IoT is the integration of multiple or collection of devices communicating with each other, transmitting data or providing inputs to each other to fulfil some useful tasks. The concept of IoT is to connect any physical things which will allow you to sense and control all the world objects and making them smarter by connecting to an intelligent network.
When you integrate any device or object with IoT network, you essentially give intelligence to a device that allows you to improve the efficiency, accuracy and allows automation of advanced applications. Until now it is believed that only 1% of the devices are connected and 99% of devices are yet to be connected on Network. Let us now understand the Architect of IoT:
IoT as a technology requires 4 main components
- End Devices (Sensors, Actuators etc).
- Connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or BLE, LRWAN etc)
- Gateway (Raspberry Pi, Arduino)
- Data Analysis (Cloud Analytics)
End Devices: These are the devices or hardware which are the heart of the IoT solutions. It has a key role in transforming any physical phenomenon into an electric signal. This can range in the size of a microchip to big machines in the factory. These devices are capable of sending and receiving information to the upper layer where data can be processed and analysed to meet a specific requirement. E.g. are Sensors, actuators, solenoids, etc.
Connectivity: This allows the end devices to communicate and exchange information with the external system. Type of connectivity will differ over the range which you choose to connect the end devices to the physical world. This can be categorized with:
PAN: [Personal Area Network] this could be the connectivity within a few meters common technologies, used within this range are Bluetooth.
HAN: [Home Area Network ] this could be within a home or 10 to 60 meters within the range of end devices were wireless technology plays a key role.
NAN: [Neighbourhood Area network] this could be a few hundred meters or as the name suggested within a few blocks of houses.
Gateway: End devices can connect directly to the external world or some objects may need connectivity to a central device to process the information before it’s sent to further analysis. Most of the sensors have limited capabilities to connect to a larger network hence would need a gateway to connect to a larger network. Sending all the data collected by End Devices to the cloud may not be an efficient way in terms of network utilization and performance. Bringing an IoT gateway device in between can process and filter the data, before its sent to the cloud which would be the most effective way of sending data to cloud. But one should also keep in mind of failure and disaster recovery when considering gateway for many devices.
Data Analysis (Cloud): Cloud Data Analytics collects all the information provided by multiple ends and transform it into meaningful conclusions. Data Analysis helps you extract insight from the huge volume of historical data or real-time data which are transmitted from the device and reconstruct it to relevant experience. IoT data which are generated from sensors and other end devices are cheap and can be sent directly to the Data Analytics platform or via any of the gateway devices for any kind of analysis. Data produced from the end devices such as sensors are structured data, these data can be easily formatted and processed by any Cloud analysis software.