Internet of Things

1. What we mean by “thing” in the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of things that are connected to the Internet, anytime,
anywhere. In its most technical sense, it consists of integrating sensors and devices into
everyday objects that are connected to the Internet over fixed and wireless networks.

The fact that the Internet is present at the same time everywhere makes mass adoption of
this technology more feasible. Given their size and cost, the sensors can easily be integrated
into homes, workplaces and public places. In this way, any object can be connected and
can “manifest itself” over the Internet. Furthermore, in the IoT, any object can be a data
source.
2. A Brief History of the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) has not been around for very long. However, there have been
visions of machines communicating with one another since the early 1800s. Machines have
been providing direct communications since the telegraph (the first landline) was developed
in the 1830s and 1840s. Described as “wireless telegraphy,” the first radio voice
transmission took place on June 3, 1900, providing another necessary component for
developing the Internet of Things. The development of computers began in the 1950s.

The Internet, itself a significant component of the IoT, started out as part of DARPA (Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency) in 1962, and evolved into ARPANET in 1969. In the
1980s, commercial service providers began supporting public use of ARPANET, allowing it
to evolve into our modern Internet. Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) became a reality in
early 1993, with the Department of Defense providing a stable, highly functional system of
24 satellites. This was quickly followed by privately owned, commercial satellites being
placed in orbit. Satellites and landlines provide basic communications for much of the IoT.

One additional and important component in developing a functional IoT was IPV6’s
remarkably intelligent decision to increase address space. Steve Leibson, of the Computer
History Museum, states, “The address space expansion means that we could assign an
IPV6 address to every atom on the surface of the earth, and still have enough addresses
left to do another 100+ earths.” Put another way, we are not going to run out of internet
addresses anytime soon.

Realizing the Concept

The Internet of Things, as a concept, wasn’t officially named until 1999. One of the first
examples of an Internet of Things is from the early 1980s, and was a Coca Cola machine,
located at the Carnegie Melon University. Local programmers would connect by Internet to
the refrigerated appliance, and check to see if there was a drink available, and if it was cold,
before making the trip.
By the year 2013, the Internet of Things had evolved into to a system using multiple
technologies, ranging from the Internet to wireless communication and from micro-
electromechanical systems (MEMS) to embedded systems. The traditional fields of
automation (including the automation of buildings and homes), wireless sensor networks,
GPS, control systems, and others, all support the IoT.

3. Just how intelligent are things today? The current situation of a promising
technology

The IoT applications that receive the most attention in the media tend to very consumer-
oriented, but they are not easy to scale up to industrial level. The logical question is whether
they can be rolled out to wider sectors and whether their processes can be redefined to
create efficiency and lasting value. The first sectors to get fully involved in using IoT were
logistics and transport, by adopting radio frequency identification tags. By 2010, nearly three
billion labels were in circulation around the world. However, these are only the first steps
towards wider adoption of the technology in other sectors. This publication will examine IoT’s
first incursions into sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, logistics and supplies, where it
is allowing all types of machine to be connected and thus smartly monitored and controlled.

4. Understanding the three basic layers of the Internet of Things

IoT has burst onto the stage, bringing life to everyday objects interconnected over the
Internet, which constitute inexhaustible sources of information. The phenomenon has
required a combination of three developments. First, miniaturisation, with computers
components becoming smaller and smaller, enabling practically anything to be connected
anywhere, anytime. Second, an overcoming of the limitations of the mobile telephony
infrastructure. And thirdly, a proliferation in the applications and services that make use of
the vast amount of information created via the IoT.
5. Standard IoT Protocols

5.1. Bluetooth:

One of the most broadly used wireless technologies of short-range is Bluetooth. You
can quickly get Bluetooth apps that offer you wearable technology for pairing up with
the smart gadgets. The recently introduced Bluetooth protocol among the IoT
protocols is BLE or Bluetooth Low-Energy protocol. It will afford the range of
conventional Bluetooth in combined with lower power consumption supremacy.
5.2. WiFi

For IoT integration, WiFi is a favored choice according to many electronic designers.
It is because of the infrastructure it bears. It has quick data transfer rates along with
the aptitude to control a large quantity of data.

The widespread WiFi standard 802.11 presents you the ability to transfer hundreds
of megabits in only one second. The only own drawback of this IoT protocol is it can
consume excessive power for some of the IoT Application. It ranges approximately
50 m, and along with working on internet protocol standards, it includes IoT Cloud
infrastructure access. The frequencies are 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

5.3. ZigBee

Internet of things protocols, ZigBee is designed more for the industrials and less for
the consumers. It usually operates at a frequency of 2.4GHz. This is ideal for the
industrial sites where data is generally transferred over small rates amongst home
or a building.
5.4. NFC

The NFC or Near Field Communication allows the clients to connect to the electronic
devices, to use digital contents and to do the contactless payment transaction. The
essential work of NFC is to expand the “contactless” card technology. It works within
4cm (between devices) by enabling the devices for sharing information.

5.5. LoRaWAN
 LoRaWAN or the Long Ranged Wide Area Network is one of the IoT Protocols for
the wide area networks. LoRaWAN IoT Network Protocols is specifically designed
for supporting the vast networks with the help of million low-power devices. Smart
cities use this kind of protocol.

Including the low-cost mobile communication, LoRaWAN is also famed in scores of

5.6. Sigfox

Sigfox is known as one of the best alternative technologies which bear the attributes
of both Cellular and WiFi. As Sigfox IoT Protocol was developed and designed for
the M2M applications, it can only send data of low-level. By taking the help of UNB
or Ultra Narrow Band, Sigfox can hold speeds of 10 to 1000 bits per second for
transferring low-data. It only consumes 50 microwatts of the power.
The frequency of the IoT Connectivity Protocols Sigfox is 900MHz, and it has Could-
access. In rural environments, Sigfox IoT Protocol covers a range of 30 km to 50 km.
In the urban areas, the range of this protocol is 3-10 km.