The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items which are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. Implementing this concept is not an easy task by any measure for many reasons including the complex nature of the different components of the ecosystem of IoT. To understand the gravity of this task, we will explain all the five components of IoT Implementation.
Components of IoT implementation
- Sensors
- Networks
- Standards
- Intelligent Analysis
- Intelligent Actions
Sensors
According to (IEEE) sensors can be defined as: An electronic device that produces electrical, optical, or digital data derived from a physical condition or event. Data produced from sensors is then electronically transformed, by another device, into information (output) that is useful in decision making done by “intelligent” devices or individuals (people).
Types of Sensors: Active Sensors & Passive Sensors.
The selection of sensors greatly impacted by many factors, including:
- Purpose (Temperature, Motion, Bio…etc.)
- Accuracy
- Reliability
- Range
- Resolution
- Level of Intelligence (dealing with noise and interference)
The driving forces for using sensors in IoT today are new trends in technology that made sensors cheaper, smarter and smaller.
Challenges facing IoT sensors:
- Power consumption
- Security
- Interoperability
Networks
The second step of this implantation is to transmit the signals collected by sensors over networks with all the different components of a typical network including routers, bridges in different topologies, including LAN, MAN and WAN. Connecting the different parts of networks to the sensors can be done by different technologies including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Low Power Wi-Fi , Wi-Max, regular Ethernet , Long Term Evolution (LTE) and the recent promising technology of Li-Fi (using light as a medium of communication between the different parts of a typical network including sensors)
The driving forces for wide spread network adoption in IoT can be summarized as follows:
- High Data rate
- Low Prices of data usage
- Virtualization (X – Define Network trends )
- XaaS concept (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS)
- IPv6 deployment
Challenges facing network implementation in IoT
- The enormous growth in number of connected devices
- Availability of networks coverage
- Security
- Power consumption
