Internet of Things
Things to Internet-of-Things (IoT)
The IoT device, Gateway, Cloud, and the MQTT Protocol
Physical objects that do not have the ability to connect to the internet, directly or indirectly, are just Things. A Thing is an IoT device if it is connected to other things and/or the internet. IoT devices take computing to the next level, where the virtual and physical world converge to produce something that is powerful and actionable.
Internet of Things
If the thermostat in the picture above, lets you control the settings only from the physical device then it is just a Thing. If it is connected to your home wifi network then it is an IoT device. What you can or can not control on an IoT device is a design issue.
In simple terms, any physical object that has sensors that allow it to communicate to the internet world is an IoT device. The capability, intent, and purpose of the interconnectivity varies by the business problem being addressed.
We will focus on the high-level components at a conceptual level. The understanding of the overall lay of the land is essential to appreciate the architecture and the potential value it can generate.
The four areas that we will discuss are:
- The IoT Device
- The Gateway and/or Internet
- Data Processing — Cloud
- Messaging Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol
The IoT Device
For a device to be an IoT device it has to have the hardware and software, collectively referred to as sensors, that enables it to connect to other devices like itself and eventually connect to the internet either directly or via a Gateway. These devices will need power to function. It can either be plugged into the main power supply or can be powered via battery or solar. The intended use drives the design of the device. For example:
- If the device will be installed on vehicles to track movement, it can use power from the vehicle and will need to have real-time GPS connectivity.
- If the intent is to collect health information of various parts of the vehicle for preventive maintenance then a real-time feed might not be necessary.
- If the device has to installed on the farm, then battery or renewable energy might be the only practical choice.
The Gateway and/or Internet
IoT devices have sensors that have minimal internet connectivity capability, for example, Bluetooth. Bluetooth connectivity can help you pair to another device, on its own it cannot connect to the internet. So if you have a cluster of such IoT devices that have limited connectivity options (this limitation is by design), a Gateway becomes the focal point to connect all these devices to the internet.
A Gateway allows IoT devices that are not connected directly to the internet to use cloud services. A cluster of IoT devices can connect to the Gateway which can process inputs from the sensors and relay them to the cloud infrastructure for further processing.
The most common gateway in use is a router the connects your home or an enterprise to the internet. The router in your home helps you connect multiple devices to the internet. Each device is designed per its own protocol and architecture. It is the router that functions as a network node between the cluster of devices and the internet and thus brings to life each device that on its own, may have very limited connectivity.
Data Processing — Cloud
An IoT device alone might not generate high volume data, but if you consider thousands and millions of such devices transmitting data in real-time, it becomes a BIG DATA problem.
Cloud computing provides the scalability to ingest, process, and generate actionable insights from the massive volume of data collected from these IoT devices.
All major cloud providers like GCP, Azure & AWS, have additional cloud services that can be leveraged along with the IoT infrastructure.
MQTT: The Standard for IoT Messaging
Telemetry data is measurement collected from remote devices. It is critically important for the remote devices to reliably transmit data so that the insights generated are actionable. For the entire delivery pipeline to function smoothly a low network bandwidth and lightweight protocol is essential at the data collection endpoint.
Messaging Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is an OASIS standard messaging protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT). It is designed as an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport that is ideal for connecting remote devices with a small code footprint and minimal network bandwidth. MQTT today is used in a wide variety of industries, such as automotive, manufacturing, telecommunications, oil and gas, etc.
The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) IoT reference architecture below depicts the flow from remote devices that generate data to insights that make it actionable.
Summary
The journey from a remote IoT device generating data, capturing it, merging it with additional information, and then generating valuable actionable insights is complex and challenging.
Emerging IoT specific services are making the integration easy and driving the adoption further. Developing skills in either one of the four major areas that we discussed along with the ability to put them together is a path forward to emerging careers in computing.
Originally published at https://www.emerging.careers on January 22, 2021.
