Constrained devices means lossy networks. For analytics, it often results in either missing or inconsistent data. The missing data is often not random. As mentioned previously, it can be impacted by the location. Devices run on a software, called firmware, which may not be consistent across locations. This could mean differences in reporting frequency or formatting of values. It can result in lost or mangled data.

Data messages from IoT devices often require the destination to know how to interpret the message being sent. Software bugs can lead to garbled messages and data records.

Messages lost in translation or never sent due to dead batteries result in missing values. The conservation of power often means not all values available on the device are sent at the same time. The resulting datasets often have missing values, as the device sends some values consistently every time it reports and sends some other values less frequently.