v1.0.

0-20241203

Embedded Systems and IoT

Ingegneria e Scienze Informatiche - UNIBO
a.a 2024/2025
Lecturer: Prof. Alessandro Ricci

[module-3.3]
TECHNOLOGIES AND PROTOCOLS
FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION IN
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS - OVERVIEW
ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 1
COMMUNICATION IN M2M SYSTEMS
AND INTERNET OF THINGS
• Communication among devices is a crucial aspect of M2M (Machine-
to-Machine) and IoT systems, that is the capability to exchange data/
information among devices and subsystems
• Communication can be either wired or wireless.
• In both cases devices are equipped with suitable communication
modules
– in the wired case, these are shields/boards with an Ethernet port
and support for 802.11 protocol
– in the wireless case, they could be either shield or USB dongle or
event SoC including a transmitter/receiver module and the
antenna
• The communication between the microcontroller and the
communication modules typically occurs through the serial port

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 2

INTERNET CONNECTION
• There are 2 main ways to connect an embedded device to the
Internet network in IoT:
– indirectly, by means of the communication with an intermediary
node functioning as a gateway
• e.g. architectures based on ZigBee o Bluetooth wireless
technology
– directly, mounting a proper receiver/transmitter module
• e.g. 3G/4G/5G or wifi
• In both cases, the reference protocol is the Internet protocol
– IP, TCP/IP and UDP/IP

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 3

ISO-OSI ARCHITECTURE
& INTERNET STACK/“HOURGLASS”

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 4

 IOT PERSPECTIVE

Heterogeneous standards environment in IoT (Source: IoT Research EU)

https://blogs.intel.com/iot/2015/04/15/how-the-internet-of-
things-can-unlock-the-door-to-a-more-robust-bms/
ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 5
WIRELESS COMMUNICATION:
PREAMBLE
• Wireless communications are radio communications
– exploiting electromagnetic signals belonging to the radio frequencies /
bandwidth, enabling the transmission of information at distance via air
– signals sent on these frequencies are also called radio-frequency signals
(RF)
• A radio communication can be
– terrestrial — if based on telecom infrastructure located on the earth's
surface
– satellite — if based on infrastructures in orbit over Earth

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 6

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES AND
PROTOCOLS
• Short Range (~ten meters)
– consumer field, less used in industry
– examples
• IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth)
• IEEE 802.15.7 (Visible Light Communication)
• Medium Range (hundred meters, up to one mile)
– examples
• IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi
• IEEE 802.15.4 e IEEE 802.15.4g WPAN
• Long Range (distances > 1 mile)
– cellular network (2G, 3G, 4G, 5G)
– outdoor IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi
– Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) technologies

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 7

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES AND
PROTOCOLS

[IoTF, p.144]

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 8

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES AND
PROTOCOLS

[IoTF, p.230]

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 9

WIRELESS NETWORK
TOPOLOGIES

• Main topologies used in

embedded and IoT
– P2P
– Star
– Tree
– Mesh

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 10

WIFI
• Standard IEEE 802.11x
• Reference protocol for wireless connection of devices to the
Internet
– support for Internet protocols
• IP, TCP/IP, UDP/IP
• Characteristics
– Data rate: 54 Mbps
– Communication range: ~150 m
– Frequency: 5 GHz
• Used also in embedded
– … even if not designed for embedded systems
– high power consumption

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 11

CELLULAR NETWORKS (BEFORE 5G)
• Communication by means of broad-band data cellular
network
• Continuous evolution
– GPRS, 3G, WiMax, LTE (4G)
• Characteristics
– Data rate: from 80 Kbps (GPRS) to some Mbps (3G e 4G)
– Range: km
– Frequencies: 800 MHz, 1900 MHz
• High power consumption
– not ideal for IoT

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 12

5G
• Disruptive technology, designed (also for) IoT
– high data rate/speed: 1-10Gbps
– low latencies (1-10ms)
– greater reliability
– greater flexibility compared to Wifi, pervasiveness in
devices (sensors, wearable..)
• introduzione/overview
– https://www.cbinsights.com/research/5g-next-gen-
wireless-system/
– https://www.arpae.it/dettaglio_generale.asp?
id=4149&idlivello=2145

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 13

5G AND IOT

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 14

 5G AND IOT

https://www.i-scoop.eu/5g/5g-iot/

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 15

5G AND IOT

https://www.i-scoop.eu/5g/5g-iot/

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 16

RADIO NETWORKS (RF LINKS)
• Simple radio communication interfaces
– connecting to microcontrollers and devices via serial port
• Characteristics
– Data rate: up to 1 Mbps
– Range: up to 1 Km, depending on the antenna
– Frequency: 2.4 GHz
• No direct support for high-level protocol such as TCP/IP
– custom protocols

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 17

BLUETOOTH (BT)
• Standard widely adopted for transmitting data in Wireless Personal
Area Network (WPAN), short range
– IEEE 802.15.1
• Based on dynamic discovery and connection of devices in a short
range (dozen meters)
– widely used in the consumer devices (smartphones, tablets,
laptops, printers, digital cameras…)
• Originally developed by Ericsson (1994) and then formalised as a
standard by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG)
– including Sony Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba, Nokia and others

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 18

BT: GENERAL INFO
• Standard designed with the main objective of low power
consumption, short communication range and low cost for device
production
• It works in the free 2,45 GHz bandwidth
– to reduce interferences, the protocol divides the bandwidth in 79
channels and commute among channels 1.600 times per second
(frequency hopping technique)
• Speed
– versions 1.1 and 1.2 => up to 723,1 kbit/s.
– versione 2.0 => high speed modality up to 3 Mbit/s
• higher power consumption
• Newer versions adopt shorter signals and reduce the power required
compared to Bluetooth 1.2

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 19

BT DEVICE CLASSES
• BT devices can belong to 4 different classes, depending on the
power consumed and the working range

(Watt = Joule/secondo, mW = milliWatt = 10-3 Watt)

(dB = decibel = 10*log10 valore)

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 20

BT NETWORK TOPOLOGY
• BT base network is called piconet, based on a master-slave
architecture
– each Bluetooth master device can manage the simultaneous
communication with other 7 BT slave devices
– a slave device can communicate only with one master at a time
– the communication is synchronised with the master clock
• It is possible to connect multiple piconets, to form a scatternet.
– slaves can take part to multiple piconets at the same time
– a master of a piconet can be slave of another piconet.
• Every BT device can be configured to lookup and discover
continuously other devices to connect
– a password can be set for security

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 21

BT PICONET AND SCATTERNET

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 22

CONNECTION TYPES
• Two types in general
– connection oriented
• in this type first a connection must be established between
devices before sending data
– connectionless
• a connection less link does not required a connection before
sending packets
– the transmitter can send packets anytime
– it must know in any case the address of the target
receiver
• Basic BT supports 2 connection types for voice and data transfer:
– Asynchronous ConnectionLess (ACL)
• for data transmission, best-effort
– Synchronous Connection Oriented (SCO)
• real-time transmission, multimedia

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 23

BT PROTOCOL STACK
• BT Protocol stack is organised in layers, like ISO/OSI
– different protocols are used in different applications
– the stack always include the data-link and physical layer

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 24

 RFCOMM
BLUETOOTH SPECIFICATION Page 11 of 29
RFCOMM with TS 07.10
• The RFCOMM protocol is used for exploiting BT for classic serial line
3 Service Interface
communication, Description
emulating the RS-232 serial port
– useful for seamlessly connecting to any possible devices
RFCOMM is a protocol used to emulate serial ports. In most systems, RFCOMM will be
• Reference model
part of a port driver that includes a serial port emulation entity.
– https://developer.bluetooth.org/TechnologyOverview/Pages/ BLUETOOTH SPECIFICATION
RFCOMM with TS 07.10
Page 1

3.1 ServiceRFCOMM.aspx
Definition Model 3 Service Interface Description
RFCOMM is a protocol used to emulate serial ports. In most systems, RFCOMM w
Figure 3.1 shows a model of how RFCOMM fits into a typical system. This
part of a port driver figure
that includes a serial port emulation entity.

represents the RFCOMM reference model. 3.1 Service Definition Model

Figure 3.1 shows a model of how RFCOMM fits into a typical system. This figure
represents the RFCOMM reference model.
Application Application

Port Interface (e.g. VCOMM)

Read/write Control
Port Emulation Entity
Port Interface (e.g. VCOMM)
General control parameters
Read/write Control Service registration/discovery Data (TX,RX) Port parameter settings
RFCOMM Service Interface

SDP RFCOMM
Port Emulation Entity L2CAP
Baseband
General control parameters Figure 3.1: RFCOMM reference model
Service registration/discovery Data (TX,RX) Port parameter settings
RFCOMM
The elements ofService Interface
the RFCOMM reference model are described below.

Element Description
SDP RFCOMM Application Applications that utilize a serial port communication interface

L2CAP Port Emulation

Entity
The port emulation entity maps a system-specific communication
interface (API) to the RFCOMM services. The port emulation entity
plus RFCOMM make up a port driver
Baseband RFCOMM Provides a transparent data stream and control channel over an
L2CAP channel. Multiplexes multiple emulated serial ports

Figure 3.1: RFCOMM reference model Service

Registration/
Server applications register here on local device, and it provides
services for client applications to discover how to reach server
Discovery applications on other devices

L2CAP Protocol multiplexing, SAR

The elements of the RFCOMM reference model are described below. Baseband Baseband protocols defined by Bluetooth Specification

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 25

ADOPTED PROTOCOLS
• Protocols defined by different organisations for specific purposes
– PPP
• Internet standard for transmitting IP packets
– TCP/UDP-IP
– OBEX
• object exchange, session protocol developed by Infrared Data
Association, similar to HTTP
– used to exchange data in vCard and vCalendar formats
– WAE/WAP
• Wireless Application Environment e Wireless Application
Protocol

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 26

PROFILES
• To ease the adoption and use of BT devices, some specific profiles have
been defined at the application level
• Examples
– Generic Access Profile (GAP)
– Service Discovery Application Profile (SDAP)
– Cordless Telephony Profile (CTP)
– Intercom Profile (IP)
– Serial Port Profile (SPP)
– Headset Profile (HSP)
– Dial-up Networking Profile (DUNP)
– Fax Profile
– LAN Access Profile (LAP)
– Generic Object Exchange Profile (GOEP)
– Object Push Profile (OPP)
– File Transfer Profile (FTP)
– Synchronisation Profile (SP)
– …
ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 27
SECURITY
• SAFER+ (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) algorithm for authenticate
devices and generate keys for data encryption

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 28

BT EVOLUTION AND BLE
• From 1.0 (1999) to version 5 (2016)
• Version 4.0 is called Bluetooth Smart, including protocols:
– Classic Bluetooth - legacy BT
– Bluetooth High Speed - based onWi-Fi
– Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) - alternative protocol to BT
specifically designed for IoT - Bluetooth 4
• lower power consumption
• easier communication among devices
• higher reactivity
• Two implementations
– single-mode
• only the stack BLE is implemented
– dual-mode
• BT Smart functionalities are integrated with the Classic ones

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 29

CLASSIC BT vs. BT SMART

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 30

BLUETOOTH 5
• Available from December 2016, this is the evolution of the
standard toward IoT
– 4x transmission area
• at the same power consumption
– 2x speed up to 2Mbps, in low power consumption mode
• reduced time for sending and transmitting data

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 31

IEEE 802.15.4 STANDARD
• Standard that defines the specs for the physical layer and media
access control for personal wireless network at low speed, low cost
(low-rate wireless personal area networks, LR-WPANs)
– focus on agile short-range communication among using low-
power
• within 10 meters, 250 kbit/s transfer rate
– support for real-time communication and secure communication
• Base standard for further specs on top
– ZigBee, ISA100.11a,WirelessHART, MiWi
• Used in:
– Home and building automation
– Automotive networks
– Industrial wireless sensor networks
– Interactive toys and remote controls

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 32

NETWORK MODEL
• Two node types
– FFD (full-function device)
• PAN coordinator
• implements a communication model to talk with any other node
– RFD (reduced-function devices).
• these nodes represent simple devices — reduced computing
power, reduced communication capabilities
• can communicate with a FFD
• Topologies
– star e peer-to-peer topologies
• each network must have at least one FFD
– cluster tree
• structure in which a RFD can have a single FFD
• P2P network can establish arbitrary connection patterns
• base for ad hoc networks for self-management and organization

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 33

NETWORK MODEL

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 34

CHARACTERISTICS
• Frequency
– it works in 2.4 GHz free bandwidths, 900 MHz e 868 MHz
• Data rate
– up to 250 kbps
• Range
– from 100 m to 1 Km, depending on the transmitting power
• small projects: 1mW => 100 m
• Consumption
– 50mA
• so a 850 mAH battery => 17 hours

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 35

IEEE 802.15.4: IMPLEMENTATIONS
• Examples
– ZigBee
– 6LoWPAN
– Thread

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 36

ZIGBEE
• Widespread technology used in embedded systems
– based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard, for wireless personal area
networks (WPAN)
– designed for IoT, for pervasive communication among devices
• open global standard
• low power consumption, low cost
• History
– first studies in 1998, to overcome WiFi and Bluetooth limitations
for future applications
– the IEEE 802.15.4 standard was defined in 2003.
– in 2005 the ZigBee Alliance produces the Specification 1.0

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 37

ZIGBEE STACK

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 38

ZIGBEE ARCHITECTURE
• Three types of devices
– ZigBee Coordinator (ZC)
• it is the “intelligent” device among the devices, it is the root of the
network and can function as a bridge
• there could be only one Coordinator per network
• can store info about the network and security management
– ZigBee Router (ZR)
• these devices act as intermediate routers transmitting data from/to
other devices
– ZigBee End Device (ZED)
• these devices include only minimal functionalities for communicating
with their parent (Coordinator or Router)
• reduced memory/computing power

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 39

TOPOLOGIES

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 40

ZIGBEE IP STACK

[IoTF, p. 261]

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 41

ZIGBEE VS. BT
• ZigBee vs. classic BT
– better efficiency, larger communication range, more agile creation
of p2p networks
– better for IoT
– less used/widespread at the consumer level

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 42

COMPARISON

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 43

IP FOR IOT - OPTIMISATION
• IoT constrained devices/nodes define optimisations at
different levels to work with the IP protocol/Architecture

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 44

EXAMPLE: 6LOWPAN
• Example: 6LoWPAN and 6Lo (successor of 6LoWPAN)
– IPv6 packet optimisation on constrained network such
as the IEEE 802.15.4

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 45

THREAD PROTOCOL
• IPv6-based networking protocol designed for low-power Internet of
Things devices in an IEEE 802.15-2006 wireless mesh network,
commonly called a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)
• Thread is independent of other 802.15 mesh networking protocols, such
a ZigBee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth LE
– especially designed for home and building automation, for for
connecting products to each other, to the internet and to the cloud
• Thread's primary features include:
– Simplicity — Simple installation, start up, and operation
– Security — All devices in a Thread network are authenticated and all
communications are encrypted
– Reliability — Self-healing mesh networking, with no single point of
failure, and spread-spectrum techniques to provide immunity to
interference
– Efficiency — Low-power Thread devices can sleep and operate on
battery power for years
– Scalability — Thread networks can scale up to hundreds of devices
ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 46
THREAD NETWORK STACK

https://raytac.blog/2023/07/12/thread-network-technology-and-key-feature-introduction/
ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 47
THREAD HOME NETWORK
ARCHITECTURE

https://raytac.blog/2023/07/12/thread-network-technology-and-key-feature-introduction/
ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 48
THREAD BUSINESS NETWORK
ARCHITECTURE

https://raytac.blog/2023/07/12/thread-network-technology-and-key-feature-introduction/

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 49

MATTER
• Matter
– Open-source connectivity standard for smart home and IoT
(Internet of Things) devices
– Recent initiative (2022)
• strong, driven by major industries: Amazon, Apple, Google
and the Connectivity Standards Alliance (formerly Zigbee
Alliance)… followed by IKEA, Huawei, and Schneider
– Royalty-free, but certification costs for developers and
manufacturers
• Main focus
– “Matter has the goal of being an interoperable standard that
fosters technology adoption and innovation, gradually replacing
proprietary protocols for smart home ecosystems” (https://
developers.home.google.com/matter/primer)
– Matter is implemented by an open source SDK that contains not
only the implementation of the specification but also a rich set of
examples and interoperable code
ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 50
MATTER ARCHITECTURE

https://developers.home.google.com/matter/primer/

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 51

MATTER DEVICE MODEL

https://developers.home.google.com/matter/primer/

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 52

APPLICATION LEVEL PROTOCOLS
• Protocols for IoT — different possibilities and categories
• Application level protocols / categories
– no application protocols (custom)
– SCADA
– web-based generic protocols
• transport protocols like UDP/TCP
• TCP to be preferred in cellular networks, that are typically
more robust and can deal with the overhead
• UDP to be preferred in LLN (low-power and lossy),
characterised by constrained devices and networks
– application-level protocol designed for IoT (nodes and
constrained networks)
• MQTT (Message Queueing Telemetry Transport)
• CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol)

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 53

 COAP AND MQTT

[*]

[IoTF, p. 414]

Example of stack
based on CoAP vs. MQTT

[IoTF, p. 436]
[*] LLN = low-power and lossy networks

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 54

REFERENCES
• [IoTF] IoT Fundamentals. Hanes et al. CISCO Press.
2017
• Building Internet of Things with Arduino, Charalampos
Doukas

ESIOT ISI-LT - UNIBO WIRELESS COMMUNICATION 55