CHAPTER-2

IoT Network Architecture

and
Design
THIS CHAPTER EXPLORES THE FOLLOWING AREAS

 Drivers Behind New Network Architectures

 Comparing IoT Architectures

 A Simplified IoT Architecture

 The Core IoT Functional Stack

 IoT Data Management and Compute Stack

 DRIVERS BEHIND NEW NETWORK
ARCHITECTURES
• To implement any networking concepts designing and
understanding the network architecture is of utmost
importance.

• The difference between IT and IoT networks is much

like the difference between residential architecture
and stadium architecture.
• The key difference between IT and IoT is the data.

• While IT systems are mostly concerned with reliable and

continuous support of business applications such as email,
web, databases and so on.

• IoT is all about the data generated by sensors and how

that data is used.

• The essence of IoT architectures thus involves how the

data is transported, collected, analyzed, and ultimately
acted upon.
IOT ARCHITECTURAL DRIVERS

 Scale

 Security

 Constrained Devices and Networks

 Data

 Legacy Device Support

i. Scale

 The scale of a typical IT network is on the order of several

thousand devices—typically printers, mobile wireless
devices, laptops, servers, and so on.

 But when a scale of a network goes from a few thousand

endpoints to a few millions the IT engineers lack a
required skills to design a network that is intended to
support millions of routable IP endpoints.
ii. Security

 The frequency and impact of cyber attacks in recent years has

increased dramatically. Protecting corporate data from
intrusion and theft is one of the main functions of the IT
department.

 IoT systems require consistent mechanisms of authentication,

encryption, and intrusion prevention techniques that
understand the behaviour of industrial protocols and can
respond to attacks on critical infrastructure
 For optimum security, IoT systems must:
 Be able to identify and authenticate all entities
involved in the IoT service(i.e., gateways, endpoint
devices, home networks, roaming networks, service
platforms)

 Ensure that all user data shared between the

endpoint device and back-end applications is
encrypted
iii. Constrained Devices and Networks

 Most IoT sensors are designed for a single job, and they
are typically small and inexpensive. This means they often
have limited power, CPU, and memory, and they transmit
only when there is something important.

 If an IT network has performance constraints, the solution

is simple: Upgrade to a faster network.

 If too many devices are on one VLAN and are impacting

performance, we can simply carve out a new VLAN and
continue to scale as much as we need.
iv. Data

 IoT devices generate a mountain of data. In general, most

IT shops don’t really care much about the unstructured
chatty data generated by devices on the network.

 However, in IoT the data is like gold, as it is what enables

businesses to deliver new IoT services that enhance the
customer experience, reduce cost, and deliver new
revenue opportunities
 Although most IoT-generated data is unstructured, the insights
it provides through analytics can revolutionize processes and
create new business models.

 For ex :
 Imagine a smart city with a few hundred thousand smart
streetlights, all connected through an IoT network.

 However, when all this data is combined, it can become

difficult to manage and analyze effectively.
v. Legacy Device Support

 Supporting legacy devices in an IT organization is not

usually a big problem. If someone’s computer or operating
system is outdated, she simply upgrades. If someone is
using a mobile device with an outdated Wi-Fi standard,
such as 802.11b or 802.11g, we can simply deny him
access to the wireless network, and he will be forced to
upgrade.

 In OT systems, end devices are likely to be on the network

for a very long time—sometimes decades.

 As IoT networks are deployed, they need to support the

older devices already present on the network, as well as
devices with new capabilities.
 In many cases, legacy devices are so old that they don’t even
support IP.

 For ex :
 A factory may replace machines only once every 20 years—or
perhaps even longer!

 It does not want to upgrade multi-million-dollar machines just

so it can connect them to a network for better visibility and
control.

 However, many of these legacy machines might support older

protocols, such as serial interfaces, and use RS-232.

 In this case, the IoT network must either be capable of some

type of protocol translation or use a gateway device to connect
these legacy endpoints to the IoT network
 COMPARING IOT ARCHITECTURES
• In the past several years, architectural standards and
frameworks have emerged to address the challenge of
designing massive-scale IoT networks.

• The foundational concept in all these architectures is

supporting data, process, and the functions that endpoint
devices perform.

• Two of the best-known architectures

• oneM2M
• IoT World Forum (IoTWF)
THE ONEM2M IOT STANDARDIZED ARCHITECTURE
 European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (ETSI) created the M2M Technical
Committee in 2008.

 The goal of this committee was to

 create a common architecture that would help
accelerate the adoption of M2M applications and
devices.
 In 2012 launched oneM2M as a global initiative
designed to promote efficient M2M communication
systems and IoT.

 create a common services layer, which can be

readily embedded in field devices to allow
communication with application servers.

 One of the greatest challenges in designing an IoT

architecture is dealing with the heterogeneity of
devices, software, and access methods.
• The oneM2M architecture divides IoT functions into
three major domains: the application layer, the services
layer, and the network layer.

• Let’s examine each of these domains in turn:

i. Applications layer

 The oneM2M architecture gives major attention to

connectivity between devices and their
applications.

 This domain includes the application-layer

protocols and attempts to standardize API
definitions for interaction with business
intelligence (BI) systems.
ii. Services layer

 This layer is shown as a horizontal framework

across the vertical industry applications.

 At this layer, horizontal modules include the

physical network that the IoT applications run
on, the underlying management protocols, and
the hardware.
iii. Network Layer

 This is the communication domain for the IoT devices

and endpoints.

 It includes the devices themselves and the

communications network that links them.

 the communications infrastructure include wireless

mesh technologies, such as IEEE 802.15.4, and
wireless point-to-multipoint systems, such as IEEE
801.11

 Also included are wired device connections, such as

IEEE 1901 power line communications.
THE IOT WORLD FORUM (IOTWF)
STANDARDIZED ARCHITECTURE

• In 2014 the IoTWF architectural committee (led by Cisco,

IBM, Rockwell Automation, and others) published a seven-
layer IoT architectural reference model.

• visualizing IoT from a technical perspective.

• Each of the seven layers is broken down into specific

functions, and security encompasses the entire model.

• Figure 2.2 details the IoT reference model published by the

IoTWF
Figure 2.1 : IoT Reference Model Published by the IoT World Forum
 Using this reference model, we are able to achieve the
following:
1. Decompose the IoT problem into smaller parts

2. Identify different technologies at each layer and how

they relate to one another
3. Define a system in which different parts can be
provided by different vendors
4. Have a process of defining interfaces that leads to
interoperability
5. Define a tiered security model that is enforced at the
transition points between levels
 Layer 1: Physical Devices and Controllers Layer

layer is home to the “things” in the Internet of

 This
Things
 including the various endpoint devices and sensors that
send and receive information.

 Thesize of these “things” can range from almost

microscopic sensors to giant machines in a factory.

 Their
primary function is generating data and being
capable of being queried and/or controlled over a
network.
 Layer 2: Connectivity Layer
 the focus is on connectivity.

 The most important function of this IoT layer is the

reliable and timely transmission of data.
 Layer 3: Edge Computing

 Edge computing is often referred to as the “fog” layer

 At this layer, the emphasis is on data reduction and

converting network data flows into information
that is ready for storage and processing by higher
layers.

 One of the basic principles of this reference model is

that information processing is initiated as early and
as close to the edge of the network as possible
 Upper Layers: Layers 4–7
 The upper layers deal with handling and processing the IoT
data generated by the bottom layer.

IoT Reference Model Layer Functions

Layer 4 : Data Accumulation Captures data and stores it so it usable by applications
Layer when necessary. Converts event-based data to query
based processing.
Layer 5: Data Abstraction Reconciles multiple data formats and ensures consistent
Layer semantics from various sources. Confirms that the data
set is complete and consolidates data into one place or
multiple data stores using visualization.
Layer 6: Applications Layer Interprets data using software applications. Applications
may monitor, control and provide reports based on the
analysis of the data.

Layer 7: Collaboration and Consumes and shares the application information.

processes layer Collaboration on and communicating IoT information
often requires multiple steps and it is what makes IoT
useful. This layer can change business processes and
delivers benefits of IoT
 IT and OT Responsibilities in the IoT Reference
Model
 Thebottom of the stack is generally in the domain
of OT.

 For an industry like oil and gas, this includes

sensors and devices connected to pipelines, oil
rigs, refinery machinery, and so on.

 The top of the stack is in the IT area and includes

things like the servers, databases, and
applications, all of which run on a part of the
network controlled by IT.
 Atthe bottom, in the OT layers, the devices generate
real-time data at their own rate

 datahas to be buffered or stored at certain points

within the IoT stack.

 Layering data management in this way throughout the

stack helps the top four layers handle data at their own
speed.
 thereal-time “data in motion” close to the edge
has to be organized and stored so that it becomes
“data at rest” for the applications in the IT tiers.

 The IT and OT organizations need to work

together for overall data management.
ADDITIONAL IOT REFERENCE MODELS
1. Purdue model for control Hierarchy

2. Industrial Internet Reference Architecture(IIRA) by

Industrial Internet Consortium(IIC)

3. Internet of Things-Architecture(IoT-A)
A SIMPLIFIED IOT ARCHITECTURE

 we can describe an IoT framework that highlights the

fundamental building blocks that are common to most IoT
systems and which is intended to help you in designing an IoT
network.

• This framework is presented as two parallel stacks:

i. The IoT Data Management and Compute Stack
ii. The Core IoT Functional Stack
A SIMPLIFIED IOT ARCHITECTURE
THE CORE IOT FUNCTIONAL STACK
 IoTnetworks are built around the concept of “things,”
or smart objects performing functions and delivering
new connected services.

 These objects are “smart” because they use a

combination of contextual information and configured
goals to perform actions.

 “thing” interacts with an external system to report

information that the smart object collects, to exchange
with other objects, or to interact with a management
platform.
 From an architectural standpoint, several components
have to work together for an IoT network to be
operational
 “Things” layer

 Communications network layer

 Access network sublayer
 Gateways and backhaul network sublayer
 Network transport sublayer
 IoT network management sublayer

 Application and analytics layer

LAYER 1: THINGS: SENSORS AND
ACTUATORS LAYER
 Most IoT networks start from the object, or “thing,”
that needs to be connected.

 From an architectural standpoint, the variety of

smart object types, shapes, and needs drive the
variety of IoT protocols and architectures.
1. Battery-powered or power-connected
2. Mobile or static
3. Low or high reporting frequency
4. Simple or rich data
5. Report range
6. Object density per cell
 Battery-powered or power-connected
 This classification is based on whether the object carries its
own energy supply or receives continuous power from an
external power source.

 Battery-powered things can be moved more easily than line-

powered objects.

 Batteries limit the lifetime and amount of energy that the

object is allowed to consume, thus driving transmission
range and frequency
 Mobile or static:
 This classification is based on whether the “thing”
should move or always stay at the same location.

 A sensor may be mobile because it is moved from one

object to another or because it is attached to a moving
object

 The frequency of the movement may also vary, from

occasional to permanent.
 Low or high reporting frequency
 This classification is based on how often the object
should report monitored parameters.

 A rust sensor may report values once a month.

 A motion sensor may report acceleration several

hundred times per second.

 Higher frequencies drive higher energy consumption

 Simple or rich data
 This classification is based on the quantity of data exchanged
at each report cycle.
 A humidity sensor in a field may report a simple daily index
and while an engine
 sensor may report hundreds of parameters, from temperature
to pressure, gas velocity etc.
 Richer data typically drives higher power consumption.
 Report range
 This classification is based on the distance at which the
gateway is located.

 Object density per cell

 This classification is based on the number of smart
objects over a given area, connected to the same
gateway
Figure 2.8: Example of Sensor Applications Based on Mobility and Throughput
LAYER 2: COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK
LAYER
• When smart objects are not self contained, they need to
communicate with an external system. In many cases,
this communication uses a wireless technology. This
layer has four sublayers:

i. Access Network Sublayer

ii. Gateways and backhaul network sublayer
iii. Network transport sublayer
iv. IoT network management sublayer
I. ACCESS NETWORK SUBLAYER

 There is a direct relationship between the IoT network

technology we choose and the type of connectivity
topology this technology allows

 Each technology was designed with a certain number of

use cases in mind

 what to connect, where to connect, how much data to transport at

what interval and over what distance.
 As IoT continues to grow exponentially, we will encounter a
wide variety of applications and special use cases.

 For each of them, an access technology will be required. IoT

sometimes reuses existing access technologies whose
characteristics match more or less closely the IoT use case
requirements.

 One key parameter determining the choice of access

technology is the range between the smart object and the
information collector.
 Figure 2.9 lists some access technologies we may encounter
in the IoT world and the expected transmission distances.

 Range estimates are grouped by category names that

illustrate the environment or the vertical where data
collection over that range is expected.

 Common groups are as follows:

 PAN (personal area network): Scale of a few meters.
This is the personal space around a person. A common
wireless technology for this scale is Bluetooth.

 HAN (home area network): Scale of a few tens of

meters. At this scale, common wireless technologies for
IoT include ZigBee and Bluetooth Low Energy
 NAN (neighbourhood area network): Scale of a few
hundreds of meters. The term NAN is often used to refer
to a group of house units from which data is collected.

 FAN (field area network): Scale of several tens of

meters to several hundred meters. FAN typically refers to
an outdoor area larger than a single group of house units.

 LAN (local area network): Scale of up to 100 m. This

term is very common in networking, and it is therefore
also commonly used in the IoT space when standard
networking technologies (such as Ethernet or IEEE
802.11) are used.
Figure 2.9 : Access Technologies and Distances
 Figure 2.10 demonstrates four technologies representing
WHAN to WLAN ranges and compares the throughput
and range that can be achieved in each case.

Figure 2.10 : Range Versus Throughput for Four WHAN to WLAN Technologies
 Figure 2.11 combines cost, range, power consumption, and typical
available bandwidth for common IoT access technologies.

Figure 2.11 : Comparison Between Common Last-Mile Technologies in Terms of

Range Versus Cost, Power, and Bandwidth
Communication topologies:
 Some technologies offer flexible connectivity structure
to extend communication possibilities

1.Point-to-point topologies:
 These topologies allow one point to communicate with
another point.
 several technologies are referred to as “point-to-point”
when each object establishes an individual session
with the gateway
2. Point-to-multipoint topologies:
 Thesetopologies allow one point to
communicate with more than one other point.

 Most IoT technologies where one or more than

one gateways communicate with multiple smart
objects are in this category
 To form a network, a device needs to connect with
another device.
 When both devices fully implement the protocol
stack functions,
 they can form a peer-to peer network.

 The sensor which can implement a subset of protocol functions

to perform just a specialized part (communication with the
coordinator). Such a device is called a reduced-function
device (RFD).
 An RFD cannot be a coordinator. An RFD also
cannot implement direct communications to another
RFD.

 The coordinator that implements the full network

functions is called, by contrast, a full-function
device (FFD).
 An FFD can communicate directly with another FFD or
with more than one FFD, forming multiple peer-to-peer
connections.

 Topologies where each FFD has a unique path to another

FFD are called cluster tree topologies. FFDs in the
cluster tree may have RFDs, resulting in a cluster star
topology.

 Figure 2.12 illustrates these topologies

 Other point-to-multipoint technologies allow a node to

have more than one path to another node, forming a mesh
topology.
 Figure 2.13 shows a mesh topology.

 Nodes A and D are too far apart to communicate directly.

In this case, communication can be relayed through
nodes B or C. Node B may be used as the primary relay
GATEWAYS AND BACKHAUL SUBLAYER
 Data collected from a smart object may need to be forwarded
to a central station where data is processed.

 As this station is often in a different location from the smart

object, data directly received from the sensor through an access
technology needs to be forwarded to another medium (the
backhaul) and transported to the central station.

 Ex: A dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) allows

vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication.
  The gateway is in charge of this inter-medium
communication.

 In most cases, the smart objects are static or mobile within a

limited area.

 The gateway is often static. However, some IoT technologies

do not apply this model.

 When the smart object’s operation is controlled from a local site,

and when the environment is stable (for example, factory or oil
and gas field), Ethernet can be used as a backhaul.

 WiMAX (802.16) is an example of a longer-range technology.

WiMAX can achieve ranges of up to 50 kilometers with rates of
up to 70 Mbps
NETWORK TRANSPORT SUBLAYER

 We know that a hierarchical communication architecture in

which a series of smart objects report to a gateway that
conveys the reported data over another medium and up to a
central station.

 However, practical implementations are often flexible, with

multiple transversal communication paths
communication structure involve

 peer-to-peer
 point-to-point

 point-to-multipoint (gateway or head-end)

 unicast and multicast communications (software

update to one or multiple systems)
 communication occurs over multiple media
 For ex: power lines inside our house or a short-
range wireless system like indoor Wi-Fi and/or
ZigBee
 a longer-range wireless system to the gateway, and
yet another wireless or wired medium for backhaul
transmission.

 To allow for such communication structure, a

network protocol with specific characteristics needs
to be implemented.
 The protocol needs to be open and standard-based to
accommodate multiple industries and multiple media.

 Scalability (to accommodate thousands or millions of

sensors in a single network) and security are also common
requirements.

 IP is a protocol that matches all these requirements.

 The flexibility of IP allows this protocol to be embedded in

objects of very different natures, exchanging information
over very different media, including low-power, lossy,
and low-bandwidth networks.
 Finally, the transport layer protocols built above IP (UDP

and TCP) can easily be leveraged to decide whether the

network should control the data packet delivery (with TCP)

or whether the control task should be left to the application

(UDP).
IOT NETWORK MANAGEMENT SUBLAYER

 IP, TCP, and UDP bring connectivity to IoT

networks.

 Upper-layer protocols need to take care of data

transmission between the smart objects and other
systems.

 Multipleprotocols have been created to solve IoT

data communication problems.

 Some networks depends on a push model and some

other networks depends on a pull model
 some IoT implementers have suggested HTTP
which has a client and server component.

 But HTTP is something of a fat protocol and was not

designed to operate in constrained environments
with low memory, low power, low bandwidth, and a
high rate of packet failure.
o Despite these limitations, other web-
derived protocols have been suggested for
the IoT space.

o One example is WebSocket.

o WebSocket is part of the HTML5 specification, and

provides a simple bidirectional connection over a
single connection
 WebSocket is often combined with other protocols, such
as MQTT to handle the IoT-specific part of the
communication.

 With the same logic of reusing well-known methods,

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)
was created.

 XMPP is based on instant messaging and presence.

 It allows the exchange of data between two or more

systems and supports presence and contact list
maintenance
 To respond to the limits of web-based protocols, another
protocol was created by the IETF Constrained Restful
Environments (CoRE) working group: Constrained
Application Protocol (CoAP).

 CoAP uses some methods similar to those of HTTP (such as

Get, Post, Put, and Delete) but implements a shorter list, thus
limiting the size of the header.

 CoAP also runs on UDP (whereas HTTP typically uses TCP).

CoAP also adds a feature that is lacking in HTTP and very
useful for IoT.

 Another common IoT protocol utilized in these middle to upper

layers is Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT).
 MQTT uses a broker-based architecture.
 The sensor can be set to be an MQTT publisher
(publishes a piece of information),
 the application that needs to receive the information can
be set as the MQTT subscriber, and
 any intermediary system can be set as a broker to relay
the information between the publisher and the
subscriber(s).

 MQTT runs over TCP. A consequence of the reliance on TCP is

that an MQTT client typically holds a connection open to the
broker at all times.
LAYER 3: APPLICATIONS AND ANALYTICS LAYER

• Once connected to a network, our smart objects exchange

information with other systems.

• As soon as our IoT network spans more than a few

sensors, the power of the Internet of Things appears in the
applications that make use of the information exchanged
with the smart objects

• From an architectural standpoint, basic classification can

be as follows:

 AnalyticsVersus Control Applications

 Data Versus Network Analytics
 Analytics Versus Control Applications

 Multiple applications can help increase the efficiency of an

IoT network.
 Each application collects data and provides a range of
functions based on analysing the collected data.

 Analytics Application

 Control Application
 Analytics Application

 This type of application collects data from multiple smart objects,

processes the collected data, and displays information resulting
from the data that was processed.

 The display can be about any aspect of the IoT network, from
historical reports, statistics, or trends to individual system
states.

 Control Application

 This type of application controls the behaviour of the smart object

or the behaviour of an object related to the smart object.

 For ex : a pressure sensor may be connected to a pump

 An example of control system architecture is SCADA.

 SCADA was developed as a universal method to

access remote systems and send instructions.

 Oneexample where SCADA is widely used is in the

control and monitoring of remote terminal units
(RTUs) on the electrical distribution grid.
SUPERVISORY CONTROL AND DATA ACQUISITION
(SCADA)
DATA VERSUS NETWORK ANALYTICS

 Data analytics:
 This type of analytics processes the data collected by
smart objects and combines it to provide an intelligent
view related to the IoT system.

 Network analytics:
 Most IoT systems are built around smart objects
connected to the network
 A loss or degradation in connectivity is likely to affect
the efficiency of the system. Such a loss can have
dramatic effects.
IOT DATA MANAGEMENT AND COMPUTE STACK

 The massive scale of IoT networks is fundamentally

driving new architectures. As per the projections by
Cisco nearly 50 billion devices will be connected to the
IoT networks by the year 2020.

 In fact, the data generated by IoT sensors is one of the

single biggest challenges in building an IoT system.
 Inthe case of modern IT networks, the data
sourced by a computer or server is typically
generated by the client/server communications
model, and it serves the needs of the application.

 Insensor networks, the vast majority of data

generated is unstructured and of very little use
on its own.
• In most cases, the processing location is outside the smart
object. A natural location for this processing activity is the
cloud.

• Smart objects need to connect to the cloud, and data processing

is centralized.

• One advantage of this model is simplicity. Objects just need to

connect to a central cloud application.

• This model also has some limitations.

• The data volume increases with more number of smart objects being
connected to the network which in turn creates a new requirements.
 These new requirements include the following

1. Minimizing latency
2. Conserving network bandwidth
3. Increasing local efficiency
• Data management in traditional IT systems is very simple.

• The endpoints (laptops, printers, IP phones, and so on)

communicate over an IP core network to servers in the data
center or cloud.

• Data is generally stored in the data center, and the physical

links from access to core are typically high bandwidth,
meaning access to IT data is quick.
IoT systems function differently. Several data-related problems
need to be addressed:

1. Bandwidth in last-mile IoT networks is very limited.

2. Latency can be very high.

3. Network backhaul from the gateway can be unreliable and

often depends on 3G/LTE or even satellite links

4. The volume of data transmitted over the backhaul can be

high, and much of the data may not really be that
interesting(such as simple polling messages).

5. Big data is getting bigger. The concept of storing and

analyzing all sensor data in the cloud is impractical.
 Fog Computing

• The solution to the challenges encountered in data management

is to distribute data management throughout the IoT system,
as close to the edge of the IP network as possible.

• The best-known embodiment of edge services in IoT is fog

computing.

• Any device with computing, storage, and network connectivity

can be a fog node.

• Examples include industrial controllers, switches, routers,

embedded servers, and IoT gateways
 The characteristic of fog computing are as
follows:
1. Contextual location awareness and low
latency
2. Geographic distribution

3. Deployment near IoT endpoints

4. Wireless communication between the fog

and the IoT endpoint
5. Use for real-time interactions
 Contextual location awareness and low latency:
 The fog node sits as close to the IoT endpoint as possible
to deliver distributed computing.

 Geographic distribution:
 In sharp contrast to the more centralized cloud, the
services and applications targeted by the fog nodes
demand widely distributed deployments.

 Deployment near IoT endpoints:

 Fog nodes are typically deployed in the presence of a large
number of IoT endpoints.

93
  Wireless communication between the fog and the IoT
endpoint:

 Although it is possible to connect wired nodes, the

advantages of fog are greatest when dealing with a large
number of endpoints, and wireless access is the easiest
way to achieve such scale.

 Use for real-time interactions:

 Important fog applications involve real-time interactions
rather than batch processing.

 Pre-processing of data in the fog nodes allows upper-layer

applications to perform batch processing on a subset of the
data.

94
EDGE COMPUTING

 Edge computing as “a part of a

distributed computing topology in which information
processing is located close to the edge – where things and
people produce or consume that information.”

 Edge compute–capable meters are able to communicate

with each other to share information on small subsets.

 Edge computing is also sometimes called “mist”

computing.
THE HIERARCHY OF EDGE, FOG, AND CLOUD
 This model suggests a hierarchical organization of
network, compute, and data storage resources.

 At each stage, data is collected, analyzed, and responded

to when necessary, according to the capabilities of the
resources at each layer.

 advantage of hierarchy
 response to events from resources close to the end
device is fast and can result in immediate benefits
 resources available in the cloud when necessary.
• Figure 2.16 illustrates the hierarchical nature of edge,
fog, and cloud computing across an IoT system.

• From an architectural standpoint, fog nodes closest to

the network edge receive the data from IoT devices.

• The fog IoT application then directs different types of

data to the optimal place for analysis:
 The fog IoT application directs different types of data
for analysis:

 The most time-sensitive data is analyzed on the edge or fog

node closest to the things generating the data.

 Data that can wait seconds or minutes for action is passed

along to an aggregation node for analysis and action.

 Data that is less time sensitive is sent to the cloud for

historical analysis, big data analytics, and long-term
storage.