An introduction to the Internet of Things by Kaivan Karimi

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If you do an IOT-related Web search, you’ll quickly notice the overuse of the term “smart”. So, what does it really mean when something is smart, and what makes an object smart? For example, how would a refrigerator or a toaster oven that hasn’t been considered smart become a “smart appliance”?  Today, we are seeing the electrification of the world around us. Almost any manufactured good now includes an embedded processor (typically a microcontroller, or MCU), along with user interfaces, that can add programmability and deterministic “command and control” functionality. The electrification of the world and the pervasiveness of embedded processing are the keys to making objects “smart”.  Hence, your old toaster that mechanically controlled the colour of your toast now has an MCU in it, and the MCU controls the colour of your toast. The toaster completes its task more consistently and reliably, and because it is now a “smart” toaster, it has the ability to communicate with you electronically using its touchpad or switches.  After a device becomes smart through the integration of embedded processing, the next logical step is remote communication with the smart device for remote command and control purposes.

These are the basic features of any “thing” that is targeted as an IoT capable device. Once these devices can communicate with the Internet, then smart phone apps can be written for that device/service, and it can remotely be commanded and controlled.

JGV: What are the various protocols used as building blocks for the IoT?

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KK: There are lots of them, and IoT will be forcing protocol co-existence and harmonisation. A lot of these protocols have to do with the communications technologies that will be used for short and long range communications, and the security blocks that need to go along with them. Although this list is not complete, the following are some of the main protocols:

Wired Communications:

• IEEE 802.3 – Ethernet
• CAN
• Various Power Line Communications (PLC) Standards such as Prime, G3, IEEE 1901 (HomePlug AV), CENELEC, etc.

Wireless Communications (BAN, PAN, LAN):

• IEEE 802.15.4, and its associated upper layer networking protocols such as ZigBee,ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, and MiWi, and specifically 6LoWPAN which works with standard Internet protocols
• NFC – ISO/IEC 18092
• IEEE 802.11 (WiFi)
• KNX
• M-Bus
• ANT & ANT+
• Bluetooth & BTLE
• EnOcean

Wireless Communications (WAN):

• Dash7
• Weightless
• SIGFOX
• IEEE 802.16 (WiMax)
• Cellular: GPRS/2G/3G/4G

JGV: What are the organisations involved in building the IoT?

KK: Again, though not exhaustive, the following are some of the main organisations involved:

• IEEE
• ETSI
• GSMA
• IETF
• IPSO
• OMA
• ITU
• One M2M
• OSGI Alliance
• W3C
• CASAGRAS
• EPC Global
• IoT-GSI (Global Standards Initiative on Internet of Things)
• ISA International Society of Automation
• CoRE (Constrained RESTful Environments, former 6LoWApp (Low Power Applications) BoF)
• HIPRG (Host Identity Protocol Research Group)

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