An Introduction to IoT
Technologies
THE NEED TO KNOW BASICS
BY Jaco Bester, Pr. Eng

What is the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things
(IoT) refers to the
connection of everyday
objects to the Internet
and to one another.
The IoT consists out
of a network of
uniquely identifiable
physical objects that
are embedded with
electronics and able
to exchange data.
The IoT is an
inextricable mixture
of hardware,
software, data and
service.

Application Areas
◦ Consumer
◦ Agriculture and farming
◦ Energy Monitoring
◦ Environmental Monitoring
◦ Building and Home Automation
◦ Medical and Healthcare
◦ Transportation
◦ Manufacturing (Industry 4.0)
◦ Etc…

Aspects of IoT Technology
IoT
Technology
Platforms
Security
Analytics
Device
Management
Event Stream
Processing
Hardware
Operating
Systems
Standard
Bodies
Low-Power
IoT Networks

Platforms
IoT platforms bundle many of the infrastructure components of an IoT system
into a single product that offers multiple services such as:
◦ Data acquisition
◦ Data analytics
◦ Data management
◦ Application development
◦ Application Programming Interface (API)
◦ Firmware and software updates
◦ Device monitoring and management
◦ Security

Platforms
Examples
◦ Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT
◦ Azure IoT Suite
◦ Bosch IoT Suite
◦ Cisco Jasper
◦ GE Predix
◦ Google Cloud Platform (GCP) IoT Core
◦ IBM Watson
◦ Siemens MindSphere
◦ Verizon ThingSpace

Security
The IoT introduces multiple security risks and challenges
◦ Platforms
◦ Operating systems
◦ Communication interfaces
◦ Devices
Protection is required from
◦ Network attacks
◦ Physical tampering

Analytics
What is the value of the data generated by the IoT?
◦ Identify business opportunities
◦ Understand customer/user behavior
◦ Deliver services
◦ Improve products

Device Management
Provisioning and
Authentication
•Authentication entails establishing a
unique identity for each IoT device.
•Provisioning or registration is the
process of enrolling a device into a
system.
•Only devices that present proper
credentials, certificates, or keys are
registered.
Configuration and Control
•Remote access
•Bootloaders
•Bug patches
•Firmware and Software updates
•Recovery/last known good states
Monitoring and Diagnostics
•Provide alarms and notifications
•Download program logs and dumps
•Lifecycle management
•Keep up with maintenance
requirements as the network grows
Software updates and
Maintenance
•Synchronization
•Host Downloads
•Deployment

Event Stream Processing
Some IoT applications will generate extremely high data volumes and “events”.
Analyzing events while they are in real-time is known as “event streams”.
Can also be used in combination with historical data and predictive models.

Hardware
Security and
encryption
capability
•Hardware Security
•Trusted Platform Modules
•Cryptographic Authentication Devices
Data
processing
and storage
•Memory
•Storage
•Performance requirements
•Data routing requirements
•Edge processing
•Cloud Processing
Data
acquisition
and control
•Resolution
•Sample rate
•Actuator mechanisms
•Response times
Connectivity
Interfaces
•Wired (Ethernet, UART, CAN, Etc.)
•Wireless (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellular,
Etc.)
•Low Power Wide Area Networks
(LPWAN) technologies
Power
management
•Wired Vs Battery
•Idle, Sleep, and Power down modes
•Connected Peripherals, Sensors, and
Actuators
•Application resource requirements

Hardware
Addition trade offs when selecting IoT hardware
◦ Size
◦ Features
◦ Hardware cost
◦ Ease of integration
◦ Operating system support
◦ Software upgradability (OTA)
◦ Embedded device management agents
◦ Software cost

Operating Systems
◦ The use of OS, particular an RTOS,
simplifies the job of application
programmers and system integrators
because many of the low-level
challenges are taken care of by the
OS.

Operating Systems
High level considerations when selecting an IoT OS
◦ Footprint - Memory, power, processing, and overhead requirements must be low.
◦ Scalability - End device Vs Gateway
◦ Portability - Standard board support packages (BSP)
◦ Modularity - Functionality add-ons capability
◦ Connectivity - Built in support for various communication protocols
◦ Security - Secure boot, SSL support, Encryption features, Etc.

Operating Systems
Examples
◦ Windows 10 for IoT
◦ RIOT OS – Open source
◦ Arm mbed
◦ RealSense OS X (Intel)
◦ Google Brillo
◦ Rasbian
◦ Yocto Project – Open source

Standards and Standard Bodies
Standards and common APIs are essential for IoT devices to interoperate and communicate with minimum integration effort.
Currently there is a lack of interoperability and standards throughout the emerging IoT ecosystem.
Some groups have formed that are trying to address this issue
◦ Open Internet Consortium (OIC)
◦ The Thread Group
◦ The All Seen Alliance
◦ The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC)
IEEE 802.15 Task group which specifies wireless personal area network (WPAN) standards.
◦ Mesh Networking – IEEE 802.15.5
◦ Key Management Protocol – IEEE 802.15.9
◦ Low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPAN) - IEEE 802.15.4
Many IoT business models will rely on sharing data between multiple devices and organizations.

Industry 4.0
Design Principles:
◦ Interoperability
◦ The ability of things to connect and communicate with each other.
◦ Information Transparency
◦ The ability of a system to create a virtual copy of its physical environment through
sensor data in order to contextualize information..
◦ Technical Assistance
◦ The ability of a system to support humans in both physical activities as well as in
making informed decisions.
◦ Decentralized Decisions
◦ The ability of a system to make decisions as well as perform tasks autonomously.

Low-Power IoT Network Considerations
◦ Cellular networks don’t provide a good
combination of desirable technical
features to serve IoT business models.
◦ Examples
◦ ZigBee
◦ Sigfox
◦ LoRa

Zigbee
The Zigbee Alliance is a group of companies that maintain and publish the Zigbee standard.
Operates in the ISM radio bands.
◦ Carrier frequency: 2.4GHz world wide
IEEE 802.15.4 based specification
Zigbee Communications
◦ Defined data rate of 250 kbps
◦ Bandwidth: 1MHz
◦ 10-100m communication range.
◦ Best suited for intermittent data transmissions from a sensor or input device.
Network Architecture
◦ Star and Tree Topology
◦ Coordinator, Router, End device
◦ Every network must have one coordinator device
◦ Mesh networking for data transmissions over longer distances.
Zigbee modules are typically integrated with radios and with microcontrollers.
Get starter with Zigbee
Control your world

Sigfox
Sigfox is a company that builds wireless networks to connect low-energy objects/things.
Sigfox employs a proprietary communication method using the ISM radio band.
◦ Carrier frequency: 868MHz/902MHz/920MHz depending on region.
Lightweight protocol
◦ Sigfox has tailored a lightweight protocol to handle small messages with very little overhead data.
◦ Less data to send means less energy consumption, hence longer battery life.
Sigfox communications
◦ 100 or 600 bps depending on geographical region.
◦ D-BPSK modulation - Uses only 1 Hz of the available 200 kbps(Hz) operation band to transmit at 1 bps.
◦ Supports up to 140 uplink messages a day - maximum of 12 Bytes per message (o -12 Bytes per message).
◦ 4 downlink messages per day - 8 Bytes per message.
Network architecture
◦ Star Topology
◦ A device is not attached to a specific base station unlike cellular protocols.
◦ The broadcasted message is received by any base station in the range - 3 in average.
◦ All base stations are connected to the Sigfox cloud.
Get started with Sigfox

LoRa
LoRa is a proprietary spread-spectrum radio modulation technology developed by Semtech
◦ Chirped FM
◦ Spreading factor (Programmable)
◦ Bandwidth: 125 kHz, 250 kHz, 500 kHz
◦ Data rates range from 0.3 kbps to 250 kbps
Operates in the ISM radio bands.
◦ Carrier frequency: 169MHz, 433MHz, 868MHz, 915MHz depending on region.
LoRaWAN Protocol:
◦ Fully Bi-directional
◦ End-to-end encryption
◦ Over the air registration of nodes
◦ Multicast capability
Network architecture:
◦ Star-of-stars topology
Get starter with LoRa

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