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Contents

List of Figures xvii

List of Tables xxv
Foreword xxvii
Preface xxxi
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Basics of Networking 3

1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 Network Types 4
1.2.1 Connection types 4
1.2.2 Physical topology 6
1.2.3 Network reachability 9
1.3 Layered Network Models 10
1.3.1 OSI Model 10
1.3.2 Internet protocol suite 14
1.4 Addressing 15
1.4.1 Data link layer addressing 15
1.4.2 Network layer addressing 16
1.5 TCP/IP Transport layer 19
1.5.1 Connectionless service 20
1.5.2 Connection-oriented service 20
Summary 22
Exercises 23
References 23

2 Basics of Network Security 25

2.1 Introduction 25
2.2 Security 27
2.3 Network Confidentiality 28

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2.4 Cryptography 30
2.4.1 Symmetric key cryptography 31
2.4.2 Asymmetric key cryptography 34
2.5 Message Integrity and Authenticity 35
2.5.1 Digital signatures 36
2.6 Key Management 38
2.7 Internet Security 40
2.7.1 Network layer security 40
2.7.2 Transport layer security 41
2.7.3 Application layer security 43
2.8 Firewall 44
Summary 46
Exercises 46
References 47

3 Predecessors of IoT 48
3.1 Introduction 48
3.2 Wireless Sensor Networks 49
3.2.1 Architectural components of WSN 51
3.3 Machine-to-Machine Communications 57
3.3.1 Architectural components of M2M 60
3.4 Cyber Physical Systems 65
3.4.1 Architectural components of CPS 68
Summary 69
Exercises 70
References 70

PART TWO: INTERNET OF THINGS

4 Emergence of IoT 75
4.1 Introduction 75
4.2 Evolution of IoT 80
4.2.1 IoT versus M2M 83
4.2.2 IoT versus CPS 84
4.2.3 IoT versus WoT 84

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4.3 Enabling IoT and the Complex Interdependence of Technologies 84

4.4 IoT Networking Components 87
4.5 Addressing Strategies in IoT 89
4.5.1 Address management classes 91
4.5.2 Addressing during node mobility 92
Summary 95
Exercises 95
References 96

5 IoT Sensing and Actuation 97

5.1 Introduction 97
5.2 Sensors 98
5.3 Sensor Characteristics 102
5.4 Sensorial Deviations 103
5.5 Sensing Types 104
5.5.1 Scalar sensing 104
5.5.2 Multimedia sensing 105
5.5.3 Hybrid sensing 105
5.5.4 Virtual sensing 106
5.6 Sensing Considerations 106
5.7 Actuators 108
5.8 Actuator Types 109
5.8.1 Hydraulic actuators 109
5.8.2 Pneumatic actuators 109
5.8.3 Electric actuators 109
5.8.4 Thermal or magnetic actuators 110
5.8.5 Mechanical actuators 110
5.8.6 Soft actuators 111
5.8.7 Shape memory polymers 111
5.9 Actuator Characteristics 111
Summary 112
Exercises 113
References 113

6 IoT Processing Topologies and Types 115

6.1 Data Format 115
6.1.1 Structured data 116
6.1.2 Unstructured data 116
6.2 Importance of Processing in IoT 117

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6.3 Processing Topologies 118

6.3.1 On-site processing 118
6.3.2 Off-site processing 119
6.4 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations 120
6.5 Processing Offloading 122
6.5.1 Offload location 123
6.5.2 Offload decision making 124
6.5.3 Offloading considerations 125
Summary 126
Exercises 126
References 127

7 IoT Connectivity Technologies 128

7.1 Introduction 128
7.2 IEEE 802.15.4 129
7.3 Zigbee 131
7.4 Thread 134
7.5 ISA100.11A 136
7.6 WirelessHART 139
7.7 RFID 141
7.8 NFC 142
7.9 DASH7 144
7.10 Z-Wave 146
7.11 Weightless 148
7.12 Sigfox 149
7.13 LoRa 151
7.14 NB-IoT 153
7.15 Wi-Fi 154
7.16 Bluetooth 156
Summary 158
Exercises 158
References 161

8 IoT Communication Technologies 163

8.1 Introduction 163
8.1.1 Constrained nodes 164
8.1.2 Constrained networks 164

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8.1.3 Types of constrained devices 165

8.1.4 Low power and lossy networks 165
8.2 Infrastructure Protocols 166
8.2.1 Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) 166
8.2.2 LOADng 170
8.2.3 RPL 171
8.2.4 6LoWPAN 173
8.2.5 QUIC 176
8.2.6 Micro internet protocol (uIP) 178
8.2.7 Nano internet protocol (nanoIP) 179
8.2.8 Content-centric networking (CCN) 180
8.3 Discovery Protocols 181
8.3.1 Physical web 181
8.3.2 Multicast DNS (mDNS) 183
8.3.3 Universal plug and play (UPnP) 183
8.4 Data Protocols 184
8.4.1 MQTT 185
8.4.2 MQTT-SN 187
8.4.3 CoAP 188
8.4.4 AMQP 191
8.4.5 XMPP 193
8.4.6 SOAP 195
8.4.7 REST 196
8.4.8 WebSocket 198
8.5 Identification Protocols 200
8.5.1 EPC 200
8.5.2 uCode 201
8.5.3 URIs 203
8.6 Device Management 204
8.6.1 TR-069 204
8.6.2 OMA-DM 205
8.7 Semantic Protocols 206
8.7.1 JSON-LD 207
8.7.2 Web thing model 208
Summary 208
Exercises 209
References 211

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9 IoT Interoperability 214

9.1 Introduction 214
9.1.1 Taxonomy of interoperability 216
9.2 Standards 217
9.2.1 EnOcean 217
9.2.2 DLNA 218
9.2.3 Konnex 220
9.2.4 UPnP 221
9.2.5 LonWorks 223
9.2.6 Insteon 224
9.2.7 X-10 226
9.3 Frameworks 228
9.3.1 universAAL 228
9.3.2 AllJoyn 229
9.3.3 IoTivity 230
9.3.4 Brillo and Weave 231
9.3.5 HomeKit 231
Summary 232
Exercises 232
References 233

PART THREE: ASSOCIATED IOT TECHNOLOGIES

10 Cloud Computing 237

10.1 Introduction 237
10.2 Virtualization 239
10.2.1 Advantages of virtualization 239
10.2.2 Types of virtualization 241
10.3 Cloud Models 242
10.4 Service-Level Agreement in Cloud Computing 245
10.4.1 Importance of SLA 245
10.4.2 Metrics for SLA 245
10.5 Cloud Implementation 246
10.5.1 Cloud simulation 246
10.5.2 An open-source cloud: OpenStack 247
10.5.3 A commercial cloud: Amazon web services (AWS) 248

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10.6 Sensor-Cloud: Sensors-as-a-Service 249

10.6.1 Importance of sensor-cloud 249
10.6.2 Architecture of a sensor-cloud platform 252
Summary 254
Exercises 254
References 255

11 Fog Computing and Its Applications 256

11.1 Introduction 256
11.1.1 Essential characteristics in fog computing 257
11.1.2 Fog nodes 258
11.1.3 Fog node deployment model 259
11.2 View of a Fog Computing Architecture 260
11.2.1 Node view 260
11.2.2 System view 261
11.2.3 Software view 262
11.3 Fog Computing in IoT 264
11.3.1 Importance of fog computing 264
11.3.2 Time sensitiveness in fog computing 265
11.4 Selected Applications of Fog Computing 265
Summary 267
Exercises 268
References 268

PART FOUR: IOT CASE STUDIES AND FUTURE TRENDS

12 Agricultural IoT 271

12.1 Introduction 271
12.1.1 Components of an agricultural IoT 272
12.1.2 Advantages of IoT in agriculture 275
12.2 Case Studies 276
12.2.1 In-situ assessment of leaf area index using IoT-based agricultural
system 276
12.2.2 Smart irrigation management system 278
Summary 281
Exercises 281
References 282

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13 Vehicular IoT 283

13.1 Introduction 283
13.1.1 Components of vehicular IoT 285
13.1.2 Advantages of vehicular IoT 287
13.1.3 Crime assistance in a smart IoT transportation system 288
Summary 291
Exercises 291
References 292

14 Healthcare IoT 293

14.1 Introduction 293
14.1.1 Components of healthcare IoT 295
14.1.2 Advantages and risk of healthcare IoT 298
14.2 Case Studies 300
14.2.1 AmbuSens system 300
Summary 304
Exercises 304
References 304

15 Paradigms, Challenges, and the Future 306

15.1 Introduction 306
15.2 Evolution of New IoT Paradigms 307
15.2.1 Internet of battlefield things (IoBT) 307
15.2.2 Internet of vehicles (IoV) 307
15.2.3 Internet of underwater things (IoUT) 308
15.2.4 Internet of drones (IoD) 308
15.2.5 Internet of space (IoSpace) 308
15.2.6 Internet of services (IoS) 309
15.2.7 Internet of people (IoP) 309
15.2.8 Internet of nano things (IoNT) 309
15.2.9 Internet of everything (IoE) 310
15.3 Challenges Associated with IoT 310
15.3.1 Mobility 310
15.3.2 Addressing 311
15.3.3 Power 311
15.3.4 Heterogeneous connectivity 311
15.3.5 Communication range 312
15.3.6 Security 312
15.3.7 Device size 313

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15.3.8 Interoperability 313

15.4 Emerging Pillars of IoT 313
15.4.1 Big data 313
15.4.2 Cloud/fog/edge computing 314
15.4.3 5G and beyond 314
15.4.4 Artificial intelligence (AI)/Machine learning (ML) 314
15.4.5 Cognitive communication networks 315
15.4.6 Network function virtualization (NFV) 315
15.4.7 Software-defined networks (SDN) 316
15.4.8 Phantom networks 316
Summary 316
Exercises 317
References 317

PART FIVE: IOT HANDS-ON

16 Beginning IoT Hardware Projects 321

16.1 Introduction to Arduino Boards 321
16.1.1 Arduino vs. Raspberry Pi: Choosing a board 321
16.1.2 Arduino installation and setup 322
16.1.3 Setting up Arduino IDE for NodeMCU 327
16.2 Writing an Arduino Sketch 329
16.3 Hands-on Experiments with Arduino 329
16.3.1 Printing on the serial console 329
16.3.2 LED interface with Arduino 330
16.3.3 DHT Sensor interface with NodeMCU 331
16.3.4 MQ-2 Gas sensor interface with NodeMCU 332
16.3.5 Ultrasonic sensor interface with NodeMCU 333
16.3.6 Obstacle detection using NodeMCU 334
16.3.7 Servo motor interface with NodeMCU 336
16.3.8 Relay interface with NodeMCU 337
16.3.9 Data transmission between NodeMCU and remote server 338
16.3.10 Pulse sensor interface with NodeMCU 339
16.4 Introduction to Raspberry Pi Boards 340
16.4.1 Installation 340
16.4.2 Remotely accessing the Raspberry Pi 341
16.4.3 Introduction to Python basics 342
16.4.4 Accessing GPIO pins 343
16.4.5 Configuring WiFi on Raspberry Pi 345

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16.5 Hands-on Experiments with Raspberry Pi 345

16.5.1 Printing on console/terminal 345
16.5.2 LED interface 345
16.5.3 PiCamera interface 347
16.5.4 DHT Sensor interface 349
16.5.5 Client–server socket programming 350
16.5.6 Serially reading data from Arduino 350
Summary 353
Exercises 353

17 IoT Analytics 355

17.1 Introduction 355
17.1.1 Machine learning 356
17.1.2 Advantages of ML 356
17.1.3 Challenges in ML 358
17.1.4 Types of ML 358
17.2 Selected Algorithms in ML 361
17.2.1 k-nearest neighbor (KNN) 361
17.2.2 Decision tree 363
17.2.3 Random forest 364
17.2.4 k-means clustering 366
17.2.5 Agglomerative clustering 367
17.2.6 Density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise
(DBSCAN) clustering 368
17.3 Performance Metrics for Evaluating ML Algorithms 370
Summary 374
Exercises 374

Conceptual Questions 375

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Chapter 1
Basics of Networking

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• Understand the basic principles of computer networking
• List the basic terminologies and technologies
• Relate new concepts of IoT with the basics of networking
• Discuss various network configurations and topologies
• Explain various OSI (open systems interconnections) and TCP/IP (transmission
control protocol/Internet protocol) layers and their associated uses
• Describe basics of network addressing

1.1 Introduction
In the present era of data- and information-centric operations, everything—right from
agriculture to military operations—relies heavily on information. The quality of any
particular information is as good as the variety and strength of the data that generates
this information. Additionally, the speed at which data is updated to all members of
a team (which may be a group of individuals, an organization, or a country) dictates
the advantage that the team has over others in generating useful information from
the gathered data. Considering the present-day global scale of operations of various
organizations or militaries of various countries, the speed and nature of germane
information are crucial for maintaining an edge over others in the same area. To sum it
up, today’s world relies heavily on data and networking, which allows for the instant
availability of information from anywhere on the earth at any moment.
Typically, networking refers to the linking of computers and communication
network devices (also referred to as hosts), which interconnect through a network

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(Internet or Intranet) and are separated by unique device identifiers (Internet protocol,
IP addresses and media access control, MAC addresses). These hosts may be
connected by a single path or through multiple paths for sending and receiving data.
The data transferred between the hosts may be text, images, or videos, which are
typically in the form of binary bit streams [1].

Points to ponder

• The data generated from a camera sensor tells us more about a scene compared
to the data generated from, say, a proximity sensor, which only detects the
presence of people in its sensing range.
• Furthermore, the simultaneous data generated from multiple cameras focusing
on the same spot from various angles tell us even more about the scene than
a single camera focused at that scene.

As the primary aim of this chapter is to provide the reader with an overview of
networking, we have structured the text in such a manner that the general concepts
are covered. Additional Check yourself suggestions to review various associated
technologies are provided along with the topics.
We start our discussion with the different types of networks, followed by an
overview of two popularly used layered network models: ISO-OSI (the open systems
interconnection developed by the International Organization of Standardization) and
TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet protocol) suite. Subsequently, we will
touch upon the various types of addressing mechanisms and set up the basic premise
of how a message is transmitted between two devices/computers/hosts.

1.2 Network Types

Computer networks are classified according to various parameters: 1) Type of
connection, 2) physical topology, and 3) reach of the network. These classifications
are helpful in deciding the requirements of a network setup and provide insights into
the appropriate selection of a network type for the setup.

1.2.1 Connection types

Depending on the way a host communicates with other hosts, computer networks are
of two types—(Figure 1.1): Point-to-point and Point-to-multipoint.

(i) Point-to-point: Point-to-point connections are used to establish direct

connections between two hosts. Day-to-day systems such as a remote control
for an air conditioner or television is a point to point connection, where the
connection has the whole channel dedicated to it only. These networks were

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designed to work over duplex links and are functional for both synchronous as
well as asynchronous systems. Regarding computer networks, point to point
connections find usage for specific purposes such as in optical networks.

Point-to-point link

Host A Host B

Point-to-point link

Host C Host D
(a) Point-to-point

Point-to-multipoint links

Host B

Host A Host C

Host D
(b) Point-to-multipoint

Figure 1.1 Network types based on connection types

Point-to-point Requests for Comments (RFCs)

The following requests for comments (RFCs) are associated with point-
to-point communication and its derivatives. RFC 1332: point-to-point
(PPP) Internet protocol control protocol (IPCP); RFC 1661: PPP; RFC
5072: IP Version 6 over PPP; RFC 2516: PPP over Ethernet; RFC 1963:
PPP serial data transport protocol; RFC 1962: PPP compression control
protocol (CCP); RFC 1990: PPP multilink protocol (MP); RFC 2615: PPP
over SONET/SDH (synchronous optical networking/synchronous digital
hierarchy).

(ii) Point-to-multipoint: In a point-to-multipoint connection, more than two hosts

share the same link. This type of configuration is similar to the one-to-many
connection type. Point-to-multipoint connections find popular use in wireless
networks and IP telephony. The channel is shared between the various hosts,

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either spatially or temporally. One common scheme of spatial sharing of the

channel is frequency division multiple access (FDMA). Temporal sharing of
channels include approaches such as time division multiple access (TDMA).
Each of the spectral and temporal sharing approaches has various schemes
and protocols for channel sharing in point-to-multipoint networks. Point-to-
multipoint connections find popular use in present-day networks, especially
while enabling communication between a massive number of connected devices.

Check yourself

Space division multiplexing, Frequency division multiplexing, Time division

multiplexing, Polarization division multiplexing, Orbital angular momentum
multiplexing, Code division multiplexing

1.2.2 Physical topology

Depending on the physical manner in which communication paths between the hosts
are connected, computer networks can have the following four broad topologies—
(Figure 1.2): Star, Mesh, Bus, and Ring.

(i) Star: In a star topology, every host has a point-to-point link to a central controller
or hub. The hosts cannot communicate with one another directly; they can only
do so through the central hub. The hub acts as the network traffic exchange. For
large-scale systems, the hub, essentially, has to be a powerful server to handle
all the simultaneous traffic flowing through it. However, as there are fewer
links (only one link per host), this topology is cheaper and easier to set up. The
main advantages of the star topology are easy installation and the ease of fault
identification within the network. If the central hub remains uncompromised,
link failures between a host and the hub do not have a big effect on the network,
except for the host that is affected. However, the main disadvantage of this
topology is the danger of a single point of failure. If the hub fails, the whole
network fails.
(ii) Mesh: In a mesh topology, every host is connected to every other host using a
dedicated link (in a point-to-point manner). This implies that for n hosts in a
mesh, there are a total of n(n − 1)/2 dedicated full duplex links between the hosts.
This massive number of links makes the mesh topology expensive. However,
it offers certain specific advantages over other topologies. The first significant
advantage is the robustness and resilience of the system. Even if a link is down
or broken, the network is still fully functional as there remain other pathways
for the traffic to flow through. The second advantage is the security and privacy
of the traffic as the data is only seen by the intended recipients and not by all
members of the network. The third advantage is the reduced data load on a

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Basics of Networking 7

Host B

Central
hub

Host A
Host C

Host D
(a) Star topology

Host B

Host A Host C

Host D
(b) Mesh topology
Host A Host B Host C

Backbone bus Tap Drop line

Host E Host D

Host A Host B Host C

Repeater

Ring

Host F Host E Host D

(c) Bus topology

Figure 1.2 Network types based on physical topologies

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single host, as every host in this network takes care of its traffic load. However,
owing to the complexities in forming physical connections between devices and
the cost of establishing these links, mesh networks are used very selectively, such
as in backbone networks.
(iii) Bus: A bus topology follows the point-to-multipoint connection. A backbone
cable or bus serves as the primary traffic pathway between the hosts. The hosts
are connected to the main bus employing drop lines or taps. The main advantage
of this topology is the ease of installation. However, there is a restriction
on the length of the bus and the number of hosts that can be simultaneously
connected to the bus due to signal loss over the extended bus. The bus topology
has a simple cabling procedure in which a single bus (backbone cable) can be
used for an organization. Multiple drop lines and taps can be used to connect
various hosts to the bus, making installation very easy and cheap. However, the
main drawback of this topology is the difficulty in fault localization within the
network.
(iv) Ring: A ring topology works on the principle of a point-to-point connection.
Here, each host is configured to have a dedicated point-to-point connection with
its two immediate neighboring hosts on either side of it through repeaters at
each host. The repetition of this system forms a ring. The repeaters at each host
capture the incoming signal intended for other hosts, regenerates the bit stream,
and passes it onto the next repeater. Fault identification and set up of the ring
topology is quite simple and straightforward. However, the main disadvantage
of this system is the high probability of a single point of failure. If even one
repeater fails, the whole network goes down.
Table 1.1 compares the various network topologies.

Table 1.1 Network topology comparison

Topology Feature Advantage Disadvantage

Star Point-to- Cheap; ease of installation; Single point of failure; traffic
point ease of fault identification visible to network entities
Mesh Point-to- Resilient against single Costly; complex connections
point point of failures; scalable;
traffic privacy and security
ensured
Bus Point-to- Ease of installation; cheap Length of backbone cable
multipoint limited; number of hosts
limited; hard to localize faults
Ring Point-to- Ease of installation; cheap; Prone to single point of failure
point ease of fault identification

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1.2.3 Network reachability

Computer networks are divided into four broad categories based on network
reachability: personal area networks, local area networks, wide area networks, and
metropolitan area networks.

(i) Personal Area Networks (PAN): PANs, as the name suggests, are mostly
restricted to individual usage. A good example of PANs may be connected
wireless headphones, wireless speakers, laptops, smartphones, wireless
keyboards, wireless mouse, and printers within a house. Generally, PANs are
wireless networks, which make use of low-range and low-power technologies
such as Bluetooth. The reachability of PANs lies in the range of a few centimeters
to a few meters.

(ii) Local Area Networks (LAN): A LAN is a collection of hosts linked to a single
network through wired or wireless connections. However, LANs are restricted
to buildings, organizations, or campuses. Typically, a few leased lines connected
to the Internet provide web access to the whole organization or a campus; the
lines are further redistributed to multiple hosts within the LAN enabling hosts.
The hosts are much more in number than the actual direct lines to the Internet to
access the web from within the organization. This also allows the organization
to define various access control policies for web access within its hierarchy.
Typically, the present-day data access rates within the LANs range from 100
Mbps to 1000 Mbps, with very high fault-tolerance levels. Commonly used
network components in a LAN are servers, hubs, routers, switches, terminals,
and computers.

(iii) Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN): The reachability of a MAN lies between
that of a LAN and a WAN. Typically, MANs connect various organizations or
buildings within a given geographic location or city. An excellent example of
a MAN is an Internet service provider (ISP) supplying Internet connectivity
to various organizations within a city. As MANs are costly, they may not
be owned by individuals or even single organizations. Typical networking
devices/components in MANs are modems and cables. MANs tend to have
moderate fault tolerance levels.

(iv) Wide Area Networks (WAN): WANs typically connect diverse geographic
locations. However, they are restricted within the boundaries of a state or
country. The data rate of WANs is in the order of a fraction of LAN’s
data rate. Typically, WANs connecting two LANs or MANs may use public
switched telephone networks (PSTNs) or satellite-based links. Due to the
long transmission ranges, WANs tend to have more errors and noise during
transmission and are very costly to maintain. The fault tolerance of WANs are
also generally low.

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10 Introduction to Internet of Things

Check yourself

ARPANET, BITNET, Cellular network, CYCLADES, FidoNet, Telex, World

Wide Web

1.3 Layered Network Models

The intercommunication between hosts in any computer network, be it a large-scale
or a small-scale one, is built upon the premise of various task-specific layers. Two
of the most commonly accepted and used traditional layered network models are
the open systems interconnection developed by the International Organization of
Standardization (ISO-OSI) reference model and the Internet protocol suite.

1.3.1 OSI Model

The ISO-OSI model is a conceptual framework that partitions any networked
communication device into seven layers of abstraction, each performing distinct tasks
based on the underlying technology and internal structure of the hosts. These seven
layers, from bottom-up, are as follows: 1) Physical layer, 2) Data link layer, 3) Network
layer, 4) Transport layer, 5) Session layer, 6) Presentation layer, and 7) Application layer.
The major highlights of each of these layers are explained in this section.

Points to ponder

The OSI or open system interconnect model for networked devices was
standardized by the International Standards Organization (ISO). It is a conceptual
framework that divides any networked communication system into seven layers,
each performing specific tasks toward communicating with other systems [5], [1].
The OSI is a reference model and is maintained by the ISO under the identity of
ISO/IEC 7498-1.

(i) Physical Layer: This is a media layer and is also referred to as layer 1 of the
OSI model. The physical layer is responsible for taking care of the electrical and
mechanical operations of the host at the actual physical level. These operations
include or deal with issues relating to signal generation, signal transfer, voltages,
the layout of cables, physical port layout, line impedances, and signal loss. This
layer is responsible for the topological layout of the network (star, mesh, bus, or
ring), communication mode (simplex, duplex, full duplex), and bit rate control
operations. The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to as a
symbol.

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(ii) Data Link Layer: This is a media layer and layer 2 of the OSI model. The data
link layer is mainly concerned with the establishment and termination of the
connection between two hosts, and the detection and correction of errors during
communication between two or more connected hosts. IEEE 802 divides the
OSI layer 2 further into two sub-layers [2]: Medium access control (MAC) and
logical link control (LLC). MAC is responsible for access control and permissions
for connecting networked devices; whereas LLC is mainly tasked with error
checking, flow control, and frame synchronization. The protocol data unit
associated with this layer is referred to as a frame.
(iii) Network Layer: This layer is a media layer and layer 3 of the OSI model.
It provides a means of routing data to various hosts connected to different
networks through logical paths called virtual circuits. These logical paths
may pass through other intermediate hosts (nodes) before reaching the actual
destination host. The primary tasks of this layer include addressing, sequencing
of packets, congestion control, error handling, and Internetworking. The protocol
data unit associated with this layer is referred to as a packet.
(iv) Transport Layer: This is layer 4 of the OSI model and is a host layer. The
transport layer is tasked with end-to-end error recovery and flow control to
achieve a transparent transfer of data between hosts. This layer is responsible for
keeping track of acknowledgments during variable-length data transfer between
hosts. In case of loss of data, or when no acknowledgment is received, the
transport layer ensures that the particular erroneous data segment is re-sent to
the receiving host. The protocol data unit associated with this layer is referred to
as a segment or datagram.
(v) Session Layer: This is the OSI model’s layer 5 and is a host layer. It is responsible
for establishing, controlling, and terminating of communication between
networked hosts. The session layer sees full utilization during operations such
as remote procedure calls and remote sessions. The protocol data unit associated
with this layer is referred to as data.
(vi) Presentation Layer: This layer is a host layer and layer 6 of the OSI model. It
is mainly responsible for data format conversions and encryption tasks such
that the syntactic compatibility of the data is maintained across the network, for
which it is also referred to as the syntax layer. The protocol data unit associated
with this layer is referred to as data.
(vii) Application Layer: This is layer 6 of the OSI model and is a host layer. It is
directly accessible by an end-user through software APIs (application program
interfaces) and terminals. Applications such as file transfers, FTP (file transfer
protocol), e-mails, and other such operations are initiated from this layer. The
application layer deals with user authentication, identification of communication
hosts, quality of service, and privacy. The protocol data unit associated with this
layer is referred to as data.

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12 Introduction to Internet of Things

A networked communication between two hosts following the OSI model is

shown in Figure 1.3. Table 1.2 summarizes the OSI layers and their features,
where PDU stands for protocol data unit.

Intermediate node

Host A Host B
Host layers

Application Application
Presentation Presentation
Session Session
Transport Transport
Media layers

Network Network Network Network

Data link Data link Data link Data link
Physical Physical Physical Physical

Physical medium communication

Figure 1.3 Networked communication between two hosts following the OSI model

Check yourself

Ethernet, FDDI, B8ZS, V.35, V.24, RJ45, PPP, FDDI, ATM, IEEE 802.5/ 802.2,
IEEE 802.3/802.2, HDLC, Frame Relay, AppleTalk DDP, IP, IPX, NFS, NetBios
names, RPC, SQL, ASCII, EBCDIC, TIFF, GIF, PICT, JPEG, MPEG, MIDI,
NFS, SNMP, Telnet, HTTP, FTP

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Table 1.2 Summary of the OSI layers and their features

Layer Name Location PDU Function Examples

1 Physical Media Symbol Communication over physical Ethernet, FDDI, B8ZS,
medium V.35, V.24, RJ45
2 Data link Media Frame Reliability of communication over IEEE 802.5/ 802.2,
physical medium IEEE 802.3/802.2, PPP,
HDLC, Frame Relay,
ATM, FDDI
3 Network Media Packet Structuring of data and routing DDP, IP, AppleTalk, IPX
between multiple nodes
4 Transport Host Segment Reliability of communication over SPX, TCP, UDP
networks or between hosts
5 Session Host Data Establishment, management, and NetBios names, NFS,
termination of remote sessions RPC, SQL
6 Presentation Host Data Syntactic conversion of data and Encryption, ASCII,
encryption MIDI, PICT, JPEG,
EBCDIC, TIFF, GIF,
MPEG
7 Application Host Data User identification, authentication, SNMP, Telnet, WWW
privacy, and quality of service browsers, HTTP, NFS,
FTP
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14 Introduction to Internet of Things

1.3.2 Internet protocol suite

The Internet protocol suite is yet another conceptual framework that provides levels
of abstraction for ease of understanding and development of communication and
networked systems on the Internet. However, the Internet protocol suite predates the
OSI model and provides only four levels of abstraction: 1) Link layer, 2) Internet layer,
3) transport layer, and 4) application layer. This collection of protocols is commonly
referred to as the TCP/IP protocol suite as the foundation technologies of this suite are
transmission control protocol (TCP) and Internet protocol (IP) [3], [4], [6]. The TCP/IP
protocol suite comprises the following four layers:

Points to ponder

The development of the TCP/IP protocol suite is originally attributed to DARPA,

which is part of the United States Department of Defence. The Internet
protocol suite or the TCP/IP protocol suite is sometimes also referred to as
the Department of Defence (DoD) model.

(i) Link Layer: The first and base layer of the TCP/IP protocol suite is also known as
the network interface layer. This layer is synonymous with the collective physical
and data link layer of the OSI model. It enables the transmission of TCP/IP
packets over the physical medium. According to its design principles, the link
layer is independent of the medium in use, frame format, and network access,
enabling it to be used with a wide range of technologies such as the Ethernet,
wireless LAN, and the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM).
(ii) Internet Layer: Layer 2 of the TCP/IP protocol suite is somewhat synonymous
to the network layer of the OSI model. It is responsible for addressing, address
translation, data packaging, data disassembly and assembly, routing, and packet
delivery tracking operations. Some core protocols associated with this layer
are address resolution protocol (ARP), Internet protocol (IP), Internet control
message protocol (ICMP), and Internet group management protocol (IGMP).
Traditionally, this layer was built upon IPv4, which is gradually shifting to IPv6,
enabling the accommodation of a much more significant number of addresses
and security measures.
(iii) Transport Layer: Layer 3 of the TCP/IP protocol suite is functionally
synonymous with the transport layer of the OSI model. This layer is tasked with
the functions of error control, flow control, congestion control, segmentation,
and addressing in an end-to-end manner; it is also independent of the underlying
network. Transmission control protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP)
are the core protocols upon which this layer is built, which in turn enables it
to have the choice of providing connection-oriented or connectionless services
between two or more hosts or networked devices.

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Basics of Networking 15

(iv) Application Layer: The functionalities of the application layer, layer 4, of the
TCP/IP protocol suite are synonymous with the collective functionalities of the
OSI model’s session, presentation, and application layers. This layer enables an
end-user to access the services of the underlying layers and defines the protocols
for the transfer of data. Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), file transfer protocol
(FTP), simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), domain name system (DNS),
routing information protocol (RIP), and simple network management protocol
(SNMP) are some of the core protocols associated with this layer.
A networked communication between two hosts following the TCP/IP model is
shown in Figure 1.4

Intermediate node

Host A Host B

Application Application

Transport Transport

Data link Internet Internet Data link

Physical Link Link Physical

Physical medium communication

Figure 1.4 Networked communication between two hosts following the TCP/IP suite

1.4 Addressing
Addressing in networked devices plays a crucial role in ensuring the delivery of
packets to the designated/intended receivers. The addressing scheme is synonymous
with postal addresses used in real-life scenarios. Addressing mechanisms can be
divided into two parts: one focusing on data link layer addressing, while the other
focuses on network layer addressing.

1.4.1 Data link layer addressing

Data link layer addressing deals with media access control (MAC) addresses of
devices, which work at the MAC sub-layer of the data link layer.

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22 Introduction to Internet of Things

packets are held back until M2 is received. Upon receiving M2, M2 and the held back
M3 packet are forwarded to the server’s application layer in the same sequence that it
was transmitted from the client’s transport layer. Application layer protocols such as
HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol) and HTTPS (hyper text transfer protocol secure)
rely on connection-oriented services for their operation. The popular transport layer
protocol, transmission control protocol (TCP), is a means of achieving connection-
oriented service. The features of TCP and UDP are compared in Table 1.3.

Table 1.3 Comparison of the features of TCP and UDP

Feature UDP TCP

Name User datagram protocol Transmission control protocol
Type of service Connectionless Connection-oriented
Reliability Low High
Time-criticality High Low
Packet sequencing No sequencing required High level of sequencing
involved
Speed of transfer High Relatively low
Error checking Present, but it simply Present; Errorenous packets
discards errorenous packets are re-transmitted from the
source
Error recovery Absent Present
Acknowledgment Absent Present; Done by means of
ACK frames
Handshake None Done by SYN, SYN-ACK,
ACK frames
Weight Lightweight protocol Heavyweight protocol
Usage SNMP, TFTP, RIP, VoIP, HTTP, HTTPs, FTP, SMTP,
DNS, DHCP Telnet

Check yourself

Client–server architecture, Connection-oriented service, Connection-less service

Summary
This chapter covered the very basics of networking, which would prove handy in
the following chapters covering the Internet of Things and its various associated
paradigms. We discussed different network types based on connection types,
topologies, and network reachability. We then outlined the two popular layered
network models: the ISO-OSI model and the TCP/IP protocol suite. Subsequently,

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Basics of Networking 23

we described the various addressing terminologies and provided a brief functional

outline of the IPv4 and IPv6 packet structure in this context. Finally, we concluded this
chapter with a sketch of the TCP/IP transport layer and provided a general working
outline on connectionless and connection-oriented services.

Exercises
(i) Differentiate between point-to-point and point-to-multipoint connection types.

(ii) Discuss the pros and cons of the following network topologies:

(a) Star
(b) Ring
(c) Bus
(d) Mesh

(iii) How are PANs different from LANs?

(iv) How are MANs different from WANs?

(v) What is the ISO-OSI model?

(vi) Discuss the highlights of the seven layers of the OSI stack.

(vii) What is the Internet protocol suite?

(viii) How is the Internet protocol suite different from the ISO-OSI model?

(ix) How is data link addressing different from network addressing?

(x) Describe the IPv4 header format.

(xi) Describe the IPv6 header format.

(xii) How is IPv4 different from IPv6?

(xiii) What is meant by connectionless service?

(xiv) How is connectionless service different from connection-oriented service?

References
[1] Forouzan, A.B. 2007. Data Communications and Networking (SIE). Tata McGraw-Hill
Education.
[2] LAN/MAN Standards Committee. 2002. IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area
Networks: Overview and Architecture (En linea). New York. USA: The Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers Inc.

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24 Introduction to Internet of Things

[3] Forouzan, B.A. and S.C. Fegan. 2006. TCP/IP Protocol Suite (Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill.
[4] Wilder, F. 1998. A Guide to the TCP/IP Protocol Suite. Artech House, Inc.
[5] Popescu-Zeletin, R. 1983. “Implementing the ISO-OSI Reference Model.” ACM SIGCOMM
Computer Communication Review 13(4): 56–66.
[6] Davies, J. 2004. “Architectural Overview of the TCP/IP Protocol Suite.” Microsoft Technet.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726993.aspx.

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Chapter 4
Emergence of IoT

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• Explain the chronology for the evolution of Internet of Things (IoT)
• Relate new concepts with concepts learned earlier to make a smooth transition to
IoT
• List the reasons for a prevailing universal networked paradigm, which is IoT
• Compare and correlate IoT with its precursors such as WSN, M2M, and CPS
• List the various enablers of IoT
• Understand IoT networking components and various networking topologies
• Recognize the unique features of IoT which set it apart from other similar
paradigms

4.1 Introduction
The modern-day advent of network-connected devices has given rise to the popular
paradigm of the Internet of Things (IoT). Each second, the present-day Internet allows
massively heterogeneous traffic through it. This network traffic consists of images,
videos, music, speech, text, numbers, binary codes, machine status, banking messages,
data from sensors and actuators, healthcare data, data from vehicles, home automation
system status and control messages, military communications, and many more. This
huge variety of data is generated from a massive number of connected devices, which
may be directly connected to the Internet or connected through gateway devices.
According to statistics from the Information Handling Services [7], the total number of
connected devices globally is estimated to be around 25 billion. This figure is projected

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76 Introduction to Internet of Things

to triple within a short span of 5 years by the year 2025. Figure 4.1 shows the global
trend and projection for connected devices worldwide.

Global connected IoT device trend

2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Billion devices installed

Figure 4.1 10-year global trend and projection of connected devices (statistics sourced from
the Information Handling Services [7])

The traffic flowing through the Internet can be attributed to legacy systems as well
as modern-day systems. The miniaturization of electronics and the cheap affordability
of technology is resulting in a surge of connected devices, which in turn is leading to
an explosion of traffic flowing through the Internet.

Points to ponder

“The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects that contain
embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal
states or the external environment.”
—Gartner Research [5]

One of the best examples of this explosion is the evolution of smartphones. In the
late 1990’s, cellular technology was still expensive and which could be afforded only
by a select few. Moreover, these particular devices had only the basic features of voice
calling, text messaging, and sharing of low-quality multimedia. Within the next 10
years, cellular technology had become common and easily affordable. With time, the
features of these devices evolved, and the dependence of various applications and
services on these gadgets on packet-based Internet accesses started rapidly increasing.
The present-day mobile phones (commonly referred to as smartphones) are more or
less Internet-based. The range of applications on these gadgets such as messaging,
video calling, e-mails, games, music streaming, video streaming, and others are
solely dependent on network provider allocated Internet access or WiFi. Most of

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Emergence of IoT 77

the present-day consumers of smartphone technology tend to carry more than one of
these units. In line with this trend, other connected devices have rapidly increased
in numbers resulting in the number of devices exceeding the number of humans
on Earth by multiple times. Now imagine that as all technologies and domains are
moving toward smart management of systems, the number of sensor/actuator-based
systems is rapidly increasing. With time, the need for location-independent access
to monitored and controlled systems keep on rising. This rise in number leads to a
further rise in the number of Internet-connected devices.
The original Internet intended for sending simple messages is now connected with
all sorts of “Things”. These things can be legacy devices, modern-day computers,
sensors, actuators, household appliances, toys, clothes, shoes, vehicles, cameras, and
anything which may benefit a product by increasing its scientific value, accuracy, or
even its cosmetic value.

Internet of Things

“In the 2000s, we are heading into a new era of ubiquity, where the ‘users’
of the Internet will be counted in billions and where humans may become the
minority as generators and receivers of traffic. Instead, most of the traffic will
flow between devices and all kinds of“Things”, thereby creating a much wider
and more complex Internet of Things.”
—ITU Internet Report 2005 [6]

IoT is an anytime, anywhere, and anything (as shown in Figure 4.2) network of
Internet-connected physical devices or systems capable of sensing an environment
and affecting the sensed environment intelligently. This is generally achieved
using low-power and low-form-factor embedded processors on-board the “things”
connected to the Internet. In other words, IoT may be considered to be made
up of connecting devices, machines, and tools; these things are made up of
sensors/actuators and processors, which connect to the Internet through wireless
technologies. Another school of thought also considers wired Internet access to be
inherent to the IoT paradigm. For the sake of harmony, in this book, we will consider
any technology enabling access to the Internet—be it wired or wireless—to be an
IoT enabling technology. However, most of the focus on the discussion of various
IoT enablers will be restricted to wireless IoT systems due to the much more severe
operating constraints and challenges faced by wireless devices as compared to wired
systems. Typically, IoT systems can be characterized by the following features [2]:
• Associated architectures, which are also efficient and scalable.
• No ambiguity in naming and addressing.
• Massive number of constrained devices, sleeping nodes, mobile devices, and
non-IP devices.
• Intermittent and often unstable connectivity.

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78 Introduction to Internet of Things

An
yw
he

ing
re
yth
An

IoT

Figure 4.2 The three characteristic features—anytime, anywhere, and anything—highlight the
robustness and dynamic nature of IoT

IoT is speculated to have achieved faster and higher technology acceptance as

compared to electricity and telephony. These speculations are not ill placed as evident
from the various statistics shown in Figures 4.3, 4.4, and 4.5.

Worldwide IoT spending

1200

1000

800
Billion USD

600

400

200

0
2017 2018 2020 2021

Figure 4.3 The global IoT spending across various organizations and industries and its
subsequent projection until the year 2021 (sourced from International Data
Corporation [1])

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Emergence of IoT 79

Figure 4.4 The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the IoT market (statistics sourced
from [1])

IoT market share

13.10%

7.40%

63.20% 6.70%

5.60%
5.10%

Manufacturing Logistics
Asset management Smart grid
Smart building Others

Figure 4.5 The IoT market share across various industries (statistics sourced from International
Data Corporation [8])

According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report, worldwide spending

on IoT is reported to have crossed USD 700 billion. The projected spending on IoT-
based technologies worldwide is estimated to be about USD 1.1 trillion [1]. Similarly,

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80 Introduction to Internet of Things

the compounded annual growth rate of IoT between the years 2016 and 2021, as
depicted in Figure 4.4, shows that the majority of the market share is captured by
consumer goods, which is closely followed by insurance and healthcare industries.
However, the combined industrial share of IoT growth (both cross and resource)
is 32% of the collective market, which is again more than that of the consumer
market. In continuation, Figure 4.5 shows the IoT market share of various sectors. The
manufacturing, logistics, and asset management sectors were purported to be the
largest receivers of IoT-linked investments in 2017 [8].

4.2 Evolution of IoT

The IoT, as we see it today, is a result of a series of technological paradigm shifts
over a few decades. The technologies that laid the foundation of connected systems
by achieving easy integration to daily lives, popular public acceptance, and massive
benefits by using connected solutions can be considered as the founding solutions for
the development of IoT. Figure 4.6 shows the sequence of technological advancements
for shaping the IoT as it is today. These sequence of technical developments toward
the emergence of IoT are described in brief:
Web Smart lock Connected vehicles Smart dust UAVs

ATM Smart meters Connected healthcare Smart cities Smart factories

Figure 4.6 The sequence of technological developments leading to the shaping of the modern-
day IoT

• ATM: ATMs or automated teller machines are cash distribution machines, which
are linked to a user’s bank account. ATMs dispense cash upon verification of
the identity of a user and their account through a specially coded card. The
central concept behind ATMs was the availability of financial transactions even
when banks were closed beyond their regular work hours. These ATMs were
ubiquitous money dispensers. The first ATM became operational and connected
online for the first time in 1974.
• Web: World Wide Web is a global information sharing and communication
platform. The Web became operational for the first time in 1991. Since then, it has
been massively responsible for the many revolutions in the field of computing
and communication.
• Smart Meters: The earliest smart meter was a power meter, which became
operational in early 2000. These power meters were capable of communicating
remotely with the power grid. They enabled remote monitoring of subscribers’
power usage and eased the process of billing and power allocation from grids.

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• Digital Locks: Digital locks can be considered as one of the earlier attempts at
connected home-automation systems. Present-day digital locks are so robust
that smartphones can be used to control them. Operations such as locking and
unlocking doors, changing key codes, including new members in the access lists,
can be easily performed, and that too remotely using smartphones.
• Connected Healthcare: Here, healthcare devices connect to hospitals, doctors,
and relatives to alert them of medical emergencies and take preventive measures.
The devices may be simple wearable appliances, monitoring just the heart
rate and pulse of the wearer, as well as regular medical devices and monitors
in hospitals. The connected nature of these systems makes the availability of
medical records and test results much faster, cheaper, and convenient for both
patients as well as hospital authorities.
• Connected Vehicles: Connected vehicles may communicate to the Internet or
with other vehicles, or even with sensors and actuators contained within it.
These vehicles self-diagnose themselves and alert owners about system failures.
• Smart Cities: This is a city-wide implementation of smart sensing, monitoring,
and actuation systems. The city-wide infrastructure communicating amongst
themselves enables unified and synchronized operations and information
dissemination. Some of the facilities which may benefit are parking,
transportation, and others.
• Smart Dust: These are microscopic computers. Smaller than a grain of sand each,
they can be used in numerous beneficial ways, where regular computers cannot
operate. For example, smart dust can be sprayed to measure chemicals in the soil
or even to diagnose problems in the human body.
• Smart Factories: These factories can monitor plant processes, assembly lines,
distribution lines, and manage factory floors all on their own. The reduction
in mishaps due to human errors in judgment or unoptimized processes is
drastically reduced.
• UAVs: UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles have emerged as robust public-
domain solutions tasked with applications ranging from agriculture, surveys,
surveillance, deliveries, stock maintenance, asset management, and other tasks.
The present-day IoT spans across various domains and applications. The major
highlight of this paradigm is its ability to function as a cross-domain technology
enabler. Multiple domains can be supported and operated upon simultaneously over
IoT-based platforms. Support for legacy technologies and standalone paradigms,
along with modern developments, makes IoT quite robust and economical for
commercial, industrial, as well as consumer applications. IoT is being used in
vivid and diverse areas such as smart parking, smartphone detection, traffic
congestion, smart lighting, waste management, smart roads, structural health,
urban noise maps, river floods, water flow, silos stock calculation, water leakages,
radiation levels, explosive and hazardous gases, perimeter access control, snow

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level monitoring, liquid presence, forest fire detection, air pollution, smart grid,
tank level, photovoltaic installations, NFC (near-field communications) payments,
intelligent shopping applications, landslide and avalanche prevention, early detection
of earthquakes, supply chain control, smart product management, and others.
Figure 4.7 shows the various technological interdependencies of IoT with other
domains and networking paradigms such as M2M, CPS, the Internet of environment
(IoE), the Internet of people (IoP), and Industry 4.0. Each of these networking
paradigms is a massive domain on its own, but the omnipresent nature of IoT implies
that these domains act as subsets of IoT. The paradigms are briefly discussed here:

Scale People

M2M IoP

IoP
CPS Industry 4.0
Au s
ton si
om nthe
y IoE Sy

Environment

Figure 4.7 The interdependence and reach of IoT over various application domains and
networking paradigms

(i) M2M: The M2M or the machine-to-machine paradigm signifies a system

of connected machines and devices, which can talk amongst themselves
without human intervention. The communication between the machines can
be for updates on machine status (stocks, health, power status, and others),
collaborative task completion, overall knowledge of the systems and the
environment, and others.
(ii) CPS: The CPS or the cyber physical system paradigm insinuates a closed control
loop—from sensing, processing, and finally to actuation—using a feedback
mechanism. CPS helps in maintaining the state of an environment through the
feedback control loop, which ensures that until the desired state is attained, the
system keeps on actuating and sensing. Humans have a simple supervisory role
in CPS-based systems; most of the ground-level operations are automated.

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(iii) IoE: The IoE paradigm is mainly concerned with minimizing and even
reversing the ill-effects of the permeation of Internet-based technologies on the
environment [3]. The major focus areas of this paradigm include smart and
sustainable farming, sustainable and energy-efficient habitats, enhancing the
energy efficiency of systems and processes, and others. In brief, we can safely
assume that any aspect of IoT that concerns and affects the environment, falls
under the purview of IoE.
(iv) Industry 4.0: Industry 4.0 is commonly referred to as the fourth industrial
revolution pertaining to digitization in the manufacturing industry. The previous
revolutions chronologically dealt with mechanization, mass production, and the
industrial revolution, respectively. This paradigm strongly puts forward the
concept of smart factories, where machines talk to one another without much
human involvement based on a framework of CPS and IoT. The digitization
and connectedness in Industry 4.0 translate to better resource and workforce
management, optimization of production time and resources, and better upkeep
and lifetimes of industrial systems.
(v) IoP: IoP is a new technological movement on the Internet which aims to
decentralize online social interactions, payments, transactions, and other tasks
while maintaining confidentiality and privacy of its user’s data. A famous site
for IoP states that as the introduction of the Bitcoin has severely limited the
power of banks and governments, the acceptance of IoP will limit the power
of corporations, governments, and their spy agencies [4].

4.2.1 IoT versus M2M

M2M or the machine-to-machine paradigm refers to communications and interactions
between various machines and devices. These interactions can be enabled through a
cloud computing infrastructure, a server, or simply a local network hub. M2M collects
data from machinery and sensors, while also enabling device management and device
interaction. Telecommunication services providers introduced the term M2M, and
technically emphasized on machine interactions via one or more communication
networks (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, satellite, public networks). M2M is part of the IoT and is
considered as one of its sub-domains, as shown in Figure 4.7. M2M standards occupy
a core place in the IoT landscape. However, in terms of operational and functional
scope, IoT is vaster than M2M and comprises a broader range of interactions
such as the interactions between devices/things, things, and people, things and
applications, and people with applications; M2M enables the amalgamation of
workflows comprising such interactions within IoT. Internet connectivity is central
to the IoT theme but is not necessarily focused on the use of telecom networks.

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84 Introduction to Internet of Things

4.2.2 IoT versus CPS

Cyber physical systems (CPS) encompasses sensing, control, actuation, and feedback
as a complete package. In other words, a digital twin is attached to a CPS-based
system. As mentioned earlier, a digital twin is a virtual system–model relation, in
which the system signifies a physical system or equipment or a piece of machinery,
while the model represents the mathematical model or representation of the physical
system’s behavior or operation. Many a time, a digital twin is used parallel to a
physical system, especially in CPS as it allows for the comparison of the physical
system’s output, performance, and health. Based on feedback from the digital twin,
a physical system can be easily given corrective directions/commands to obtain
desirable outputs. In contrast, the IoT paradigm does not compulsorily need feedback
or a digital twin system. IoT is more focused on networking than controls. Some of the
constituent sub-systems in an IoT environment (such as those formed by CPS-based
instruments and networks) may include feedback and controls too. In this light, CPS
may be considered as one of the sub-domains of IoT, as shown in Figure 4.7.

4.2.3 IoT versus WoT

From a developer’s perspective, the Web of Things (WoT) paradigm enables access
and control over IoT resources and applications. These resources and applications
are generally built using technologies such as HTML 5.0, JavaScript, Ajax, PHP, and
others. REST (representational state transfer) is one of the key enablers of WoT. The use
of RESTful principles and RESTful APIs (application program interface) enables both
developers and deployers to benefit from the recognition, acceptance, and maturity of
existing web technologies without having to redesign and redeploy solutions from
scratch. Still, designing and building the WoT paradigm has various adaptability
and security challenges, especially when trying to build a globally uniform WoT. As
IoT is focused on creating networks comprising objects, things, people, systems, and
applications, which often do not consider the unification aspect and the limitations of
the Internet, the need for WoT, which aims to integrate the various focus areas of IoT
into the existing Web is really invaluable. Technically, WoT can be thought of as an
application layer-based hat added over the network layer. However, the scope of IoT
applications is much broader; IoT also which includes non-IP-based systems that are
not accessible through the web.

4.3 Enabling IoT and the Complex Interdependence of Technologies

IoT is a paradigm built upon complex interdependencies of technologies (both legacy
and modern), which occur at various planes of this paradigm. Regarding Figure 4.8,
we can divide the IoT paradigm into four planes: services, local connectivity, global
connectivity, and processing. If we consider a bottom-up view, the services offered fall

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under the control and purview of service providers. The service plane is composed of
two parts: 1) things or devices and 2) low-power connectivity.
Processing

IoT tools
Conversion Learning Algorithm Visualization
connectivity
Global

IoT management
Remote
Data-centers Web Cloud
server
connectivity
Local

Gateway Proxy Router Switch

Zigbee Rfid Bluetooth 6LoWPAN Insteon

Service provider

Ethernet WiFi LoRA Dash Cellular

Services

Figure 4.8 The IoT planes, various enablers of IoT, and the complex interdependencies among
them

Typically, the services offered in this layer are a combination of things and low-
power connectivity. For example, any IoT application requires the basic setup of
sensing, followed by rudimentary processing (often), and a low-power, low-range
network, which is mainly built upon the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. The things may
be wearables, computers, smartphones, household appliances, smart glasses, factory

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86 Introduction to Internet of Things

machinery, vending machines, vehicles, UAVs, robots, and other such contraptions
(which may even be just a sensor). The immediate low-power connectivity, which is
responsible for connecting the things in local implementation, may be legacy protocols
such as WiFi, Ethernet, or cellular. In contrast, modern-day technologies are mainly
wireless and often programmable such as Zigbee, RFID, Bluetooth, 6LoWPAN, LoRA,
DASH, Insteon, and others. The range of these connectivity technologies is severely
restricted; they are responsible for the connectivity between the things of the IoT and
the nearest hub or gateway to access the Internet.
The local connectivity is responsible for distributing Internet access to multiple
local IoT deployments. This distribution may be on the basis of the physical placement
of the things, on the basis of the application domains, or even on the basis of providers
of services. Services such as address management, device management, security,
sleep scheduling, and others fall within the scope of this plane. For example, in a
smart home environment, the first floor and the ground floor may have local IoT
implementations, which have various things connected to the network via low-power,
low-range connectivity technologies. The traffic from these two floors merges into a
single router or a gateway. The total traffic intended for the Internet from a smart home
leaves through a single gateway or router, which may be assigned a single global IP
address (for the whole house). This helps in the significant conservation of already
limited global IP addresses. The local connectivity plane falls under the purview of
IoT management as it directly deals with strategies to use/reuse addresses based on
things and applications. The modern-day “edge computing” paradigm is deployed in
conjunction with these first two planes: services and local connectivity.
In continuation, the penultimate plane of global connectivity plays a significant
role in enabling IoT in the real sense by allowing for worldwide implementations and
connectivity between things, users, controllers, and applications. This plane also falls
under the purview of IoT management as it decides how and when to store data,
when to process it, when to forward it, and in which form to forward it. The Web,
data-centers, remote servers, Cloud, and others make up this plane. The paradigm of
“fog computing” lies between the planes of local connectivity and global connectivity.
It often serves to manage the load of global connectivity infrastructure by offloading
the computation nearer to the source of the data itself, which reduces the traffic load
on the global Internet.
The final plane of processing can be considered as a top-up of the basic IoT
networking framework. The continuous rise in the usefulness and penetration of
IoT in various application areas such as industries, transportation, healthcare, and
others is the result of this plane. The members in this plane may be termed as
IoT tools, simply because they wring-out useful and human-readable information
from all the raw data that flows from various IoT devices and deployments. The
various sub-domains of this plane include intelligence, conversion (data and format
conversion, and data cleaning), learning (making sense of temporal and spatial data
patterns), cognition (recognizing patterns and mapping it to already known patterns),
algorithms (various control and monitoring algorithms), visualization (rendering

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numbers and strings in the form of collective trends, graphs, charts, and projections),
and analysis (estimating the usefulness of the generated information, making sense
of the information with respect to the application and place of data generation, and
estimating future trends based on past and present patterns of information obtained).
Various computing paradigms such as “big data”, “machine Learning”, and others,
fall within the scope of this domain.

4.4 IoT Networking Components

An IoT implementation is composed of several components, which may vary with
their application domains. Various established works such as that by Savolainen et al.
[2] generally outline five broad categories of IoT networking components. However,
we outline the broad components that come into play during the establishment of
any IoT network, into six types: 1) IoT node, 2) IoT router, 3) IoT LAN, 4) IoT WAN,
5) IoT gateway, and 6) IoT proxy. A typical IoT implementation from a networking
perspective is shown in Figure 4.9. The individual components are briefly described
here:

LG-3 LG-4

LG-2
IoT Firewall
wan
IoT
LG-1 Internet
proxy

IoT
router IoT
gateway IoT IoT
router router
IoT IoT IoT
lan-1 LU-1 lan-2 LU-1 lan-3 LU-1

LU-5 LU-2 LU-5 LU-2 LU-5 LU-2

LU-4 LU-3 LU-4 LU-3 LU-4 LU-3

Figure 4.9 A typical IoT network ecosystem highlighting the various networking components—
from IoT nodes to the Internet

(i) IoT Node: These are the networking devices within an IoT LAN. Each of
these devices is typically made up of a sensor, a processor, and a radio, which
communicates with the network infrastructure (either within the LAN or outside
it). The nodes may be connected to other nodes inside a LAN directly or by

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88 Introduction to Internet of Things

means of a common gateway for that LAN. Connections outside the LAN are
through gateways and proxies.
(ii) IoT Router: An I oT router is a piece of networking equipment that is primarily
tasked with the routing of packets between various entities in the IoT network;
it keeps the traffic flowing correctly within the network. A router can be
repurposed as a gateway by enhancing its functionalities.
(iii) IoT LAN: The local area network (LAN) enables local connectivity within the
purview of a single gateway. Typically, they consist of short-range connectivity
technologies. IoT LANs may or may not be connected to the Internet. Generally,
they are localized within a building or an organization.
(iv) IoT WAN: The wide area network (WAN) connects various network segments
such as LANs. They are typically organizationally and geographically wide,
with their operational range lying between a few kilometers to hundreds of
kilometers. IoT WANs connect to the Internet and enable Internet access to the
segments they are connecting.
(v) IoT Gateway: An IoT gateway is simply a router connecting the IoT LAN to a
WAN or the Internet. Gateways can implement several LANs and WANs. Their
primary task is to forward packets between LANs and WANs, and the IP layer
using only layer 3.
(vi) IoT Proxy: Proxies actively lie on the application layer and performs application
layer functions between IoT nodes and other entities. Typically, application layer
proxies are a means of providing security to the network entities under it ; it
helps to extend the addressing range of its network.

In Figure 4.9, various IoT nodes within an IoT LAN are configured to to one another
as well as talk to the IoT router whenever they are in the range of it. The devices
have locally unique (LU-x) device identifiers. These identifiers are unique only within
a LAN. There is a high chance that these identifiers may be repeated in a new LAN.
Each IoT LAN has its own unique identifier, which is denoted by IoT LAN-x in Figure
4.9. A router acts as a connecting link between various LANs by forwarding messages
from the LANs to the IoT gateway or the IoT proxy. As the proxy is an application
layer device, it is additionally possible to include features such as firewalls, packet
filters, and other security measures besides the regular routing operations. Various
gateways connect to an IoT WAN, which links these devices to the Internet. There
may be cases where the gateway or the proxy may directly connect to the Internet.
This network may be wired or wireless; however, IoT deployments heavily rely on
wireless solutions. This is mainly attributed to the large number of devices that are
integrated into the network; wireless technology is the only feasible and neat-enough
solution to avoid the hassles of laying wires and dealing with the restricted mobility
rising out of wired connections.

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(ii) Prefix Changes within WANs: Figure 4.12(b) abstracts the addressing strategy
for prefix changes within WANs. In case the WAN changes its global prefix,
the network entities underneath it must be resilient to change and function
normally. The address allocation is hence delegated to entities such as gateways
and proxies, which make use of ULAs to manage the network within the WAN.

(iii) Remote Anchoring: Figure 4.12(c) abstracts the addressing strategy using a
remote anchoring point. This is applicable in certain cases which require that
the IoT node’s global addresses are maintained and not affected by its mobility
or even the change in network prefixes. Although a bit expensive to implement,
this strategy of having a remote anchoring point from which the IoT nodes obtain
their global addresses through tunneling ensures that the nodes are resilient to
changes and are quite stable. Even if the node’s original network’s (LAN) prefix
changes from A to B, the node’s global address remains immune to this change.

Check yourself

DHCP, DHCPv6, SLAAC, MIPv6, PMIPv6, DS-MIPv6

Summary
This chapter covered an overview of the IoT paradigm. Starting from the variations
in global market trends and the rapidly expanding trend toward connected systems
and devices, to the actual market capture of various IoT solutions in diverse
domains, this chapter highlights the importance of IoT in the modern world.
Subsequently, the emergence of IoT from its precursors, the IoT ecosystem, and
thematic differences between IoT and similar technologies (M2M, CPS, WoT) are
outlined. The complex technological interdependence between technologies and
paradigms towards enabling IoT is described in the form of planes of functionalities.
Keeping in tune with the networking theme of this book, the various networking
entities in an IoT ecosystem are described, which is naturally followed by various IoT
deployment topology classes and addressing schemes. This chapter concludes with a
discussion on IoT node address management during node mobility.

Exercises
(i) What is IoT?
(ii) What is smart dust?
(iii) Differentiate between IoT and M2M.
(iv) Differentiate between IoT and WoT.

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96 Introduction to Internet of Things

(v) What is Web of Things (WoT)?

(vi) What are the various IoT connectivity terminologies?
(vii) Differentiate between an IoT proxy and an IoT gateway.
(viii) What is gateway prefix allotment?
(ix) How are locally unique (LU) addresses different from globally unique (GU)
addresses?
(x) How is mobility handled in IoT networks?
(xi) What is the function of a remote anchor point in IoT networks?
(xii) What is tunneling?
(xiii) What is multihoming in IoT networks?

References
[1] International Data Corporation. 2017. “IDC Forecasts Worldwide Spending on the
Internet of Things to Reach USD 772 Billion in 2018.” https://www.idc.com/getdoc.
jsp?containerId=prUS43295217.
[2] Savolainen, T., J. Soininen, and B. Silverajan. 2013. “IPv6 Addressing Strategies for IoT.”
IEEE Sensors Journal 13(10): 3511–3519.
[3] Malek, M. 2017. “The Development of the Internet of Environment.” https://www.future-
processing.com/blog/the-development-of-the-internet-of-environment/.
[4] Brans, Cristiaan. 2018. “Internet Of People: Building A New Internet.”
https://iop.global/.
[5] Gartner Research. 2016. “Internet of Things Information Handling Services.”
https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/internet-of-things/.
[6] International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 2005. ITU Internet Reports 2005:
The Internet of Things: Executive Summary. https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/tunis/
newsroom/stats/The-Internet-of-Things-2005.pdf.
[7] IHS. “IoT Platforms: Enabling the Internet of Things.” https://ihsmarkit.com/industry/
telecommunications.html.
[8] International Data Corporation. 2016. “IDC Says Worldwide Spending on the Internet
of Things Forecast to Reach Nearly USD 1.4 Trillion in 2021.” https://www.idc.com/
getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS42799917.

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Chapter 5
IoT Sensing and Actuation

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• List the salient features of transducers
• Differentiate between sensors and actuators
• Characterize sensors and distinguish between types of sensors
• List the multi-faceted considerations associated with sensing
• Characterize actuators and distinguish between types of actuators
• List the multi-faceted considerations associated with actuation

5.1 Introduction
A major chunk of IoT applications involves sensing in one form or the other. Almost
all the applications in IoT—be it a consumer IoT, an industrial IoT, or just plain
hobby-based deployments of IoT solutions—sensing forms the first step. Incidentally,
actuation forms the final step in the whole operation of IoT application deployment
in a majority of scenarios. The basic science of sensing and actuation is based on
the process of transduction. Transduction is the process of energy conversion from
one form to another. A transducer is a physical means of enabling transduction.
Transducers take energy in any form (for which it is designed)—electrical, mechanical,
chemical, light, sound, and others—and convert it into another, which may be
electrical, mechanical, chemical, light, sound, and others. Sensors and actuators
are deemed as transducers. For example, in a public announcement (PA) system,
a microphone (input device) converts sound waves into electrical signals, which is
amplified by an amplifier system (a process). Finally, a loudspeaker (output device)
outputs this into audible sounds by converting the amplified electrical signals back

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into sound waves. Table 5.1 outlines the basic terminological differences between
transducers, sensors, and actuators.

Table 5.1 Basic outline of the differences between transducers, sensors, and actuators

Parameters Transducers Sensors Actuators

Definition Converts Converts various forms of Converts electrical
energy from energy into electrical signals. signals into
one form to various forms of
another. energy, typically
mechanical
energy.
Domain Can be used It is an input transducer. It is an output
to represent a transducer.
sensor as well
as an actuator.
Function Can work as Used for quantifying Used for
a sensor or an environmental stimuli into converting signals
actuator but not signals. into proportional
simultaneously. mechanical or
electrical outputs.
Examples Any sensor or Humidity sensors, Temperature Motors (convert
actuator sensors, Anemometers electrical energy
(measures flow velocity), to rotary motion),
Manometers (measures fluid Force heads
pressure), Accelerometers (which impose
(measures the acceleration of a a force), Pumps
body), Gas sensors (measures (which convert
concentration of specific gas or rotary motion of
gases), and others shafts into either a
pressure or a fluid
velocity).

5.2 Sensors
Sensors are devices that can measure, or quantify, or respond to the ambient changes
in their environment or within the intended zone of their deployment. They generate
responses to external stimuli or physical phenomenon through characterization of the
input functions (which are these external stimuli) and their conversion into typically
electrical signals. For example, heat is converted to electrical signals in a temperature
sensor, or atmospheric pressure is converted to electrical signals in a barometer. A

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sensor is only sensitive to the measured property (e.g., a temperature sensor only
senses the ambient temperature of a room). It is insensitive to any other property
besides what it is designed to detect (e.g., a temperature sensor does not bother about
light or pressure while sensing the temperature). Finally, a sensor does not influence
the measured property (e.g., measuring the temperature does not reduce or increase
the temperature). Figure 5.1 shows the simple outline of a sensing task. Here, a
temperature sensor keeps on checking an environment for changes. In the event of a
fire, the temperature of the environment goes up. The temperature sensor notices this
change in the temperature of the room and promptly communicates this information
to a remote monitor via the processor.

Environment Sensing Processing Monitoring

Enent: Fire Temperature Sensor node

sensor

Figure 5.1 The outline of a simple sensing operation

The various sensors can be classified based on: 1) power requirements, 2) sensor
output, and 3) property to be measured.
• Power Requirements: The way sensors operate decides the power requirements
that must be provided for an IoT implementation. Some sensors need to be
provided with separate power sources for them to function, whereas some
sensors do not require any power sources. Depending on the requirements of
power, sensors can be of two types.
(i) Active: Active sensors do not require an external circuitry or mechanism to
provide it with power. It directly responds to the external stimuli from its
ambient environment and converts it into an output signal. For example, a
photodiode converts light into electrical impulses.
(ii) Passive: Passive sensors require an external mechanism to power them
up. The sensed properties are modulated with the sensor’s inherent
characteristics to generate patterns in the output of the sensor. For example,
a thermistor’s resistance can be detected by applying voltage difference
across it or passing a current through it.
• Output: The output of a sensor helps in deciding the additional components
to be integrated with an IoT node or system. Typically, almost all modern-day
processors are digital; digital sensors can be directly integrated to the processors.

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However, the integration of analog sensors to these digital processors or IoT

nodes requires additional interfacing mechanisms such as analog to digital
converters (ADC), voltage level converters, and others. Sensors are broadly
divided into two types, depending on the type of output generated from these
sensors, as follows.

(i) Analog: Analog sensors generate an output signal or voltage, which is

proportional (linearly or non-linearly) to the quantity being measured and is
continuous in time and amplitude. Physical quantities such as temperature,
speed, pressure, displacement, strain, and others are all continuous
and categorized as analog quantities. For example, a thermometer or a
thermocouple can be used for measuring the temperature of a liquid (e.g., in
household water heaters). These sensors continuously respond to changes
in the temperature of the liquid.
(ii) Digital: These sensors generate the output of discrete time digital
representation (time, or amplitude, or both) of a quantity being measured,
in the form of output signals or voltages. Typically, binary output signals in
the form of a logic 1 or a logic 0 for ON or OFF, respectively are associated
with digital sensors. The generated discrete (non-continuous) values may
be output as a single “bit” (serial transmission), eight of which combine to
produce a single “byte” output (parallel transmission) in digital sensors.

• Measured Property: The property of the environment being measured by

the sensors can be crucial in deciding the number of sensors in an IoT
implementation. Some properties to be measured do not show high spatial
variations and can be quantified only based on temporal variations in the
measured property, such as ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, and
others. Whereas some properties to be measured show high spatial as well
as temporal variations such as sound, image, and others. Depending on the
properties to be measured, sensors can be of two types.

(i) Scalar: Scalar sensors produce an output proportional to the magnitude

of the quantity being measured. The output is in the form of a signal or
voltage. Scalar physical quantities are those where only the magnitude of
the signal is sufficient for describing or characterizing the phenomenon and
information generation. Examples of such measurable physical quantities
include color, pressure, temperature, strain, and others. A thermometer or
thermocouple is an example of a scalar sensor that has the ability to detect
changes in ambient or object temperatures (depending on the sensor’s
configuration). Factors such as changes in sensor orientation or direction
do not affect these sensors (typically).
(ii) Vector: Vector sensors are affected by the magnitude as well as the direction
and/or orientation of the property they are measuring. Physical quantities
such as velocity and images that require additional information besides

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their magnitude for completely categorizing a physical phenomenon are

categorized as vector quantities. Measuring such quantities are undertaken
using vector sensors. For example, an electronic gyroscope, which is
commonly found in all modern aircraft, is used for detecting the changes
in orientation of the gyroscope with respect to the Earth’s orientation along
all three axes.

Points to ponder

A sensor node is made up of a combination of sensor/sensors, a processor unit, a

radio unit, and a power unit. The nodes are capable of sensing the environment
they are set to measure and communicate the information to other sensor nodes
or a remote server. Typically, a sensor node should have low-power requirements
and be wireless. This enables them to be deployed in a vast range of scenarios
and environments without the constant need for changing their power sources
or managing wires. The wireless nature of sensor nodes would also allow them
to be freely relocatable and deployed in large numbers without bothering about
managing wires. The functional outline of a typical IoT sensor node is shown in
Figure 5.2.

DC AC

Light AC-DC Converter

WiFi
Power
Temp. Bluetooth
Radio

Force Zigbee
ADC

Position Processor LoRa

Sensor

Speed RFID/NFC

Pressure Z-Wave
Actuator
(Optional)
Chemical GSM/3G/5G
Interface

Pneumatic Hyderaulic

Electrical Mechanical

Figure 5.2 The functional blocks of a typical sensor node in IoT

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102 Introduction to Internet of Things

Figure 5.3 shows some commercially available sensors used for sensing applications.

(a) Camera sensor (b) Color sensor (c) Compass and (d) Current sensor (e) Digital temperature
barometer and humidity sensor

(f) Flame sensor (g) Gas sensor (h) Infrared sensor (i) Rainfall sensor (j) Ultrasonic
distance
measurement
sensor

Figure 5.3 Some common commercially available sensors used for IoT-based sensing applications

5.3 Sensor Characteristics

All sensors can be defined by their ability to measure or capture a certain phenomenon
and report them as output signals to various other systems. However, even within the
same sensor type and class, sensors can be characterized by their ability to sense the
phenomenon based on the following three fundamental properties.
• Sensor Resolution: The smallest change in the measurable quantity that a sensor
can detect is referred to as the resolution of a sensor. For digital sensors, the
smallest change in the digital output that the sensor is capable of quantifying is
its sensor resolution. The more the resolution of a sensor, the more accurate is the
precision. A sensor’s accuracy does not depend upon its resolution. For example,
a temperature sensor A can detect up to 0.5◦ C changes in temperature; whereas
another sensor B can detect up to 0.25◦ C changes in temperature. Therefore, the
resolution of sensor B is higher than the resolution of sensor A.
• Sensor Accuracy: The accuracy of a sensor is the ability of that sensor to measure
the environment of a system as close to its true measure as possible. For example,
a weight sensor detects the weight of a 100 kg mass as 99.98 kg. We can say that
this sensor is 99.98% accurate, with an error rate of ±0.02%.
• Sensor Precision: The principle of repeatability governs the precision of a sensor.
Only if, upon multiple repetitions, the sensor is found to have the same error

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rate, can it be deemed as highly precise. For example, consider if the same
weight sensor described earlier reports measurements of 98.28 kg, 100.34 kg, and
101.11 kg upon three repeat measurements for a mass of actual weight of 100 kg.
Here, the sensor precision is not deemed high because of significant variations in
the temporal measurements for the same object under the same conditions.

Points to ponder

The more the resolution of a sensor, the more accurate is the precision. A sensor’s
accuracy does not depend upon its resolution.

5.4 Sensorial Deviations

In this section, we will discuss the various sensorial deviations that are considered as
errors in sensors. Most of the sensing in IoT is non-critical, where minor deviations
in sensorial outputs seldom change the nature of the undertaken tasks. However,
some critical applications of IoT, such as healthcare, industrial process monitoring,
and others, do require sensors with high-quality measurement capabilities. As the
quality of the measurement obtained from a sensor is dependent on a large number of
factors, there are a few primary considerations that must be incorporated during the
sensing of critical systems.
In the event of a sensor’s output signal going beyond its designed maximum and
minimum capacity for measurement, the sensor output is truncated to its maximum
or minimum value, which is also the sensor’s limits. The measurement range between
a sensor’s characterized minimum and maximum values is also referred to as the full-
scale range of that sensor. Under real conditions, the sensitivity of a sensor may differ
from the value specified for that sensor leading to sensitivity error. This deviation is
mostly attributed to sensor fabrication errors and its calibration.
If the output of a sensor differs from the actual value to be measured by a constant,
the sensor is said to have an offset error or bias. For example, while measuring an actual
temperature of 0◦ C, a temperature sensor outputs 1.1◦ C every time. In this case, the
sensor is said to have an offset error or bias of 1.1◦ C.
Similarly, some sensors have a non-linear behavior. If a sensor’s transfer function
(TF) deviates from a straight line transfer function, it is referred to as its non-linearity.
The amount a sensor’s actual output differs from the ideal TF behavior over the full
range of the sensor quantifies its behavior. It is denoted as the percentage of the
sensor’s full range. Most sensors have linear behavior. If the output signal of a sensor
changes slowly and independently of the measured property, this behavior of the
sensor’s output is termed as drift. Physical changes in the sensor or its material may
result in long-term drift, which can span over months or years. Noise is a temporally
varying random deviation of signals.

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In contrast, if a sensor’s output varies/deviates due to deviations in the sensor’s

previous input values, it is referred to as hysteresis error. The present output of
the sensor depends on the past input values provided to the sensor. Typically, the
phenomenon of hysteresis can be observed in analog sensors, magnetic sensors, and
during heating of metal strips. One way to check for hysteresis error is to check how
the sensor’s output changes when we first increase, then decrease the input values
to the sensor over its full range. It is generally denoted as a positive and negative
percentage variation of the full-range of that sensor.
Focusing on digital sensors, if the digital output of a sensor is an approximation
of the measured property, it induces quantization error. This error can be defined as
the difference between the actual analog signal and its closest digital approximation
during the sampling stage of the analog to digital conversion. Similarly, dynamic
errors caused due to mishandling of sampling frequencies can give rise to aliasing
errors. Aliasing leads to different signals of varying frequencies to be represented as
a single signal in case the sampling frequency is not correctly chosen, resulting in the
input signal becoming a multiple of the sampling rate.
Finally, the environment itself plays a crucial role in inducing sensorial deviations.
Some sensors may be prone to external influences, which may not be directly linked
to the property being measured by the sensor. This sensitivity of the sensor may lead
to deviations in its output values. For example, as most sensors are semiconductor-
based, they are influenced by the temperature of their environment.

5.5 Sensing Types

Sensing can be broadly divided into four different categories based on the nature
of the environment being sensed and the physical sensors being used to do so
(Figure 5.4): 1) scalar sensing, 2) multimedia sensing, 3) hybrid sensing, and 4) virtual
sensing—[2].

5.5.1 Scalar sensing

Scalar sensing encompasses the sensing of features that can be quantified simply by
measuring changes in the amplitude of the measured values with respect to time [3].
Quantities such as ambient temperature, current, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, light,
humidity, flux, and others are considered as scalar values as they normally do not have
a directional or spatial property assigned with them. Simply measuring the changes
in their values with passing time provides enough information about these quantities.
The sensors used for measuring these scalar quantities are referred to as scalar sensors,
and the act is known as scalar sensing. Figures 5.3(b), 5.3(d), 5.3(e), 5.3(f), 5.3(g), 5.3(h),
5.3(i), and 5.3(j) show scalar sensors. A simple scalar temperature sensing of a fire
detection event is shown in Figure 5.4(a).

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IoT Sensing and Actuation 105

(a) Scalar sensing (b) Multimedia sensing

(c) Hybrid sensing (d) Virtual sensing

Figure 5.4 The different sensing types commonly encountered in IoT

5.5.2 Multimedia sensing

Multimedia sensing encompasses the sensing of features that have a spatial variance
property associated with the property of temporal variance [4]. Unlike scalar sensors,
multimedia sensors are used for capturing the changes in amplitude of a quantifiable
property concerning space (spatial) as well as time (temporal). Quantities such
as images, direction, flow, speed, acceleration, sound, force, mass, energy, and
momentum have both directions as well as a magnitude. Additionally, these quantities
follow the vector law of addition and hence are designated as vector quantities. They
might have different values in different directions for the same working condition
at the same time. The sensors used for measuring these quantities are known as
vector sensors. Figures 5.3(a) and 5.3(c) are vector sensors. A simple camera-based
multimedia sensing using surveillance as an example is shown in Figure 5.4(b).

5.5.3 Hybrid sensing

The act of using scalar as well as multimedia sensing at the same time is referred to
as hybrid sensing. Many a time, there is a need to measure certain vector as well as
scalar properties of an environment at the same time. Under these conditions, a range
of various sensors are employed (from the collection of scalar as well as multimedia
sensors) to measure the various properties of that environment at any instant of

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time, and temporally map the collected information to generate new information.
For example, in an agricultural field, it is required to measure the soil conditions at
regular intervals of time to determine plant health. Sensors such as soil moisture
and soil temperature are deployed underground to estimate the soil’s water retention
capacity and the moisture being held by the soil at any instant of time. However,
this setup only determines whether the plant is getting enough water or not. There
may be a host of other factors besides water availability, which may affect a plant’s
health. The additional inclusion of a camera sensor with the plant may be able
to determine the actual condition of a plant by additionally determining the color
of leaves. The aggregate information from soil moisture, soil temperature, and the
camera sensor will be able to collectively determine a plant’s health at any instant
of time. Other common examples of hybrid sensing include smart parking systems,
traffic management systems, and others. Figure 5.4(c) shows an example of hybrid
sensing, where a camera and a temperature sensor are collectively used to detect and
confirm forest fires during wildlife monitoring.

5.5.4 Virtual sensing

Many a time, there is a need for very dense and large-scale deployment of sensor
nodes spread over a large area for monitoring of parameters. One such domain is
agriculture [5]. Here, often, the parameters being measured, such as soil moisture,
soil temperature, and water level, do not show significant spatial variations. Hence, if
sensors are deployed in the fields of farmer A, it is highly likely that the measurements
from his sensors will be able to provide almost concise measurements of his neighbor
B’s fields; this is especially true of fields which are immediately surrounding A’s
fields. Exploiting this property, if the data from A’s field is digitized using an
IoT infrastructure and this system advises him regarding the appropriate watering,
fertilizer, and pesticide regimen for his crops, this advisory can also be used by B for
maintaining his crops. In short, A ’s sensors are being used for actual measurement
of parameters; whereas virtual data (which does not have actual physical sensors
but uses extrapolation-based measurements) is being used for advising B. This is the
virtual sensing paradigm. Figure 5.4(d) shows an example of virtual sensing. Two
temperature sensors S1 and S3 monitor three nearby events E1, E2, and E3 (fires). The
event E2 does not have a dedicated sensor for monitoring it; however, through the
superposition of readings from sensors S1 and S3, the presence of fire in E2 is inferred.

5.6 Sensing Considerations

The choice of sensors in an IoT sensor node is critical and can either make or break the
feasibility of an IoT deployment. The following major factors influence the choice of
sensors in IoT-based sensing solutions: 1) sensing range, 2) accuracy and precision, 3)
energy, and 4) device size. These factors are discussed as follows:

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(i) Sensing Range: The sensing range of a sensor node defines the detection fidelity
of that node. Typical approaches to optimize the sensing range in deployments
include fixed k-coverage and dynamic k-coverage. A lifelong fixed k-coverage
tends to usher in redundancy as it requires a large number of sensor nodes,
the sensing range of some of which may also overlap. In contrast, dynamic k-
coverage incorporates mobile sensor nodes post detection of an event, which,
however, is a costly solution and may not be deployable in all operational areas
and terrains [1].
Additionally, the sensing range of a sensor may also be used to signify the upper
and lower bounds of a sensor’s measurement range. For example, a proximity
sensor has a typical sensing range of a couple of meters. In contrast, a camera
has a sensing range varying between tens of meters to hundreds of meters. As
the complexity of the sensor and its sensing range goes up, its cost significantly
increases.
(ii) Accuracy and Precision: The accuracy and precision of measurements provided
by a sensor are critical in deciding the operations of specific functional processes.
Typically, off-the-shelf consumer sensors are low on requirements and often very
cheap. However, their performance is limited to regular application domains.
For example, a standard temperature sensor can be easily integrated with
conventional components for hobby projects and day-to-day applications, but it
is not suitable for industrial processes. Regular temperature sensors have a very
low-temperature sensing range, as well as relatively low accuracy and precision.
The use of these sensors in industrial applications, where a precision of up to
3–4 decimal places is required, cannot be facilitated by these sensors. Industrial
sensors are typically very sophisticated, and as a result, very costly. However,
these industrial sensors have very high accuracy and precision score, even under
harsh operating conditions.
(iii) Energy: The energy consumed by a sensing solution is crucial to determine the
lifetime of that solution and the estimated cost of its deployment. If the sensor
or the sensor node is so energy inefficient that it requires replenishment of its
energy sources quite frequently, the effort in maintaining the solution and its
cost goes up; whereas its deployment feasibility goes down. Consider a scenario
where sensor nodes are deployed on the top of glaciers. Once deployed, access
to these nodes is not possible. If the energy requirements of the sensor nodes are
too high, such a deployment will not last long, and the solution will be highly
infeasible as charging or changing of the energy sources of these sensor nodes is
not an option.
(iv) Device Size: Modern-day IoT applications have a wide penetration in all
domains of life. Most of the applications of IoT require sensing solutions which
are so small that they do not hinder any of the regular activities that were
possible before the sensor node deployment was carried out. Larger the size
of a sensor node, larger is the obstruction caused by it, higher is the cost and

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energy requirements, and lesser is its demand for the bulk of the IoT applications.
Consider a simple human activity detector. If the detection unit is too large to
be carried or too bulky to cause hindrance to regular normal movements, the
demand for this solution would be low. It is because of this that the onset of
wearables took off so strongly. The wearable sensors are highly energy-efficient,
small in size, and almost part of the wearer’s regular wardrobe.

Check yourself

Principle of virtualization, MEMS

5.7 Actuators
An actuator can be considered as a machine or system’s component that can affect
the movement or control the said mechanism or the system. Control systems affect
changes to the environment or property they are controlling through actuators. The
system activates the actuator through a control signal, which may be digital or analog.
It elicits a response from the actuator, which is in the form of some form of mechanical
motion. The control system of an actuator can be a mechanical or electronic system,
a software-based system (e.g., an autonomous car control system), a human, or any
other input. Figure 5.5 shows the outline of a simple actuation system. A remote
user sends commands to a processor. The processor instructs a motor controlled
robotic arm to perform the commanded tasks accordingly. The processor is primarily
responsible for converting the human commands into sequential machine-language
command sequences, which enables the robot to move. The robotic arm finally moves
the designated boxes, which was its assigned task.

Monitoring Processing Actuation Environment

Event: Factory
Sensor node Motor-driven automation
mechanism

Figure 5.5 The outline of a simple actuation mechanism

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5.8 Actuator Types

Broadly, actuators can be divided into seven classes: 1) Hydraulic, 2) pneumatic, 3)
electrical, 4) thermal/magnetic, 5) mechanical, 6) soft, and 7) shape memory polymers.
Figure 5.6 shows some of the commonly used actuators in IoT applications.

5.8.1 Hydraulic actuators

A hydraulic actuator works on the principle of compression and decompression
of fluids. These actuators facilitate mechanical tasks such as lifting loads through
the use of hydraulic power derived from fluids in cylinders or fluid motors. The
mechanical motion applied to a hydraulic actuator is converted to either linear,
rotary, or oscillatory motion. The almost incompressible property of liquids is used
in hydraulic actuators for exerting significant force. These hydraulic actuators are also
considered as stiff systems. The actuator’s limited acceleration restricts its usage.

5.8.2 Pneumatic actuators

A pneumatic actuator works on the principle of compression and decompression
of gases. These actuators use a vacuum or compressed air at high pressure and
convert it into either linear or rotary motion. Pneumatic rack and pinion actuators are
commonly used for valve controls of water pipes. Pneumatic actuators are considered
as compliant systems. The actuators using pneumatic energy for their operation are
typically characterized by the quick response to starting and stopping signals. Small
pressure changes can be used for generating large forces through these actuators.
Pneumatic brakes are an example of this type of actuator which is so responsive that
they can convert small pressure changes applied by drives to generate the massive
force required to stop or slow down a moving vehicle. Pneumatic actuators are
responsible for converting pressure into force. The power source in the pneumatic
actuator does not need to be stored in reserve for its operation.

5.8.3 Electric actuators

Typically, electric motors are used to power an electric actuator by generating
mechanical torque. This generated torque is translated into the motion of a motor’s
shaft or for switching (as in relays). For example, actuating equipments such as
solenoid valves control the flow of water in pipes in response to electrical signals.
This class of actuators is considered one of the cheapest, cleanest and speedy actuator
types available. Figures 5.6(a), 5.6(b), 5.6(c), 5.6(d), 5.6(e), 5.6(f), 5.6(i), and 5.6(j) show
some of the commonly used electrical actuators.

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110 Introduction to Internet of Things

(a) Brushless DC (b) Brushless DC (c) Stepper motor (d) Geared (e) DC motor
motor motor stepper motor

(f) Relay array (g) Hydroelectric (h) Hydroelectric (i) Solenoid-based (j) Solenoid-based
generator generator flow valve flow valve

(k) DPDT switch (l) Push button

switch

Figure 5.6 Some common commercially available actuators used for IoT-based control
applications

5.8.4 Thermal or magnetic actuators

The use of thermal or magnetic energy is used for powering this class of actuators.
These actuators have a very high power density and are typically compact,
lightweight, and economical. One classic example of thermal actuators is shape
memory materials (SMMs) such as shape memory alloys (SMAs). These actuators do
not require electricity for actuation. They are not affected by vibration and can work
with liquid or gases. Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) are a type of magnetic
actuators.

5.8.5 Mechanical actuators

In mechanical actuation, the rotary motion of the actuator is converted into linear
motion to execute some movement. The use of gears, rails, pulleys, chains, and
other devices are necessary for these actuators to operate. These actuators can be
easily used in conjunction with pneumatic, hydraulic, or electrical actuators. They
can also work in a standalone mode. The best example of a mechanical actuator is
a rack and pinion mechanism. Figures 5.6(g), 5.6(h), 5.6(k), and 5.6(l) show some of
the commonly available mechanical actuators. The hydroelectric generator shown in

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Figures 5.6(g) and 5.6(h) convert the water-flow induced rotary motion of a turbine
into electrical energy. Similarly, the mechanical switches shown in Figures 5.6 (k) and
5.6(l) uses the mechanical motion of the switch to switch on or off an electrical circuit.

5.8.6 Soft actuators

Soft actuators (e.g., polymer-based) consists of elastomeric polymers that are used as
embedded fixtures in flexible materials such as cloth, paper, fiber, particles, and others
[7]. The conversion of molecular level microscopic changes into tangible macroscopic
deformations is the primary working principle of this class of actuators. These
actuators have a high stake in modern-day robotics. They are designed to handle
fragile objects such as agricultural fruit harvesting, or performing precise operations
like manipulating the internal organs during robot-assisted surgeries.

5.8.7 Shape memory polymers

Shape memory polymers (SMP) are considered as smart materials that respond to
some external stimulus by changing their shape, and then revert to their original shape
once the affecting stimulus is removed [6]. Features such as high strain recovery,
biocompatibility, low density, and biodegradability characterize these materials.
SMP-based actuators function similar to our muscles. Modern-day SMPs have been
designed to respond to a wide range of stimuli such as pH changes, heat differentials,
light intensity, and frequency changes, magnetic changes, and others.
Photopolymer/light-activated polymers (LAP) are a particular type of SMP, which
require light as a stimulus to operate. LAP-based actuators are characterized by their
rapid response times. Using only the variation of light frequency or its intensity, LAPs
can be controlled remotely without any physical contact. The development of LAPs
whose shape can be changed by the application of a specific frequency of light have
been reported. The polymer retains its shape after removal of the activating light. In
order to change the polymer back to its original shape, a light stimulus of a different
frequency has to be applied to the polymer.

5.9 Actuator Characteristics

The choice or selection of actuators is crucial in an IoT deployment, where a control
mechanism is required after sensing and processing of the information obtained from
the sensed environment. Actuators perform the physically heavier tasks in an IoT
deployment; tasks which require moving or changing the orientation of physical
objects, changing the state of objects, and other such activities. The correct choice
of actuators is necessary for the long-term sustenance and continuity of operations,
as well as for increasing the lifetime of the actuators themselves. A set of four
characteristics can define all actuators:

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112 Introduction to Internet of Things

• Weight: The physical weight of actuators limits its application scope. For
example, the use of heavier actuators is generally preferred for industrial
applications and applications requiring no mobility of the IoT deployment. In
contrast, lightweight actuators typically find common usage in portable systems
in vehicles, drones, and home IoT applications. It is to be noted that this is not
always true. Heavier actuators also have selective usage in mobile systems, for
example, landing gears and engine motors in aircraft.
• Power Rating: This helps in deciding the nature of the application with which
an actuator can be associated. The power rating defines the minimum and
maximum operating power an actuator can safely withstand without damage
to itself. Generally, it is indicated as the power-to-weight ratio for actuators.
For example, smaller servo motors used in hobby projects typically have a
maximum rating of 5 VDC, 500 mA, which is suitable for an operations-driven
battery-based power source. Exceeding this limit might be detrimental to the
performance of the actuator and may cause burnout of the motor. In contrast to
this, servo motors in larger applications have a rating of 460 VAC, 2.5 A, which
requires standalone power supply systems for operations. It is to be noted that
actuators with still higher ratings are available and vary according to application
requirements.
• Torque to Weight Ratio: The ratio of torque to the weight of the moving part of
an instrument/device is referred to as its torque/weight ratio. This indicates the
sensitivity of the actuator. Higher is the weight of the moving part; lower will be
its torque to weight ratio for a given power.
• Stiffness and Compliance: The resistance of a material against deformation
is known as its stiffness, whereas compliance of a material is the opposite of
stiffness. Stiffness can be directly related to the modulus of elasticity of that
material. Stiff systems are considered more accurate than compliant systems as
they have a faster response to the change in load applied to it. For example,
hydraulic systems are considered as stiff and non-compliant, whereas pneumatic
systems are considered as compliant.

Check yourself

Operation of PLC and SCADA, Working principle of electric motors, applications

of pneumatic and hydraulic actuators, Differences between pneumatic, hydraulic,
electrical, and mechanical actuators

Summary
This chapter covered the basics of sensing and actuation in order to help the readers
grasp the intricacies of designing an IoT solution keeping in mind the need to select

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the proper sensors and actuators. The first part of this chapter discusses sensors,
sensing characteristics, considerations of various sensorial deviations, and the sensing
types possible in a typical IoT-based implementation of a sensing solution. This part
concludes with a discussion on the various considerations to be thought of while
selecting sensors for architecting a viable IoT-based sensing solution. The second
part of this chapter focuses on actuators and the broad classes of actuators available.
This part concludes with a discussion on the various considerations to be thought
of while selecting actuators for architecting a viable IoT-based control solution using
actuators. After completing this chapter, the reader will be able to decide upon
the most appropriate sensing and actuation solutions to use with their IoT-based
applications.

Exercises
(i) Differentiate between sensors and actuators.
(ii) Differentiate between sensors and transducers.
(iii) How is sensor resolution different from its accuracy?
(iv) Differentiate between scalar and vector sensors.
(v) Differentiate between analog and digital sensors.
(vi) What is a an offset error?
(vii) What is a hysteresis error?
(viii) What is a quantization error?
(ix) What is aliasing error?
(x) Differentiate between hydraulic and pneumatic actuators with examples.
(xi) What are shape memory alloys (SMA)?
(xii) What are soft actuators?
(xiii) What are the main features of shape memory polymers?
(xiv) What are light activated polymers?

References
[1] Alam, Kh Mahmudul, Joarder Kamruzzaman, Gour Karmakar, and Manzur Murshed.
2014. “Dynamic Adjustment of Sensing Range for Event Coverage in Wireless Sensor
Networks.” Journal of Network and Computer Applications 46: 139–153. Elsevier.
[2] Popović, T., N. Latinović, A. Pes̆ić, Z. Zec̆ević, B. Krstajić, and S. Djukanović. 2017.
“Architecting an IoT-enabled Platform for Precision Agriculture and Ecological
Monitoring: A Case Study.” Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 140: 255–265.

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[3] Kelly, S. D. T., N. K. Suryadevara, and S. C. Mukhopadhyay. 2013. “Towards the

Implementation of IoT for Environmental Condition Monitoring in Homes.” IEEE Sensors
Journal 13(10): 3846–3853.
[4] Rosário, D., Z. Zhao, A. Santos, T. Braun, and E. Cerqueira. 2014. “A Beaconless
Opportunistic Routing based on a Cross-layer Approach for Efficient Video Dissemination
in Mobile Multimedia IoT Applications.” Computer Communications 45: 21–31.
[5] Ojha, T., S. Misra, N. S. Raghuwanshi, and H. Poddar. 2019. “DVSP: Dynamic Virtual
Sensor Provisioning in Sensor-Cloud based Internet of Things.” IEEE Internet of Things
Journal 6 (3): 5265–5272.
[6] Lendlein, A., and O. E. Gould. 2019. “Reprogrammable Recovery and Actuation Behaviour
of Shape-memory Polymers.” Nature Reviews Materials 4(2): 116–133.
[7] Lessing, J. A., R. V. Martinez, A. S. Tayi, J. M. Ting, and G. M. Whitesides. 2019.
“Flexible and Stretchable Electronic Strain-limited Layer for Soft Actuators.” U. S. Patent
Application 15/972, 412.

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Chapter 6
IoT Processing Topologies and
Types

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• List common data types in IoT applications
• Understand the importance of processing
• Explain the various processing topologies in IoT
• Understand the importance of processing off-loading toward achieving scalability
and cost-effectiveness of IoT solutions
• Determine the importance of choosing the right processing topologies and
associated considerations while designing IoT applications
• Determine the requirements that are associated with IoT-based processing of
sensed and communicated data.

6.1 Data Format

The Internet is a vast space where huge quantities and varieties of data are generated
regularly and flow freely. As of January 2018, there are a reported 4.021 billion Internet
users worldwide. The massive volume of data generated by this huge number of users
is further enhanced by the multiple devices utilized by most users. In addition to these
data-generating sources, non-human data generation sources such as sensor nodes
and automated monitoring systems further add to the data load on the Internet. This
huge data volume is composed of a variety of data such as e-mails, text documents
(Word docs, PDFs, and others), social media posts, videos, audio files, and images,
as shown in Figure 6.1. However, these data can be broadly grouped into two types

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116 Introduction to Internet of Things

based on how they can be accessed and stored: 1) Structured data and 2) unstructured
data.

Databases Cloud

Internet

Industry Transport Buildings Traffic Transaction Human

Figure 6.1 The various data generating and storage sources connected to the Internet and the
plethora of data types contained within it

6.1.1 Structured data

These are typically text data that have a pre-defined structure [1]. Structured data
are associated with relational database management systems (RDBMS). These are
primarily created by using length-limited data fields such as phone numbers, social
security numbers, and other such information. Even if the data is human or machine-
generated, these data are easily searchable by querying algorithms as well as human-
generated queries. Common usage of this type of data is associated with flight or
train reservation systems, banking systems, inventory controls, and other similar
systems. Established languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL) are used
for accessing these data in RDBMS. However, in the context of IoT, structured data
holds a minor share of the total generated data over the Internet.

6.1.2 Unstructured data

In simple words, all the data on the Internet, which is not structured, is categorized as
unstructured. These data types have no pre-defined structure and can vary according
to applications and data-generating sources. Some of the common examples of
human-generated unstructured data include text, e-mails, videos, images, phone

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IoT Processing Topologies and Types 117

recordings, chats, and others [2]. Some common examples of machine-generated

unstructured data include sensor data from traffic, buildings, industries, satellite
imagery, surveillance videos, and others. As already evident from its examples, this
data type does not have fixed formats associated with it, which makes it very difficult
for querying algorithms to perform a look-up. Querying languages such as NoSQL
are generally used for this data type.

6.2 Importance of Processing in IoT

The vast amount and types of data flowing through the Internet necessitate the need
for intelligent and resourceful processing techniques. This necessity has become even
more crucial with the rapid advancements in IoT, which is laying enormous pressure
on the existing network infrastructure globally. Given these urgencies, it is important
to decide—when to process and what to process? Before deciding upon the processing to
pursue, we first divide the data to be processed into three types based on the urgency
of processing: 1) Very time critical, 2) time critical, and 3) normal. Data from sources
such as flight control systems [3], healthcare, and other such sources, which need
immediate decision support, are deemed as very critical. These data have a very low
threshold of processing latency, typically in the range of a few milliseconds.
Data from sources that can tolerate normal processing latency are deemed as time-
critical data. These data, generally associated with sources such as vehicles, traffic,
machine systems, smart home systems, surveillance systems, and others, which can
tolerate a latency of a few seconds fall in this category. Finally, the last category of
data, normal data,can tolerate a processing latency of a few minutes to a few hours
and are typically associated with less data-sensitive domains such as agriculture,
environmental monitoring, and others.
Considering the requirements of data processing, the processing requirements
of data from very time-critical sources are exceptionally high. Here, the need for
processing the data in place or almost nearer to the source is crucial in achieving
the deployment success of such domains. Similarly, considering the requirements of
processing from category 2 data sources (time-critical), the processing requirements
allow for the transmission of data to be processed to remote locations/processors such
as clouds or through collaborative processing. Finally, the last category of data sources
(normal) typically have no particular time requirements for processing urgently and
are pursued leisurely as such.

Check yourself

Difference between microprocessors and microcontrollers, network bandwidth,

network latency

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6.3 Processing Topologies

The identification and intelligent selection of processing requirement of an IoT
application are one of the crucial steps in deciding the architecture of the deployment.
A properly designed IoT architecture would result in massive savings in network
bandwidth and conserve significant amounts of overall energy in the architecture
while providing the proper and allowable processing latencies for the solutions
associated with the architecture. Regarding the importance of processing in IoT as
outlined in Section 6.2, we can divide the various processing solutions into two large
topologies: 1) On-site and 2) Off-site. The off-site processing topology can be further
divided into the following: 1) Remote processing and 2) Collaborative processing.

6.3.1 On-site processing

As evident from the name, the on-site processing topology signifies that the data is
processed at the source itself. This is crucial in applications that have a very low
tolerance for latencies. These latencies may result from the processing hardware or
the network (during transmission of the data for processing away from the processor).
Applications such as those associated with healthcare and flight control systems (real-
time systems) have a breakneck data generation rate. These additionally show rapid
temporal changes that can be missed (leading to catastrophic damages) unless the
processing infrastructure is fast and robust enough to handle such data. Figure 6.2
shows the on-site processing topology, where an event (here, fire) is detected utilizing
a temperature sensor connected to a sensor node. The sensor node processes the
information from the sensed event and generates an alert. The node additionally has
the option of forwarding the data to a remote infrastructure for further analysis and
storage.

Environment Sensing Processing

On-site
processing

Event: Fire Temperature Sensor node

sensor

Figure 6.2 Event detection using an on-site processing topology

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6.3.2 Off-site processing

The off-site processing paradigm, as opposed to the on-site processing paradigms,
allows for latencies (due to processing or network latencies); it is significantly cheaper
than on-site processing topologies. This difference in cost is mainly due to the low
demands and requirements of processing at the source itself. Often, the sensor
nodes are not required to process data on an urgent basis, so having a dedicated
and expensive on-site processing infrastructure is not sustainable for large-scale
deployments typical of IoT deployments. In the off-site processing topology, the
sensor node is responsible for the collection and framing of data that is eventually
to be transmitted to another location for processing. Unlike the on-site processing
topology, the off-site topology has a few dedicated high-processing enabled devices,
which can be borrowed by multiple simpler sensor nodes to accomplish their tasks. At
the same time, this arrangement keeps the costs of large-scale deployments extremely
manageable [5]. In the off-site topology, the data from these sensor nodes (data
generating sources) is transmitted either to a remote location (which can either be a
server or a cloud) or to multiple processing nodes. Multiple nodes can come together
to share their processing power in order to collaboratively process the data (which
is important in case a feasible communication pathway or connection to a remote
location cannot be established by a single node).

Remote processing
This is one of the most common processing topologies prevalent in present-day IoT
solutions. It encompasses sensing of data by various sensor nodes; the data is then
forwarded to a remote server or a cloud-based infrastructure for further processing
and analytics. The processing of data from hundreds and thousands of sensor nodes
can be simultaneously offloaded to a single, powerful computing platform; this results
in massive cost and energy savings by enabling the reuse and reallocation of the
same processing resource while also enabling the deployment of smaller and simpler
processing nodes at the site of deployment [4]. This setup also ensures massive
scalability of solutions, without significantly affecting the cost of the deployment.
Figure 6.3 shows the outline of one such paradigm, where the sensing of an event is
performed locally, and the decision making is outsourced to a remote processor (here,
cloud). However, this paradigm tends to use up a lot of network bandwidth and relies
heavily on the presence of network connectivity between the sensor nodes and the
remote processing infrastructure.

Collaborative processing
This processing topology typically finds use in scenarios with limited or no network
connectivity, especially systems lacking a backbone network. Additionally, this
topology can be quite economical for large-scale deployments spread over vast areas,
where providing networked access to a remote infrastructure is not viable. In such
scenarios, the simplest solution is to club together the processing power of nearby

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120 Introduction to Internet of Things

Environment Sensing Network Remote

processing

Event: Fire Temperature Sensor node Internet

sensor

Figure 6.3 Event detection using an off-site remote processing topology

processing nodes and collaboratively process the data in the vicinity of the data
source itself. This approach also reduces latencies due to the transfer of data over
the network. Additionally, it conserves bandwidth of the network, especially ones
connecting to the Internet. Figure 6.4 shows the collaborative processing topology
for collaboratively processing data locally. This topology can be quite beneficial for
applications such as agriculture, where an intense and temporally high frequency
of data processing is not required as agricultural data is generally logged after
significantly long intervals (in the range of hours). One important point to mention
about this topology is the preference of mesh networks for easy implementation of
this topology.

Environment Sensing

Collaborative
network/mesh

Event: Fire Temperature Sensor

sensor node

Figure 6.4 Event detection using a collaborative processing topology

6.4 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations

The main consideration of minutely defining an IoT solution is the selection of the
processor for developing the sensing solution (i.e., the sensor node). This selection is
governed by many parameters that affect the usability, design, and affordability of the

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designed IoT sensing and processing solution. In this chapter, we mainly focus on the
deciding factors for selecting a processor for the design of a sensor node. The main
factor governing the IoT device design and selection for various applications is the
processor. However, the other important considerations are as follows.

• Size: This is one of the crucial factors for deciding the form factor and the
energy consumption of a sensor node. It has been observed that larger the form
factor, larger is the energy consumption of the hardware. Additionally, large form
factors are not suitable for a significant bulk of IoT applications, which rely on
minimal form factor solutions (e.g., wearables).
• Energy: The energy requirements of a processor is the most important
deciding factor in designing IoT-based sensing solutions. Higher the energy
requirements, higher is the energy source (battery) replacement frequency. This
principle automatically lowers the long-term sustainability of sensing hardware,
especially for IoT-based applications.
• Cost: The cost of a processor, besides the cost of sensors, is the driving force
in deciding the density of deployment of sensor nodes for IoT-based solutions.
Cheaper cost of the hardware enables a much higher density of hardware
deployment by users of an IoT solution. For example, cheaper gas and fire
detection solutions would enable users to include much more sensing hardware
for a lesser cost.
• Memory: The memory requirements (both volatile and non-volatile memory) of
IoT devices determines the capabilities the device can be armed with. Features
such as local data processing, data storage, data filtering, data formatting, and
a host of other features rely heavily on the memory capabilities of devices.
However, devices with higher memory tend to be costlier for obvious reasons.
• Processing power: As covered in earlier sections, processing power is vital
(comparable to memory) in deciding what type of sensors can be accommodated
with the IoT device/node, and what processing features can integrate on-site
with the IoT device. The processing power also decides the type of applications
the device can be associated with. Typically, applications that handle video and
image data require IoT devices with higher processing power as compared to
applications requiring simple sensing of the environment.
• I/O rating: The input–output (I/O) rating of IoT device, primarily the processor,
is the deciding factor in determining the circuit complexity, energy usage, and
requirements for support of various sensing solutions and sensor types. Newer
processors have a meager I/O voltage rating of 3.3 V, as compared to 5 V for the
somewhat older processors. This translates to requiring additional voltage and
logic conversion circuitry to interface legacy technologies and sensors with the
newer processors. Despite low power consumption due to reduced I/O voltage
levels, this additional voltage and circuitry not only affects the complexity of the
circuits but also affects the costs.

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• Add-ons: The support of various add-ons a processor or for that matter, an IoT
device provides, such as analog to digital conversion (ADC) units, in-built clock
circuits, connections to USB and ethernet, inbuilt wireless access capabilities, and
others helps in defining the robustness and usability of a processor or IoT device
in various application scenarios. Additionally, the provision for these add-ons
also decides how fast a solution can be developed, especially the hardware part
of the whole IoT application. As interfacing and integration of systems at the
circuit level can be daunting to the uninitiated, the prior presence of these options
with the processor makes the processor or device highly lucrative to the users/
developers.

Check yourself

RISC versus CISC processors, volative versus non-volatile memory

6.5 Processing Offloading

The processing offloading paradigm is important for the development of densely
deployable, energy-conserving, miniaturized, and cheap IoT-based solutions for
sensing tasks. Building upon the basics of the off-site processing topology covered
in the previous sections in this chapter, we delve a bit further into the various nuances
of processing offloading in IoT.
Figure 6.5 shows the typical outline of an IoT deployment with the various layers of
processing that are encountered spanning vastly different application domains—from
as near as sensing the environment to as far as cloud-based infrastructure. Starting
from the primary layer of sensing, we can have multiple sensing types tasked with
detecting an environment (fire, surveillance, and others). The sensors enabling these
sensing types are integrated with a processor using wired or wireless connections
(mostly, wired). In the event that certain applications require immediate processing of
the sensed data, an on-site processing topology is followed, similar to the one in Figure
6.2. However, for the majority of IoT applications, the bulk of the processing is carried
out remotely in order to keep the on-site devices simple, small, and economical.
Typically, for off-site processing, data from the sensing layer can be forwarded to
the fog or cloud or can be contained within the edge layer [6]. The edge layer makes
use of devices within the local network to process data that which is similar to the
collaborative processing topology shown in Figure 6.4. The devices within the local
network, till the fog, generally communicate using short-range wireless connections.
In case the data needs to be sent further up the chain to the cloud, long-range wireless
connection enabling access to a backbone network is essential. Fog-based processing is
still considered local because the fog nodes are typically localized within a geographic
area and serve the IoT nodes within a much smaller coverage area as compared to the

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IoT Processing Topologies and Types 123

cloud. Fog nodes, which are at the level of gateways, may or may not be accessed by
the IoT devices through the Internet.

On-site Local Local Global

Environment

Temperature
sensor Database
Server

Cloud processing
Local processing

Edge processing

Fog processing
Event: Fire
Local
Sensing

network
clusters
Camera
Environment sensor Sensor Internet Server
node

Event: Surveillance
Temperature Server
sensor Database

Wired/
Communication

wireless Short
range
wireless Long range wireless/backbone

Backbone

Long range wireless/backbone

Long range wireless/backbone

Figure 6.5 The various data generating and storage sources connected to the Internet and the
plethora of data types contained within it

Finally, the approach of forwarding data to a cloud or a remote server, as shown

in the topology in Figure 6.3, requires the devices to be connected to the Internet
through long-range wireless/wired networks, which eventually connect to a backbone
network. This approach is generally costly concerning network bandwidth, latency, as
well as the complexity of the devices and the network infrastructure involved.
This section on data offloading is divided into three parts: 1) offload location
(which outlines where all the processing can be offloaded in the IoT architecture), 2)
offload decision making (how to choose where to offload the processing to and by how
much), and finally 3) offloading considerations (deciding when to offload).

6.5.1 Offload location

The choice of offload location decides the applicability, cost, and sustainability of the
IoT application and deployment. We distinguish the offload location into four types:

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• Edge: Offloading processing to the edge implies that the data processing is
facilitated to a location at or near the source of data generation itself. Offloading
to the edge is done to achieve aggregation, manipulation, bandwidth reduction,
and other data operations directly on an IoT device [7].
• Fog: Fog computing is a decentralized computing infrastructure that is utilized
to conserve network bandwidth, reduce latencies, restrict the amount of data
unnecessarily flowing through the Internet, and enable rapid mobility support
for IoT devices. The data, computing, storage and applications are shifted to a
place between the data source and the cloud resulting in significantly reduced
latencies and network bandwidth usage [8].
• Remote Server: A simple remote server with good processing power may
be used with IoT-based applications to offload the processing from resource-
constrained IoT devices. Rapid scalability may be an issue with remote servers,
and they may be costlier and hard to maintain in comparison to solutions such
as the cloud [4].
• Cloud: Cloud computing is a configurable computer system, which can get
access to configurable resources, platforms, and high-level services through a
shared pool hosted remotely. A cloud is provisioned for processing offloading
so that processing resources can be rapidly provisioned with minimal effort over
the Internet, which can be accessed globally. Cloud enables massive scalability of
solutions as they can enable resource enhancement allocated to a user or solution
in an on-demand manner, without the user having to go through the pains of
acquiring and configuring new and costly hardware [9].

6.5.2 Offload decision making

The choice of where to offload and how much to offload is one of the major deciding
factors in the deployment of an offsite-processing topology-based IoT deployment
architecture. The decision making is generally addressed considering data generation
rate, network bandwidth, the criticality of applications, processing resource available
at the offload site, and other factors. Some of these approaches are as follows.
• Naive Approach: This approach is typically a hard approach, without too much
decision making. It can be considered as a rule-based approach in which the data
from IoT devices are offloaded to the nearest location based on the achievement
of certain offload criteria. Although easy to implement, this approach is never
recommended, especially for dense deployments, or deployments where the
data generation rate is high or the data being offloaded in complex to handle
(multimedia or hybrid data types). Generally, statistical measures are consulted
for generating the rules for offload decision making.
• Bargaining based approach: This approach, although a bit processing-intensive
during the decision making stages, enables the alleviation of network traffic
congestion, enhances service QoS (quality of service) parameters such as

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bandwidth, latencies, and others. At times, while trying to maximize multiple

parameters for the whole IoT implementation, in order to provide the most
optimal solution or QoS, not all parameters can be treated with equal importance.
Bargaining based solutions try to maximize the QoS by trying to reach a point
where the qualities of certain parameters are reduced, while the others are
enhanced. This measure is undertaken so that the achieved QoS is collaboratively
better for the full implementation rather than a select few devices enjoying very
high QoS. Game theory is a common example of the bargaining based approach.
This approach does not need to depend on historical data for decision making
purposes.
• Learning based approach: Unlike the bargaining based approaches, the learning
based approaches generally rely on past behavior and trends of data flow
through the IoT architecture. The optimization of QoS parameters is pursued by
learning from historical trends and trying to optimize previous solutions further
and enhance the collective behavior of the IoT implementation. The memory
requirements and processing requirements are high during the decision making
stages. The most common example of a learning based approach is machine
learning.

6.5.3 Offloading considerations

There are a few offloading parameters which need to be considered while deciding
upon the offloading type to choose. These considerations typically arise from the
nature of the IoT application and the hardware being used to interact with the
application. Some of these parameters are as follows.

• Bandwidth: The maximum amount of data that can be simultaneously

transmitted over the network between two points is the bandwidth of that
network. The bandwidth of a wired or wireless network is also considered to
be its data-carrying capacity and often used to describe the data rate of that
network.
• Latency: It is the time delay incurred between the start and completion of an
operation. In the present context, latency can be due to the network (network
latency) or the processor (processing latency). In either case, latency arises due
to the physical limitations of the infrastructure, which is associated with an
operation. The operation can be data transfer over a network or processing of
a data at a processor.
• Criticality: It defines the importance of a task being pursued by an IoT
application. The more critical a task is, the lesser latency is expected from the
IoT solution. For example, detection of fires using an IoT solution has higher
criticality than detection of agricultural field parameters. The former requires a
response time in the tune of milliseconds, whereas the latter can be addressed
within hours or even days.

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126 Introduction to Internet of Things

• Resources: It signifies the actual capabilities of an offload location. These

capabilities may be the processing power, the suite of analytical algorithms, and
others. For example, it is futile and wasteful to allocate processing resources
reserved for real-time multimedia processing (which are highly energy-intensive
and can process and analyze huge volumes of data in a short duration) to scalar
data (which can be addressed using nominal resources without wasting much
energy).
• Data volume: The amount of data generated by a source or sources that can be
simultaneously handled by the offload location is referred to as its data volume
handling capacity. Typically, for large and dense IoT deployments, the offload
location should be robust enough to address the processing issues related to
massive data volumes.

Summary
This chapter started with an overview of the various data formats available on
the Internet and to which various IoT solutions are exposed. The complexities in
handling the numerous data formats available present a significant challenge to the
design of IoT-based solutions. In order to address these challenges, the importance
of processing in IoT is discussed. This discussion is followed by an introduction
to various processing topologies, which can be chosen to address the challenges of
IoT processing. These topologies are broadly made up of two categories: 1) On-site
processing and 2) Off-site processing. The off-site processing is typically composed
of approaches to offload data to locations which are not the same as the one from
which the data was generated. A discussion on processing offloading follows these
topologies. Various offload location types, means of deciding offload location and
quantity are explained. Finally, the various parameters to be considered for offloading
are discussed to enable the reader to grasp the nuances of processing in IoT.

Exercises
(i) What are the different data formats found in IoT network traffic streams?
(ii) Depending on the urgency of data processing, how are IoT data classified?
(iii) Highlight the pros and cons of on-site and off-site processing.
(iv) Differentiate between structured and unstructured data.
(v) How is collaborative processing different from remote processing?
(vi) What are the critical factors to be considered during the design of IoT devices?
(vii) What are the typical data offload locations available in the context of IoT?
(viii) What are the various decision making approaches chosen for offloading data in
IoT?

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(ix) What factors are to be considered while deciding on the data offload location?

References
[1] Misra, S., A. Mukherjee, and A. Roy. 2018. “Knowledge Discovery for Enabling Smart
Internet of Things: A Survey.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge
Discovery 8(6): 1276.
[2] Jiang, L., L. Da Xu, H. Cai, Z. Jiang, F. Bu, and B. Xu. 2014. “An IoT-oriented Data Storage
Framework in Cloud Computing Platform.” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics
10(2): 1443–1451.
[3] Mukherjee, A., S. Misra, V. S. P. Chandra, and M. S. Obaidat. 2018. “Resource-Optimized
Multi-Armed Bandit Based Offload Path Selection in Edge UAV Swarms.” IEEE Internet
of Things Journal 6(3): 4889–4896.
[4] Mukherjee, A., S. Misra, N. S. Raghuwanshi, and S. Mitra. 2018. “Blind Entity Identification
for Agricultural IoT Deployments.” IEEE Internet of Things Journal 6(2): 3156–3163.
[5] Mukherjee, A., N. Pathak, S. Misra, and S. Mitra. 2018. “Predictive Intra-Edge Packet-
Source Mapping in Agricultural Internet of Things.” In 2018 IEEE Globecom Workshops
(GC Wkshps) (pp. 1–6). IEEE. doi: 10.1109/GLOCOMW.2018.8644296
[6] Cheng, N., F. Lyu, W. Quan, C. Zhou, H. He, W. Shi, and X. Shen. 2019. “Space/Aerial-
Assisted Computing Offloading for IoT Applications: A Learning-Based Approach.”
IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications 37(5): 1117–1129.
[7] Huang, L., X. Feng, C. Zhang, L. Qian, and Y. Wu. 2019. “Deep Reinforcement Learning-
based Joint Task Offloading and Bandwidth Allocation for Multi-user Mobile Edge
Computing.” Digital Communications and Networks 5(1): 10–17.
[8] Adhikari, M., M. Mukherjee, and S. N. Srirama. 2019. “DPTO: A Deadline and Priority-
aware Task Offloading in Fog Computing Framework Leveraging Multi-level Feedback
Queueing.” IEEE Internet of Things Journal. doi: 10.1109/JIOT.2019.2946426.
[9] Mahmoodi, S. E., K. Subbalakshmi, and R. N. Uma. 2019. “Classification of Mobile Cloud
Offloading.” In Spectrum-Aware Mobile Computing (pp. 7–11). Springer, Cham.

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Chapter 7
IoT Connectivity Technologies

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• List common connectivity protocols in IoT
• Identify the salient features and application scope of each connectivity protocol
• Understand the terminologies and technologies associated with IoT connectivity
• Determine the requirements associated with each of these connectivity protocols
in real-world solutions
• Determine the most appropriate connectivity protocol for each segment of their
IoT implementation

7.1 Introduction
This chapter outlines the main features of fifteen identified commonly used
and upcoming IoT connectivity enablers. These connectivity technologies can be
integrated with existing sensing, actuation, and processing solutions for extending
connectivity to them. Some of these solutions necessarily require integration with a
minimal form of processing infrastructure, such as Wi-Fi. In contrast, others, such
as Zigbee, can work in a standalone mode altogether, without the need for external
processing and hardware support. These solutions are outlined in the subsequent
sections in this chapter.

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Chapter 10
Cloud Computing

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• Understand the concept of cloud computing and its features
• Understand virtualization, different cloud models, and service-level agreements
(SLAs)
• Identify the salient features of various cloud computing models
• Understand the concept of sensor-clouds

10.1 Introduction
Sensor nodes are the key components of Internet of Things (IoT). These nodes are
resource-constrained in terms of storage, processing, and energy. Moreover, in IoT,
the devices are connected and communicate with one another by sharing the sensed
and processed data. Handling the enormous data generated by this large number of
heterogeneous devices is a non-trivial task. Consequently, cloud computing becomes
an essential building block of the IoT architecture. This chapter aims at providing
an extensive overview of cloud computing. Additionally, Check yourself will help the
learner to learn different concepts are related to cloud computing.
Cloud computing is more than traditional network computing. Unlike network
computing, cloud computing comprises a pool of multiple resources such as servers,
storage, and network from single/multiple organizations. These resources are allocated
to the end users as per requirement, on a payment basis. In cloud computing
architecture, an end user can request for customized resources such as storage space,
RAM, operating systems, and other software to a cloud service provider (CSP) as shown

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238 Introduction to Internet of Things

in Figure 10.1. For example, a user can request for a Linux operating system for
running an application from a CSP; another end user can request for Windows 10
operating system from the same CSP for executing some application. The cloud
services are accessible from anywhere and at any time by an authorized user through
Internet connectivity.

User

(a) Network computing

Resource
pool User A

User B

User C
(b) Cloud computing

Figure 10.1 Network computing versus cloud computing

Points to ponder

• Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter are examples of cloud computing applications.

• Currently, many companies such as Amazon Web Service and Microsoft Azure
provide cloud services.

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Cloud computing comprises a shared pool of computing resources, which are

accessible dynamically, ubiquitously, and on-demand basis by the users. This shared
pool of resources includes networks, storage, processor, and servers. These resources
are accessible by multiple users through a regular command-line terminal at the same
or different time instants. The services of cloud computing are based on the pay-per-use
model. The concept is the same as paying utility bills based on consumption. In cloud
computing, a user pays for the cloud services as per the duration of their resource
usage. On the other hand, there is a CSP, that provides cloud services to end user
organizations.

10.2 Virtualization
The key concept of cloud computing is virtualization. The technique of sharing a
single resource among multiple end user organizations or end users is known as
virtualization. In the virtualization process, a physical resource is logically distributed
among multiple users. However, a user perceives that the resource is unlimited and
is dedicatedly provided to him/her. Figure 10.2(a) represents a traditional desktop,
where an application (App) is running on top of an OS, and resources are utilized
only for that particular application. On the other hand, multiple resources can be used
by different end users through virtualization software, as shown in Figure 10.2(b).
Virtualization software separates the resources logically so that there is no conflict
among the users during resource utilization.

Applications (APP) APP APP APP APP

OS OS OS OS
Operating system (OS) Virtualization software

Resource Resource

(a) Desktop (b) Virtualization

Figure 10.2 Traditional desktop versus virtualization

10.2.1 Advantages of virtualization

With the increasing number of interconnected heterogeneous devices in IoT, the
importance of virtualization also increases. In IoT, a user is least bothered about
where the data from different heterogeneous devices are stored or processed for a
particular application. Users are mainly concerned for their services. Typically, there
are different software such as VMware, which enable the concept of virtualization.

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With the increasing importance of cloud computing, different organizations and

individuals are using it extensively. Moreover, there is always a risk of system crash
at any instant of time. In such a scenario, cloud computing plays a vital role by
keeping backups through virtualization. Primarily, there are two entities in a cloud
computing architecture: end users and CSP. Both end users and CSP are benefited in
several aspects through the process of virtualization. The major advantages, from the
perspective of the end user and CSP, are as follows:

(i) Advantages for End Users

(a) Variety: The process of virtualization in cloud computing enables an

end user organization to use various types of applications based on the
requirements. As an example, suppose John takes up still photography as
a hobby. His resource-limited PC can barely handle the requirements for
a photo editing software, say X-photoeditor. In order to augment his PC’s
regular performance, he uninstalls the X-photoeditor software and purchases
a cloud service, which lets him access a virtual machine (VM). In his
VM, he installs the X-photoeditor software, by which he can edit photos
efficiently and, most importantly, without worrying about burdening his
PC or running out of processing resources. After six months, John’s interest
in his hobby grows and he moves on to video-editing too. For editing his
captured videos, he installs a video editing software, Y-videoeditor, in his VM
and can edit videos efficiently. Additionally, he has the option of installing
and using a variety of software for different purposes.
(b) Availability: Virtualization creates a logical separation of the resources
of multiple entities without any intervention of end users. Consequently,
the concept of virtualization makes available a considerable amount of
resources as per user requirements. The end users feel that there are
unlimited resources present dedicatedly for him/her. Let us suppose that
Jane uses a particular email service. Her account has been active for over
ten years now; however, it offers limited storage of 2 GB. Due to the ever-
accumulating file attachments in different emails, her 2 GB complimentary
space is exhausted. However, there is a provision that if she pays $100
annually, she can attach additional space to her mail service. This upgrade
allows her to have more storage at her disposal for a considerable time in
the future.
(c) Portability: Portability signifies the availability of cloud computing services
from anywhere in the world, at any instant of time. For example, a person
flying from the US to the UK still has access to their documents, although
they cannot physically access the devices on which the data is stored. This
has been made possible by platforms such as Google Drive.

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(d) Elasticity: Through the concept of virtualization, an end user can scale-up
or scale-down resource utilization as per requirements. We have already
explained that cloud computing is based on a pay-per-use model. The end
user needs to pay the amount based on their usage. For example, Jack
rents two VMs in a cloud computing infrastructure from a CSP. VM1 has
the Ubuntu operating system (OS), on which Jack is simulating a network
scenario using Network Simulator-2 (NS2). VM2 has Windows 10 OS, on
which he is running a MATLAB simulation. However, after a few days,
Jack feels that his VM2 has served its purpose and is no longer required.
Consequently, he releases VM2 and, after that, he is only billed for VM1.
Thus, Jack can scale-up or scale-down his resources in cloud computing,
which employs the concept of virtualization.

(ii) Advantages for CSP

(a) Resource Utilization: Typically, a CSP in a cloud computing architecture

procures resources on their own or get them from third parties. These
resources are distributed among different users dynamically as per their
requirements. A segment of a particular resource provided to a user at a
time instant, can be provided to another user at a different time instant.
Thus, in the cloud computing architecture, resources can be re-utilized for
multiple users.
(b) Effective Revenue Generation: A CSP generates revenue from the end
users based on resource utilization. As an example, today, a user A is
utilizing storage facility from a particular CSP. The user will release the
storage after a few days when his/her requirement is complete. The CSP
earns some revenue from user A for the utilization of the allocated storage
facility. In the future, the CSP can provide the same storage facility to
a different user, B. Again, the CSP can generate revenue from user B for
his/her storage utilization.

Check yourself

VMware, hypervisor, virtual machine

10.2.2 Types of virtualization

Based on the requirements of the users, we categorized virtualization as shown in
Figure 10.3.

(i) Hardware Virtualization: This type of virtualization indicates the sharing of

hardware resources among multiple users. For example, a single processor
appears as many different processors in a cloud computing architecture.

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242 Introduction to Internet of Things

Virtualization

Hardware Storage Application Desktop

Figure 10.3 Types of virtualization

Different operating systems can be installed in these processors and each of them
can work as stand-alone machines.
(ii) Storage Virtualization: In storage virtualization, the storage space from different
entities are accumulated virtually, and seem like a single storage location.
Through storage virtualization, a user’s documents or files exist in different
locations in a distributed fashion. However, the users are under the impression
that they have a single dedicated storage space provided to them.
(iii) Application Virtualization: A single application is stored at the cloud end.
However, as per requirement, a user can use the application in his/her local
computer without ever actually installing the application. Similar to storage
virtualization, in application virtualization, the users get the impression that
applications are stored and executed in their local computer.
(iv) Desktop Virtualization: This type of virtualization allows a user to access and
utilize the services of a desktop that resides at the cloud. The users can use the
desktop from their local desktop.

Check yourself

Server virtualization, Para virtualization, User virtualization

10.3 Cloud Models

As per the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) [1] and Cloud
Computing Standards Roadmap Working Group, the cloud model can be divided into
two parts: (1) Service model and (2) Deployment model as shown in Figure 10.4. Further
the service model is categorized as: Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service
(PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). On the other hand, the deployment model
is further categorized as: Private cloud, Community cloud, Public cloud, and Hybrid cloud.

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Software-as-a-service

Service model Platform-as-a-service

Cloud model

Infrastructure-as-a-service

Private cloud

Community cloud
Deployment model
Public cloud

Hybrid cloud

Figure 10.4 Cloud model

(i) Service Model

The service model is depicted in Figure 10.5.

(a) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): This service provides access to different

software applications to an end user through Internet connectivity. For
accessing the service, a user does not need to purchase and install the
software applications on his/her local desktop. The software is located in
a cloud server, from where the services are provided to multiple end users.
SaaS offers scalability, by which users have the provision to use multiple
software applications as per their requirements. Additionally, a user does
not need to worry about the update of the software applications. These
software are accessible from any location. One example of SaaS is Microsoft
Office 365.
(b) Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): PaaS provides a computing platform, by
which a user can develop and run different applications. The cloud
user need not go through the burden of installing and managing the
infrastructure such as operating system, storage, and networks. However,
the users can develop and manage the applications that are running on top
of it. An example of PaaS is Google App Engine.
(c) Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): IaaS provides infrastructure such as
storage, networks, and computing resources. A user uses the infrastructure
without purchasing the software and other network components. In the
infrastructure provided by a CSP, a user can use any composition of the
operating system and software. An example of IaaS is Google Compute
Engine.

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User 2 User 2
App 2
App 1 App 3
User 1 User 3 User 3
User 1

Software B
Software A

Software D
Software C Platform

(a) SaaS (b) PaaS

User 2

User 1 User 3

Database Networks

(c) IaaS

Figure 10.5 Service models

(ii) Deployment Model

(a) Private Cloud: This type of cloud is owned explicitly by an end user
organization. The internal resources of the organization maintain the
private cloud.
(b) Community Cloud: This cloud forms with the collaboration of a set of
organizations for a specific community. For a community cloud, each
organization has some shared interests.
(c) Public Cloud: The public cloud is owned by a third party organization,
which provides services to the common public. The service of this cloud is
available for any user, on a payment basis.
(d) Hybrid Cloud: This type of cloud comprises two or more clouds (private,
public, or community).

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10.4 Service-Level Agreement in Cloud Computing

The most important actors in cloud computing are the end user/customer and CSP.
Cloud computing architecture aims to provide optimal and efficient services to the
end users and generate revenue from them as per their usage. Therefore, for a clear
understanding between CSP and the customer about the services, an agreement is
required to be made, which is known as service-level agreement (SLA). An SLA provides
a detailed description of the services that will be received by the customer. Based on
the SLA, a customer can be aware of each and every term and condition of the services
before availing them. An SLA may include multiple organizations for making the legal
contract with the customers.

10.4.1 Importance of SLA

An SLA is essential in cloud computing architecture for both CSP and customers. It is
important because of the following reasons:

• Customer Point of View: Each CSP has its SLA, which contains a detailed
description of the services. If a customer wants to use a cloud service, he/she can
compare the SLAs of different organizations. Therefore, a customer can choose a
preferred CSP based on the SLAs.
• CSP Point of View: In many cases, certain performance issues may occur for a
particular service, because of which a CSP may not be able to provide the services
efficiently. Thus, in such a situation, a CSP can explicitly mention in the SLA that
they are not responsible for inefficient service.

10.4.2 Metrics for SLA

Depending on the type of services, an SLA is constructed with different metrics.
However, a few common metrics that are required to be included for constructing
an SLA are as follows:

(i) Availability: This metric signifies the amount of time the service will be
accessible for the customer.
(ii) Response Time: The maximum time that will be taken for responding to a
customer request is measured by response time.
(iii) Portability: This metric indicates the flexibility of transferring the data to another
service.
(iv) Problem Reporting: How to report a problem, whom and how to be contacted,
is explained in this metric.
(v) Penalty: The penalty for not meeting the promises mentioned in the SLA.

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10.5 Cloud Implementation

10.5.1 Cloud simulation
With the rapid deployment of IoT infrastructure for different applications, the
requirement for cloud computing is also increasing. It is challenging to estimate the
performance of an IoT system with the cloud before real implementation. On the
other hand, real deployment of the cloud is a complex and costly procedure. Thus,
there is a requirement for simulating the system through a cloud simulator before
real implementation. There are many cloud simulators that provide pre-deployment
test services for repeatable performance evaluation of a system. Typically, a cloud
simulator provides the following advantages to a customer:

• Pre-deployment test before real implementation

• System testing at no cost
• Repeatable evaluation of the system
• Pre-detection of issues that may affect the system performance
• Flexibility to control the environment

Currently, different types of cloud simulators are available. A few cloud simulators
are listed here:

(i) CloudSim

(a) Description: CloudSim [3] is a popular cloud simulator that was developed
at the University of Melbourne. This simulator is written in a Java-based
environment. In CloudSim, a user is allowed to add or remove resources
dynamically during the simulation and evaluate the performance of the
scenario.
(b) Features: CloudSim has different features, which are listed as follows:
(1) The CloudSim simulator provides various cloud computing data
centers along with different data center network topologies in a
simulation environment.
(2) Using CloudSim, virtualization of server hosts can be done in a
simulation.
(3) A user is able to allocate virtual machines (VMs) dynamically.
(4) It allows users to define their own policies for the allocation of host
resources to VMs.
(5) It provides flexibility to add or remove simulation components
dynamically.
(6) A user can stop and resume the simulation at any instant of time.

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(ii) CloudAnalyst

(a) Description: CloudAnalyst [4] is based on CloudSim. This simulator

provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for simulating a cloud
environment, easily. The CloudAnalyst is used for simulating large-scale
cloud applications.
(b) Features:
(1) The CloudAnalyst simulator is easy to use due to the presence of the
GUI.
(2) It allows a user to add components and provides a flexible and high
level of configuration.
(3) A user can perform repeated experiments, considering different
parameter values.
(4) It can provide a graphical output, including a chart and table.

(iii) GreenCloud

(a) Description: GreenCloud [2] is developed as an extension of a packet-

level network simulator, NS2. This simulator can monitor the energy
consumption of different network components such as servers and switches.
(b) Features:
(1) GreenCloud is an open-source simulator with user-friendly GUI.
(2) It provides the facility for monitoring the energy consumption of the
network and its various components.
(3) It supports the simulations of cloud network components.
(4) It enables improved power management schemes.
(5) It allows a user to manage and configure devices, dynamically, in
simulation.

10.5.2 An open-source cloud: OpenStack

For the real implementation of cloud, there are various open-source cloud platforms
available such as OpenStack, CloudStack, and Eucalyptus. Here, we will discuss the
OpenStack platform briefly. The OpenStack [12] is free software, which provides a
cloud IaaS to users. A user can easily use this cloud with the help of a GUI-based web
interface or through the command line. OpenStack supports a vastly scalable cloud
system, in which different pre-configured software suites are available. The service
components of OpenStack along with their functions are depicted in Table 10.1.
Features of OpenStack

(i) OpenStack allows a user to create and deploy virtual machines.

(ii) It provides the flexibility of setting up a cloud management environment.

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Table 10.1 Components in OpenStack

Component Function
Nova Compute
Neutron Networking
Cinder Block storage
Keystone Identity
Glance Image
Swift Object storage
Horizon Dashboard
Trove Database
Sahara Elasticmap reduce
Manila Shared file system
Designate DNS
Searchlight Search
Barbican Key manager

(iii) OpenStack supports an easy horizontal scaling: dynamic addition or removal of

instances for providing services to multiple numbers of users.
(iv) This cloud platform allows the users to access the source code and share their
code to the community.

10.5.3 A commercial cloud: Amazon web services (AWS)

Besides the open-source cloud, there are various commercial cloud infrastructures
available in the market. Few of the popular commercial cloud infrastructures
are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google App Engine. In this
section, we will discuss the different features of AWS [13]. A user can launch and
manage server instances in AWS. Typically, a web interface is used to handle the
instances. Additionally, AWS provides different APIs (application programming
interfaces), tools, and utilities for users. Like other commercial clouds, Amazon AWS
follows the pay-per-use model. This cloud infrastructure provides a virtual computing
environment, where different configurations, such as CPU, memory, storage, and
networking capacity are available.

Features of AWS

(i) It provides flexibility to scale and manage the server capacity.

(ii) AWS provides control to OS and deployment software.

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(iii) It follows the pay-per-use model.

(iv) The cloud allows a user to establish connectivity between the physical network
and private virtual network
(v) The developer tools in this cloud infrastructure help a user for fast development
and deployment of the software.
(vi) AWS provides excellent management tools, which help a user to monitor and
automate different components of the cloud.
(vii) The cloud provides machine learning facilities, which are very useful for data
scientists and developers.
(viii) For extracting meaning from data, analytics play an important role. AWS also
provides a data analytics platform.

Check yourself

CloudStack cloud, Eucalyptus cloud, Amazon cloud

10.6 Sensor-Cloud: Sensors-as-a-Service

In this chapter, we have already discussed different services of cloud computing,
which include SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. Now, we will explore a new concept known
as Sensors-as-a-Service (Se-aaS) in a sensor-cloud architecture [5]. Virtualization
of resources is the backbone of cloud computing. Similarly, in a sensor-cloud,
virtualization of sensors plays an essential role in providing services to multiple users.
Typically, in a sensor-cloud architecture, multiple users receive services from different
asensor nodes, simultaneously. However, the users remain oblivious to the fact
that a set of sensor nodes is not dedicated solely to them for their application
requirements. In reality, a particular sensor may be used for serving multiple
user applications, simultaneously. The main aim of sensor-cloud infrastructure is
to provide an opportunity for the common mass to use Wireless Sensor Networks
(WSNs) on a payment basis. Similar to cloud computing, sensor-cloud architecture
also follows the pay-per-use model.

10.6.1 Importance of sensor-cloud

The sensor-cloud infrastructure is based on the concept of cloud computing, in
which a user application is served by a set of homogeneous or heterogeneous sensor
nodes. These sensor nodes are selected from a common pool of sensor nodes, as per
the requirement of user applications. Using the sensor-cloud infrastructure, a user
receives data for an application from multiple sensor nodes without owning them.
Unlike sensor-cloud, if a user wants to use traditional WSN for a certain application,

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he/she has to go through different pre-deployment and post-deployment hurdles.

Figures 10.6 depicts the usage of sensor nodes using traditional WSN and sensor-
cloud infrastructure. With the help of a case study, we will discuss the advantages
of sensor-cloud over traditional WSN.
Case Study: John is a farmer, and he has a significantly vast farmable area with him.
As manual supervision of the entire field is very difficult, he has planned to deploy
a WSN in his farming field. Before purchasing the WSN, he has to decide which
sensors should be used in his fields for sensing the different agricultural parameters.
Additionally, he has to decide the type and number of other components such as an
electronics circuit board and communication module required along with the sensors.
As there are numerous vendors, it is challenging for him to choose the correct (in
terms of quality and cost) vendor, as well as the sensor owner from whom the
WSN will be procured. He finally decides the type of sensors along with the other
components that are required for monitoring his agricultural field. Now, John faces
the difficulty of optimally planning the sensor node deployment in his fields. After
going through these hurdles, he decides on the number of sensor nodes that are
required for monitoring his field. Finally, John procures the WSNs from a vendor.
After procurement, he deploys the sensor nodes and connects different components.
As WSN consists of different electronic components, he has to maintain the WSN after
its deployment. After three months, as his requirement of agricultural field monitoring
is completed, he removes the WSN from the agricultural field. Six months later, John
plans to use the WSN that was deployed in the agricultural field for home surveillance.
As the agriculture application is different from the home surveillance application, the
sensor required for the system also changes. Thus, John has to go through all the
steps again, including maintenance, deployment, and hardware management, for the
surveillance system. Thus, we observe that the users face different responsibilities for
using a WSN for an application. In such a situation, if sensor-cloud architecture is
present, John can easily use WSNs for his application on a rental basis. Moreover,
through the use of sensor-cloud, John can easily switch the application without
any manual intervention. On the other end, service providers of the sensor-cloud
infrastructure may serve multiple users with the same sensors and earn profit.

Check yourself

Difference between sensor-cloud and virtual sensor network (VSN)

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Used by
multiple users

Single user
application

Aggregated data

Deployed WSN
by single user

(a) Traditional WSNs

Used by
multiple users

Multiple user
applications

Data for multiple

applications

Sensor
virtualization

Aggregated data

Deployed sensor
nodes by different
scnsor-owners

(b) Sensor cloud

Figure 10.6 Traditional WSN versus sensor-cloud

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10.6.2 Architecture of a sensor-cloud platform

In a traditional cloud computing architecture, two actors, cloud service provider (CSP)
and end users (customer) play the key role. Unlike cloud computing, in sensor-cloud
architecture, the sensor owners play an important role along with the service provider
and end users. However, a service provider in sensor-cloud architecture is known as
a sensor-cloud service provider (SCSP). The detailed architecture of a sensor-cloud is
depicted in Figure 10.7.

Cloud

Web interface
SCSP

Sensor
owners

End-users

Deployed sensor nodes

Figure 10.7 Architecture of a sensor-cloud platform

Actors in sensor-cloud architecture

Typically, in a sensor-cloud architecture, three actors are present. We briefly describe
the role of each actor.
(i) End User: This actor is also known as a customer of the sensor-cloud services.
Typically, an end user registers him/herself with the infrastructure through a
Web portal. Thereafter, he/she chooses the template of the services that are
available in the sensor-cloud architecture to which he/she is registered. Finally,
through the Web portal, the end user receives the services, as shown in Figure
10.7. Based on the type and usage duration of service, the end user pays the
charges to the SCSP.
(ii) Sensor Owner: We have already discussed that the sensor-cloud architecture
is based on the concept of Se-aaS. Therefore, the deployment of the sensors is
essential in order to provide services to the end users. These sensors in a sensor-

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cloud architecture are owned and deployed by the sensor owners, as depicted
in Figure 10.7. A particular sensor owner can own multiple homogeneous or
heterogeneous sensor nodes. Based on the requirements of the users, these
sensor nodes are virtualized and assigned to serving multiple applications at
the same time. On the other hand, a sensor owner receives rent depending upon
the duration and usage of his/her sensor node(s).
(iii) Sensor-Cloud Service Provider (SCSP): An SCSP is responsible for managing
the entire sensor-cloud infrastructure (including management of sensor owners
and end users handling, resource handling, database management, cloud
handling etc.), centrally. The SCSP receives rent from end users with the help of
a pre-defined pricing model. The pricing scheme may include the infrastructure
cost, sensor owners’ rent, and the revenue of the SCSP. Typically, different
algorithms are used for managing the entire infrastructure. The SCSP receives
the rent from the end users and shares a partial amount with the sensor owners.
The remaining amount is used for maintaining the infrastructure. In the process,
the SCSP earns a certain amount of revenue from the payment of the end users.

Check yourself

Pricing scheme for sensor-cloud [6, 9], Caching in sensor-cloud [11], data center
scheduling for sensor-cloud, Big sensor-cloud [8], Mobile sensor-cloud [7]

Sensor-Cloud Architecture from Different Viewpoints

We explore the sensor-cloud architecture from two view points: (i) User organizational
view and (ii) real architectural view [5]. Different views of sensor-cloud architecture
are shown in Figure 10.8.

(i) User Organizational View: This view of sensor-cloud architecture is simple. In

a sensor-cloud, end users interact with a Web interface for selecting templates
of the services. Thereafter, the services are received by the end users through
the Web interface. In this architecture, an end user is unaware of the complex
processes that are running at the back end.
(ii) Real Architectural View: The complex processing of sensor-cloud architecture
is visualized through this view. The processes include sensor allocation, data
extraction from the sensors, virtualization of sensor nodes, maintenance of the
infrastructure, data center management, data caching, and others. For each
process, there is a specific algorithm or scheme.

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254 Introduction to Internet of Things

User organizational view Real architectural view

Sensor allocation
Virtualization
Registration Data center
Login management
Template selection Data extraction
Service Maintenance
Data caching
....

Figure 10.8 Sensor-cloud architecture

Summary
This chapter covered different aspects of cloud computing which would help the
reader to visualize its requirement in IoT. Additionally, we discussed commercial
cloud platforms along with simulation tools. We explored the different aspects of
the OpenStack cloud platform, which would help a learner to implement and use it.
Finally, we concluded the chapter with a newly explored concept known as sensor-
cloud, which deals with sensors-as-a-service.

Exercises
(i) What are the advantages of cloud computing?
(ii) With an example, explain how software-as-a-service is different from platform-as-
a-service?
(iii) What is an SLA? Why it is important in cloud computing?
(iv) Differentiate between scalability and elasticity.
(v) What is an Amazon Machine Image?
(vi) What are the differences between modular and containerized data centers?
(vii) What is the relationship between IoT and cloud computing?
(viii) What is a sensor-cloud? Why do we use sensor-cloud?
(ix) Differentiate among different cloud deployment models.

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References
[1] Hogan, Michael, Fang Liu, Annie Sokol, Jin Tong. 2011. NIST Cloud Computing Standards
Roadmap. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U. S. Department of
Commerce.
[2] Kliazovich, D., P. Bouvry, Y. Audzevich, and S. U. Khan. 2010. “GreenCloud: A Packet-
Level Simulator of Energy-Aware Cloud Computing Data Centers.” In Proceedings of the
IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference (GLOBECOM), December, 2010.
[3] Calheiros, Rodrigo N., Rajiv Ranjan, Anton Beloglazov, César A. F. De Rose, and Rajkumar
Buyya. 2011. “CloudSim: A Toolkit for Modeling and Simulation of Cloud Computing
Environments and Evaluation of Resource Provisioning Algorithms.” Software: Practice
and Experience 41(1): 23–50.
[4] Wickremasinghe, Bhathiya, Rodrigo N. Calheiros, and Rajkumar Buyya. 2010.
“CloudAnalyst: A CloudSim-Based Visual Modeller for Analysing Cloud Computing
Environments and Applications.” In 24th IEEE International Conference on Advanced
Information Networking and Applications, AINA 446–452.
[5] Misra, S., S. Chatterjee, and M. S. Obaidat. 2017. “On Theoretical Modeling of Sensor
Cloud: A Paradigm Shift From Wireless Sensor Network.” IEEE Systems Journal 11: 1084–
1093.
[6] Roy, A., S. Misra, and P. Dutta. 2019. “Dynamic Pricing for Sensor-Cloud Platform in
the Presence of Dumb Nodes.” IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing. doi: 10.1109/
TCC.2019.2950396.
[7] Roy, A., S. Misra, and Lakshya. 2019. “OPTIVE: Optimal Configuration of Virtual
Sensor in Mobile Sensor-Cloud.” IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference
(WCNC), Marrakesh, Morocco 1–6. doi: 10.1109/WCNC.2019.8885626.
[8] Chatterjee, S., A. Roy, S. K. Roy, S. Misra, M. Bhogal, and R. Daga. 2019. “Big-Sensor-
Cloud Infrastructure: A Holistic Prototype for Provisioning Sensors-as-a-Service.” IEEE
Transactions on Cloud Computing. doi: 10.1109/TCC.2019.2908820.
[9] Chakraborty, A., A. Mondal, A. Roy, and S. Misra. 2018. “Dynamic Trust Enforcing Pricing
Scheme for Sensors-as-a-Service in Sensor-Cloud Infrastructure.” IEEE Transactions on
Services Computing. doi: 10.1109/TSC.2018.2873763.
[10] Roy, C., A. Roy, and S. Misra. 2018. “DIVISOR: Dynamic Virtual Sensor Formation
for Overlapping Region in IoT-based Sensor-cloud.” IEEE Wireless Communications and
Networking Conference (WCNC), Barcelona. 1–6. doi: 10.1109/WCNC.2018.8377221.
[11] Roy, A., S. Misra, and S. Ghosh. 2018. “QoS-Aware Dynamic Caching for Destroyed
Virtual Machines in Sensor-Cloud Architecture.” In Proceedings of the 19th International
Conference on Distributed Computing and Networking (ACM ICDCN), Varanasi, India.
[12] OpenStack. https://www.openstack.org/.
[13] Amazon Web Services. https://aws.amazon.com/.

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Chapter 12
Agricultural IoT

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• Relate to the applicability of IoT in real scenarios
• List the salient features of agricultural IoT
• Understand the requirements, challenges, and advantages in implementing IoT in
agriculture
• Relate to the appropriate use of various IoT technologies through real-life use
cases on IoT-based leaf area index assessment and an IoT-based irrigation system

12.1 Introduction
Currently, IoT-enabled technologies are widely used for increasing crop productivity,
generating significant revenue, and efficient farming. The development of the IoT
paradigm helps in precision farming. Agricultural loT systems perform crop health
monitoring, water management, crop security, farming vehicle tracking, automatic
seeding, and automatic pesticide spraying over the agricultural fields. In an IoT-
based agricultural system, different sensors necessarily have to be deployed over
agricultural fields, and the sensed data from these sensors need to be transmitted to
a centralized entity such as a server, cloud, or fog devices. Further, these data have
to be processed and analyzed to provide various agricultural services. Finally, a user
should be able to access these services from handheld devices or computers. Figure
12.1 depicts a basic architecture of an agricultural IoT.

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272 Introduction to Internet of Things

20%
20%
Flow
Sensor D 20%

20%
20%
20%
20%

Sensor D
20%
20%
20%

100
100

90
80
70
90

60
80
70
60
Sensor A Sensor C

Figure 12.1 Architecture of agricultural IoT

12.1.1 Components of an agricultural IoT

The development of an agricultural IoT has helped farmers enhance crop productivity
and reduce the overhead of manual operations of the agricultural equipment in the
fields. Different components such as analytics, drone, cloud computing, sensors,
hand-held devices, and wireless connectivity enable agricultural IoT as depicted in
Figure 12.2.

Handheld
device Wireless
connectivity

Drone
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%

Cloud computing
Analytics

Scnsor Camera Satellite

Figure 12.2 Components of agricultural IoT

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The different components of an agricultural IoT are discussed as follows:

• Cloud computing: Sensors such as the camera, devices to measure soil moisture,
soil humidity, and soil pH-level are used for serving different agricultural
applications. These sensors produce a huge amount of agricultural data that
need to be analyzed. Sometimes, based on the data analysis, action needs to be
taken, such as switching on the water pump for irrigation. Further, the data from
the deployed sensors are required to be stored on a long-term basis since it may
be useful for serving future applications. Thus, for agricultural data analysis and
storage, the cloud plays a crucial role.
• Sensors: In previous chapters, we already explored different types of sensors and
their respective requirements in IoT applications. We have seen that the sensors
are the major backbone of any IoT application. Similarly, for agricultural IoT
applications, the sensors are an indispensable component. A few of the common
sensors used in agriculture are sensors for soil moisture, humidity, water level,
and temperature.
• Cameras: Imaging is one of the main components of agriculture. Therefore,
multispectral, thermal, and RGB cameras are commonly used for scientific
agricultural IoT. These cameras are used for estimating the nitrogen status,
thermal stress, water stress, and crop damage due to inundation, as well as
infestation. Video cameras are used for crop security.
• Satellites: In modern precision agriculture, satellites are extensively used
to extract information from field imagery. The satellite images are used in
agricultural applications to monitor different aspects of the crops such as crop
health monitoring and dry zone assessing over a large area.
• Analytics: Analytics contribute to modern agriculture massively. Currently, with
the help of analytics, farmers can take different agricultural decisions, such as
estimating the required amount of fertilizer and water in an agricultural field
and estimating the type of crops that need to be cultivated during the upcoming
season. Moreover, analytics is not only responsible for making decisions locally;
it is used to analyze data for the entire agricultural supply chain. Data analytics
can also be used for estimating the crop demand in the market.
• Wireless connectivity: One of the main components of agricultural IoT is wireless
connectivity. Wireless connectivity enables the transmission of the agricultural
sensor data from the field to the cloud/server. It also enables farmers to access
various application services over handheld devices, which rely on wireless
connectivity for communicating with the cloud/server.
• Handheld devices: Over the last few years, e-agriculture has become very
popular. One of the fundamental components of e-agriculture is a handheld
device such as a smartphone. Farmers can access different agricultural
information, such as soil and crop conditions of their fields and market tendency,
over their smartphones. Additionally, farmers can also control different field
equipment, such as pumps, from their phones.

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• Drones: Currently, the use of drones has become very attractive in different
applications such as surveillance, healthcare, product delivery, photography, and
agriculture. Drone imaging is an alternative to satellite imaging in agriculture.
In continuation to providing better resolution land mapping visuals, drones are
used in agriculture for crop monitoring, pesticide spraying, and irrigation.

An agricultural food chain (agri-chain) represents the different stages that are
involved in agricultural activity right from the agricultural fields to the consumers.
Figure 12.3 depicts a typical agricultural food chain with the different operations
that are involved in it. Additionally, the figure depicts the applications of different
IoT components required for performing these agricultural operations. In the agri-
chain, we consider farming as the first stage. In farming, various operations, such
as seeding, irrigation, fertilizer spreading, and pesticide spraying, are involved. For
performing these operations, different IoT components are used. As an example, for
monitoring the soil health, soil moisture and temperature sensors are used; drones are
used for spraying pesticides; and through wireless connectivity, a report on on-field
soil conditions is sent directly to a users’ handheld device or cloud. After farming,
the next stage in the agri-chain is transport. Transport indicates the transfer of crops
from the field to the local storage, and after that, to long-term storage locations.
In transport, smart vehicles can automatically load and unload crops. The global

- Seeding - Transport - Cold-storage - Packaging - Long- - Retail

Operations

- Irrigation from field - Moisture- - Drying distance

transport - Supermarket
- Fertilizer to storage control -... - Whole
- Pesticides locations - Protection for the
market Seller
- ... -... -... -...
-...
Agri-chain

Farming Transport Storage Processing Logistics Market

- Sensors - Sensors - Sensors - Sensors

IoT-Componcents

- Sensors - Sensors
- Wireless - RFID - Camera - RFID - RFID - RFID
connetivity - GPS - Wireless - Cloud - Cloud - Cloud
- Drone -... connetivity computing computing computing
- Camera - Cloud - Wireless - Wireless - Wireless
- ... computing connetivity connetivity connetivity
-... -... -... - ...

Figure 12.3 Use of IoT components in the agricultural chain

positioning system (GPS) plays an important role by tracking these smart devices,
and radio frequency identification (RFID) is used to collect information regarding the
presence of a particular container of a crop at a warehouse. Storage is one of the
important operations in the agri-chain. It is responsible for storing crops on a long-

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term basis. Typically, cold storage is used for preserving the crops for a long time and
providing them with the necessary climatic and storage conditions and protection. In
the storage, cameras are used to keep a check and protect the harvested crops. The
camera feeds are transferred through wireless connectivity to a remote server or a
cloud infrastructure. Moreover, the amount and type of crops stored in a storage
location are tracked and recorded with the help of sensors and cloud computing.
For pushing the crops into the market, processing plays a crucial role in an agri-
chain. Processing includes proper drying and packaging of crops. For drying and
packaging, different sensors are used. Packaging is the immediate operation prior
to pushing the crop into the market. Thus, it is essential to track every package and
store all the details related to the crops in the cloud. Logistics enables the transfer of
the packed crops to the market with the help of smart vehicles. These smart vehicles
are equipped with different sensors that help in loading and unloading the packed
crop autonomously. Additionally, GPS is used in these smart vehicles for locating the
position of the packed crops at any instant and tracking their whereabouts. All the
logistical information gets logged in the cloud with the help of wireless connectivity.
Finally, the packed items reach the market using logistical channels. From the market,
these items are accessible to consumers. The details of the sale and purchase of the
items are stored in the form of records in the cloud.

12.1.2 Advantages of IoT in agriculture

Modern technological advancements and the rapid developments in IoT components
have gradually increased agricultural productivity. Agricultural IoT enables the
autonomous execution of different agricultural operations. The specific advantages of
the agricultural IoT are as follows:

(i) Automatic seeding: IoT-based agricultural systems are capable of autonomous

seeding and planting over the agricultural fields. These systems significantly
reduce manual effort, error probability, and delays in seeding and planting.
(ii) Efficient fertilizer and pesticide distribution: Agricultural IoT has been used to
develop solutions that are capable of applying and controlling the amount of
fertilizers and pesticides efficiently. These solutions are based on the analysis of
crop health.
(iii) Water management: The excess distribution of water in the agricultural fields
may affect the growth of crops. On the other hand, the availability of global
water resources is finite. The constraint of limited and often scarce usable
water resources is an influential driving factor for the judicious and efficient
distribution of agricultural water resources. Using the various solutions
available for agricultural IoT, water can be distributed efficiently, all the while,
increasing field productivity and yields. The IoT-enabled agricultural systems
are capable of monitoring the water level and moisture in the soil, and
accordingly, distribute the water to the agricultural fields.

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(iv) Real-time and remote monitoring: Unlike traditional agriculture, in IoT-based

farming, a stakeholder can remotely monitor different agricultural parameters,
such as crop and soil conditions, plant health, and weather conditions. Moreover,
using a smart handheld device (e.g., cellphone), a farmer can actuate on-field
farming machinery such as a water pump, valves, and other pieces of machinery.
(v) Easy yield estimation: Agricultural IoT solutions can be used to record and
aggregate data, which may be spatially or temporally diverse, over long periods.
These records can be used to come up with various estimates related to farming
and farm management. The most prominent among these estimates is crop yield,
which is done based on established crop models and historical trends.
(vi) Production overview: The detailed analysis of crop production, market rates,
and market demand are essential factors for a farmer to estimate optimized
crop yields and decide upon the essential steps for future cropping practices.
Unlike traditional practices, IoT-based agriculture acts as a force multiplier for
farmers by enabling them to have a stronger hold on their farming as well as
crop management practices, and that too mostly autonomously. Agricultural IoT
provides a detailed product overview on the farmers’ handheld devices.

12.2 Case Studies

In this section, we discuss a few case studies that will provide an overview of real
implementation of IoT infrastructure for agriculture.

12.2.1 In-situ assessment of leaf area index using IoT-based agricultural system
In this case study, we focus on an IoT-based agricultural system developed by Bauer
et al. [1]. The authors focus on the in-situ assessment of the leaf area index (LAI),
which is considered as an essential parameter for the growth of most crops. LAI is a
dimensionless quantity which indicates the total leaf area per unit ground area. For
determining the canopy (the portion of the plant, which is above the ground) light,
LAI plays an essential role.

Architecture
The authors integrated the hardware and software components of their
implementation in order to develop the IoT-based agricultural system for LAI
assessment. One of the important components in this system is the wireless sensor
network (WSN), which is used as the LAI assessment unit. The authors used two types
of sensors: (i) ground-level sensor (G) and (ii) reference sensor (R). These sensors are
used to measure photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). The distance between the
two types of sensors must be optimal so that these are not located very far from one
another. In this system, the above-ground sensor (R) acts as a cluster head while the
other sensor nodes (Gs) are located below the canopy. These Gs and R connect and

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form a star topology. A solar panel is used to charge the cluster head. The system is
based on IoT architecture. Therefore, a cluster head is attached to a central base station,
which acts as a gateway. Further, this gateway connects to an IoT infrastructure. The
architecture of the system is depicted in Figure 12.4.

IoT
infrastructure
MQTT
Broker

Internet

Gateway Cluster User

Cluster
head
head

Cluster 1 Cluster 2

Figure 12.4 System architecture

Hardware
For sensing and transmitting the data from the deployment fields to a centralized
unit, such as a server and a cloud, different hardware components are used in the
system. The commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) TelosB platform is used in the system.
The TelosB motes are equipped with three types of sensors: temperature, humidity,
and light sensors. With the help of an optical filter and diffuser accessory on the light
sensors, the PAR is calculated to estimate the LAI. The system is based on the cluster
concept. A Raspberry-Pi is used as a cluster head, which connects with four ground
sensor motes. The Raspberry-Pi is a tiny single board, which works as a computer and
is used to perform different operations in IoT. Humidity and wet plants intermittently
cause attenuation to the system, which is minimized with the help of forward error
coding (FEC) technique.
The real deployment of the LAI assessment system involves various environmental
and wild-life challenges. Therefore, for reliable data delivery, the authors take the
redundant approach of using both wired and wireless connectivity. In the first
deployment generation, USB power supply is used to power-up the sensors motes.
Additionally, the USB is used for configuring the sensor board and accessing the
failure as per requirement. In this setup, a mechanical timer is used to switch off
the sensor nodes during the night. In the second deployment generation, the cluster
is formed with wireless connectivity. The ground sensor motes consist of external

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antennas, which help to communicate with the cluster head. A Raspberry-Pi with
long-term evolution (LTE) is used as a gateway in this system.

Communication
The LAI system consists of multiple components, such as WSN, IoT gateway, and IoT-
based network. All of these components are connected through wired or wireless
links. The public land mobile network (PLMN) is used to establish connectivity
between external IoT networks and the gateway. The data are analyzed and visualized
with the help of a farm management information system (FMIS), which resides in the
IoT-based infrastructure. Further, a prevalent data transport protocol: MQTT, is used
in the system. We have already explored the details of MQTT in Chapter 8. MQTT is
a very light-weight, publish/subscribe messaging protocol, which is widely used for
different IoT applications. The wireless LAN is used for connecting the cluster head
with a gateway. The TelosB motes are based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol.

Software
Software is an essential part of the system by which different operations of the
system are executed. In order to operate the TelosB motes, TinyOS, an open-source,
low-power operating system, is used. This OS is widely used for different WSN
applications. Typically, in this system, the data acquired from the sensor node is
stored with a timestamp and sequence number (SN). For wired deployments (the first
generation deployment), the sampling rate used is 30 samples/hour. However, in
the wireless deployment (the second generation), the sampling rate is significantly
reduced to 6 samples/hour. The TinyOS is capable of activating low-power listening
modes of a mote, which is used for switching a mote into low-power mode during
its idle state. In the ground sensor, TelosB motes broadcast the data frame, and
the cluster head (Raspberry-Pi) receives it. This received data is transmitted to the
gateway. Besides acquiring ground sensor data, the Raspberry-Pi works as a cluster
head. In this system, the cluster head can re-boot any affected ground sensor node
automatically.

IoT Architecture
The MQTT broker runs in the Internet server of the system. This broker is responsible
for receiving the data from the WSN. In the system, the graphical user interface (GUI)
is built using an Apache server. The visualization of the data is performed at the
server itself. Further, when a sensor fails, the server informs the users. The server can
provide different system-related information to the smartphone of the registered user.

12.2.2 Smart irrigation management system

In precision agriculture, the regular monitoring of different agricultural parameters,
such as water level, soil moisture, fertilizers, and soil temperature are essential.
Moreover, for monitoring these agricultural parameters, a farmer needs to go to

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his/her field and collect the data. Excess water supply in the agricultural field can
damage the crops. On the other hand, insufficient water supply in the agricultural
field also affects the healthy growth of crops. Thus, efficient and optimized water
supply in the agricultural field is essential.
This case study highlights a prototype of an irrigation management system
[2], developed at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, funded by the
Government of India. The primary objective of this system is to provide a Web-based
platform to the farmer for managing the water supply of an irrigated agricultural
field. The system is capable of providing a farmer-friendly interface by which the
field condition can be monitored. With the help of this system, a farmer can take
the necessary decision for the agricultural field based on the analysis of the data.
However, the farmer need not worry about the complex background architecture of
the system. It is an affordable solution for the farmers to access the agricultural field
data easily and remotely.

Architecture
The architecture of this system consists of three layers: Sensing and actuating layer,
remote processing and service layer, and application layer. These layers perform
dedicated tasks depending on the requirements of the system. Figure 12.5 depicts
the architecture of the system. The detailed functionalities of different layers of this
system are as follows:

Processing Soil moisture Water level

Cluster head board sensor sensor Server

Figure 12.5 Architecture: Smart irrigation management system

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(i) Sensing and Actuating layer: This layer deals with different physical devices,
such as sensor nodes, actuators, and communication modules. In the system,
a specially designated sensor node works as a cluster head to collect data from
other sensor nodes, which are deployed on the field for sensing the value of soil
moisture and water level. A cluster head is equipped with two communication
module: ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). The
communication between the deployed sensor nodes and the cluster head takes
place with the help of ZigBee. Further, the cluster heads use GPRS to transmit
data to the remote server. An electrically erasable programmable read-only memory
(EEPROM), integrated with the cluster head, stores a predefined threshold value
of water levels and soil moisture. When the sensed value of the deployed sensor
node drops below this predefined threshold value, a solenoid (pump) activates
to start the irrigation process. In the system, the standard EC-05 soil moisture
sensor is used along with the water level sensor, which is specifically designed
and developed for this project. A water level sensor is shown in Figure 12.6(a).
(ii) Processing and Service layer: This layer acts as an intermediate layer between the
sensing and actuating layer and the application layer. The sensed and process
data is stored in the server for future use. Moreover, these data are accessible
at any time from any remote location by authorized users. Depending on the
sensed values from the deployed sensor nodes, the pump actuates to irrigate
the field. A processing board as depicted in Figure 12.6(b) is developed for the
project.

(a) Water level sensor (b) Processing board

Figure 12.6 Water level sensor and processing board

(iii) Application layer: The farmer can access the status of the pump, whether it is in
switch on/off, and the value of different soil parameters from his/her cell phone.
This information is accessible with the help of the integrated GSM facility of the
farmers’ cell phone. Additionally, an LED array indicator and LCD system is
installed in the farmers’ house. Using the LCD and LED, a farmer can easily
track the condition of his respective fields. Apart from this mechanism, a farmer
can manually access field information with the help of a Web-based application.
Moreover, the farmer can control the pump using his/her cell phone from a
remote location.

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Deployment
The system has been deployed and experimented in two agricultural fields: (i) an
agricultural field at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur),
India, and (ii) Benapur, a village near IIT Kharagpur, India. Both the agricultural
fields were divided into 10 equal sub-fields of 3 × 3m2 . In order to examine the
performance, the system was deployed at over 4 sub-fields. Each of these sub-fields
consists of a solenoid valve, a water level sensor, and a soil moisture sensor, along with
a processing board. On the other hand, the remaining six sub-fields were irrigated
through a manual conventional irrigation process. The comparison analysis between
these six and four fields summarily reports that the designed system’s performance is
superior to the conventional manual process of irrigation.

Summary
This chapter explored the applications of IoT in the domain of agriculture. Further, the
chapter helps the reader to visualize the importance of IoT in the various links of the
agricultural food chain. A case study on a very important aspect of agriculture, leaf
area index assessment, was explored in this chapter. This case study gives a detailed
idea about the system along with basic knowledge of the hardware used in it. Another
real deployed system of irrigation management is discussed in this chapter. This case
study is beneficial for the learner to understand the importance of IoT architecture in
the irrigation process of agriculture.

Exercises
(i) List the type of sensors which can be used for agricultural IoT.
(ii) Explain two use cases where drones can be used for agricultural IoT.
(iii) Design a scenario where we can use fog computing in agriculture.
(iv) How can agricultural IoT help in the efficient distribution of water in agricultural
fields?
(v) What are the roles of the various IoT components in an agri-chain?
(vi) What are the advantages of agricultural IoT?
(vii) List a few communication modules used for agricultural IoT?
(viii) Design a case study to develop an IoT-based agricultural planter. In the case
study, you should include the requirement analysis of different components and
justify their usability in the planter.
(ix) What is the importance of satellites in agricultural IoT?

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References
[1] Bauer, J. and N. Aschenbruck. 2018. “Design and Implementation of an Agricultural
Monitoring System for Smart Farming.” In Proceedings of IoT Vertical and Topical Summit
on Agriculture - Tuscany (IOT Tuscany), May 2018.
[2] Roy, Sanku Kumar, Sudip Misra, Narendra Singh Raghuwanshi, and Amitava Roy.
2017. “A Smart Irrigation Management System using WSNs.” Indian Patent File No.:
201731031610.
[3] Roy, S. K., A. Roy, S. Misra, N. S. Raghuwanshi, and M. S. Obaidat. 2015. “AID:
A Prototype for Agricultural Intrusion Detection using Wireless Sensor Network." In
Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), London, 2015. pp.
7059–7064.

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Chapter 13
Vehicular IoT

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• Relate to the applicability of IoT in real scenarios
• List the salient features of vehicular IoT
• Understand the requirements, challenges, and advantages of implementing IoT in
vehicles
• Relate to the appropriate use of various IoT technologies through a real-life case
on vehicular IoT

13.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we discuss the application of IoT in connected vehicular systems. The
use of connected vehicles is increasing rapidly across the globe. Consequently, the
number of on-road accidents and mismanagement of traffic is also increasing. The
increasing number of vehicles gives rise to the problem of parking. However, the
evolution of IoT helps to form a connected vehicular environment to manage the
transportation systems efficiently. Vehicular IoT systems have penetrated different
aspects of the transportation ecosystem, including on-road to off-road traffic
management, driver safety for heavy to small vehicles, and security in public
transportation. In a connected vehicular environment, vehicles are capable of
communicating and sharing their information. Moreover, IoT enables a vehicle to
sense its internal and external environments to make certain autonomous decisions.
With the help of modern-day IoT infrastructure, a vehicle owner residing in Earth’s
northern hemisphere can very easily track his vehicular asset remotely, even if it is in
the southern hemisphere. In this chapter, we discuss the importance and applications
of IoT in the vehicular systems. Figure 13.1 represents a simple architecture of a

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284 Introduction to Internet of Things

20%
20%
High-end processing 20%
20%
Cloud

20%

Heavy analystics
Long-term storage

100
90
80
70
60
Decision making

Low-end processing
Small-scale analytics
Fog

Short-term storage
Decision making near
the devices

Vehicle internal environment

sensing
Device

External environment sensing

Date collection and sharing
Event triggering

Figure 13.1 Architecture of vehicular IoT

vehicular IoT system. The architecture of the vehicular IoT is divided into three sub-
layers: device, fog, and cloud.

• Device: The device layer is the bottom-most layer, which consists of the basic
infrastructure of the scenario of the connected vehicle. This layer includes the
vehicles and road side units (RSU). These vehicles contain certain sensors which
gather the internal information of the vehicles. On the other hand, the RSU works
as a local centralized unit that manages the data from the vehicles.
• Fog: In vehicular IoT systems, fast decision making is pertinent to avoid
accidents and traffic mismanagement. In such situations, fog computing plays
a crucial role by providing decisions in real-time, much near to the devices.
Consequently, the fog layer helps to minimize data transmission time in a
vehicular IoT system.
• Cloud: Fog computing handles the data processing near the devices to take
decisions instantaneously. However, for the processing of huge data, fog
computing is not enough. Therefore, in such a situation, cloud computing is
used. In a vehicular IoT system, cloud computing helps to handle processes that
involve a huge amount of data. Further, for long-term storage, cloud computing
is used as a scalable resource in vehicular IoT systems.

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13.1.1 Components of vehicular IoT

Modern cars come equipped with different types of sensors and electronic
components. These sensors sense the internal environment of the car and transmit
the sensed data to a processor. The on-road deployed sensors sense the external
environment and transmit the sensed data to the centralized processor. Thereafter,
based on requirements, the processor delivers these sensed data to fog or cloud to
perform necessary functions. These processes seem to be simple, but practically,
several components, along with their challenges, are involved in a vehicular IoT
system. Figure 13.2 depicts the components required for vehicular IoT systems.

Analytics
Sensor

Vehicular IoT

Cloud and for

Satellite computing

Wireless Road side

connectivity unit (RSU)

Figure 13.2 Components of vehicular IoT

Check yourself

Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), Intelligent transportation system

(ITS), Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, Safety-as-a-Service (Safe-aaS)
[2]

• Sensors: We have already discussed how sensors play a crucial role in an

IoT-based ecosystem. Similarly, in vehicular IoT, sensors monitor different
environmental conditions and help to make the system more economical,
efficient, and robust. Traditionally, two types of sensors, internal and external,
are used in vehicular IoT systems.

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(i) Internal: These types of sensors are placed within the vehicle. The sensors
are typically used to sense parameters that are directly associated with
the vehicle. Along with the sensors, the vehicles are equipped with
different electronic components such as processing boards and actuators.
The internal sensors in a vehicle are connected with the processor board, to
which they transmit the sensed data. Further, the sensed data are processed
by the board to take certain predefined actions. A few examples of
internal sensors are GPS, fuel gauge, ultrasonic sensors, proximity sensors,
accelerometer, pressure sensors, and temperature sensors.
(ii) External: External sensors quantify information of the environment outside
the vehicle. For example, there are sensors used in the smart traffic system
that are capable of sensing vacant parking lots in a designated parking area.
The still images and videos from cameras are important inputs to generate
decisions in a vehicular IoT system. Therefore, on-road cameras are widely
used as external sensors to capture still images and videos. The captured
images and videos are processed further, either in the fog or in the cloud
layer, to take certain pre-programmed actions. As an example, camera
sensor can capture the image of the license plate of an overspeeding vehicle
at a traffic signal; the image can be processed to identify the owner of the
vehicle to charge a certain amount of fine. Similarly, temperature, rainfall,
and light sensors are also used in the vehicular IoT infrastructure.
• Satellites: In vehicular IoT systems, automatic vehicle tracking and crash
detection are among the important available features. Satellites help the system
to track vehicles and detect on-road crashes. The satellite image is also useful for
detecting on-road congestions and road blocks.
• Wireless connectivity: As vehicular IoT deals with connected vehicles,
communication is an important enabling component. For taking any action or
making decisions, the collective data from internal and external sensors need
processing. For transmitting the sensed data from multiple sensors to RSU
(roadside unit) and from RSUs to the cloud, connectivity plays an indispensable
role. Moreover, in the vehicular IoT scenario, the high mobility of the vehicles
necessitates the connectivity type to be wireless for practical and real-time data
transmission. Different communication technologies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,
and GSM, are common in the vehicular IoT systems.
• Road Side Unit (RSU): The RSU is a static entity that works collaboratively with
internal and external sensors. Typically, the RSUs are equipped with sensors,
communication units, and fog devices. Vehicular IoT systems deal with time-
critical applications, which need to take decisions in real time. In such a situation,
the fog devices attached to the RSUs process the sensed data and take necessary
action promptly. If a vehicular system involves heavy computation, the RSU
transmits the sensed data to the cloud end. Sometimes, these RSUs also work as
an intermediate communication agent between two vehicles.

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• Cloud and fog computing: We have already discussed the importance of fog
computing and cloud in the context of IoT applications. In vehicular IoT systems,
fog computing handles the light-weight processes geographically closer to the
vehicles than the cloud. Consequently, for faster decision making, fog computing
is used in vehicular IoT systems. However, for a heavy-weight process, fog
computing may not be a suitable option. In such a situation, cloud computing
is more adept for vehicular IoT systems. Cloud computing provides more
scalability of resources as compared to fog computing. Therefore, the choice
of the application of fog and cloud computing depends on the situation. For
example, the location and extent of short on-road congestion from a certain
location can be determined by fog computing with the help of sensed data.
Further, the congestion information can be shared by the RSU among other on-
road vehicles, thereby suggesting that they avoid the congested road. On the
other hand, for determining regular on-road congestion, predictions are typically
handled with the help of cloud computing. For the regular congestion prediction,
the cloud end needs to process a huge amount of instantaneous data, as well as,
historical data for that stretch of road spanning back a few months to years.
• Analytics: Similar to different IoT application domains, in vehicular IoT,
analytics is a crucial component. Vehicular IoT systems can be made to predict
different dynamic and static conditions using analytics. For example, strong data
analytics is required to predict on-road traffic conditions that may occur at a
location after an hour.

Points to ponder

• The sensors attached to the different parts of a vehicle, such as the battery
and fuel pump, transmit the data to the cloud for analyzing the requirements
for the maintenance of those parts.
• The evolution of IoT enables a user to lock, unlock, locate their cars, even
from a remote location.

13.1.2 Advantages of vehicular IoT

The evolution of IoT resulted in the development of a connected vehicular
environment. Moreover, the typical advantages of IoT architectures directly impact
the domain of connected vehicular systems. Therefore, the advantages of IoT are
inherently included in vehicular IoT environments. A few selected advantages of
vehicular IoT are depicted in Figure 13.3.

(i) Easy tracking: The tracking of vehicles is an essential part of vehicular IoT.
Moreover, the system must know from which location and which vehicle the
system is receiving the information. In a vehicular IoT system, the tracking

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288 Introduction to Internet of Things

Easy tracking Easy management

Fast decision making Safety

Connected vehicle Record

Figure 13.3 Advantages of vehicular IoT

of vehicles is straightforward; the system can collect information at a remote

location.
(ii) Fast decision making: Most of the decisions in the connected vehicle
environment are time critical. Therefore, for such an application, fast and active
decision making are pertinent for avoiding accidents. In the vehicular IoT
environment, cloud and fog computing help to make fast decisions with the data
received from the sensor-based devices.
(iii) Connected vehicles: A vehicular IoT system provides an opportunity to remain
connected and share information among different vehicles.
(iv) Easy management: Since vehicular IoT systems consist of different types of
sensors, a communication unit, processing devices, and GPS, the management
of the vehicle becomes easy. The connectivity among different components in a
vehicular IoT enables systems to track every activity in and around the vehicle.
Further, the IoT infrastructure helps in managing the huge number of users
located at different geographical coordinates.
(v) Safety: Safety is one of the most important advantages of a vehicular IoT system.
With easy management of the system, both the internal and external sensors
placed at different locations play an important role in providing safety to the
vehicle, its occupants, as well as the people around it.
(vi) Record: Storing different data related to the transportation system is an essential
component of a vehicular IoT. The record may be of any form, such as video
footage, still images, and documentation. By taking advantage of cloud and fog
computing architecture, the vehicular IoT systems keep all the required records
in its database.

13.1.3 Crime assistance in a smart IoT transportation system

In this section, we discuss a case study on smart safety in a vehicular IoT
infrastructure. The system highlights a fog framework for intelligent public safety in
vehicular environments (fog-FISVER) [1]. The primary aim of this system is to ensure
smart transportation safety (STS) in public bus services. The system works through
the following three steps:

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(i) The vehicle is equipped with a smart surveillance system, which is capable of
executing video processing and detecting criminal activity in real time.
(ii) A fog computing architecture works as the mediator between a vehicle and a
police vehicle.
(iii) A mobile application is used to report the crime to a nearby police agent.

Architecture
The architecture of the fog-FISVER consists of different IoT components. Moreover,
the developers utilized the advantages of the low-latency fog computing architecture
for designing their system. Fog-FISVER is based on a three-tiered architecture, as
shown in Figure 13.4. We will discuss each of the tiers as follows:

Image processor Event dispatcher

Crime definition downloader Event notification
Tier 1

Crime definition storage Data gatherer

Algorithm launcher Virtual sensor interface
Tier 2

Target object training Notification factory

Tier 3

Crime assist unit

Figure 13.4 Architecture of Fog-FISVER

(i) Tier1—In-vehicle FISVER STS Fog: In this system component, a fog node is
placed for detecting criminal activities. This tier accumulates the real sensed data
from within the vehicle and processes it to detect possible criminal activities
inside the vehicle. Further, this tier is responsible for creating crime-level
metadata and transferring the required information to the next tier. For
performing all the activities, Tier 1 consists of two subsystems: Image processor
and event dispatcher

• Image Processor: The image processor inside Tier 1 is a potent component,

which has a capability similar to the human eye for detecting criminal
activities. Developers of the system used a deep-learning-based approach
for enabling image processing techniques in the processor. To implement
the fog computing architecture in the vehicle, a Raspberry-Pi-3 processor

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board is used, which is equipped with a high-quality camera. Further, this

architecture uses template matching and correlation to detect the presence
of dangerous articles (such as a pistol or a knife) in the sub-image of a video
frame. Typically, the image processor stores a set of crime object templates
in the fog-FISVER STS fog infrastructure, which is present in Tier 2 of the
system. The image processor is divided into the following three parts:
(a) Crime definition downloader: This component periodically checks for
the presence of new crime object template definitions in fog-FISVER STS
fog infrastructure. If a new crime object template is available, it is stored
locally.
(b) Crime definition storage: In order to use template matching, the crime
object template definition is required to be stored in the system. The
crime definition storage is used to store all the possible crime object
template definitions.
(c) Algorithm launcher: This component initiates the instances of the
registered algorithm in order to match the template with the video
captured by the camera attached in the vehicles. If a crime object is
matched with the video, criminal activity is confirmed.
• Event dispatcher: This is another key component of Tier 1. The event
dispatcher is responsible for accumulating the data sensed from vehicles
and the image processor. After the successful detection of criminal activity,
the information is sent to the fog-FISVER STS fog infrastructure. The
components of the event dispatcher are as follows:
(a) Event notifier: It transfers the data to the fog-FISVER STS fog
infrastructure, after receiving it from the attached sensor nodes in the
vehicle.
(b) Data gatherer: This is an intermediate component between the event
notifier and the physical sensor; it helps to gather sensed data.
(c) Virtual sensor interface: Multiple sensors that sense data from different
locations of the vehicle are present in the system. The virtual sensor
interface helps to maintain a particular procedure to gather data. This
component also cooperates to register the sensors in the system.
(ii) Tier 2—FISVER STS Fog Infrastructure: Tier 2 works on top of the fog
architecture. Primarily, this tier has three responsibilities—keep updating the
new object template definitions, classifying events, and finding the most suitable
police vehicle to notify the event. FISVER STS fog infrastructure is divided into
two sub-components:
• Target Object Training: Practically, there are different types of crime objects.
The system needs to be up-to-dated regarding all crime objects. This sub-
component of Tier 2 is responsible for creating, updating, and storing the
crime object definition. The algorithm launcher uses these definitions in

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Tier 1 for the template matching process. The template definition includes
different features of the crime object such as color gradient and shape
format. A new object definition is stored in the definition database. The
database requires to be updated based on the availability of new template
definitions.
• Notification Factory: This sub-component receives notification about the
events in a different vehicle with the installed system. Further, this
component receives and validates the events. In order to handle multiple
events, it maintains a queue.

(iii) Tier 3 consists of mobile applications that are executed on the users’ devices. The
application helps a user, who witnesses a crime, to notify the police.

Summary
The primary aim of this chapter is to explain the details of vehicular IoT; it also
provides a description of its basic architecture. This chapter also highlights the crucial
components of a vehicular IoT system, which would help a learner to understand
the requirement of these components. Further, the advantages of vehicular IoT is
discussed. Finally, a unique case study, fog FISVER STS, is discussed, which would
help a learner to visualize the application of IoT in real-world situations and the
necessity of vehicular IoT solutions.

Exercises
(i) What is the role of cloud and fog computing in vehicular IoT?
(ii) What are the applications of IoT in transportation?
(iii) What are the advantages of vehicular IoT?
(iv) Give an example of image processing in vehicular IoT.
(v) What are roadside units (RSUs)?
(vi) How can data analytics help in a vehicular IoT system?
(vii) What are the uses of a camera sensor in vehicular IoT?
(viii) How can a vehicular IoT system ensure the safety of drivers?
(ix) Design a use case for developing an IoT-based driver sleep detection system.
Please mention all types of sensors required for developing the same.

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References
[1] Neto, A. J. V., Z. Zhao, J. J. P. C. Rodrigues, H. B. Camboim, and T. Braun. 2018. “Fog-Based
Crime-Assistance in Smart IoT Transportation System.” Specicial Issue on Cyber-Physical-
Social Computing and Networking, IEEE Access 6: 11101–11111.
[2] Roy, C., A. Roy, S. Misra, and J. Maiti. 2018. “Safe-aaS: Decision Virtualization for Effecting
Safety-as-a-Service.” IEEE Internet of Things Journal 5(3): 1690–1697.

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Chapter 14
Healthcare IoT

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• Relate to the applicability of IoT in real-life scenarios
• List the salient features of healthcare IoT
• Understand and examine the basic implementation aspects of healthcare IoT
• Understand the requirements, challenges, and advantages in implementing IoT in
healthcare
• Relate to the appropriate use of various IoT technologies through a real-life use
case of healthcare IoT system

14.1 Introduction
Internet of Things (IoT) has resulted in the development and emergence of a variety
of technologies that has had a huge impact on the medical field, especially wearable
healthcare. The salient features of IoT encourage researchers and industries to develop
new IoT-based technologies for healthcare. These technologies have given rise to
small, power-efficient, health monitoring and diagnostic systems. Consequently,
the development of numerous healthcare technologies and systems has rapidly
increased over the last few years. Currently, various IoT-enabled healthcare devices
are in wide use around the globe for diagnosing human diseases, monitoring
human health conditions, caring/monitoring for elders, children, and even infants.
Moreover, IoT-based healthcare systems and services help to increase the quality of
life for common human beings; in fact, it has a promising scope of revolutionizing
healthcare in developing nations. IoT-based healthcare devices provide access and
knowledge about human physiological conditions through hand held devices. With

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this development, users can be aware of the risks in acquiring various diseases and
take necessary precautions to avoid preventable diseases. The basic skeleton of an
IoT-based healthcare system is very similar to the conventional IoT architectures.
However, for IoT-based healthcare services, the sensors are specifically designed
to measure and quantify different physiological conditions of its users/patients.
A typical architecture for healthcare IoT is shown in Figure 14.1. We divide the
architecture into four layers. The detailed description of these layers are as follows:
Layer 1 Layer 2 Layer 3 Layer 4

Flow
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%

100
20%

90
80
20%

70
60
100
90
80
70
60

Figure 14.1 Architecture of healthcare IoT

(i) Layer 1: We have already explained in previous chapters that sensors are one of
the key enablers of IoT infrastructure. Layer 1 contains different physiological
sensors that are placed on the human body. These sensors collect the values of
various physiological parameters. The physiological data are analyzed to extract
meaningful information.
(ii) Layer 2: Layer 1 delivers data to Layer 2 for short-term storage and low-level
processing. The devices that belong to Layer 2 are commonly known as local
processing units (LPU) or centralized hubs. These units collect the sensed data
from the physiological sensors attached to the body and process it based on the
architecture’s requirement. Further, LPUs or the centralized hubs forward the
data to Layer 3.
(iii) Layer 3: This layer receives the data from Layer 2 and performs application-
specific high-level analytics. Typically, this layer consists of cloud architecture or
high-end servers. The data from multiple patients, which may be from the same
or different locations, are accumulated in this layer. Post analysis of data, some
inferences or results are provided to the application in Layer 4.

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(iv) Layer 4: The end-users directly interact with Layer 4 through receiver-side
applications. The modes of accessibility of these services by an end user are
typically through cellphones, computers, and tablets.

Check yourself

Internet of Medical Things, Health Level 7 International (HL7), Fast Healthcare

Interoperability Resources (FHIR)

14.1.1 Components of healthcare IoT

A typical IoT healthcare architecture is composed of several components that are
essential to generate the whole architecture. Figure 14.2 depicts different components
and their usage in an IoT healthcare system. Each of these components plays a distinct
role in the smooth execution of the system as a whole. In this section, we discuss the
different components for a basic healthcare IoT system.

Sense the physiological parameter value

Sensors from a patient’s body

Wireless connectivity Transmit data from sensors to LPU and

LPU to cloud/server

Privacy and security Secure the sensitive health data

Extract a meaningful inference from the

Analytics
data and apply them in an application

Store the data for short-term and

Cloud and for computing long-term basis for future use

Interface Provide an easy-access the application

Figure 14.2 Components of healthcare IoT

(i) Sensors: We have already explained that Layer 1 mainly consists of physiological
sensors that collect the physiological parameters of the patient. Few commonly
used physiological sensors and their uses are depicted in Table 14.1.
(ii) Wireless Connectivity: Without proper connectivity and communication, the
data sensed by the physiological sensors are of no use in an IoT-based
healthcare system. Typically, the communication between the wearable sensors

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Table 14.1 Commonly used healthcare sensors

Sensor Purpose
Pulse and oxygen These sensors are used to measure the pulse and
in blood (SpO2) oxygen levels in blood.
Also known as breathing sensor.
Airflow
An airflow sensor measures the change in respiratory rate.
With change in different physiological conditions, the
body temperature of a healthy adult also changes. Thus,
Temperature measuring the body temperature is a routine, yet essential
part of medical investigations. The temperature sensor
helps to measure the body temperature.
The blood pressure sensor measures the systolic, diastolic,
Blood pressure
and mean arterial pressure of the blood.
Glucometer A glucometer measures the glucose levels in blood.
A GSR sensor measures the intensity of stress on a human.
Galvanic skin
This sensor estimates the stress by measuring the
response (GSR)
variations in electrical characteristics of the skin.
Electrocardiogram This device measures the electrical and muscular
(ECG) activity of the heart.
EMG is a very important device that
measures the health of a muscle and a nerve cell.
Electromyogram (EMG)
With the help of EMG, the disruption of nerve and
muscle of a body can be determined.

and the LPU is through either wired or wireless connectivity. The wireless
communication between the physiological sensors and LPU occurs with the help
of Bluetooth and ZigBee. On the other hand, the communication between the
LPU and the cloud or server takes place with Internet connectivity such as Wi-
Fi and WLAN. In Layer 4 of the healthcare IoT architecture, the healthcare data
are received by the end users with different devices such as laptops, desktops,
and cellphones. These communication protocols vary depending on the type
of device in use. For example, when a service is received by a cellphone, it
uses GSM (global system for mobile communications). On the other hand, if
the same service is received on a desktop, it can be through Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
Communication and connectivity in healthcare IoT is an essential component.
(iii) Privacy and Security: The privacy and security of health data is a major concern
in healthcare IoT services. In a healthcare IoT architecture, several devices
connect with the external world. Moreover, between LPU and the server/cloud,
different networking devices work via network hops (from one networked
device to another) to transmit the data. If any of these devices are compromised,
it may result in the theft of health data of a patient, leading to serious security

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breaches and ensuing lawsuits. In order to increase the security of the healthcare
data, different healthcare service providers and organizations are implementing
healthcare data encryption and protection schemes [3, 4].
(iv) Analytics: For converting the raw data into information, analytics plays an
important role in healthcare IoT. Several actors, such as doctors, nurses, and
patients, access the healthcare information in a different customized format. This
customization allows each actor in the system to access only the information
pertinent to their job/role. In such a scenario, analytics plays a vital role
in providing different actors in the system access to meaningful information
extracted from the raw healthcare data . Analytics is also used for diagnosing
a disease from the raw physiological data available [1, 2].
(v) Cloud and Fog Computing: In a healthcare IoT system, several physiological
sensors are attached to a patient’s body. These sensors continuously produce
a huge amount of heterogeneous data. For storing these huge amounts of
heterogeneous health data, efficient storage space is essential. These data are
used for checking the patient’s history, current health status, and future for
diagnosing different diseases and the symptoms of the patient. Typically, the
cloud storage space is scalable, where payment is made as per the usage of space.
Consequently, to store health data in a healthcare IoT system, cloud storage space
is used. Analytics on the stored data in cloud storage space is used for drawing
various inferences. The major challenges in storage are security and delay in
accessing the data. Therefore, cloud and fog computing play a pivotal role in the
storage of these massive volumes of heterogeneous data.
(vi) Interface: The interface is the most important component for users in a healthcare
IoT system. Among IoT applications, healthcare IoT is a very crucial and
sensitive application. Thus, the user interface must be designed in such a way
that it can depict all the required information clearly and, if necessary, reformat
or represent it such that it is easy to understand. Moreover, an interface must
also contain all the useful information related to the services.

Points to ponder

• As healthcare data is private, a popular US legislation—Health Insurance

Portability and Accountability (HIPAA)—protects through data privacy and
security provisions.
• Drones are used to deliver medicines in disaster rescue and management
scenarios.

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14.1.2 Advantages and risk of healthcare IoT

IoT has already started to penetrate the domain of medical science. In healthcare, IoT
has become significantly popular due to its various features, which have been covered
previously in this book. Healthcare IoT helps in managing different healthcare
subsystems efficiently. Although it has many advantages, healthcare IoT has some
risks too, which may be crucial in real-life applications. In this section, we discuss the
different advantages and risks of healthcare IoT as depicted in Figure 14.3.

Easy
diagnosis Real-time

Loss of ! Error
Easy £$
¥ connectivity
record Low-cost

Automatic Easy Security risk

processing management

(a) Advantages of healthcare IoT (b) Risk in healthcare IoT

Figure 14.3 Advantages and risk in healthcare IoT

Advantages of healthcare IoT

The major advantages of healthcare IoT can be listed as follows:
• Real-time: In healthcare sectors, different components, such as the condition of
the patients, availability of doctors and beds in a hospital, medical facilities with
their monetary charges, can vary dynamically with time. In such a dynamic
scenario, one of the important characteristics of an IoT-based healthcare system
is real-timeliness. A healthcare IoT system enables users, such as doctors, end
users at the patient-side, and staff in a healthcare unit, to receive real-time
updates about the healthcare IoT components, as mentioned earlier. Moreover, a
healthcare IoT system can enable a doctor to observe a patient’s health condition
in real-time even from a remote location, and can suggest the type of care to be
provided to the patient. On the other hand, users at the patient-end can easily
take different decisions, such as where to take a patient during critical situations.
Moreover, the staff in a healthcare unit are better aware of the current situation
of their unit, which includes the number of patients admitted, availability of the
doctors and bed, total revenue of the unit, and other such information.
• Low cost: Healthcare IoT systems facilitate users with different services at low
cost. For example, an authorized user can easily find the availability of the
beds in a hospital with simple Internet connectivity and a web-browser-based
portal. The user need not visit the hospital physically to check the availability

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of beds and facilities. Moreover, multiple registered users can retrieve the same
information simultaneously.
• Easy management: Healthcare IoT is an infrastructure that brings all its end
users under the same umbrella to provide healthcare services. On the other
hand, in such an infrastructure, the management of numerous tangible and
intangible entities (such as users, medical devices, facilities, costs, and security)
is a challenging task. However, healthcare IoT facilitates easy and robust
management of all the entities.
• Automatic processing: A healthcare unit consists of multiple subsystems, for
which manual interventions are required. For example, to register a patient
with a hospital, the user may be required to enter his/her details manually.
However, automatic processing features can remove such manual intervention
with a fingerprint sensor/device. Healthcare IoT enables end-to-end automatic
processing in different units and also consolidates the information across the
whole chain: from a patient’s registration to discharge.
• Easy record-keeping: When we talk about a healthcare IoT system, it includes a
huge number of patients, doctors, and other staff. Different patients suffer from
different types of diseases. A particular disease requires particular treatment,
which requires knowledge of a patient’s health history, along with other details
about them. Therefore, the timely delivery of health data of the patient to the
doctor is important. In such a situation, the permanent storage of the patients’
health data along with their respective details is essential. Similarly, for the
smooth execution of the healthcare unit, details of the staff with their daily
activity in a healthcare unit are also required for storage. A healthcare unit
must also track its condition and financial transactions for further development
of the unit. A healthcare IoT enables the user to keep these records in a
safe environment and deliver them to the authorized user as per requirement.
Moreover, these recorded data are accessible from any part of the globe.
• Easy diagnosis: We have already explained that a healthcare IoT system stores
the data of the patient in a secure manner. Sometimes, for diagnosing a disease,
a huge chunk of prior data is required. In a healthcare IoT system, the diagnosis
of the disease becomes easier with the help of certain learning mechanisms along
with the availability of prior datasets.

Risk in healthcare IoT

We have already discussed the different advantages of the healthcare IoT. However, in
a healthcare IoT system, there are multiple risks as well. Here, we discuss the various
risks associated with a healthcare IoT system.

• Loss of connectivity: A healthcare IoT system consists of different physiological

sensors that sense and transmit the sensed data to a centralized unit. Moreover,
continuous data transmission from the patient is expected in a good healthcare

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system. Intermittent connectivity may result in data loss, which may result in a
life-threatening situations for the patient. Proper and continuous connectivity is
essential in a healthcare IoT system.
• Security: A healthcare IoT system contains the health data of different patients
associated with the system. The healthcare system must keep the data
confidential. This data should not be accessible to any unauthorized person. On
the other hand, different persons and devices are associated with a healthcare IoT
system. In such a system, the risk of data tampering and unauthorized access is
quite high.
• Error: Data analytics helps a healthcare IoT system to predict the patients’
condition and diagnosis of diseases. A huge amount of data needs to be fed into
the system in order to perform accurate analytics. Moreover, the management of
a huge amount of data is a crucial task in any IoT-based system. Particularly, in
the healthcare system, errors in data may lead to misinterpretation of symptoms
and lead to the wrong diagnosis of the patient. It is a challenging task to construct
an error-free healthcare IoT architecture.

14.2 Case Studies

14.2.1 AmbuSens system
In many developing countries, patients need to be transferred from primary-care to
tertiary-care hospitals for proper diagnosis and treatment. During the transit, the
hospitals at both ends—the referring one as well as the referred one—do not have any
information about the patient’s health condition during transit. In such situations,
the hospitals are unable to suggest any precautionary measures in the event of some
emergency during transit. Consequently, many patients die during the transit due to
lack of proper suggestive care by medical experts. To overcome these shortcomings,
the Smart Wireless Applications and Networking (SWAN) laboratory at the Indian
Institute of Technology Kharagpur developed a system: AmbuSens. The system was
primarily funded by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) of
the Government of India. This product system is a very crucial part of the healthcare
IoT system. The primary objectives of the AmbuSens system are summarized as
follows:

• Digitization and standardization of the healthcare data, which can be easily

accessed by the registered hospital authorities.
• Real-time monitoring of the patients who are in transit from one hospital to
another. At both hospitals, doctors can access the patients’ health conditions.
• Accessibility by which multiple doctors can access the patient’s health data at the
same time.

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• Provision of confidentiality to the health data of the patients in the cloud.

• In the AmbuSens system, wireless physiological sensor nodes are used. These
sensor nodes make the system flexible and easy to use.

Architecture
The AmbuSens system is equipped with different physiological sensors along with
a local hub. These sensors sense the physiological parameters from the patient’s
body and transmit those to a local data processing unit (LDPU). The physiological
sensors and LDPU form a wireless body area network (WBAN). Further, this local
hub forwards the physiological data to the cloud for storing and analyzing the health
parameters. Finally, the data are accessed by different users. The detailed layered
architecture of the AmbuSens system is depicted in Figure 14.4.

Layer 4 Medical personnel

Identity
Layer 3
Management unit

Storage
Standardization Healthcare
Layer 2 Aggregation cloud

VM initiation

LDPU LDPU LDPU

Layer 1

Figure 14.4 Layered architecture of AmbuSens

(i) Layer 1: This layer consists of multiple WBANs attached to a patient’s body.
These WBANs acquire the physiological data from the patient and transmit
them to the upper layer. The physiological sensors are heterogeneous, that is,
each of these sensors senses different parameters of the body. Moreover, the
physiological sensors require calibration for acquiring the correct data from a
patient’s body. Layer 1 takes care of the calibration of the physiological sensor
nodes. Further, in order to deliver the patient’s physiological data from the
sensor node to the LDPU, it is essential to form a proper WBAN. The formation

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of WBAN takes place by connecting multiple physiological sensor nodes to the

LDPU so that the sensors can transmit the data to the LDPU, simultaneously.
(ii) Layer 2: In the AmbuSens system, cloud computing has an important role. Layer
2 is responsible for handling the cloud-related functions. From Layer 1, WBANs
attached to the different patients deliver data to the cloud end. The cloud is
used for the long-term analysis and storage of data in the AmbuSens system.
Moreover, the previous health records of the patients are stored in the cloud
in order to perform patient-specific analysis. A huge volume of health data is
produced by the WBANs, which are handled by the cloud with the help of big
data analytics for providing real-time analysis.
(iii) Layer 3: In the AmbuSens system, the identity of the patients remains
anonymous. An algorithm is designed to generate a dynamic hash value for
each patient in order to keep the patient’s identity anonymous. Moreover, in the
AmbuSens system, at different time instants, a new hash value is generated for
the patients. The entire hashing mechanism of the AmbuSens is performed in
this layer.
(iv) Layer 4: The users simply register into the system and use it as per requirement.

Check yourself

Smart Healthcare System [5], Caring Healthcare System [6], Criticality-aware

System [7]

Hardware
In the AmbuSens system, a variety of hardware components are used such as sensors,
communication units, and other computing devices.
• Sensors: The sensors used in the AmbuSens system are non-invasive. The
description of the sensors used for forming the WBAN in the AmbuSens system
are as follows:
(i) Optical Pulse Sensing Probe: It senses the photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal
and transmits it to a GSR expansion module. Typically, PPG signals are
sensed from the ear lobe, fingers, or other location of the human body.
Further, the GSR expansion module transfers the sensed data to a device
in real-time.
(ii) Electrocardiogram (ECG) unit and sensor: The ECG module used in
AmbuSens is in the form of a kit, which contains ECG electrodes,
biophysical 9” leads, biophysical 18” leads, alcohol swabs, and wrist strap.
Typically, the ECG sensor measures the pathway of electrical impulses
through the heart to sense the heart’s responses to physical exertion and
other factors affecting cardiac health.

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(iii) Electromyogram (EMG) sensor: This sensor is used to analyze and measure
the biomechanics of the human body. Particularly, the EMG sensor is used
to measure different electrical activity related to muscle contractions; it also
assesses nerve conduction, and muscle response in injured tissue.
(iv) Temperature sensor: The body temperature of patients changes with the
condition of the body. Therefore, a temperature sensor is included in the
AmbuSens system, which can easily be placed on the body of the patient.
(v) Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensor: The GSR sensor is used for
measuring the change in electrical characteristics of the skin.

• Local Data Processing Unit (LDPU): In AmbuSens, all the sensors attached to
the human body sense and transmit the sensed data to a centralized device,
which is called an LDPU. An LDPU is a small processing board with limited
computation capabilities. The connectivity between the sensors and the LDPU
follows a single-hop star topology. The LDPU is programmed in such a way that
it can receive the physiological data from multiple sensor nodes, simultaneously.
Further, it transmits the data to the cloud for long-term storage and heavy
processing.

• Communication Module: Each sensor node consists of a Bluetooth (IEEE

802.15.1 standard) module. The communication between the sensor nodes and
the LDPU takes place with the help of Bluetooth, which supports a maximum
communication range of 10 meters in line-of-sight. The LDPU delivers the data
to the cloud with 3G/4G communication.

Front End
In the AmbuSens system, three actors—doctor, paramedic/nurse, and patient—are
able to participate and use the services. The web interface is designed as per the
requirements of the actors of the system. Each of the actors has an option to log in
and access the system. The confidentiality of a patient and their physiological data
is important in a healthcare system. Therefore, the system provides different scopes
for data accessibility based on the category of an actor. For example, the detailed
health data of a patient is accessible only to the assigned doctor. These data may
not be required for the nurse; therefore, a nurse is unable to access the same set of
data a doctor can access. The system provides the flexibility to a patient to log in
to his/her account and download the details of his/her previous medical/treatment
details. Therefore, in AmbuSens, the database is designed in an efficient way such that
it can deliver the customized data to the respective actor.
Each of the users has to register with the system to avail of the service of the
AmbuSens. Therefore, in this system, the registration process is also designed in a
customized fashion, that is, the details of a user to be entered into the registration form
is different for different actors. For example, a doctor must enter his/her registration
number in the registration form.

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Summary
Healthcare is a crucial application domain of IoT. A healthcare IoT ecosystem contains
distinct types of components, which combine and collectively participate in providing
an efficient healthcare IoT infrastructure. Considering all these aspects of healthcare
IoT, this chapter provided an overview of the real healthcare IoT system. From
this chapter, the reader can easily visualize the practical implementation aspects of
the healthcare IoT system. The case study discussed in this chapter provided a
visualization of the importance and various aspects of an IoT healthcare system from
theory to practice.

Exercises
(i) List the components of healthcare IoT.
(ii) Why privacy and security is important for healthcare?
(iii) What is a wireless body area network (WBAN)?
(iv) What is the difference between electrocardiogram (ECG) and electromyogram
(EMG) sensors?
(v) List the advantages of healthcare IoT.
(vi) List the risks associated with healthcare IoT systems.
(vii) How can data analysis be used in healthcare IoT?
(viii) What is a local processing unit (LPU)?
(ix) Discuss an idea for developing an IoT-based healthcare system, where we can
include fingerprint sensor.
(x) Why is cloud computing important for a healthcare IoT system?

References
[1] Sheriff, C. I., T. Naqishbandi, and A. Geetha. 2015. “Healthcare Informatics and Analytics
Framework.” Proceedings of International Conference on Computer Communication and
Informatics (ICCCI), January 2015.
[2] Kumar, S. and M. Singh. 2019. “Big Data Analytics for Healthcare Industry: Impact,
Applications, and Tools.” Big Data Mining and Analytics 2(1).
[3] Elhoseny, M., G. Ramı́rez-González, Osama M. Abu-Elnasr, S. A. Shawkat, N. Arunkumar,
and Ahmed Farouk. 2018. “Secure Medical Data Transmission Model for IoT-Based
Healthcare Systems.” IEEE Access 6: 20596–20608.
[4] Maria de Fuentes, J., L. Gonzalez-Manzano, A. Solanas, and F. Veseli. 2018. “Attribute-
Based Credentials for Privacy-Aware Smart Health Services in IoT-Based Smart Cities.”
Computer 51(7): 44–53.

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[5] Catarinucci, L., D. de Donno, L. Mainetti, L. Palano, L. Patrono, M. L. Stefanizzi, and

L. Tarricone. 2015. “An IoT-Aware Architecture for Smart Healthcare Systems.” IEEE
Internet of Things Journal 2(6): 515–526.
[6] Laplante, P. A., M. Kassab, N. L. Laplante, and J. M. Voas. 2018. “Building Caring
Healthcare Systems in the Internet of Things.” IEEE Systems Journal 12(3): 3030–3037
[7] Roy, A., C. Roy, S. Misra, Y. Rahulamathavan, and M. Rajarajan. 2018. “CARE: Criticality-
Aware Data Transmission in CPS-Based Healthcare Systems." In Proceedings of 2018 IEEE
International Conference on Communications Workshops (ICC Workshops), Kansas City, MO,
pp. 1–6

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Chapter 17
IoT Analytics

Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, the reader will be able to:
• Describe the common analytical tools and machine learning algorithms used with
IoT data
• Assess the importance and applicability of each algorithm
• Understand the operating principle of each of these analytical methods
• Assess the performance of various analytical and learning algorithms and methods
through the use of various performance metrics
• Relate to the uses of various learning algorithms through examples

17.1 Introduction
In previous chapters, we learned that sensors are an intrinsic part of IoT. These sensors
collect data from the environment and serve different IoT-based applications. The
raw data from a sensor require processing to draw inferences. However, an IoT-
based system generates data with complex structures; therefore, conventional data
processing on these data is not sufficient. Sophisticated data analytics are necessary to
identify hidden patterns. In this chapter, we discuss a few traditional data analytics
tools that are popular in the context of IoT applications. These tools include k-means,
decision tree (DT), random forest (RF), k-nearest neighbor (KNN), and density-based
spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) algorithms. Before discussing
these algorithms, let us understand some of the basics related to machine learning
(ML).

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17.1.1 Machine learning

The term “machine learning” was coined by Arthur Lee Samuel, in 1959. He defined
machine learning as a “field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without
being explicitly programmed”.
ML is a powerful tool that allows a computer to learn from past experiences and its
mistakes and improve itself without user intervention. Typically, researchers envision
IoT-based systems to be autonomous and self-adaptive, which enhances services and
user experience. To this end, different ML models play a crucial role in designing
intelligent systems in IoT by leveraging the massive amount of generated data and
increasing the accuracy in their operations. The main components of ML are statistics,
mathematics, and computer science for drawing inferences, constructing ML models,
and implementation, respectively.

Points to ponder

• ML is an important tool, which is used by different social networking websites

such as facebook and twitter.
• Autonomous vehicles use ML to determine their paths and speeds.

17.1.2 Advantages of ML
Applications fueled by ML open a plethora of opportunities in IoT-based systems,
from triggering actuators to identifying chronic diseases from images of an eye. ML
also enables a system to identify changes and to take intelligent actions that relatively
imitates that of a human. As ML demonstrates a myriad of advantages, its popularity
in IoT applications is increasing rapidly. In this section, we discuss the different
advantages of ML, as depicted in Figure 17.1

Minimum human
Self-learner intervention

Time-efficient Diverse data

Diverse
Self-guided application

Figure 17.1 Advantages of ML

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(i) Self-learner: An ML-empowered system is capable of learning from its prior and
run-time experiences, which helps in improving its performance continuously.
For example, an ML-assisted weather monitoring system predicts the weather
report of the next seven days with high accuracy from data collected in the last
six months. The system offers even better accuracy when it analyzes weather
data that extends back to three more months.
(ii) Time-efficient: ML tools are capable of producing faster results as compared to
human interpretation. For example, the weather monitoring system generates
a weather prediction report for the upcoming seven days, using data that goes
back to 6–9 months. A manual analysis of such sizeable data for predicting the
weather is difficult and time-consuming. Moreover, the manual process of data
analysis also affects accuracy. In such a situation, ML is beneficial in predicting
the weather with less delay and accuracy as compared to humans.
(iii) Self-guided: An ML tool uses a huge amount of data for producing its
results. These tools have the capability of analyzing the huge amount of data
for identifying trends autonomously. As an example, when we search for a
particular item on an online e-commerce website, an ML tool analyzes our search
trends. As a result, it shows a range of products similar to the original item that
we searched for initially.
(iv) Minimum Human Interaction Required: In an ML algorithm, the human does
not need to participate in every step of its execution. The ML algorithm trains
itself automatically, based on available data inputs. For instance, let us consider
a healthcare system that predicts diseases. In traditional systems, humans need
to determine the disease by analyzing different symptoms using standard “if–
else” observations. However, the ML algorithm determines the same disease,
based on the health data available in the system and matching the same with the
symptoms of the patient.
(v) Diverse Data Handling: Typically, IoT systems consist of different sensors and
produce diverse and multi-dimensional data, which are easily analyzed by ML
algorithms. For example, consider the profit of an industry in a financial year.
Profits in such industries depend on the attendance of laborers, consumption
of raw materials, and performance of heavy machineries. The attendance
of laborers is associated with an RFID (radio frequency identification)-based
system. On the other hand, industrial sensors help in the detection of machiney
failures, and a scanner helps in tracking the consumption of raw materials. ML
algorithms use these diverse and multi-dimensional data to determine the profit
of the industry in the financial year.
(vi) Diverse Applications: ML is flexible and can be applied to different application
domains such as healthcare, industry, smart traffic, smart home, and many
others. Two similar ML algorithms may serve two different applications.

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Check yourself

Inductive learning, Deductive learning, Entropy

17.1.3 Challenges in ML
An ML algorithm utilizes a model and its corresponding input data to produce an
output. A few major challenges in ML are listed as follows:

(i) Data Description: The data acquired from different sensors are required to be
informative and meaningful. Description of data is a challenging part of ML.
(ii) Amount of Data: In order to provide an accurate output, a model must have
sufficient amount of data. The availability of a huge amount of data is a challenge
in ML.
(iii) Erroneous Data: A dataset may contain noisy or erroneous data. On the other
hand, the learning of a model is heavily dependent on the quality of data. Since
erroneous data misleads the ML model, its identification is crucial.
(iv) Selection of Model: We have already discussed the use of ML algorithms in
different applications. Multiple models may be suitable for serving a particular
purpose. However, one model may perform better than others. In such cases,
the proper selection of the model is pertinent for ML.
(v) Quality of Model: After the selection of a model, it is difficult to determine the
quality of the selected model. However, the quality of the model is essential in
an ML-based system.

17.1.4 Types of ML
Typically, ML algorithms consist of four categories: (i) Supervised (ii) Unsupervised
(iii) Semi-supervised (iv) Reinforcement Learning (Figure 17.2). In this section, we
briefly explore different categories of ML. Before discussing further, we determine
the meaning of labeled- and unlabeled-data. As the name suggests, labeled data
contain certain meaningful tags, known as labels. Typically, the labels correspond
to the characteristics or properties of the objects. For example, in a dataset containing
the images of two birds, a particular sample is tagged as a crow or a pigeon. On the
other hand, the unlabeled dataset does not have any tags associated with them. For
example, a dataset containing the images of a bird without mentioning its name.
(i) Supervised Learning: This type of learning supervises or directs a machine to
learn certain activities using labeled datasets. The labeled data are used as a
supervisor to make the machine understand the relation of the labels with the
properties of the corresponding input data. Consider an example of a student
who tries to learn to solve equations using a set of labeled formulas. The labels

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L Classification
Supervised
Learns form labeled
dataset (L)
Regression

Clustering
Unsupervised L
Learns from unlabeled
dataset (L) Association

Semi-supervised L
Learns from combinations L
of labeled (L) and
unlabeled dataset (L)

Reinforcement
Learns from experience E
of the age (A) from A
the environment (E)

Figure 17.2 Types of ML

indicate the formulae necessary for solving an equation. The student learns to
solve the equation using suitable formulae from the set. In the case of a new
equation, the student tries to identify the set of formulae necessary for solving
it. Similarly, ML algorithms train themselves for selecting efficient formulae for
solving equations. The selection of these formulae depends primarily on the
nature of the equations to be solved. Supervised ML algorithms are popular in
solving classification and regression problems. Typically, the classification deals
with predictive models that are capable of approximating a mapping function
from input data to categorical output. On the other hand, regression provides
the mapping function from input data to numerical output. There are different
classification algorithms in ML. However, in this chapter, we discuss three
popular classification algorithms: (i) k-nearest neighbor (KNN), (ii) decision tree
(DT), and (iii) random forest (RF).
We use regression to estimate the relationship among a set of dependent
variables with independent variables, as shown in Figure 17.3. The dependent
variables are the primary factors that we want to predict. However, these
dependent variables are affected by the independent variables. Let x and y be
the independent and dependent variables, respectively. Mathematically, a simple
regression model is represented as:

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360 Introduction to Internet of Things

x0
x1 β0
β1

x2 y y = β0x0 + β0x0 + β0x0 + … + β0x0 + ε

β2

x1
βn ε

Figure 17.3 Regression model

y = β0 x0 + βx +  (17.1)

where β represents the amount of impact of variable x on y and  denotes an error.

In the given equation, x0 creates β0 impact on y, which indicates that the value of
y can never be 0. Similarly, for multiple variables, say n, the regression model is
represented as:
n
X
y= βi xi +  (17.2)
i=0

Check yourself

Support vector machine, Multilayer perceptron, Deep neural network,

Convolutional neural network, Recurrent neural network

(ii) Unsupervised Learning: Unsupervised learning algorithms use unlabeled

datasets to find scientific trends. Let us consider an example of the student
similar to that described in the case of supervised learning, and illustrate how
it differs in case of unsupervised learning. As already mentioned, unsupervised
learning does not use any labels in its operations. Instead, the ML algorithms
in this category try to identify the nature and properties of the input equation
and the nature of the formulae responsible for solving it. Unsupervised learning
algorithms try to create different clusters based on the features of the formulae
and relate it with the input equations. Unsupervised learning is usually applied
to solve two types of problems: clustering and association. Clustering divides
the data into multiple groups. In contrast, association discovers the relationship
or association among the data in a dataset.

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Check yourself

Overfitting, Underfitting, Convex function, Instance-based learning

(iii) Semi-Supervised Learning: Semi-supervised learning belongs to a category

between supervised and unsupervised learning. Algorithms under this category
use a combination of both labeled and unlabeled datasets for training. Labeled
data are typically expensive and are relatively difficult to label correctly.
Unlabeled data is less expensive than labeled data. Therefore, semi-supervised
learning includes both labeled and unlabeled dataset to design the learning
model. Traditionally, semi-supervised learning uses mostly unlabeled data,
which makes it efficient to use, and capable of overcoming samples with missing
labels.
(iv) Reinforcement Learning: Reinforcement learning establishes a pattern with
the help of its experiences by interacting with the environment. Consequently,
the agent performs a crucial role in reinforcement learning models. It aims to
achieve a particular goal in an uncertain environment. Typically, the model starts
with an initial state of a problem, for which different solutions are available.
Based on the output, the model receives either a reward or a penalty from the
environment. The output and reward act as inputs for proceeding to the next
state. Thus, reinforcement learning models continue learning iteratively from
their experiences while inducing correctness to the output.

17.2 Selected Algorithms in ML

17.2.1 k-nearest neighbor (KNN)
KNN learning falls under the category of supervised learning algorithms. It is also
known as lazy or instance-based learning. Typically, KNN learning is one of the
simplest algorithms, as it needs no explicit training model. In KNN, the selection
of a suitable k is essential to split the dataset into k clusters. Table 17.1 summarizes the
advantages and disadvantages of KNN.

Table 17.1 Advantages and disadvantages of KNN

Advantages Disadvantages
*Easily implementable *Noise sensitive
*Easy handling of missing data *Needs a large memory space
*Does not learn during the period of
*Does not work well for large and
training; therefore, is faster compared
high dimensional dataset
to other ML algorithms

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(iii) Root Mean Square Error (RMSE): This error computes the total standard deviation
of all the errors in a model. Mathematically,
v
t n
1X
RMSE = (yi − ȳ)2 (17.15)
n i=1

(iv) Mean Square Error (MSE): This error is similar to SSE and MAE. However, MSE
is derived as the square of the difference between the absolute and predicted
values in a model. Mathematically,
n
1X
MSE = (yi − ȳ)2 (17.16)
n i=1

Summary
In this chapter, we discussed the common analytical tools used in IoT. This discussion
will help a learner understand the advantages and challenges of ML in IoT. The
chapter provides a basic idea and an introduction to different types of ML algorithms
with examples. Finally, we discussed different performance metrics for evaluating the
ML algorithms.

Exercises
(i) What is machine learning (ML)? Why do we use ML?
(ii) What are the major challenges in ML?
(iii) What are the types of ML?
(iv) Compare supervised and unsupervised learning based on basic definition, type of
data used, and types of problems handled.
(v) List the differences between k-means and KNN.
(vi) What are the basic performance metrics used for ML?

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