What is Internet of Things (IoT)?

In simple terms, the Internet of Things can be defined as a collection of interconnected objects, equipment, workplaces or business. We need to understand first, why we need IoT? It is because IoT can provide an advanced level of services, it can be made responsive and can be tailor-made for building smart cities, smart homes and smart agriculture.

Technically IoT are embedded systems with basic computing system (with embedded processors and systems).

The IoT operates with the unification of technologies like low power embedded systems, big data, machine learning, cloud computing and networking.

Two approaches are used, one is based on expanding the existing network and the other by building a new network from scratch.

Different types of technologies like RFID, Nano Technology, Sensor & Actuators and smart networks or communication paradigms are used for the functioning of IoT.

IoT devices for proper functioning should have the following characteristics

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In a nutshell IoT consist of Sensors along with smart systems having an application layer acting as a user interface.

The building block of IoT consist of Sensors ( senses signal from the environment), Network ( the sensed information is passed through the network ) and Actuators ( which perform an action based on the input received from the sensors).

Enjoy the video on Managed Services - Supply chain transformation with IOT and Blockchain.

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Sensors

Let us try to understand what are the essential building blocks of the internet of things. One of the very essential components of the internet of things is sensors and the other one is actuators. The sensors basically sense the physical phenomena that are occurring around them.

Actuators actuate (take some actions) that means they perform some actions on the physical environment based on the sensed information by the sensors.

Sensors are of different types depending on the parameters they are going to sense. The sensor performs based on the temperature, pressure, humidity conditions and lighting conditions.

The sensed information is sent over a connected system network. The sensed information is transmitted based on what has been sensed and some physical activity is performed by an actuator based on the information sent by the sensors.

When we talk about sensing, we need to understand what is sensing. A sensor detects or senses the changes in the ambient conditions or it can also sense the state of another device, so maybe one sensor can sense the state of change in another device.

Sensing is done with the help of identifying some physical property of the ambient conditions of the environment in which the sensor is in or of another machine or a system that can be sensed with the help of sensors.

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ACTUATORS

Actuators basically perform certain physical actions based on the readings of the different types of sensors. 

Actuators are based on the working principles of electronics, electrical or mechanical systems with some kind of control signals.

These control systems act on the environment so an actuator requires some kind of a control signal and a source of energy for their functioning.

There are different actuators that are available for use in IoT (Internet of Things).

Control signals are required for the actuators, when these actuators receive a control signal they respond by converting that energy into mechanical motion. There are different kinds of actuators for e.g. hydraulic actuator, pneumatic actuator etc.

The actuators give an output based on which there can be some linear motion or some oscillatory motion or rotatory motion.

There are different kind of soft actuators which are actually polymer-based and are designed to handle fragile objects like fruit harvesting in agriculture or in biomedicine handling the internal organs of human beings.

Soft actuators are typically used in robotics and are quite popular. They use SMPS, which are Shape Memory Polymers and the behaviour of the polymers depend on the change of the stimuli of the environment.

 

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BASICS of IoT NETWORKING

The networking aspects of IoT is based on the convergence of different domains and is ever-evolving. The critical functional component of IoT constitutes 

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The networking of IoT constitutes four layers, the sensing layer followed by the network layer, followed by the service layer and finally the interface layer. These four layers are wrapped in security layers for the proper functioning of the four layers.

We need to take the considerations of network architecture, hardware requirement and cost. Finally, the requirement of multiple and need-based networking paradigm also plays a pivotal role.

The following complexity issues decide the performance of the network of IoT.

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Other types of innovation which are disruptive and sustaining in nature are evolving in IoT networking. For eg:  the use of nanotechnology in quantum teleportation. Quantum teleportation basically means that how different information is transferred at the atomic level from one point to another.

Vendor-specific protocols in IoT integration is a very the complex issue which dictates the scalability of the system large scale deployment issues and real-time connectivity.

IoT networking involves the integration of different individual protocols into one architecture for the smooth transmission of information and the functioning of the IoT.

 

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