PART 2: What is architecture of IoT?
As you know what actually IoT is, we therefore need to develop a process flow according to which an IoT solution is built. First it consists of the objects connected to network, which basically consists of sensors which are able to sense the surroundings. Then this unprocessed data is passed to IoT gateways, which converts it into digital signals, filters it and then makes it ready for analysis. The third step consists of further processing, visualization and analysis of data (Machine learning technologies can be used). Further, this data is transferred to data centers which can be stored to cloud or can be stored locally. This stored data is managed and is used for detailed analysis to perform the required action.
IoT Architecture generally comprises of 4 stages:
· Sensors and Actuators
· Internet Gateways and Data Acquisition
· Edge Analytics
· Cloud Analytics
Stage 1: Sensors and Actuators
The devices connected to IoT are responsible for providing data to IoT. To gather this data, the system should be equipped with sensors and actuators, giving the ability to emit, accept, and process signals. Sensors sense the information around them and collect it as data whereas Actuators are controllers that perform tasks based on that data. These can be either in-built in the system or can be used as standalone objects.
For example, the working of fire-alarm. As soon as fire sets up, the sensors sense the fire, sends the data to controller, then this data is sent to the actuators and actuator turns the sprinkler on to put off the fire.
Stage 2: Internet Gateways and Data Acquisition Systems
This stage still functions in proximity with sensors and actuators. But it is essential to be described as a separate stage of IoT architecture because it deals with Internet gateways and Data Acquisition Systems (DAS). In this stage, critical processing of collected data, filtering and transferring it to cloud platform takes place. As intermediators, gateways and data acquisition connects or ties remaining stages together.
Gateways facilitate communication between sensors and the system by converting the sensed data to formats that can be easily transferable and read by other systems. Gateways helps to minimize the volume of data that is to be forwarded to cloud, which affects costs of network transmission and data storage positively and decreases the response time. Thus, gateways provide place for the local pre-processing of data which is now ready for further processing. Data acquisition systems perform these data aggregation and conversion functions.
Another advantage of gateways is security. Gateways prevent cloud data loss with proper encryption and security and also reduce risk of malicious attacks on IoT devices.
Stage 3: Edge Analytics
The digitalized data from gateways is now ready for processing before it enters the data center so, it is now transferred to EDGE. Being an unavoidable component of IoT architecture, edge have its own benefits. In the world, where we have limited accessibility and data transfer speed, edge systems provide quick processing, data transferring and response time. Edge computing has recently increased its popularity among industrial IoT ecosystem.
This edge infrastructure can be located within a short distance from the source, making it easier to act on the IoT device in real time and provide instant outputs. Now only big chucks of data that really need the power of cloud is forwarded there. This reduces complexity and power consumption and works efficiently.
Stage 4: Cloud Analytics
Cloud is said to be the brain of IoT. Cloud is designed in a way to store, process and analyze the massive volume of data using powerful analytic engines. Cloud became much popular in past few years (especially in IoT architecture) and due to this popularity, cloud computing contributes high production rates. If we use cloud computing with proper intelligence, it can present several options that help humans interact with the system, control and make informed decisions on the basis of reports.
Conclusion
As we discussed, IoT architecture may vary from solution to solution, but these four stages are basic building blocks of IoT ecosystem. In future there are tons of work to be done on IoT fragmentation, looking back in past, we will see that much efforts were made to integrate range of technologies embraced by IoT. So, it’s better to put all technologies in line so that they can perform more efficiently in the collection by making a strong and secure IoT Architecture.
