, a
modulation block, and an information decoder.

The architecture of a backscatter tag

 Readers are the intelligent part of the system that are installed at tracking points to read
information from tags when they come into range. The reader always transmits a signal
 as a single-tone sinusoidal continuous wave, regardless of whether it has bits to send or
not. The reader has its own power supply and a full set of conventional RF components
for emitting CW and information transmission/reception.

When the tag has data to send, it harvests the signal received from the reader get the power to
run. To send bits, it modulates the incident signal to encode its data and then reflects a fraction
of the wave back to the reader. This method is called backscattering. In general, the
communication between the reader and the tag has two modes:

 Forward information transmission, i.e., the reader-to-tag transmission,

For the forward information transmission, the reader transmits a binary intensity modulated
signal to the tag. The tag connects its information decoder and utilizes the received RF signal
for RF energy harvesting and energy-detection-based demodulation. For example, the
decoded bit is “1” or “0” when a high or a low signal energy is detected, respectively. The
use of this primitive on/off modulation and energy detection is due to the constraint that a
typical tag is provisioned with an energy detector instead of a power hungry RF chain needed
for coherent demodulation.

The forward information-transmission mode of a BackCom link

 Backward information transmission, i.e., the tag-to-reader transmission.

For the backward information transmission, the reader sends a CW signal to the tag, and the
tag connects its modulation block and utilizes the received RF signal for RF energy
harvesting and backscatter modulation. Generally, a tag can modulate the reflected signal
by switching over a given set of impedances, generating a set of reflection coefficients
forming a constellation.

The backward information-transmission mode of a BackCom link

According to the system architectures, the backscatter communication systems can be

classified into major categories:
Conventional backscattering

In conventional backscattering communication systems, there are two special features that differ
from traditional communication systems. First, in conventional backscattering communication
systems, the receivers (i.e., WTRDs) have to be equipped with a power source to transmit RF
signals to the transmitter (i.e., WTDs). Second, the transmitters do not need to be equipped with
a power source to transmit data because they will reflect signals received by the receivers instead
of generating their own signals. The second feature is the most important characteristic and also
the main objective for the development of conventional backscattering communication systems.
This special communication feature of CBCSs has received a great deal of attention, mainly
because of the successful implementation of RFID systems and the potential use in sensor
devices that are small in size and have a low power supply. Typically, backscattering
communication systems operate using RF signals and require the WTRD to be able to transmit

RF signals to the WTD.

Conventional backscattering

For the monostatic backscatter communications, the signal source and the backscatter receiver are in
the same device. In the monostatic backscatter communications, the incident signal from the signal
source propagates to the backscatter transmitter as an excitation signal and then the transmitter
modulates the transmit information and reflects it to the backscatter receiver. One of the most popular
applications of the monostatic backscatter is the RFID, where the backscatter transmitter and the
receiver in Figure3 are called RFID tag and the RFID reader, respectively.
Traditional backscatter requires that the reader generate a carrier wave which will be received and
remodulated by the tag. Therefore, the backscattered wave will suffer from a round-trip path loss,
which will impose an limit on the communication distance.
In the typical monostatic backscatter system, RFID, there are three types of backscatter transmitters:
active, passive, and semi-passive ones.
 The active RFID tag has the internal power supply and transceiver implemented, which can
send information to the reader actively as well as backscatter the RF signal from the RFID
reader.
 On the other hand, the passive tag does not have the internal power supply configured and
transmits data only if the harvested energy from the reader satisfies its working requirement.
 The semi-passive tag has the compromise functions of the active and passive tags, where it has
both limited power supply and energy harvesting. To save the power, the semi-passive tag does
not transmit data actively and only transmits data when being excited. After being excited, it
can use the internal power for data transmission.
Bistatic scatter dislocate the carrier emitter from the reader. For the bistatic backscatter
communications, the signal source and the receiver are at different terminals, where the signal source
can be a dedicated signal generator or an ambient signal source. In the traditional bistatic backscatter
communication system, the special carrier emitter is utilized as the signal source, which can be placed
near the backscatter transmitter. Therefore, it avoids the two-way pathloss problem in the monostatic
backscatter communication system and improves the system performance due to the flexibility of the
special carrier emitter.
Multiple-access BackCom systems

Many real-life applications can be modeled as multiple-access (MAC) BackCom system where
a single reader serves multiple tags. For instance, in a warehouse, an administrator can use a
single reader to collect information simultaneously from hundreds or thousands of items
equipped with RFID tags. In a smart city, a data aggregator can receive sensing data from a
large number of backscatter sensors at the same time.

The key challenge in multiple-access BackCom systems is how to deal with collisions that arise
as a result of concurrent tag transmissions. In this regard, a simple solution is to avoid collisions
between multi-tag transmissions using the traditional MAC schemes including
space/frequency/code/time-division multiple-access (SDMA/FDMA/CDMA/TDMA).

Ad hoc BackCom systems

To avoid unnecessarily overloading the core network and to reduce latency, distributed device-
to-device or ad hoc communications is envisaged in future IoT, creating BackCom interference
channels. Compared with conventional interference channels, a backscatter node reflects all
incident interference signals, resulting in interference regeneration.

Ambient backscatter
Ambient backscatter is a method of networking by way of alternately reflecting and absorbing
radio frequencies (RF) in an environment. Ambient backscatter is similar in function to RFID.
Wi-Fi backscatter similarly enables low-power devices to join traditional Wi-Fi networks.
Ambient backscatter can be used to solve the many issues with wires or batteries necessary to
power up many IoT devices. Small ambient backscatter transmitters and receivers can be
incorporated as components of devices, allowing isolated use and efficient utilization of radio
resources. Due to its low-cost and flexibility, the ambient backscatter with energy harvesting is
a promising solution for future low power and ubiquitous communications, such Internet of
things (IoTs).

Block diagram of ambient backscattering device

The basic design of ambient backscatter consists of mainly three parts:

 Harvester- responsible for the extraction of energy from ambient RF signals to provide
power to the battery-free device.
 Transmitter- conveys the message by backscattering RF signals that are incident on its
antenna by modulating the antenna to reflect or absorb signals.
 Receiver - an antenna intercepts some of the power of RF signals backscattered by the
transmitter. Finally, the message is decoded by using a decoding technique.

Ambient backscatter enables RF-powered devices to communicate with the same ambient
frequencies that power them. Ambient backscatter differs from RFID-style backscatter in three
key respects.
 Firstly, it takes advantage of existing RF signals so it does not require the deployment
of a special-purpose power infrastructure—like an RFID reader—to transmit a high-
power (1W) signal to nearby devices. This avoids installation and maintenance costs that
may make such a system impractical, especially if the environment is outdoors or spans
a large area.
 Secondly, it has a very small environmental footprint because no additional energy is
consumed beyond that which is already in the air.
 Finally, ambient backscatter provides device-to-device communication. This is unlike
traditional RFID systems in which tags must talk exclusively to an RFID reader and are
unable to even sense the transmissions of other nearby tags.

In the presence of RF signals, ambient backscatter-equipped devices are powered and enabled
to communicate. The signals are used without interfering with the legacy devices for which they
are originally intended, such as the RF sent for television reception. The ambient backscatter
device selectively reflects a signal to imply a one and absorbs a signal to imply a zero. The
selective reflectivity is achieved by way of antenna impedance changes in the presence of the
original signal. With ambient backscatter, the possibilities for smart devices and IoT are greatly
increased. The use of existing signals means that power is not necessarily required for the device
eliminating the need for batteries and power sources. This reduction in power requirements and
components allows devices to not only be more compact but completely isolated. Operation
while isolated means an RF-powered device using backscatter could be concealed, for example
in a sensor embedded in a brick wall.

To understand ambient backscatter in more detail, consider two nearby battery-free devices,
namely node A and node B, which want to communicate with each other, and they are placed

near a base station (BS), e.g., a TV tower. We also assume that the BS always transmits RF
signals to the surrounding environment, and both node A and node B can receive these signals.
Then, when node A wants to send an information packet to node B, node A will backscatter the
received RF signals from the BS to convey the bits in the packet. To do so, node A can switch
its antenna between reflect and non-reflect mode, corresponding to bit “1” and bit “0,”
respectively. After that, when node B receives the signals reflected from node A, it will be able
to decode such signals to obtain useful information from node A.

RF energy harvester

An RF energy harvester module consists of an antenna that receives ambient RF signals.

Received signals are amplified by voltage doubler/multiplier, which does not require any power
source for its operation. For larger amplification, the voltage amplifier is formed by cascading
a number of voltage doublers in series. A DC converter—a rectifier for RF signals—converts
the received small voltage of RF signals and stores harvested energy in a capacitor. The
harvester also has a power management system that takes care of utilisation of stored power,
which can later be utilised for different applications.
 RF energy harvesting circuit

Ambient backscatter transmitter

Backscattering of RF signals is based on the basic principle of reflection and absorption of

electromagnetic waves. When an electromagnetic wave encounters a boundary between two
transmission media that have different impedances/densities, it is reflected or absorbed. Thus,
backscattering of RF signals is achieved by modulating the impedance of an antenna in the
presence of an incident signal. The backscatter transmitter includes a switch (load modulator)
that modulates impedance of the antenna and causes a change in the amount of energy reflected
by the antenna . Input signals of the switch are a sequence of bits 1 and 0, which the switch uses
to toggle the antenna between backscatter (reflective) and non-backscatter (absorptive) states to
send bits to the receiver. Reflective state represents bit 1, and absorptive state represents bit 0.

Transmitter design
Ambient backscatter receiver

To demodulate from backscatter signals, the receiver adopts a simple circuit composed of
three main components: envelope averager, threshold calculator and comparator. Received
signal is first smoothened to average out the variations due to modulation.
 Circuit diagram for ambient backscatter receiver

Next, the threshold calculator computes a threshold by taking the mean of the two voltage levels.
Then, by comparing instantaneously generated voltage at the first step with the threshold, it
interprets the received signals into a stream of information bits. The ambient backscatter
receiver is implemented using an envelope detector and resistive/capacitive (RC) circuit to
smoothen out natural variations in RF signals (TV signals). Output of the averaging circuit
produces two signal levels (say, V1 and V0; V1>V0), corresponding to bits 1 and 0. To
distinguish between the two, the receiver first computes a threshold value using threshold
computation circuitry. The produced signal level along with threshold value is given to the
comparator, which then produces bits 1 and 0 corresponding to V1 and V0. Output of the
comparator is then passed to the microcontroller for decoding and further processing. Averaging
mechanism is used for decoding the received signal.

Backscatter is extensively used for

 Electronic Product Code (EPC)

 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) communication systems.

It involves application of radio waves to read and capture EPC stored on tags affixed to objects.
RFID readers are installed at tracking points and can read EPC from tags when they come into
range. EPC - RFID system is used to check identities and track inventory, assets and people.
RFID tags can be attached to a variety of objects like cash, clothing, baggage, parcels, and even
implanted in animals and people. Backscatter communications is proving to be indispensable
for deployment of Internet of Things (IoT). IoT requires a large number of sensors that may be
installed in remote or hazardous environment, where battery charging is extremely difficult.
Backtracking allows IoT nodes to transmit data by modulating and reflecting the incident RF
signals from the readers or other receptors.

A typical RFID system mainly consists of a reader (also known as an interrogator) and a tag
(also known as transponder). Depending on the tag’s power supply, RFID systems can be active,
passive or semi-passive. For passive RFID, the reader first generates an electromagnetic wave,
and the tag receives and backscatters the wave with modulated information bits to the reader.
Clearly, passive RFID systems essentially relies on radio backscatter, a mode of wireless
communication by means of reflection rather than radiation.
Advantages of ambient backscatter
 There are several advantages of ambient backscatter.
 It is battery-free. While it can only collect microwatts of electricity, it is enough to power itself
and small onboard sensors such as LEDs, touch sensors, low power displays and the like.
 It does not need any special purpose chips and other analogue components. It can be
manufactured using commonly available components.
 Its size is relatively small—about the size of a carrom coin.
 Cost of manufacturing is quite low—about ₹ 50 each.
 It does not need a dedicated power source (unlike in RFID communication), since it leverages
radio signals that are already around.
Limitations of ambient backscatter
 Ambient backscatter technology has certain limitations.
 As backscatter transmitters use ambient RF signals for circuit operation and data transmission,
it is usually not possible to control RF sources for transmitting power and operating on certain
frequencies.
 Ambient backscatter communicates ranging from several metres to tens of metres with low
data rates. While it depends on scenarios where the technology is applied, if it needs to cover a
large area, multiple devices are required.
 The amount of electricity it collects is small. It can only collect enough electricity to power
small sensors like LEDs, pressure sensors, accelerometers and so on. It can be faded due to
noise.
 Ambient backscatter may potentially face several security issues since backscatter transmitters
are simple devices and RF sources are not controllable.
Applications of ambient backscatter

 Development of ambient backscatter technology enables a method for device-to-device

communication. It can be used for connecting the Internet of Things (IoT), which is the
future of connected living. For example, a table could use this technology to alert
someone who was around it and left a key on the table.
 Smart sensors could be built, placed permanently inside any structure and set to
communicate with each other to notify about the structure’s condition.
 Ambient backscatter can be adopted in many applications such as smart devices
(wearables like health trackers to perform continuous analysis of a person’s health
condition), in logistics for tracking and medical equipment to monitor patient health
even when there is no electricity and so on. This technology allows devices, that is,
backscatter transmitters, to operate independently with minimum human intervention.
 Some prototypes developed using this technology are: a smart card to process payments
to another backscatter device used as a bus pass and a credit card-sized tracker used to
track items and alert users when an item is misplaced.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology overview

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses communication via radio

frequency (RF) waves to exchange data between a “reader” (or “interrogator”) and an electronic
RFID “tag” (or “transponder”) which is attached to (or otherwise associated with) an object
being monitored (OBM), usually for purposes such as identification and tracking.

RFID tags generally comprise at least two parts:

 o an integrated circuit (IC) for storing and processing information, modulating
and demodulating a radiofrequency (RF) signal and other specialized functions,
and
o an antenna (ANT) for receiving and transmitting signals, such as from an
external reader (or interrogator). Generally, at least the IC portion of the tag
may be enclosed in housing.

Generally, there are three types of RFID tags:

o Passive RFID tags, which have no power source (no battery) and require an
electromagnetic field from an external source (such as the reader) to power the
tag electronics and initiate a signal transmission. (In the context of a passive tag,
“transmission” may mean modulating an impedance or resonance of an antenna,
such as simply shorting or not shorting the antenna, resulting in “backscatter”.
These modulations of the antenna can be sensed by the external reader. An
antenna may be a coil in a low frequency (LF) magnetic field coupled system or
a dipole in an electric field coupled system.) Passive RFID tags can also energize
a sensor circuit, when power is being supplied to the tag by the external reader.
o Active RFID tags, which include a battery (BATT) and a transmitter and can
transmit signals to an external reader. (This is transmission of a signal in the
classic sense of the term, and the transmitted signal may be modulated with
information.) The tag may make measurements, such as temperature,
independently of the reader. The transmissions may occur at periodic intervals,
independent of whether there is an external reader nearby (since the reader is not
needed to power the active RFID tag), or the tag may transmit in response to a
query (request for the tag to transmit) by the external reader.
o Battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID tags include a battery but require an
external source (such as the reader) to wake up as in a passive RFID tag but have
significantly higher forward link capability providing greater range. Since they
have a battery, BAP tags can energize a sensing circuit without power being
supplied by the reader. BAP tags are also sometimes called semi-passive tags.

Energy Harvesting tags

Radio frequency (RF) sensors and tags find applications in several areas including inventory
control, pallet/container tracking, identification (ID) badges and access control, fleet
maintenance, equipment/personnel tracking in hospitals, parking lot access and control, car
tracking in rental lots, monitoring product health in manufacturing, and so on. Potentially, one
of the fastest growing RFID applications is within the retail supply chain. Major retailers need
to track goods to and from their worldwide suppliers as containers are transported overseas, and
through distribution centers and warehouses. They are seeking technology that provides a high
return on investment, whereby manual labor and cost overhead can be eliminated through
increasing degrees of automation. Automation will deliver greatly improved efficiencies and
productivity, while significantly improving product availability. Most passive RFID tags simply
reflect back waves from the reader. Energy harvesting is a technique in which energy from the
reader is gathered by the tag, stored briefly and transmitted back to the reader.
Energy harvesting in applications involving use of active RF sensors and ID tags. Unlike passive tags,
active tags utilize a battery to emit rather than reflect or backscatter RF energy. Advantages of active
tags include improved range and read rate in electromagnetically unfriendly environments and improved
link quality. Typical applications include monitoring enterprise/supply chain assets (e.g. laptops,
computers, peripherals, electronic equipment, pallets, inventory items, etc.), personnel, patients,
vehicles, and containers. Although a battery can substantially improve performance, it limits
maintenance-free operational life.

Block diagram of an energy harvesting RF sensor

Typically, a device consists of microcontroller that manages power to the sensors and data acquisition
elements, as well as responds to commands (e.g., from the reader or base station). Typically, such a
device consists of an 8/16 bit microcontroller with adequate resources to operate its kernels. The
microcontroller manages power to the sensors and data acquisition elements, as well as responds to
commands (e.g., from the reader). Primary non-rechargeable batteries are used to provide a 3 V
DC output voltage for the device’s microcontroller, sensor board, and transceiver. The device consumes
about 10–20 mA during full operation and about 2–10mA during the dormant or sleep mode. Also, these
devices are programmed to sleep for most of the time indicating very low duty cycles. Therefore, a
continuous EH source providing at least 100–200 uWh should be sufficient to power these tags. Note
that typical excitation levels for various vibration sources are very low (around 0.03–0.3 gpeak) at low
frequencies of 10–200 Hz [6].
Three components constitute the formation of an EH device:
 EH transducer (tuned to a specific source frequency band to maximize power harvesting);
 EH power management (alternating current/direct current (ac–dc) rectifier and dc–dc converter
with adequate impedance matching to enhance energy transfer to storage device.
 Energy storage component (that stores harvested energy to increase sensor lifetime) Such as a
battery or super capacitor.
Common Sources of Energy
 Light energy: From sunlight or artificial light.
 Kinetic energy: From vibration, mechanical stress or strain.
 Thermal energy: Waste energy from heaters, friction, engines, furnaces, etc.
 RF energy: From RF signals.
Several key issues must be addressed before embarking upon designing EH circuits for RF sensors and
tags.
 First, the natural source of energy must be harvested by an EH system and
 second, there must be an efficient means of storing this energy. The system must also effectively
route the stored energy to the RF sensor. This means that there must be an intelligent power
management strategy in place. Obviously, this strategy must be efficient and should serve to
lengthen the life of the energy storage device
The widespread need for RF sensors and tags is evident from the proliferation of short-range wireless
standards such as Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi, and RFID. Sensor nodes for wireless personal area network
(WPAN) that utilize smart mesh network protocols are traditionally designed to optimize for low cost
and low power. Each wireless node is intended for deployment in large quantities at remote locations to
sense critical data and relay its measurements to other network nodes for monitoring and control
purposes. Another application combines the data from vehicular sensors, such as wheel hub-odometers,
tire pressure sensors, and asset tags to improve safety, reliability, and reduce fleet maintenance costs. As
these types of applications proliferate, it will become necessary to deploy RF sensors in hard-to-reach
places. Once thousands of low-cost RF sensors are deployed for any given application, replacing
batteries will become an impractical task. Therefore, self-sufficient devices that can operate for an
indefinite period will be required. The availability of small, rugged, low-cost, and self-powered wireless
sensors and tags will revolutionize the supply chain industry and open up numerous applications in both
the military and the commercial sectors. Active RF sensors and ID tags have moderate densities and
consume power of the order of several megawatts, while receiving and transmitting data packets but they
are designed to draw a few microwatts in their sleep state. These devices can form dense ad hoc networks
transmitting data from 1 to 10 m indoors and as high as 100–150 m outdoors. In fact, for indoor
communication over distances greater than 10 m, the energy-to-transmit data rapidly dominate the
system.

Internet-of-Things (IoT)

Internet of Things (IoT) consists of smart devices that communicate with each other. It enables these
devices to collect and exchange data. IoT has a wide range of applications such as industry,
transportation, logistics, healthcare, smart environment, personal, social gaming robot, and city
information. Smart devices can have wired or wireless connection. As far as the wireless IoT is the main
concern, many different wireless communication technologies and protocols can be used to connect the
smart device such as Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), over Low power Wireless Personal Area
Networks (6LoWPAN), ZigBee, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Z-Wave and Near Field Communication
(NFC). IoT is also expressed in a multilayer model. Although some use the OSI seven-layer
model, others in use include the following:

 Three-layer model: Perception, Network and Application

 Four-layer model: Perception, Support, Network and Application
 Five-layer model: Perception, Transport, Processing, Application and Physical, Data
Link, Network, Transport and Application

Perception Layer
The Perception or Physical Layer consists of the physical devices, which collect information, transform
them into digital data and pass them to another layer, so that actions can be done based on that
information. Acting as a medium between the digital and real world, these physical devices can be
Sensors (Temperature, Humidity, Light etc.), Actuators (Electric, Mechanical, Hydraulic etc.), RFID
(RFID tags), Video Trackers (IP camera) or anything that can use data to interact with different devices
through a network. The difference between the traditional sensors and the smart sensors used in IoT
however is that smart sensors include an integrated microprocessor (DMP), that can process the digitized
data captured by the sensor. These data can be normalized, noise filtered, or transformed for the sake of
signal conditioning before being forwarded to other devices throughout the network.
Transmission Layer -The Transmission Layer or Transportation or Network Layer, is located between
the perception and the application layer. In this layer the data collected by smart sensors are transformed
and forwarded to the Application Layer using the suitable communication channels and protocols for
further processing, like analysis, data mining, data aggregation, and data encoding, while providing
network management functionality and not only a basic packet routing as the network layer of the
ISO/OSI model does. In IoT implementations, wireless protocols are more commonly used compared to
wired ones, since wireless sensors can be installed even in places that lack the main requisites for wired
sensors like power, communication cabling etc. Moreover, in a wireless sensor network, it is easier for
nodes to be added, removed or relocated without reconsidering the structure of the entire network. The
selection of protocols to be used, can be based in several factors like hardware heterogeneity, power
consumption, the transmission speed, and the transmission distance needed in each application and many
others. In other implementations however, a wired sensor network is preferred since these networks are
more reliable, more secure and offer higher transmission data speeds. For example, IoT implementations
in a hospital, where reliability and speed are major factors for saving a patient’s life, wired sensors are
preferable and the requisites for their installation can be planned during hospital’s initial design (wiring,
power delivery cables etc.). In general, smart sensors must be able to communicate with each other
through Internet to handle information and interact with the physical world, while being uniquely
identified to prevent data conflicts. Depending on the specific applications, smart objects can be directly
reachable without the need of an intermediary gateway, implement a UI making user interaction possible
and many more.
Application layer -The Application Layer is present just above the Transmission Layer, it is based on
the implementation, and can be organized in different ways. This layer, depending on the
implementation, is responsible for analysing and processing the information data that came from the
below Layers (Perception and Transmission). More specific, it handles these data to applications to be
used for the desired actions (i.e., control actuators), acting like a bridge to transform and forward it to
other nodes or hand it over to another application for further processing. Moreover, this is the layer where
the user interface is placed (if any), giving the choice for users to interact with the IoT system and
perform various actions (for example if a technical equipment needs servicing, the IoT will inform the
technician through an interface that “structurally” is operating on the Application layer. The Application
layer, in contrast with Transmission and Perception Layer, can vary a lot based on the implementation.
Since it is designed with a desired application in mind, this layer is formed by its functionalities. For
example, real-time monitoring and decision- making applications are in charge of taking actions based
on the data collected from the perception layer, information digitization is responsible for collecting and
transforming analog data into digital, analytics are used to process collected data and create an evaluation
model, while hardware control for transforming data into physical actions.
Network layer In IoT architecture, the network layer is also called as transmission layer. It works by
sending the data received from the perception layer to the processing unit securely. The transmission
standard can be wired and wireless to send data securely and this layer use 3G, wi-fi, Bluetooth, and
Zigbee technology. Thus, the data are then forwarded to the middleware layer.
Middleware layer One device of IoT connects to the other device only when both provide the same type
of services. The middleware layer has the responsibility to connect it to the database by keeping in mind
the service management. Further, computation and decision-making are also done by the same
middleware layer.
Business layer Helps in creating a business model, graph, flowchart, etc., for different business models
from the output received from this layer, which is useful in determining the further business strategies.

IoT protocol overview

IoT protocols are an integral part of the IoT technology stack. Without IoT protocols and
standards, hardware would be deemed useless. This is because IoT protocols enable hardware
to exchange data. And, out of these transferred pieces of data, useful information can be
extracted by the end-user. IoT protocols and standards are often overlooked when people think
about the Internet of Things (IoT). More often than not, the industry has its attention firmly
fixed upon communication. And while the interaction between devices, IOT sensors, gateways,
servers, and user applications are essential components of the IoT, communication would fall
down without the right IoT protocols. There are multiple IoT protocols available, with each one
offering certain capabilities or combinations of features that make it preferable over other
options for specific IoT deployments. Each IoT protocol enables either device-to-device,
device-to-gateway or device-to-cloud/data center communication -- or combinations of those
communications. Factors such as geographic and special location, power consumption needs,
battery-operated options, the presence of physical barriers and cost determine which protocol is
optimal in an IoT deployment. IoT protocols and standards are broadly classified into two
separate categories. These are:

1. IoT data protocols (Presentation / Application layers)

2. Network protocols for IoT (Datalink / Physical layers)

IoT Data Protocols

IoT data protocols are used to connect low-power IoT devices. They provide communication
with hardware on the user side – without the need for any internet connection. The connectivity
in IoT data protocols and standards is through a wired or cellular network. IoT data protocols
were designed to tackle unreliable communication networks. This became a need in the IoT
world due to the increasing number of small, cheap, and lower-power objects that have appeared
in the network over the past few years.

MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport)

MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is a lightweight IoT data protocol developed in 1999
.One of the most preferred protocols for battery-powered IoT devices, MQTT collects data from various
electronic devices and supports remote device monitoring. It has been especially designed for unreliable
communication networks in order to respond to the problem of the growing number of small-sized cheap
low-power objects that have made their appearance in the network in the recent years. MQTT is based
on subscriber, publisher and broker model. Within the model, the publisher’s task is to collect the data
and send information to subscribers via the mediation layer which is the broker. The role of the broker,
on the other hand, is to ensure security by cross-checking the authorisation of publishers and subscribers.
It features a publisher-subscriber messaging model and allows for simple data flow between different
devices. This subscribe/publish protocol that runs over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which
means it supports event-driven message exchange through wireless networks. MQTT is mainly used in
devices which are economical and requires less power and memory. For instance, fire detectors, car
sensors, smart watches, and apps for text-based messaging. MQTT’s main selling point is its
architecture. Its genetic make-up is basic and lightweight and, t herefore, it’s able to provide low power
consumption for devices.

MQTT offers three modes of achieving Quality of Service, the publisher has the possibility to define
the quality of its message:

 QoS0 (At most once): The least reliable mode but also the fastest. The publication is sent but
confirmation is not received.
 QoS1 (At least once): Ensures that the message is delivered at least once, but duplicates may
be received.
  QoS2 (Exactly once): The most reliable mode while the most bandwidth-consuming.
Duplicates are controlled to ensure that the message is delivered only once.
MQTT responds well to:

 Minimum bandwidth use

 Low energy consumption
 Little processing and memory resources
 It requires minimal resources since it is lightweight and efficient
 Support bi-directional messaging between device and cloud
 Can scale to millions of connected devices
 Support reliable message delivery through 3 QoS levels
 Works well over unreliable networks
 Security enabled, so it works with TLS and common authentication protocols

Despite its characteristics, MQTT can be problematic for some devices, due to the fact of the
transmission of messages over TCP and managing long topic names. This is solved with the MQTT-SN
variant that uses UDP and supports topic name indexing. However, despite its wide adoption, MQTT
doesn’t support a well-defined data representation and device management structure model, which
renders the implementation of its data management and device management capabilities entirely
platform- or vendor-specific.

MQTT alternatives
 MQTT vs. XMPP:
XMPP protocol uses XMP language and is more code-heavy and bandwidth-consuming
than MQTT. It also does not use the pub/sub model by default. MQTT is therefore far
superior to use than XMPP.
 MQTT vs. HTTP(S):
HTTP(S) is the language of the web and thus enables communication with web applications.
However, it is heavier in code use than MQTT and thus needs more power. Moreover,
HTTP(S) cannot transmit many messages simultaneously, thus reducing the effectiveness
of network communication.
 MQTT vs. AMQP:
AMQP is also a lightweight protocol. However, compared to MQTT, it is a more complex
messaging system and thus uses more power and memory than MQTT.

CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol)

Created by the IETF Constrained RESTful Environments working group and launched in 2013,
CoAp (Constrained Application Protocol) is an application layer protocol. It’s an internet-utility
protocol designed to address the needs of HTTP-based IoT systems. HTTP stands for Hypertext
Transfer Protocol, and it’s the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.
Using this protocol, the client can send a request to the server and the server can send back the
response to the client in HTTP. For light-weight implementation, it makes use of UDP (User
Datagram Protocol) and reduces space usage. The protocol uses binary data format EXL
(Efficient XML Interchanges). CoAP protocol is used mainly in automation, mobiles, and
microcontrollers. The protocol sends a request to the application endpoints such as appliances
at homes and sends back the response of services and resources in the application. While the
existing structure of the internet is freely available and usable by any IoT device, it’s often too
heavy and power-consuming for most IoT applications. This has led to many within the IoT
community dismissing HTTP as a protocol not suitable for IoT.However, CoAp has addressed
this limitation by translating the HTTP model into usage in restrictive devices and network
environments. It has incredibly low overheads, is easy to employ, and has the ability to enable
multicast support.Therefore, it’s ideal for use in devices with resource limitations, such as IoT
microcontrollers or WSN nodes. It’s traditionally used in applications involving smart energy
and building automation.

Designed to address the needs of HTTP-based IoT systems, CoAP relies on the User Datagram Protocol
(UDP) for establishing secure communication between endpoints. By allowing for broadcasting and
multicasting, UDP is able to transmit data to multiple hosts while retaining communication speed and
low bandwidth usage, which makes it a good match for wireless networks typically employed in
resource-constrained M2M environments. Another thing that CoAP shares with HTTP is the RESTful
architecture which supports a request/response interaction model between application endpoints. What
is more, CoAP adopts the basic HTTP get, post, put and delete methods, thanks to which ambiguity can
be avoided at the time of interaction between clients. CoAP features Quality of Service which is used to
control the messages sent and mark them as ‘confirmable’ or ‘nonconfirmable’ accordingly which
indicates whether the recipient should return an ‘ack’ or not. Other interesting features of CoAP are that
it supports content negotiation and resource discovery mechanism. Apart from transferring IoT data,
CoAP leverages Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) for the secure exchange of messages in the
transport layer. CoAP fully addresses the needs of an extremely light protocol in order to meet the
demands of battery-operated or low-energy devices. All in all, CoAP is a good match when it comes to
existing web service-based IoT systems.
DTLS solves two problems:

 Reordering
 Packet lost.

It adds three implements:

 Packet retransmission
 Assigning sequence number within the handshake
 Replay detection

Unlike network layer security protocols, DTLS in application layer protects end-to-end communication.
No end-to-end communication protection will make it easy for attacker to access to all text data that
passes through a compromised node. DTLS also avoids cryptographic overhead problems that occur in
lower layer security protocols.

COAP Vs MQTT

CoAP performs better for high packet losses. CoAP messages can be transferred three times faster
than HTTP messages. However, when comparing HTTP/2 with CoAP, HTTP/2 performed better in high
congestion scenarios. CoAP required less bandwidth compared to MQTT. In a network under heavy
load, CoAP used less bandwidth than MQTT whereas DDS took up twice the bandwidth of MQTT.
CoAP also had higher efficiency, calculated as a ratio of useful information bytes to total bytes at
application and transport layers. In terms of energy consumption, both MQTT and CoAP are efficient.
MQTT is based on TCP. There's also a variant of MQTT called MQTT-SN that runs on UDP.
Comparing CoAP against MQTT-SN may be more appropriate. Likewise, CoAP running on top
of TCP (RFC 8323) can be compared against MQTT.

Features of CoAP Protocol:

• It is very efficient RESTful protocol.
• Easy to proxy to/from HTTP.
• It is open IETF standard
• It is Embedded web transfer protocol (coap://)
• It uses asynchronous transaction model.
• UDP is binding with reliability and multicast support.
• GET, POST, PUT and DELETE methods are used.
• URI is supported.
• It uses small and simple 4 byte header.
• Supports binding to UDP, SMS and TCP.
• DTLS based PSK, RPK and certificate security is used.
• uses subset of MIME types and HTTP response codes.
• Uses built in discovery mechanism.

CoAP vs. HTTP

CoAP is network-oriented protocol, using similar features to HTTP but also allows for low overhead,
multicast, etc. As HTTP protocol is a long-term successful standard, it can use small script to integrate
various resources and services. Interoperation provided by HTTP is the key point of IoT, for this, HTTP
is employed in application level. However, HTTP is based on TCP protocol using point to point (p2p)
communication model that not suitable for notification push services. Also, for constrained devices,
HTTP is too complex. Unlike HTTP based protocols, CoAP operates over UDP instead of using complex
congestion control as in TCP. CoAP is based on REST architecture, which is a general design for accessing
Internet resources. In order to overcome disadvantage in constrained resource, CoAP need to optimize
the length of datagram and provide reliable communication. On one side, CoAP provides URI, REST
method such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE. On the other side, based on lightweight UDP protocol,
CoAP allows IP multicast, which satisfies group communication for IoT. To compensate for the
unreliability of UDP protocol, CoAP defines a retransmission mechanism and provides resource
discovery mechanism with resource descriptions. CoAP is not just a simply compression of HTTP
protocol. Considering low processing capability and low power consuming demand of restrained
resource, CoAP redesigned some features of HTTP to accommodate these limitations. HTTP used under
unconstrained network and CoAP used under constrained network. Recently, HTTP-CoAP cross
protocol proxy arouses scientific interest, it has and important role in solving congestion problem in
the constrained environment .

CoAP Structure Model

CoAP interactive model is similar to HTTP's client/server model. The bottom layer is Message layer
that has been designed to deal with UDP and asynchronous switching. The request/response layer
concerns communication method and deal with request/response message.
Message Layer model

Message Layer supports 4 types message:

 CON (confirmable),
 NON (non-confirmable),
 ACK (Acknowledgement),
 RST (Reset)

a) Reliable message transport: Keep retransmission until get ACK with the same message ID . Using
default time out and decreasing counting time exponentially when transmitting CON. If recipient fail
to process message, it responses by replacing ACK with RST.

b) Unreliable message transport: transporting with NON type message. It doesn't need to be ACKed,
but has to contain message ID for supervising in case of retransmission. If recipient fail to process
message, server replies RST.

Request/Response Layer Model

a) Piggy-backed: Client sends request using CON type or NON type message and receives response ACK
with confirmable message immediately. For successful response, ACK contain response message
(identify by using token), for failure response, ACK contain failure response code.

b) Separate response: If server receive a CON type message but not able to response this request
immediately, it will send an empty ACK in case of client resend this message. When server ready to
response this request, it will send a new CON to client and client reply a confirmable message with
acknowledgment. ACK is just to confirm CON message, no matter CON message carry request or
response .

c) Non confirmable request and response: unlike Piggy-backed response carry confirmable message, in
Non confirmable request client send NON type message indicate that Server don't need to confirm.
Server will resend a NON type message with response.
IPV6 networking in Low power Personal Area Network(6L0WPAN)

It is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), defined protocol that provides connectivity between
wireless sensor networks and internet providing support to IPv6 using IEEE 802.15.4. It denotes a
wireless link for low power personal area networks (LoWPANs). These networks are categorized by
their more restricted abilities than other WPANs (e.g. Bluetooth) and WLANs (e.g.WiFi), they have
small frame size, low data rate, low bandwidth, and low transmit power. 6LoWPAN is a simple low-cost
communication network that allows wireless connectivity in applications with limited power and relaxed
throughput requirements as it provides IPv6 networking over IEEE 802.15.4 networks. It is formed by
devices that are compatible with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard and characterized by short range, low bit
rate, low power, low memory usage and low cost. When a lower processing capability sensor node in a
6LoWPAN or so-called reduced function device (RFD) wants to send its data packet to an IP-enabled
device outside the 6LoWPAN, it first sends the packet to the higher processing capability sensor node
or so-called full function device (FFD) in the same PAN. The FFDs which react as a router in 6LoWPAN
will forward the data packet hop by hop to the 6LoWPAN gateway. The 6LoWPAN gateway that connect
to the 6LoWPAN with the IPv6 domain will then forward the packet to the destination IP-enabled device
by using the IP address.
It adopts IEEE 802.15.4 standard PHY and MAC layers as its bottom layers while chooses IPv6 in its
network layer. Basically, IEEE 802.15.4 standard specifies PHY and MAC layers for low-rate wireless
personal area network (LR-WPAN). The PHY layer specification dictates how the IEEE 802.15.4
devices may communicate with each other over a wireless channel. There are total of 27 channels defined
in the PHY layer. At MAC layer, it specifies when the devices may access the channel for
communication. The basic tasks provided by the MAC layer are beacon generation and synchronization,
supporting PAN association and disassociation, managing channel access via Carriers Sense Multiple
Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) mechanism, and etc. IEEE 802.15.4 standard defined 4
frame structures for MAC layer: beacon frame, data frame, acknowledgement frame and MAC command
frame. A beacon frame is used by a PAN coordinator to transmit beacons while a data frame is used for
data transfers. For the acknowledgement frame and the MAC command frame, they are used for
confirming successful frame reception and handling all MAC peer entity control transfers respectively.
Except acknowledgement frame which do not have MAC Service Data Unit (MSDU), other frames have
the MSDU which is prefixed with a MAC Header (MHR) and appended with a MAC Footer (MFR).
The MHR comprises frame control, sequence number and address information fields while the MSDU
is the MAC payload of variable length that contains the information of IPv6 packet. The MFR contains
Frame Check Sequence (FCS). The MAC frame that generally formed by MHR, MSDU and MFR is
then passed to the PHY as a PHY payload. The PHY payload that acts as a PHY Service Data Unit
(PSDU) in a PHY frame is prefixed by a synchronization header (SHR) and a PHY header (PHR). The
SHR contains the preamble and start-of-frame delimiter (SFD) fields that enable the receiver to
synchronize and lock into the bit stream while the PHR contains frame length information.
6LoWPAN meaning:-
IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks[11].

 6 in 6LoWPAN:- The 6 is used because it is based on IPv6. IPv6 is the new Internet Protocol. IPv6 has
replaced IPv4, because IPv4 runs out of address range. IPv4 offers 232 = 4,294,967,296 IP addresses in
the Internet. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, so the new address space supports 2128 = 3.4×1038addresses.

 Lo in 6LoWPAN: - Lo represents Low Power. IP interchanges and Low Power utilization is generally
opposite. Furthermore 30 years prior our reality was not excessively green all things considered at
present. We endeavor to spare power as regularly we can. At any rate, we do spare power since we might
want to be green. We need to spare power on the grounds that the sensors are remote on battery control.

 WPAN in 6LoWPAN:- WPAN represents Wireless Personal Area Networks. A WPAN is an individual
region arrange for associating gadgets around an individual. A famous WPAN is Bluetooth. Bluetooth
is being used to interconnect our PC frill or our sound hardware like Bluetooth headset or hands free
unit. 6LoWPAN is more. In 6LoWPAN you can make fit systems with higher separation. By utilizing
868/915 MHz rather than 2400 MHz the inclusion in structures is vastly improved.
6LoWPAN protocol stack

The 6LoWPAN technique is built on the IP protocol since IP is very suitable. One advantage is that IP is
world wide spread and computer engineers are already familiar with it. It means that less introduction
is needed and the technology can be established faster than with a different set of protocols. But
between the network layer and the data link layer, an adaption layer is placed. The adaption layer is
embedded in the network layer.

 Transport layer
The transport layer protocol most preferably used for 6LoWPAN is UDP (User Datagram
Protocol). It is lightweight (the full specification fits in two pages) and connectionless, which
means that the two communicating processes do not have a standing connection established.
 The UDP packages are called datagrams, and since there is no established connection between
the processes, the address to the destination process must be attached to every datagram.
UDP leaves no guarantee that they will reach their destination, or that they will reach it in the
same order as they were sent. This is the price for the lightweight; a quality that usually has a
higher priority for 6LoWPAN applications then reliability . The UDP header consists of 8 bytes
and contains four fields of 16 bits each. For comparison, another common transport protocol
from the IP stack called TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) has a 20 bytes long header.
Therefore is not as suitable for 6LoWPAN as UDP is.

 Network Layer
The Network layer in the 6LoWPAN stack consists of the IPv6 Protocol. IPv6 was developed
decades ago when the addresses of IPv4 (Internet protocol version 4) were predicted to run
out. IPv4 has 32 bit-addresses which suffices to only 4 ∗ 109 unique addresses. With the
growing amount of Internet-connectable devices, it was not enough. Therefore, IPv6 was
created with 128 bit addresses. That results in approximately 1038 addresses, which is "enough
for every grain of sand on the planet" . The adaption layer is what makes IPv6 manageable for
6LoWPAN. It compresses the IPv6 and UDP headers between the Edge Router and the node.
This is possible since the Ipv6 prefix is no new information, since the IPv6 prefix address is
shared between the Edge Router and all the nodes in a LoWPAN network. The Edge Router and
the nodes only need to know each other’s MAC addresses (Media Access Control address) to
address each other.

 Data link layer

The data link layer consists of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
802.15.4, which is a link of low-power technology. 802.15.4 is used in many embedded
applications, due to its small frame size and low bandwidth. It was designed to suit long lived
applications on low cost nodes, such as Smart Objects. 802.15.4 has a maximum packet size of
127 bytes. With the 40 byte IPv6 header, this leaves less than 70 % of the packet for payload.
This is the reason header compression is needed, so the IPv6 header only covers about 5 % of
the packet and more can be used for payload . The link layer can be replaced by almost any
other link radio frequency protocol. That is thanks to the great compatibility capacity of
6LoWPAN.

Features of 6LoWPAN
The main features of 6LoWPAN are as follows: It supports 64 bit or 16-bit addressing. It’s specifically
targeted at low power radios, one of them being Bluetooth low energy or Bluetooth smart standard and
it takes advantage of header compression for IPv base and as well as for UDP headers. 6LoWPAN uses
network auto configuration for all participating devices, where each device is engaged in neighbor
discovery. 6LoWPAN supports unicast, multicast, and broadcast and also the concept of fragmentation.
The elementary size of a frame is 127 bytes taken from 15.4 standard and IPv6 transmission unit size is
1280 bytes. One needs to fragment 1280 bytes into a set of 127 byte frames, which is supported by
6LoWPAN. 6LoWPAN also supports IP routing. It supports a link layer mesh networking and supports
security. Here the primary means of transport layer is UDP for 6LoWPAN. There is a specialized IPv6
with LoWPAN and it uses 15.4 media access control and physical layers.
The adaptation layer is not only working with IPv6 protocol but it is used it IPv4 protocol. So, if we are
use and network layer protocol with low power that’s mean it is included in the adaptation layer. I am
talking about IPv6 protocol that why call the 6lowpan. In 6lowpan do a header compression,
fragmentation, reassembly, and decompression of header these four tasks are included. If we are working
with the network layer then use the route over routing and if we are working with the adaptation layer
then use the mesh under routing. 6lowpan has supported to the communication of any network. The data
link layer is the detect and corrects the error which coming in the transmission of data bits. MAC is also
present in the data link layer. The data link layer senses the information with the use of the medium of
collision transmission of the frame using a different protocol like CSMA/CD or CSMA/CA. adaptation
layer is also compression of the header like UDP, IPv6, ICMP, and also handles the fragmentation and
reassembly process. In my work use the UDP protocol because TCP protocol is more complex compare
to UDP. 6LOWPAN is using the application which needs to be real-time data with UDP protocol to get
less complexity. For a security with UDP protocol use the DTLS it means datagram transport layer
security protocol. In 6lowapn, COAP and MQTT protocols are used in the application layer.