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Physical Design of IoT

Physical Design of IoT

refers to IoT Devices and IoT Protocols. Things are Node device which have unique identities and can perform remote sensing, actuating and monitoring capabilities. Communication established between things and cloud based server over the Internet by various IoT protocols. You can explore Physical design of IoT in this article and You may like also Logical Design of IoT | IoT Communication Models & APIs

Physical Design of IoT

Things

Basically Things refers to IoT Devices which have unique identities and can perform remote sensing, actuating and monitoring capabilities. Things are is main part of IoT Application. IoT Devices can be various type, Sensing Devices, Smart Watches, Smart Electronics appliances, Wearable Sensors, Automobiles, and industrial machines. These devices generate data in some forms or the other which when processed by data analytics systems leads to useful information to guide further actions locally or remotely.

block diagram of iot device
block diagram of iot device

For example, Temperature data generated by a Temperature Sensor in Home or other place, when processed can help in determining temperature and take action according to users. Above picture, shows a generic block diagram of IoT device. It may consist of several interfaces for connections to other devices. IoT Device has I/O interface for Sensors, Similarly for Internet connectivity, Storage and Audio/Video. IoT Device collect data from on-board or attached Sensors and Sensed data communicated either to other device or Cloud based sever. Today many cloud servers available for especially IoT System. These Platfrom  known as IoT Platform. Actually these cloud especially design for IoT purpose. So here we can analysis and processed data easily.

How it works ? For example if relay switch connected to an IoT device can turn On/Off an appliance on the commands sent to the IoT device over the Internet.

IoT Protocols

IoT protcols help to establish Communication between IoT Device (Node Device) and Cloud based Server over the Internet. It help to sent commands to IoT Device and received data from an IoT device over the Internet. An image is given below. By this image you can understand which protocols used.

IoT Protocols

Link Layer

Link layer protocols determine how data is physically sent over the network’s physical layer or medium (Coxial calbe or other or radio wave). This Layer determines how the packets are coded and signaled by the hardware device over the medium to which the host is attached (eg. coxial cable).

Here we explain some Link Layer Protocols:

802.3 – Ethernet : Ethernet is a set of technologies and protocols that are used primarily in LANs. It was first standardized in 1980s by IEEE 802.3 standard. IEEE 802.3 defines the physical layer and the medium access control (MAC) sub-layer of the data link layer for wired Ethernet networks. Ethernet is classified into two categories: classic Ethernet and switched Ethernet.

For more information visit Tutorialspoint: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/ieee-802-3-and-ethernet) (Source)

802.11 – WiFi : IEEE 802.11 is part of the IEEE 802 set of LAN protocols, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) Wi-Fi computer communication in various frequencies, including but not limited to 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 60 GHz frequency bands.

For more info visit wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11 (Source)

802.16 – Wi-Max : The standard for WiMAX technology is a standard for Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs) that has been developed by working group number 16 of IEEE 802, specializing in point-to-multipoint broadband wireless access.

For more information visit this https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/connectivity/wimax/what-is-wimax-802-16-technology-basics.php (Source)

802.15.4 -LR-WPAN : A collection of standards for Low-rate wireless personal area network. The IEEE’s 802.15.4 standard defines the MAC and PHY layer used by, but not limited to, networking specifications such as Zigbee®, 6LoWPAN, Thread, WiSUN and MiWi™ protocols. The standards provide low-cost and low-speed communication for power constrained devices.

2G/3G/4G- Mobile Communication : These are different types of telecommunication generations. IoT devices are based on these standards can communicate over the celluer networks.

Network Layer

Responsible for sending of IP datagrams from the source network to the destination network. Network layer performs the host addressing and packet routing. We used IPv4 and IPv6 for Host identification. IPv4 and IPv6 are hierarchical IP addrssing schemes.

IPv4 :

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two main functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing. Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) defines an IP address as a 32-bit number. However, because of the growth of the Internet and the depletion of available IPv4 addresses, a new version of IP (IPv6), using 128 bits for the IP address, was standardized in 1998. IPv6 deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s.

For for more detail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address (Source)

IPv6 : Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is successor of IPv4. IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated problem of IPv4 address exhaustion. In December 1998, IPv6 became a Draft Standard for the IETF, who subsequently ratified it as an Internet Standard on 14 July 2017. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address, theoretically allowing 2128, or approximately 3.4×1038 addresses.  Source – wikipedia

for more detail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6

6LoWPAN : It is an acronym of IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks. 6LoWPAN is the name of a concluded working group in the Internet area of the IETF. This protocol allows for the smallest devices with limited processing ability to transmit information wirelessly using an internet protocol. 6LoWPAN can communicate with 802.15.4 devices as well as other types of devices on an IP network link like WiFi.

For more deatils visit this https://iotbyhvm.ooo/6lowpan-zigbee/

Transport Layer

This layer provides functions such as error control, segmentation, flow control and congestion control. So this layer protocols provide end-to-end message transfer capability independent of the underlying network.

TCP : TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is a standard that defines how to establish and maintain a network conversation through which application programs can exchange data. TCP works with the Internet Protocol (IP), which defines how computers send packets of data to each other. Together, TCP and IP are the basic rules defining the Internet. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) defines TCP in the Request for Comment (RFC) standards document number 793.

Source – For more detail :  https://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/TCP

UDP : User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a Transport Layer protocol. UDP is a part of Internet Protocol suite, referred as UDP/IP suite. Unlike TCP, it is unreliable and connectionless protocol. So, there is no need to establish connection prior to data transfer. Read more here https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/user-datagram-protocol-udp/

Application Layer

Application layer protocols define how the applications interface with the lower layer protocols to send over the network.

HTTP : Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-layer protocol for transmitting hypermedia documents, such as HTML. It was designed for communication between web browsers and web servers, but it can also be used for other purposes. HTTP follows a classical client-server model, with a client opening a connection to make a request, then waiting until it receives a response. HTTP is a stateless protocol, meaning that the server does not keep any data (state) between two requests.

CoAP : CoAP-Constrained Application Protocol is a specialized Internet Application Protocol for constrained devices, as defined in RFC 7252. It enables devices to communicate over the Internet. The protocol is especially targeted for constrained hardware such as 8-bits microcontrollers, low power sensors and similar devices that can’t run on HTTP or TLS. Read more : https://iotbyhvm.ooo/what-is-coap-protocol/

WebSocket : The WebSocket Protocol enables two-way communication between a client running untrusted code in a controlled environment to a remote host that has opted-in to communications from that code. The security model used for this is the origin-based security model commonly used by web browsers.

MQTT : MQTT is a machine-to-machine (M2M)/”Internet of Things” connectivity protocol. It was designed as an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport and useful for connections with remote locations where a small code footprint is required and/or network bandwidth is at a premium. Read more https://iotbyhvm.ooo/mqtt/

XMPP : Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is a communication protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML (Extensible Markup Language). It enables the near-real-time exchange of structured yet extensible data between any two or more network entities.

DDS : The Data Distribution Service (DDS™) is a middleware protocol and API standard for data-centric connectivity from the Object Management Group® (OMG®). It integrates the components of a system together, providing low-latency data connectivity, extreme reliability, and a scalable architecture that business and mission-critical Internet of Things (IoT) applications need.

Source – https://www.dds-foundation.org/what-is-dds-3/

AMQP : The AMQP – IoT protocols consist of a hard and fast of components that route and save messages within a broker carrier, with a set of policies for wiring the components together. The AMQP protocol enables patron programs to talk to the dealer and engage with the AMQP model.

This was Physical Design of IoT, please visit my another article : Logical Design of IoT | IoT Communication Models & APIs

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Harshvardhan Mishra

Hi, I'm Harshvardhan Mishra. Tech enthusiast and IT professional with a B.Tech in IT, PG Diploma in IoT from CDAC, and 6 years of industry experience. Founder of HVM Smart Solutions, blending technology for real-world solutions. As a passionate technical author, I simplify complex concepts for diverse audiences. Let's connect and explore the tech world together! If you want to help support me on my journey, consider sharing my articles, or Buy me a Coffee! Thank you for reading my blog! Happy learning! Linkedin

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