We read a lot about the IoT—the Internet of Things—and how it can be beneficial to companies and people in general. But what constitutes IoT in today’s world? From the basic, home-based IoT environment to the large, nation-wide IoT architecture, the major elements are easily recognized. How common is IoT? In 2021, Walmart said it managed about 1.5 billion messages from IoT devices daily. In particular, the company uses the IoT to help maintain food in refrigerators and coolers and plan in-store maintenance needs. And that’s one company.
For a device to be a part of the IoT, at minimum a few critical components are needed:
- Sensors—Theseallow a device to collect data about the physical environment, a digital version of human senses of vision, hearing, touch, and at an extreme even “smell”—identifying gases. What sensors are used in a device will vary depending on what the device is intended to do. For example, a smart thermostat needs a temperature sensor but probably not an accelerometer.
- Microcontrollers—Theseprovide the computing power, memory, and internet connectivity for the device, a variation on edge computing. If sensors are the digital eyes and ears of the device, the microcontroller is the brain. Microcontrollers have limited processing power because the CPU and memory are on a single chip. Their minimal power requirements and relative simplicity, however, make them suitable for use in many IoT devices.
- Network connectivity—Youneed a network to move data to and from the device—what makes them part of the Internet of Things instead of a freestanding component. There are options available, including Wi-Fi, WAN (wide-area network), LAN (local-area network), cellular, Bluetooth, NFC (near-field communication), and others.
The choice of connectivity technology to use will depend not just on the type of device but also the environment in which it is being used. Cellular networks, as an example, may have limited reach in some enclosed locations because of the architecture and building materials used. Next generation 5G network connectivity will be required for the devices in some applications such as autonomous vehicles.
Expanding the Universe
The Thales Group from France adds to the mix, itemizing seven components required of an IoT system: sensors, connectivity, and networks, of course, but also applications, analytics, the cloud, and security. Properly combined, like an electronic recipe, the results will provide current state-of-the-art IoT at every scale. However, like every digital environment, the components of IoT are changing, some more rapidly than others, and the list will, no doubt, be growing as we move into the next stage.
At the very core of IoT is the device. It can be a light switch, a refrigerator, an AC unit, or a security system in a house or, at a larger scale, machine tools, automated material handling systems, and assembly equipment in a factory. Moving still further up scale, utilities are turning to networked devices for meter reading on a city-wide basis, and even national and international networks, using satellites to monitor security devices, are not uncommon.
The massive IoT is a term that describes the Internet of Things that has grown beyond the confines of the home or office and into areas like manufacturing facilities, transportation, agriculture, and public infrastructure. The most common massive IoT is industrial automation, where machines can interact with each other without human intervention. This allows companies to control large amounts of machinery or automate repetitive tasks remotely.
A further step up for massive IoT would be smart cities where devices such as parking sensors, lights, street lamps, heating systems, security cameras, waste management, and even rented bikes can all be controlled from a central hub. This feature also reduces costs because devices only need one interface instead of multiple interfaces per device type.
Bigger and Yet the Same
Some IoT benefits have become commonplace. For example:
Smart buildings use sensors to detect changes such as temperature or humidity levels, which trigger actions such as air conditioning systems turning on or off automatically, depending on whether they need cooling or heating at that time. This process means less energy consumption because systems don’t have to run continuously throughout the day when they aren’t required.
Smart metering: Connected devices such as electricity, water, or gas meters are another opportunity for extreme coverage of the Internet of Things.
Fleet management solutions with monitoring of assets and fleet maintenance and tracking primarily based on big data and IoT have already proven to be game-changers for many freight and transport companies.
To provide the most important benefits, an IoT ecosystem architecture requires a set of components:
Sensors: Sensors capture electric pulse or primary analogue data sources. They can measure temperature, humidity, light, motion, acceleration, smoke, chemical particles, and pressure. Sensors detect and actuators, such as electric switches, valves, and motors, operate in reverse; when triggered by the application, they take action.
Device connectivity: Sensors are connected to a device or part of a device, and the device itself has an element, the microcontroller, that allows it to connect to the network to transmit data to the cloud and receive commands. Wireless access equipment includes cellular IoT modules, IoT terminals, cellular dongles, cellular gateways, or routers. When the connection is cellular, a SIM card or eSIM is also required as part of the wireless access equipment hardware.
The network: The network connects the device to the cloud. Again, the network could be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, or a combination. For reliability, many networks today are cellular, usually 4G, or 5G for newer equipment. Older IoT devices were programmed for 3G (or even 2G) cellular access and that has become a problem since those protocols and networks are being or have been retired.
Networks—Old, New, Coming
A new generation of cellular standards has appeared approximately every 10 years since what has become known as the 1G system was introduced in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. The G, of course, stands for generation and each generation is characterized by new frequency bands, higher data rates, and, unfortunately, non–backward-compatible technology.
The reason for network retirements is the carriers have limited spectrum available for expansion. To provide a faster, more responsive network to their customers, they must re-use the spectrum with newer, more efficient cellular technology. Old 2G/3G infrastructure makes way for new networks, and older cellular devices must be retired. When those devices are embedded in equipment, that can be a significant challenge.
Carriers are eager to repurpose the 2G/3G spectrum to support 4G LTE and 5G. New devices need more speed, and 3G tops out around 3 megabits per second (Mbit/s) while, theoretically, 4G can achieve speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s mobile and 1 gigabit per second (Gbit/s) for stationary uses. Besides being faster, 4G LTE is also more efficient, as it allows more devices to share the spectrum.
Based on the technology, 5G offers the potential for 10Gbit/s speeds but this is a theoretical maximum. That 10Gbit/s number refers to the total bandwidth available to all 5G devices connected to a single transceiver on a cellular tower. Individual devices mostly have neither the chips nor the antennas to reach these kinds of speeds. Instead, the 10Gbit/s is designed to be shared across dozens, or even hundreds, of devices.
In the future, by 2028, 6G is predicted to be a major leap for network technology. According to Cap Gemini, “6G networks will power immersive, ubiquitous, and sensory digital experiences on a massive scale.” This will allow 6G applications to sense their surroundings and turn the network into a sixth sense.
A much-discussed characteristic of 6G technology will be its low energy consumption, enabling devices to operate without batteries by harvesting ambient energy from vibrations, light, temperature gradients, or even radio-frequency waves. But 6G is years away and, as with every technology, subject to change at a moment’s notice.
Where Does the Data Go
Applications: On the device itself is an application, the logic that says, for example, “If the temperature change exceeds 20 degrees, I send a notification to the network.” Or it might say, “I send temperature measurements every minute.” The application runs on a microprocessor called either an MCU, a multi-controller unit, or an MPU, multi-processor unit.
The cloud: While there can be local collection and processing of the data from an IoT device, more common is transmission to and analysis in the cloud. The data is stored in a database, treated/processed, and then actions in response are handled by applications in the cloud. IoT has been evolving rapidly due to the emergence of public cloud platforms specially tuned for IoT applications. Platforms such as AWS IoT from Amazon, Google Cloud, or Azure from Microsoft have vastly simplified IoT and offer a common structure, including security and device management. They have also eased the standardization of the structure of messages sent from the edge device.
Data Analytics: In many ways,the value of IoT is in the data generated and the results that derive from analyzing the data in virtual data analytics. Collecting data and processing it, storing it, and passing it from point to point doesn’t do much for the business or the consumer. Changing data into information is the goal. Analytics must be as scalable as IoT for the field is growing and Big Data analytics can benefit the IoT-enabled smart grid, for example, where millions of data points are collected and stored.
Security: Wherever data is collected and stored, security is critical. The news is filled with data breaches that cause hundreds, thousands, and even millions of personal and corporate data points to be highjacked. Security building blocks, at the device, at the cloud, and at the channel between the device and the cloud must be part of the plan for any IoT implementation.
Data security is a significant concern for companies using these technologies for business needs. They need solutions that help them with authentication, encryption, and privacy policies before sending any data from their systems back onto the network. Security design should always be considered before implementing new technology into systems to ensure that companies access only the information they need and do not expose private information to unauthorized parties.
There is a general security principle established for IoT—public-key cryptography, encryption, mutual authentication, and certificates. Grouped under the overarching acronym PKI, these fundamental security protocols can act as the basis for more advanced security as it become available.
Basics to Benefits
An IoT ecosystem has different elements to consider, each with a fair amount of interdependence on the other building blocks. While some are obvious—device, network, analytics—the others are equally important but often overlooked. As the value of IoT becomes more obvious, more companies at every size will invest in it. According to Gartner, business applications for IoT in any business show three main benefits: cost savings, efficiency gains, and new revenue opportunities.
- Cost savings come from cloud platforms enabling realtime updates and remote management of connected devices.
- Efficiency gains come from automation and analytics software that manages data streams across multiple devices within a single system or platform.
- New revenue opportunities come from monetizing data generated by connected devices through new products and services.
What is the value of IoT in your business?
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