Connecting Smart Objects
Instructor: Dr. Anam Qureshi
Communication Criteria
■ Range: This section examines the importance of signal propagation and distance.
■ Frequency Bands: This section describes licensed and unlicensed spectrum, including sub-GHz frequencies.
■ Power Consumption: This section discusses the considerations required for devices connected to a stable power
source compared to those that are battery powered.
■ Topology: This section highlights the various layouts that may be supported for connecting multiple smart objects.
■ Constrained Devices: This section details the limitations of certain smart objects from a connectivity perspective.
■ Constrained-Node Networks: This section highlights the challenges that are often encountered with networks
connecting smart objects
Range
Frequency
Bands
Reference:
Asharf, J., Moustafa, N.,
Khurshid, H., Debie, E.,
Haider, W. and Wahab, A.,
2020. A review of intrusion
detection systems using
machine and deep
learning in internet of
things: Challenges,
solutions and future
directions. Electronics,
9(7), p.1177.
Power Consumption
Topology
Constrained Devices
Constrained Devices (Contd..)
Constrained Node Networks
● Data rate and Throughput
● Latency and Determinism
● Overhead and Payload
IoT Access Technologies
Common Information
■ Standardization and alliances: The standards bodies that maintain the protocols for a
technology
■ Physical layer: The wired or wireless methods and relevant frequencies
■ MAC layer: Considerations at the Media Access Control (MAC) layer, which bridges the physical
layer with data link control
■ Topology: The topologies supported by the technology
■ Security: Security aspects of the technology
■ Competitive technologies: Other technologies that are similar and may be suitable alternatives
to the given technology
IEEE 802.15.4 Protocol
● It is Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Network (LR-WPAN)
● Operated at 2.4 GHz ISM Band with maximum data rate of 250kbps
● Protocols like Zigbee, 6LoWPAN use the physical and data link layer of this
protocol.
● Due to low power, battery life is improved.
● Distance covered within 100 meters only.
● Uses Star and Peer-to-Peer topology
IEEE 802.15.4 Protocol (Physical Layer)
IEEE 802.15.4 Protocol (Data Link/MAC Layer)
Security
Zigbee Protocol
● Uses physical and MAC Layer of IEEE 802.15.4
● Possess the characteristics of IEEE 802.15.4 protocol.
● Better in performance than other WPANs such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
● For indoor applications 10 to 20 meters of range
● For outdoor applications, using mesh topology, range can be increased up to 500m.
● Can connect up to 7k nodes.
● Supports star, peer to peer, and tree topology.
● Have their own devices for the network and application layer
○ Zigbee coordinator
○ Zigbee routers
○ Zigbee end devices
■ Periodic Communication
■ Only send data to ZR and ZC
Zigbee Protocol
Zigbee IP Protocol
6LoWPAN Protocol
Reference:
Ee, G.K., Ng, C.K.,
Noordin, N.K. and Ali,
B.M., 2010. A review of
6LoWPAN routing
protocols. Proceedings
of the Asia-Pacific
Advanced Network,
30(10.7125).
Reference model of 6LoWPAN protocol stack
Reference:
Ee, G.K., Ng, C.K.,
Noordin, N.K. and Ali,
B.M., 2010. A review of
6LoWPAN routing
protocols. Proceedings
of the Asia-Pacific
Advanced Network,
30(10.7125).
Purpose of Adaptation layer and other necessary
information
● Class activity (Research Paper Reading)
● Research Paper 4 (Topic 2 and 3 only)
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE Protocol)
● It is managed by a group known as the Bluetooth Special Interest Group
(SIG).
● Standardized by IEEE 802.15
● Bluetooth Classic VS Bluetooth LE
● Uses 2.4GHz ISM band at the physical layer
● Communication range is from 10m to 30m
● Maximum data rate is 500Kbps to 1Mbps
● It uses mesh network topology and piconet
● Uses 24bit Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) for error detection in the digital
communication
Advantages of BLE
Limitations of BLE
BLE Protocol Stack
Physical Layer
Link Layer
● It directly interfaces with the physical layer.
● Combination of Hardware and Software
● Defines the type of communications between BLE devices such as master,
slave, advertiser, and scanner.
● Main functionalities are :
○ Preamble
○ CRC
○ AES
○ Random number generation
HCI Layer
● The HCI is a standard protocol that takes care of the communication between
the Controller, that is the lowest part of the protocol, and the Host, i.e., the
core of the BLE protocol stack, which manages the communication between
the HW and the user application.
● Therefore, its role is to define a set of commands and events in order to
translate raw data into data packets to send them via serial port to the Host
layer, and vice versa.
LLC and Adaptation Layer
The L2CAP is a protocol handles the data from lower layers and encapsulates
them into the standard BLE packet format, according to the upper layers, and vice
versa; these processes are respectively called recombination (or encapsulation)
and fragmentation.
Security Manager
The SMPis composed of several security algorithms in order to encrypt and
decrypt data packets.
Attribute Protocol
● The ATT defines the roles of a client-server architecture, where the client is
the one that requests data from the server, which, in turn, sends data to
clients.
● The ATT also performs data organization into attributes, to which is assigned
a handle, a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID), a set of permissions and a
value.
● This protocol is encapsulated in the GATT, which uses the roles defined in
the ATT to perform connections
Generic Attribute Profile
● The GATT encapsulates the ATT layer, and its main role is to establish how to
exchange all profiles’ information and data in a BLE link.
○ Profiles are definitions of possible applications and specify general behaviors that Bluetooth
devices use to communicate with other Bluetooth devices.
○ Profiles are built on the Bluetooth standard to more clearly define what kind of data a Bluetooth
module is transmitting.
○ These data are organized in a hierarchical structure composed of sections called services,
which, in turn, group data into containers called characteristics.
● GATT defines two roles in a connection, client and server, During the connection
establishment, the server exposes its services and characteristics to the client
in order to define how the connection will be structured.
Logical Structure of GATT Server Profile
Example
Generic Access profile (GAP)
● It interfaces directly with the Application layer and thus to the user, which can
define all the parameters that the network needs.
● it specifies device roles, modes and procedures, in addition to managing the
connection establishment and the security.
● Following can be the roles/characteristics of the profile:
○ Broadcast: this allows sending data to BLE devices using advertising packets.
○ Readable: if set, the client can only read the characteristic value.
○ Writable: with this property, the client can only write a new value on the characteristic.
○ Notifiable: when it is set, the client receives a notification if the server updates the
characteristic, so that it can read the new value.
BLE
Connection
Establishment
BLE Reference source
Research paper 05. Topic 2.1 and it’s subheadings.
RFID Protocol
RFID Reader
RFID Tag
Radio Frequencies of RFID
LoRaWAN Protocol
LoRaWAN workflow
1. End-devices perform the communication gateways using LoRa and LoRaWAN technologies.
2. Gateways dispatch the LoRaWAN frames from the end devices to a network server using a
back-haul interface with higher throughput, usually Ethernet, 3G/4G, satellite, or Wi-Fi.
3. The network server decodes the packets sent by the devices, performing security checks and
adaptive data rate, thus generating the packets that should be sent back to the devices.
4. Each application receives data from the network server. It should decode the security packets
and uses the information to decide the action in the application.
LoRaWAN Main Characteristics
Please ignore modulation (Not part of the
course.)
Comparison Analysis in terms of power consumption vs range
Protocol Stack
Device Classes in LoRaWAN
Device Classes in LoRaWAN
● Class A (bidirectional) - Devices have a scheduled uplink transmission
window, followed by two short downlink windows. It has low power
consumption and high latency while sending/receiving unicast messages.
● Class B - Devices have additional scheduled downlink windows. It has
medium power consumption, low latency at sending/receiving unicast and
multicast messages.
● Class C - The devices use receiving windows continuously, similar to the
sliding window algorithms. It has high power consumption, lowest latency
sending/receiving unicast and multicast messages.
LoRaWAN Reference Source
Research paper 06
Narrowband(NB)-IoT Protocol
• Uses GSM Channels / cellular networks
• Highly dense network with low power
• Licensed band
• In-band Operation (If there is a free LTE channel)
• Guard band Operation (If the channels are occupied)
• Stand-alone Operation (If GSM channel isavailable)
NB-IoT Architecture
NB IoT Core Network
Mobility Management Entity (MME) is a key component of the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network that
manages mobility and signaling between NB-IoT devices and the core network.
Home Subscriber Server (HSS) is a central database that stores subscriber and device profile information,
crucial for authentication, authorization, and mobility management, supporting NB-IoT.
Serving Gateway (S-GW) is a crucial network node that handles user data traffic and serves as a local
mobility anchor, routing and forwarding packets between the radio access network (RAN) and the core
network.
P-GW, or Packet Data Network Gateway, is the network node that provides connectivity between the NB-IoT
device and external packet data networks like the internet, acting as the point of entry and exit for data traffic.
Layer-wise protocols
