Introduction to IoT Week-2: SUMMARY
Welcome back, IoT enthusiasts! Week 2 is here, and we’re ready to dive deeper into the exciting world of IoT. Whether you’re a returning reader or new to the series, get ready for another week of enlightening insights and discoveries!
Without wasting much of your time let’s get onto the Week-2.
Connectivity: Protocols for establishing connections (e.g., 6LowPAN, RPL).
Identification: Protocols for user identity verification (e.g., EPC, uCode, IPv6, URIs).
Communication / Transport: Protocols for device-to-device communication (e.g., WiFi, Bluetooth, LPWAN).
Discovery: Protocols for advertising and discovering network services (e.g., Physical Web, mDNS, DNS-SD).
Data Protocols: Protocols enabling data exchange between devices (e.g., MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, Websocket, Node).
Device Management: Protocols for devices to communicate updates, location, diagnostics, and errors (e.g., TR-069, OMA-DM).
Semantic: Protocols for regulating application-related aspects of IT systems (e.g., JSON-LD, Web Thing Model).
Multi-layer Frameworks: Protocols spanning various protocol stack layers (e.g., Alljoyn, IoTivity, Weave, Homekit).
MESSAGE QUEUE TELEMETRY TRANSPORT: It is a Publish-subscribe-based lightweight messaging protocol with Publishers, Subscribers and Brokers as it’s three main components.
Faceboook Messenger, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure Services are few of the real-life applications of MQTT.
SECURE MQTT (SMQTT): It is an extension of MQTT that employs lightweight attribute-based encryption while offering a significant benefit of enabling broadcast encryption (allowing a single encrypted message to be delivered to multiple nodes).
The encryption process involves four primary stages: setup, encryption, publishing, and decryption.
During the setup phase of SMQTT, subscribers and publishers register with the broker and receive a master secret key based on their chosen key generation algorithm. When data is published, the broker encrypts it and sends it to subscribers, who decrypt it using the same master secret key. It’s worth noting that the key generation and encryption algorithms are not standardized.
SMQTT is introduced primarily to bolster security features within MQTT.
CoAP or Constrained Application Protocol: It is a session layer protocol designed by the IETF Constrained RESTful Environment (CoRE) working group. It provides a lightweight RESTful (HTTP-like) interface, making it suitable for IoT applications where traditional REST could result in excessive overhead and power consumption. It also allows low-power sensors to utilize RESTful services while adhering to their power constraints.
CoAP consists of two main sub-layers: Messaging and Request/Response. The Messaging sub-layer ensures message reliability and handles duplication, while the Request/Response sub-layer manages communication. Data Protocol Message Types in CoAP include Confirmable, Non-Confirmable, Piggyback, and Separate.
CoAP offers several key features, including:
- Reduced overhead and parsing complexity.
- Support for URLs and content types.
- The ability to discover resources provided by known CoAP services.
- Easy resource subscription and push notifications.
- Simple caching based on maximum message age.
AMQP or Advanced Message Queuing Protocol: It serves as an open standard for exchanging business messages among applications and organizations, enabling seamless connectivity between systems and business processes while operating as a binary application layer protocol, using frames as its basic data unit.
It plays a versatile role, supporting activities like monitoring and global update sharing, enabling different systems and processes to communicate, facilitating swift responses to immediate requests, and deferring time-consuming tasks for later processing while also aiding in message distribution to multiple recipients, allows offline data retrieval, introduces full asynchronicity to systems, and enhances the reliability and uptime of application deployments.
XMPP or Extensible Message and Presence Protocol: It is a versatile communication protocol used for message-oriented middleware that relies on XML (Extensible Markup Language) by facilitating real-time structured data exchange and is recognized as an open standard protocol, emphasizing decentralization, open standards, security measures like authentication and encryption, and interoperability.
However, XMPP has certain weaknesses, such as a lack of support for Quality of Service (QoS), which can be a drawback in certain scenarios. Text-based communication might lead to higher network overheads, and binary data needs to be encoded to base64 before transmission. Despite these limitations, XMPP finds applications in diverse fields, including publish-subscribe systems, VoIP signaling, video and file transfers, gaming, IoT applications, smart grid implementations, and social networking services, showcasing its adaptability and wide-ranging utility in various contexts.
IEEE 802.15.4: It is a widely recognized standard tailored for low data-rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPANs) which was specifically designed to meet the needs of low-data-rate monitoring and control applications, as well as extended-life, low-power-consumption use cases.
This standard utilizes the first two layers (PHY and MAC), in addition to the logical link control (LLC) and service-specific convergence sub-layer (SSCS) extensions, to enable communication with upper layers. Moreover, it operates within the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band, making it an essential choice for IoT applications requiring energy-efficient and low-data-rate wireless connectivity.
Zigbee: It is a widely adopted extension of IEEE 802.15.4, notably renowned for its robust features to function at layer 3 and beyond, complementing the lower-level functionality of IEEE 802.15.4 layers 1 and 2. It extends its capabilities through layers 3 and 4, introducing valuable communication enhancements such as authentication, encryption for security, and the ability to route and forward data, facilitating mesh networking.
One of Zigbee’s prominent applications is in wireless sensor networks using mesh topology, making it suitable for diverse use cases in IoT, including building automation, remote control, smart energy monitoring, healthcare, home automation, LED lighting control, and telecom services.
Zigbee’s adaptability and security features make it a preferred choice for various IoT applications, ensuring efficient communication and reliability across a range of domains, from smart homes and healthcare to consumer electronics and energy monitoring.
6LoWPAN: It stands for “Low-power Wireless Personal Area Networks over IPv6,” is a critical technology that empowers even the smallest devices with limited processing capabilities to communicate wirelessly using Internet protocols. It enables low-power devices to connect to the Internet by allowing IEEE 802.15.4 radios to carry 128-bit IPv6 addresses, bridging the gap between low-power, resource-constrained devices and the global Internet.
Through header compression and address translation techniques, 6LoWPAN facilitates the integration of IPv6 packets into the IEEE 802.15.4 packet format, making it a pivotal technology for IoT, Smart Grid, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications. Within 6LoWPAN, routing protocols play a crucial role, with LOADng and RPL being commonly used.
LOADng Routing: Derived from AODV, it is extended for IoT applications. It operates by generating Route Requests (RREQs) to discover routes, forwarding these requests to the destination, and generating Route Replies (RREPs) upon reaching the destination, which are then unicast hop-by-hop back to the originator.
In cases of route breakage, a Route Error (RERR) message is sent to the originator to inform about the issue. LOADng optimizes flooding, reduces RREQ generation overhead, and only allows the destination to respond to RREQs, enhancing the efficiency of IoT routing. RREQ and RREP messages from a given LOADng Router share a single unique, monotonically increasing sequence number. These routing protocols are vital for efficient data transmission and management in 6LoWPAN networks.
RPL: It is an IPv6 routing protocol designed for low-power and lossy networks as it maintains routing topology with low-rate beaconing and adjusts the rate in response to issues like node or link failures. It is proactive, continuously maintaining routing, and reactive, resolving inconsistencies.
It supports data-path validation, confidentiality, and integrity while optimizing routing objectives such as minimizing energy and latency. It works in bidirectional links and requires router reachability verification before they can be used as parents.
RFID or Radio-Frequency Identification: It encodes data in tags readable by RFID readers. Unlike barcodes, it works beyond the line of sight. RFID tags include an integrated circuit and antenna, with passive tags powered by readers and active tags having their own power. RFID finds applications in inventory management, asset tracking, access control, and more, particularly in industries like pharmaceuticals for counterfeit prevention.
Thank you for embarking on this IoT journey with us. Congratulations on expanding your knowledge and exploring the exciting world of the Internet of Things.
Stay tuned for more captivating insights, as we unravel the wonders of IoT in the weeks to come. The adventure has just begun, and we can’t wait to explore it further with you. Keep the curiosity alive and the learning thriving!
