INTERNET OF THINGS

The (ITU) international telecommunication union defines the internet of things ( IoT) as “consisting of smart objects that connects to the internet and communicates with each other with minimal or no human intervention”.

Though the term internet of things was first used by Kevin Aston in the year 1999, the internet of things has exploded to an outstanding 25 billion number of objects or devices connected to the internet by 2020. It is expected that the number of smart devices or objects connected to the internet by the end of the decade may surpass 100 billion.

However, basically or quite simply, internet of things refers to the network of physical devices, vehicles , buildings and other items or objects embedded with sensors, software and connectivity, allowing them to collect and exchange data with other  devices and systems over the internet.

The internet of things infrastructure consist of the following hardware elements; microcontroller (which are small computers that control and process data from the sensors and actuators), sensors (which are devices used to detect environmental changes, such as temperature, humidity, light and motion etc.), actuators (which converts digital signals into physical actions like motors, valves and relays), communication modules (which enables wireless communication protocols like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LTE and Zigbee), memory and storage (which stores data, programs, and firmware for iot devices), power management (which manages power consumption, voltage regulation and battery management), interface components (which connects devices like usb, uart, spi and i2c), analog to digital converters(ADC) (which converts analog sensors data to digital signals), rfid and nfc tags (which enables identification and authentication), gateways and routers (which connects internet of things( IoT)  devices to the internet).

The internet of things works by connecting devices, sensors and actuators to the internet, enabling them to; collect data from sensors (temperature, motion, light, etc.), send data to the cloud or a central server for processing and analysis, receive commands or updates from the cloud or server and perform actions based on the data and command received.

These objects generally connect via a gateway to an internet of things ( IoT)  platform, which consists of software tools and services that collect data from sensors, controllers and other devices. These devices also known as smart devices can include; home appliances (e.g. smart thermostats, smart lights),wearable(e.g. fitness trackers, smart watches), industrial equipment(e.g. sensors, machines), vehicles(e.g. cars, trucks, drones), smart home devices(e.g. security cameras, door locks),medical devices(e.g. heart rate monitors, insulin pumps), environmental sensors(e.g. air quality, weather stations).

The architecture of internet of things ( IoT)  systems can be divided into four layers; object sensing layer, data exchange layer, information integration layer and application service layer.

The individual components that exist within the internet of things ( IoT)  platform layers are sensors, actuators, internet of things( IoT)  gateways, cloud-based internet of things( IoT)  platforms and applications.

Internet of things ( IoT)  sensors and actuators measure things like temperature, pressure, sound, moisture, and vibration. In a typical internet of things ( IoT)  smart home, a smart device like a thermostat has an embedded communication unit that connects to the home network. The sensors and actuators in the thermostat convert these physical measurements into electrical values that drive the system.

The gateway carries data between the local network and the internet. Then the electronic values from sensors and actuators are received and then uploaded into the local network using network protocols such as Bluetooth, blue tooth low energy (BLE), cellular, loRaWAN, thread Wi-Fi or zigbee. The gateway creates a meshed backbone to distribute the collected data and send response to devices.

The data transmitted through the gateway is stored and processed within a cloud based internet of things ( IoT)  platform or in a company’s data centers. This data is then used to perform intelligent actions and make decisions.

Ultimately the data from internet of things ( IoT)  devices is used in applications to help people or organizations make better decisions or take specific actions. The applications push information from the cloud into applications on smart phones, tablets, or computers. The application layer is the most important to users because it’s their interface to the internet of things ( IoT)  network allowing them to control and monitor the many elements of the internet of things( IoT)  systems sometimes in real-time.

The internet of things platform or infrastructure is driven by a variety of software components, including; device management software, data ingestion and processing software, data analytics software, application enablement software, security software, network management software, cloud platforms, edge computing software, artificial intelligence and machine learning software and visualization software.

Some popular internet of things software platforms and tools include; AWSIoT , Google cloud IoT core, Microsoft azure IoT HUB, IBM Watson IoT, PTC thingworx, Siemens Mindsphere, Bosch IoT suite, eclipse IoT. These software components and platform work together, to enable the internet of things ( IoT) infrastructure and support various applications from industrial automation to smart homes and cities.

Internet of things enables remote operation through various technologies, including; cloud based platforms, mobile apps, voice assistant (e.g., Alexa, Google assistant), web interface, API integration, machine to machine (M2M) communication.

By leveraging internet of things infrastructure, you can access and control devices, equipment or machines from anywhere, at any time, as long as you have an internet connection. This opens up possibilities for increased efficiency, productivity and innovation across various industries and applications.

The internet of things technology has found application in the following areas of life; connected intelligent buildings, smart cities and transportation, education, consumer electronics, health care, automotive, agriculture and environment, energy services, smart connectivity, manufacturing and shopping.

The advantages of internet of things span across every area of human lifestyle and business ventures; the obvious advantages are improved customer engagement, technology optimization, reduced waste, and enhanced data collection. Its disadvantages include; security, privacy, complexity, flexibility and compliance.

The future of internet of things will depend on the following; optimization of the extra flood of data, reduced energy requirement for  internet of things( IoT) devices, miniaturization of devices, optimization of the internet of things( IoT)  system  or infrastructure and off course the reduction of cost per unit of these devices.

 

 

Sources.

• Internet of things architecture and design principles; Raj kamal. (c) 2017: McGraw hill education (india) private limited.
• Internet of things; Jordi Salazar, Santiago Silvestre© 2017; Czech technical university of Prague, faculty of electrical engineering.
• Internet of things; Tutorials point (c) 2016; Tutorial point pvt ltd.
• Internet of things for dummies ; Cees Links, Tony Testa, John Anderton, Wilco Van Hoogstrasten, David Schnaufer and Cindy Warschauer.(c ) 2021; John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey.
• Internet of things, architecture, protocols and standards; Simone Cirani, Glanluigi Ferrari, Marco Picone, Luca Veltri (c ) 2019; John Wiley and sons LTD.