6
Significance of Wireless Technology in Internet of Things (IoT)

Ashish Tripathi1*, Arun Kumar Singh1, Pushpa Choudhary1, Prem Chand Vashist1 and K. K. Mishra2

1 Department of Information Technology, G. L. Bajaj Institute of Technology and Management, Greater Noida, India

2 Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad, India

Abstract

In recent years, it is found that wireless technology has played a significant role in the evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) to make the society smarter in all aspects of people’s lives. IoT is applicable in domains such as education, transportation, retail, smart farming, healthcare, smart wearable devices, smart homes, transportation, retail, and security. According to Cisco, in India by 2020, more than 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet, including smartphones, computers, and any electronic devices/ things. Although the IoT is expanding rapidly and industries are investing money and effort to create new IoT applications, still it faces some issues such as the selection of appropriate wireless protocols, interoperability among wireless standards, security issues, inference among wireless devices, and trade-off among power consumption, rate of data transfer, and coverage range. So choosing the right wireless technology addresses the issues outlined above, for developing IoT applications can be very challenging. This chapter presents an overview of the key issues related to the selection of different wireless technologies in the development of IoT services. A number of research challenges have been identified as a major research trends in the IoT environment. Details of the hardware components are discussed. Also, the chapter discusses the significance of wireless technology in IoT followed by a complete overview of the various wireless-enabled IoT networks, connections, and protocols. Finally, concluding remarks are given.

Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT), wireless technology, RFID, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, sensors, actuators, IoT networks

6.1 Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a well-known and fast-growing paradigm which comprises different physical entities having the ability to gather and share information through wireless technologies [5]. IoT devices use sensors, actuators, radio-frequency identification (RFID) [15], and Global Positioning System (GPS) [49] to collect and compute data and interact with one another using different communication protocols. These devices follow the request and response authentication strategy for data transfer and could be operated and managed from remote locations by using the Internet [17].

In recent years, IoT has emerged as a major domain to work in for academic institutions, research communities, and industries. In IoT, lots of research works have been done in the last few years to provide a sustainable growth in the people’s quality of life as well as reducing the operational cost of the services provided by public authorities and industries. Several IoT applications have been identified in different domains, such as healthcare, agriculture, transportation, education, and security, and new applications are still appearing every day that have required research and innovations to overcome these challenges [12].

IoT and wireless technologies together have many existing and novel opportunities to work with. However, some major challenges have been identified in the selection of appropriate wireless technology for IoT devices. In this context, several wireless standards are available in the market which employs various communication protocols and frequency bands. So the selection of the best among all available standards is quite challenging [4].

The first challenge of wireless technology is the frequency bands, which are categorized into spectrums and differ from country to country. The generation of spectrum defines the throughput/data transfer of the channels, e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G [22]. Higher generation of spectrum can offer a broader bandwidth and handle huge data throughput. In contrast to this, lower-frequency bands (e.g., radio waves) can propagate more smoothly than higher-frequency bands in small premises such as schools and hotels.

The second challenge is the wireless communication protocol due to the availability of different protocols for specific operations. Wireless communication is based on the network range, which is categorized into four types, namely, wireless personal area network (WPAN: 10 m), wireless local area network (WLAN: 100 m), neighborhood area network (NAN: 1600 m), and wireless wide area network (WWAN: several miles) [39]. Geometrical representation of these networks is based on the rules defined in the topologies [48].

The third challenge is to maintain interoperability among IoT devices due to the availability of different specifications and testing methods provided by several vendors [47].

In the above context, IoT infrastructure needs common wireless communication system standards to provide two-way communication among IoT devices for collecting data and message delivery in a controlled manner. To ensure highest-quality services through the designing of IoT devices, a proper understanding of various wireless communication protocols and standards and different modules is required to provide wireless communications in a variety of usage conditions.

6.1.1 Internet of Things: A Historical Background

The term Internet of Things (IoT) was officially coined for the first time by Kevin Ashton, executive director and co-founder of “Auto-ID Center” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), during his presentation in 1999. To make the presentation more effective in front of the senior management of Procter & Gamble on the existing technology called radio-frequency identification (RFID), he named his presentation “Internet of Things,” which was inspired by the term Internet. In the summer of 2010, the IoT concept was becoming very popular due to its applicability. In the same year, IoT was also included at the highest priority in the five-year strategic plan by the Chinese government. In 2011, a market research company named Gartner recognized IoT as a new emerging technology. In 2012, the “Internet of Things” was used as a conference theme for Europe’s biggest conference. In 2013, IoT evolved itself as a system having various technologies to provide support in different applications [45].

From 2000 to 2010, IoT-related concepts and activities found rapid growth due to the successful completion of few projects and availability of some applications in practical. During this period, many projects were completed that were applicable to smart cities, self-driving cars, automatic home/office security systems, etc. [24].

6.1.2 Internet of Things: Overview, Definition, and Understanding

The word Things in Internet of Things refers to the combination of software, hardware, data, connection protocols, and services [34]. The working of IoT is based on the collection of useful and valid data and sharing of the data among other devices without human intervention. A very practical example of IoT is the home automation system, where the system uses Bluetooth/Wi-Fi to exchange data among various devices available at home [46].

The IoT is a collection of physical entities that use Internet to establish a connection and exchange data through routers/network devices. In IoT, devices are controlled remotely using the existing networking technology, which reduces human effort and provides easy and smooth accessibility to physical devices [1].

The term Internet of Things (IoT) includes various devices which use inbuilt wireless technology and are connected with the same using the Internet. It encompasses not only mobile phones, tablets, and personal computers but also different machines, devices, and communication protocols which have not been previously linked with the Internet.

The idea of this concept is to understand how the IoT is enabling our life very easily and smoothly through the application of various IoT devices surrounding us. This uses unique addressing schemes for the devices to establish communication and cooperation to achieve a common goal [13].

There are multiple definitions of IoT that have been proposed, but all follows the same concept. Some of the definitions are as follows:

The IoT encompasses networks of various physical devices equipped with software, sensors, actuators, electronics, and networking for collecting and exchanging data among them.

It can be defined as a system which consists of sensors, actuators, and other smart devices which collectively establish a connection in such a way to make them interact with humans and each other.

To make a feasible information society, IoT provides a global infrastructure that enables the services to be accessible through the interconnection of different devices for sharing information through reliable communication [41].

The scope of the IoT is very vast. It deals with connecting different physical objects (such as different machines, electronic devices, and household appliances) to the Internet and also provides a platform to establish communication and exchange of data among the objects. The collected data are then processed to attain a common goal (i.e., user/machine goal) [38].

The strength of the IoT can be seen everywhere from smart homes to transportation, industrial automation, healthcare, agriculture, drug discovery, and quick response in the case of disasters (natural/man-made). In such domains, making appropriate and smart decisions by a human being is very difficult. The fundamental architecture of IoT is shown in Figure 6.1.

Diagram illustrating fundamental architecture of IoT displaying boxes for local network, hardware, actuator & sensor, embedded system, IP-V6 address, connection services, etc. connected to internet.

Figure 6.1 Fundamental architecture of IoT.

6.1.3 Internet of Things: Existing and Future Scopes

In recent years, IoT-enabled devices have recorded an immense growth in manufacturing due to their growing demand and applicability in different domains. This has also provided a potential opportunity and a market for manufacturers, application developers, and Internet service providers, which are expanding day by day. As per a survey, it is estimated that 212 billion units of IoT smart devices will be deployed globally by the end of 2020 [11]. According to the report of McKinsey Global Institute, the contribution of IoT businesses in revenues will increase by $6.2 trillion by 2025 [1].

An information technology research and advisory firm named “Gartner” estimated that in the consumer sector, 2.9 billion connected devices would be used by 2015 and it would be expected to increase to more than 13 billion by 2020 [1].

Nearly 8.4 billion IoT-enabled devices were available in the year 2017 in the whole world. In the year 2018, the quantity the devices increased by 9.2 billion. As per the current scenario of the usage of IoT-enabled devices in different sectors, the expected quantity of the same would reach 20.8 billion worldwide [46].

According to the report published on forbes.com, the combined markets of the IoT will reach $520 billion in 2021. This expenditure will be actually double of the overall expenditure in year 2017, i.e., $235 billion. Due to the fastest growth rate in data center and data analytics in the IoT segment, till 2021 the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will reach up to 50% [23].

The market of IoT-based services related to healthcare applications is expected to grow annually from $1.1 to $2.5 trillion globally by 2025, whereas by 2025, the impact of annual economic growth of IoT-based services in the global market will be from $2.7 to $6.2 trillion [11, 26].

6.2 Overview of the Hardware Components of IoT

6.2.1 IoT Hardware Components: Development Boards/ Platforms

In IoT, a wide range of devices are used, such as sensors, actuators, routers, and servers. These devices are involved in handling various key tasks and functions, which include security-related activity, communication among the entities, action specifications and timely activation of system, and detection of goals and actions [25].

Different development boards/platforms are available in the market, but in this section, mainly three components are taken, which are as follows.

6.2.1.1 Arduino

Arduino is a very much familiar name for those who have been working in the IoT space from a very long time. Audrino boards were generally being used for different purposes for a long time. But nowadays, these are generally used in making different IoT products from the entry level to the advance level due to ease of programming and ease of use.

Due to its simplicity and plug-and-play nature, the Arduino board has become very popular among IoT working people [32]. The open-source nature allows us to easily program, reprogram, and erase the Arduino microcontroller at any instant of time. It was designed by Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in 2005 especially for students and hobbyists to create devices using sensors and actuators. The open-source computing platform of Arduino allows constructing and programming electronic products. It acts like a mini computer that takes inputs and gives outputs applicable for various types of electronic devices.

There are different types of Arduino boards, such as Arduino Uno (R3), LilyPad Arduino, Red Board, Arduino Mega (R3) [42], and Arduino Leonardo [30] applicable for specific purposes.

Initially, when the Arduino came in the market, it was generally introduced as a general-purpose microcontroller connected to the Internet via the modules of GSM and Wi-Fi. But as soon as the IoT started to progress, special features were added to the board to support the IoT. Some IoT-supported boards such as Arduino 101, MKR1000, Arduino WiFi Rev 2, and MKR Vider 4000 are very much applicable in the market. These boards were specially designed for IoT to solve specific problems and to develop products for IoT [33].

6.2.1.2 Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is a product of Raspberry Pi Foundation, which is very handy, small in size, affordable, and very popular among the students, educators, hobbyists, and experimenters. It is applicable not only for the development of sensors and actuators but also for use as hubs, data aggregators, and gateways in several IoT projects. This board makes it feel like a small computer that has USB ports for connecting the keyboard and mouse, wired Internet connectivity through an Ethernet port, an HDMI port to display on the screen, and Wi-Fi adapters for wireless connectivity. Raspberry Pi has a huge community support worldwide that helps develop IoT-related projects. This community provides technical support whenever we are stuck in a problem [25].

6.2.1.3 BeagleBone

This device was developed by the joint effort of Texas Instruments, Network Element14, and DigiKey. It is a single-board device which provides an open-source platform for the development of embedded designs with high performance and accuracy [28].

Its simplicity and smallness like a debit card makes it popular among IoT developers. It takes low power to perform a task and allows doing experimental work with various operating systems such as Android, Linux, and Ubuntu. A Universal Serial Bus (USB) port on the BeagleBone allows attaching via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or any radio-frequency (RF) USB adapter.

6.2.2 IoT Hardware Components: Transducer

6.2.2.1 Sensors

Sensors are the most significant part of IoT to collect data regarding the activities happening in the environment. These consist of different modules such as radio-frequency, sensing, power management, and energy modules to collect and process data. Sensors are the backbone of digital data to provide smart solutions for a given task. Sensors uses electric pulses to measure any activity sensed from different entities such as moisture, light, motion, heat, sound, and other similar entities. The sensor converts the physical parameters into electrical signals which are useful for other components in the system. For example, a microphone senses the sound waves and converts these into electrical signals in a meaningful way to be used by other devices in the system. Hence, sensors are significant IoT devices which are required to be precise and accurate to make feasible decisions [14].

More than a hundred different sensors are available in the environment, used in different IoT projects such as smart homes, wearable electronic devices, and smart traffic systems.

Different kinds of sensors have been used for a long time by industries, organizations, and individuals in a conventional manner. But the IoT has completely changed the application of sensors at different levels. The IoT platform uses sensors to collect and share data with connected devices in the network. Further, these collected data are used by the devices to function autonomously to make the system smarter every day [37].

6.2.2.2 Actuators

Actuators are another kind of transducers like sensors. But actuators are used to act upon the signals received in the form of energy. Actuators actually receive electrical signals as input and convert these into physical action, i.e., into motion. In other words, we can say that actuators are used to transform energy into motion. There are different types of actuators, such as a hydraulic system taking liquid to produce motion; an electric motor using external power as a source to produce motion, i.e., battery; thermal actuators employing heat to generate motion; and pneumatic actuators applying heat as a source to produce motion [9].

In IoT, actuators are utilized whenever it is required to start or stop any device or machine by applying some force in the form of electrical signals. It is well known that IoT is not only fetching and processing the data, but it also involved in triggering various devices to be in action to perform the given tasks based on the nature of the data. IoT uses sensors and actuators together to perform automation without human intervention, and this makes the IoT very much popular in various applications.

There are various fields where actuators are very much useful in ensuring the accuracy of the task. The use of actuators is generally found in robotics and assembling and manufacturing processes.

6.3 Wireless Technology in IoT

Wireless technology is the basis of IoT infrastructure, which uses radio frequency (RF), Bluetooth, light, and sound to establish communication in dual direction for message delivery and data collection in a controlled manner without physical interaction [20]. This way of communication between devices makes the IoT feasible in reality. Wireless technology is useful for various IoT applications, including critical industrial missions such as automation of power grids, controlling oil and gas fields, and various activities in our daily routine life such as smart cities, home automation, smart farming, industrial Internet, and many more [16].

IoT can be seen as a broad term which includes not only small computing devices such as smartphones and tablets but also millions of wire-lessly connected devices and machines surrounding us. As we know, all IoT devices send and receive information through a wireless medium, and for this wireless communication, various options are available which are applicable as per the severity of the application.

In the selection of appropriate wireless technology for a given application, different factors are required to be considered, such as battery life, power consumption, signal strength, and bandwidth [2].

Thus, it is very significant to choose the appropriate wireless technology while designing IoT devices to deliver high quality in terms of accuracy and reliability to the end users [21].

In this section, details about wireless technologies including topology, networks, connections, and protocols are given that play a significant role in the IoT infrastructure.

6.3.1 Topology

The term topology in IoT refers to the set of rules that help establish healthy and smooth communication among IoT components such as sensors, actuators, gateways, and other devices. The selection of topology is based on the domain of the application. So for that, the pros and cons of each topology are required to be known [51]. There are several topologies are available for networking in IoT, but mainly three topologies, namely, mesh, star, and point-to-point, are best suited for IoT. The details of the topologies are as follows, and a respective picture is shown in Figure 6.2.

Illustration of IoT topologies depicting star (top left), mesh/fully connected (top right), and point to point (bottom).

Figure 6.2 IoT topologies.

6.3.1.1 Mesh Topology

In mesh topology, a particular channel is used to connect all nodes and they work together to share data in a network. In a wireless mesh network, nodes are associated with each other via extending a radio signal to route a message to/from the client [31]. The application of this topology can be seen in developing smart cities, in healthcare equipment to quickly locate and monitor medical devices, in ensuring the feasibility of smart homes using different sensors and mesh-enabled nodes for capturing real-time data and response accordingly, in sustainable farming, and in industrial Internet. Industry standards such as Z-Wave and ZigBee use this topology [7].

There are mainly three types of nodes such as gateway node, sensor node, and router node are available in the mesh topology. The gateway node is used to allow passing data between different networks, the sensor node is used to sense the data from sensing devices and the router node is used to provide the optimized route to the networks [27].

This topology is robust and provides high-level security and privacy to the data. This topology uses dedicated links/channels to transfer data among the devices and through this ensures the reliability of the data.

This topology has some limitations. Configuration and installation of this topology is very complex as compared to that of other topologies.

Due to the requirement of a huge amount of wiring, the cost of cables becomes high, and hence, it is not feasible for large networks. Hence, it is useful for only a limited number of devices [44].

6.3.1.2 Star Topology

Star topology consists of nodes connected to a central hub via a link. Here, the central hub works as a gateway node to connect to the outside world and other nodes work as sensor nodes to sense the data. A common connection point is provided for all other nodes to connect with the central hub. Communication among all peripheral nodes is done by sending message to, and receiving from, the central hub.

In other words, the star network can be defined as a group of nodes consisting of a middle node that works as an access point/router for other nodes to establish a connection and distributing data among them.

Star topology has different advantages. First, it provides a fast and consistent network; i.e., it gives high throughput and maintains low latency. Second, setting up of the entire network is very simple; only one port is required by each device to connect to the central hub (node). Third, it provides high quality of a reliable network because in this topology, detection of faults is very easy as compared to that in the mesh topology. Isolation of devices and faults is very simple in the star topology [27].

This topology has some limitations/disadvantages. It is well known that the star topology depends on the central hub; if the central hub fails, the entire system will fail. The installation cost of a star-topology-based network is very high. The range of the network is equal to the transmission range of a node.

Energy consumption in this topology is high to relay a message to the end node due to long radio link between the central node and the end node. Also, there is no facility to handle radio-frequency obstacles [7].

6.3.1.3 Point-to-Point Topology

Unlike mesh and star topologies, point-to-point topology is used to connect two nodes in a network together. In other words, this type of network establishes a connection only between two nodes/devices [27].

The major advantage of this topology is its minimum cost and easy installation in comparison to those of mesh and star network topologies. This topology uses either a unidirectional or a bidirectional mode to stream data between two nodes.

The limitation of this topology is its communication only between two nodes. The main problem of this topology is its inability to extend beyond two nodes. Thus, the network range is limited by one hop and the transmission range of one node is used for defining this range [7].

6.3.2 IoT Networks

There are different categories of IoT networks, and these categories are based on the range they cover and their application. A brief of the IoT networks is as follows, and a respective figure is shown as Figure 6.3.

6.3.2.1 Nano Network

A group of few small devices (usually sized a few micrometers) is used to form this network. This network is used to perform tasks which are very simple in nature, such as sensing, actuation, storage, and computing. Such type of network is applicable for some specific purposes such as in military operations, biometric activities, and nanoscience. Due to its different nature of working, it is not a suitable choice for residential use [29].

Onion diagram illustrating IoT networks with segments labeled NAN, NFC, BAN, PAN, LAN, CAN, MAN, and WAN (inner–outer).

Figure 6.3 IoT networks.

6.3.2.2 Near-Field Communication (NFC) Network

The speed of this network is low. Due to this, only devices that come within the range of 4 cm can be connected with the network. Such type of network is useful for identity cards (ID card), contactless payment systems, and keycards [24].

6.3.2.3 Body Area Network (BAN)

This type of device is very much useful for patients to provide real-time alert messages about the nature of their body organs. It gives information on whether the symptoms are positive or negative and also takes appropriate action accordingly. Such devices are either wearable at different places of the human body or implants inside the body.

For example, a pacemaker is an example of inside implantation which helps keep the heart beating by producing electrical impulses, and HeartGuide is the first wearable blood-pressure-monitoring device for tracking heart data and for learning the effect of the patient behavior on the heart health [52].

6.3.2.4 Personal Area Network (PAN)

PAN is used to connect devices within the range of hardly 10 meters or within a radius of 10-20 feet approximately. For this, only some forms of Wi-Fi technology are needed rather than plugging any physical device or using wires to connect with the Internet or any other networks [18].

6.3.2.5 Local Area Network (LAN)

The name implies that this category of network is used in a localized area which covers an entire building, i.e., a home or an office. Interaction between LAN users can be feasible via email or chatting software.

6.3.2.6 Campus/Corporate Area Network (CAN)

A limited geographical area such as a university or an enterprise comes under this network [8, 35]. It is also known as residential network or ResNet. Its speed is higher than that of the Internet.

6.3.2.7 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

MAN covers a specific portion of the metropolitan area. A large portion of the geographical area, including various smaller networks (i.e., LANs, CANs, and MANs) comes under MAN. It uses the microwave transmission technique to establish communication among devices.

6.3.2.8 Wide Area Network (WAN)

A large portion of a geographical area comes under WAN, which covers small networks such as LANs, PANs, CANs, and MANs [36]. WAN uses TCP/IP for connecting devices such as switches, modems, routers, and firewalls. This network is used for wired and wireless communication.

6.3.3 IoT Connections

A three-level architecture such as devices, gateways, and data systems are used in the IoT system. Four types of transmission channels are used to move the data between these levels, which are as follows, and a respective figure is shown as Figure 6.4.

6.3.3.1 Device-to-Device (D2D)/Machine-to-Machine (M2M)

In this connection, information sharing is done through direct interaction of two devices instantly without using any intermediaries. For example, sensors and industrial robots may establish a direct connection together to coordinate the actions of various devices. But, in the real-scenario, seeing such type of connection is very less due to the distinct nature of the devices.

Illustration depicting IoT network with zones for device, gateway, and data system.

Figure 6.4 IoT networks.

6.3.3.2 Machine-to-Gateway/Router (M2G/R)

Such type of connection is established between gateway and sensor nodes using telecommunication. It is well known that the computing power of the gateway is much better than that of a sensor node. The gateway is leveraged with two functions. The first one deals with the collection of data from the sensors and delivering these to the appropriate data system. The second one deals with the analysis of data and, if any problem occurs, returns these back to the relevant device [6].

6.3.3.3 Gateway/Router-to-Data System (G/R2DS)

This connection deals with the transmission of data from the gateway to the appropriate data system. For this, the traffic of the data is analyzed to select the relevant protocol [53].

6.3.3.4 Data System to Data System (DS2DS)

This connection is used between clouds/datacenters for transferring information. This connection provides such type of protocols for existing applications to easily integrate and deploy with high availability and disaster recovery with reliability.

6.3.4 IoT Protocols/Standards

IoT protocols are used to establish secure communication and exchange of data among various IoT devices as per need. The connection of IoT devices to the Internet is established through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. However, these IoT devices use Bluetooth and RFID to connect locally. But the coverage range, power consumption, and memory usage are different between IP and non-IP networks [50]. Non-IP networks require less memory and less power with range limitation as compared to IP networks.

A large number of IoT protocols are available as per their usage. Some of them are more popular and well known than others. There are various connectivity options available for IoT infrastructure, but for simplicity, the concerned standards and protocols are categorized into two parts [19]. The details are as follows.

6.3.4.1 Network Protocols for IoT

Protocols that come under this category are used for connecting devices over the network. These protocols are specially built for using over the Internet and allow data communication in end-to-end mode [3]. Various network protocols are mentioned below.

Bluetooth

It is the most popular wireless protocol which is widely used to connect IoT devices for exchanging data. This protocol is secure and suitable for low-power, short-range, and low-cost wireless communication for IoT devices. A version of Bluetooth technology named Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is used to consume less power to connect IoT devices.

The Bluetooth protocol is mostly applied where data are required to be exchanged in small fragments with less memory and low power. Due to its ease of use and cost-effective nature, Bluetooth is top ranked among IoT protocols. Bluetooth 4.2 is the latest version, which helps accessing the Internet in fast-forward mode via 6LoAPAN. Bluetooth 5, a newly developed version, provides a high-coverage range and easy communication between two Bluetooth-enabled IoT devices within the same time-span as compared to its previous versions.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

It is the most commonly used network protocol that deals with communicating and transferring data over the web. When a huge amount of data is to be published, HTTP provides feasibility to IoT devices. The best use case of HTTP is 3D printing, where it helps in connecting 3D printers to the computer and provides the printing of 3D objects.

But due to its high cost, high energy consumption, short battery life, and many other constraints, it is not the preferred protocol for IoT devices.

Wi-Fi

Processing a large quantity of data and quick data transfer at a high rate is offered by the Wi-Fi technology. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has assigned a standard 802.11 to Wi-Fi technology. This standard allows transferring 100 Mb data in a second and performs operation at a frequency of 2.4 GHz/5 GHz.

Many IoT devices use Wi-Fi for easy, smooth, and fast data transfer. One limitation of the Wi-Fi protocol is that for some IoT applications, it takes a huge amount of power consumption.

ZigBee

Like Bluetooth, ZigBee has a strong user base and it enables smart devices to work together in a collaborative environment. ZigBee is not a general-purpose protocol; i.e., it is generally applicable for industries and less applicable for consumers. In home automation, this protocol is mostly useful. It supports data transfer at a low rate for short distances usually in a building or at home. It takes 2.4 GHz frequency to do the operational task. This frequency is very much ideal for industrial purposes.

ZigBee Remote Control is a version of ZigBee which is known as a security protocol for IoT to provide scalable solutions with high security and low power consumption.

ZigBee 3.0 is another version of ZigBee which provides wireless network at a low data rate and low power. ZigBee 3.0 is mainly useful for industrial sites.

The wireless standard IEEE 802.15.4 is generally used in industrial application and in some home automation. Usually the range of ZigBee is 100 meters, but by using a mesh network, this range can be increased. The ZigBee protocol provides high scalability and high-level secure connection through 128-bit encryption.

Z-Wave

Z-Wave is a MAC protocol which takes low power for communication between devices. Its communication is based on radio frequency (RF). This protocol is specially used in smart commercial and home automation.

Z-Wave works at a frequency of 900 MHz, and it is used for point-to-point communication that covers about 30-100 meters.

The rate of data transfer of this protocol is 40-100 Kbits/s. This protocol is specially used for sending small messages for IoT applications.

The application domain of this protocol may be in energy control, light control, healthcare control through wearable devices, and many more.

Long-Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN)

LoRaWAN is specially developed to cover a wide area network for IoT applications. This topology connects a centralized network server with IoT devices to provide communication in a low-power wide area network at low bit rates.

This protocol is mainly applicable for those devices that take less memory and low power for their functioning; for example, this type of protocol is specially used in smart cities.

The frequency of this protocol may vary, and it depends on the type of network. Generally, the rate of data transfer of this protocol varies between 0.3 and 50 kbps. This range may vary from 2 to 5 km in urban areas and about 15 km in sub-urban areas. LoRaWAN (IEEE 802.15.4g) has a data rate of 0.3-0.5 kbps and works in an unlicensed spectrum which is less than 1 GHz.

6.3.4.2 Data Protocols for IoT

Those IoT devices having low power are connected through these protocols for point-to-point communication in the absence of the Internet. Some of these protocols are mentioned as follows.

Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT)

MQTT is the most preferable protocol for devices used in the IoT environment. It is developed by Arlen Nipper and Andy Stanford Clark in 1999. Monitoring of the devices from remote locations is supported by this protocol. It is also used for collecting data from various electronic devices. It uses wireless network for event-driven message exchange [40].

The functioning of this protocol happens on top of the transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP). The three core components of this protocol are the subscriber, publisher, and broker. The role of the publisher is to generate and transmit the data to the subscriber, and this task is completed with the help of the broker. The broker also ensures the security of the data by checking the subscribers and the publishers for their authorization credentials for the communication.

It is a kind of lightweight protocol used for devices which take less memory and power to collect data from various electronic devices and monitoring IoT from remote locations. These devices may include sensors used in car and heavy vehicles, smart watches, fire detectors, and text-based messaging applications.

Secure Message Queue Telemetry Transport (SMQTT)

It is an extended version of MQTT which offers encryption based on lightweight attributes. The encryption applies the features of multicast for message encryption in which one encrypted message is delivered to multiple nodes except the sender node. The algorithm used for this operation has four stages, namely, setup, encryption, publishing, and decryption.

The setup phase provides a platform for publishers and subscribers to receive a master secret key by registering themselves to the concerned broker.

After that, the broker encrypts and publishes the data and sends these to the subscriber. At the subscriber side, the message is decrypted by using the same master key [43].

Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)

An application layer protocol, AMQP is basically used for messaging in a middleware environment. It is internationally approved as a standard protocol. It has three significant components, namely, exchange, message queue, and binding. The exchange component is used to get the messages and put them in the queues.

The work of the message queue is to store messages until the client application successfully processes these messages safely. The binding component is responsible for managing the connection between exchange and message queue components.

AMQP provides point-to-point reliable connection. For the exchange of data, AMQP gives a secure, reliable, and seamless platform between the cloud and the devices. Mainly the banking industry is using this protocol. When a bank server sends a message, the tracking of message is done by the protocol to ensure that all the messages are delivered to the intended destination without any failure.

Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)

CoAP provides services as a utility protocol, and it is used only for some specific smart devices/gadgets. This protocol supports the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), through which a request can be sent by the client to the server and a response can be received from the server to the client.

The protocol supports the user datagram protocol (UDP) for lightweight data implementation and also minimizes the use of storage space. The data format used by the protocol is in binary format named Efficient Extensible Markup Language Interchanges (EXL). The protocol also supports restful architecture. CoAP uses strategies of HTTP such as get, put, delete, and places to remove ambiguity. Application of CoAP is found especially in mobiles, automation, and microcontrollers [10].

6.4 Conclusion

Due to the wide presence of IoT devices in different domains like education, health care, home automation, farming, and many more, various wireless technologies are available to get the desired solution. Each technology has some pros and cons. But here the question arises as to which technology is more appropriate and has fewer flaws in comparison to other existing technologies.

There are several issues remaining, due to the specific requirements of different applications related to the coverage range, throughput, topologies, and power consumption. Further, other factors such as security, cost of implementation and maintenance, and coupling of devices are also a challenging task.

The chapter focuses on various wireless technologies and their significance in the Internet of Things (IoT). It discusses the existing and future scopes of the IoT in different applications followed by the details of different hardware components.

After that, the importance of wireless technology for IoT is explained. It also includes IoT-specific wireless topologies, networks, connections, and protocols.

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Note

  1. * Corresponding author: [email protected]
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