Logical design Building Blocks & Architecture 

BUILDING BLOCKS of IoT

 Basic building blocks of the IoT system –

Sensors,

Processors,

Gateways,

Applications.

 

Sensors:

• These are front-end IoT devices( “Things”) of the system.

• The main purpose is to collect data (sensors) or send it to data(actuators).

• These have uniquely identifiable devices (IP addresses) so these are easily identified over a large network.

• These are active all time for collecting real-time data and controlled by the user.

• Examples: - sensors of gas sensor, water quality sensor, moisture sensor, etc.

Processor:

• It is the brain of the IoT system.

• It processes the data input by the sensors and extracts the data from the huge amount of raw data.

• It works on real-time data and is controlled by applications programs.

• It is also responsible for the security of data.

• It performs encryption and decryption operations on data.

• Example:- Embedded hardware devices, microcontroller, etc

Gateways:

• These are responsible for routing and processing or communicating data from to source and vice versa.

• LAN, WAN, PAN, etc are examples of network gateways.

Applications:

• These are software for proper utilization of all the collected data.

• These cloud-based applications are responsible for interpreting the collected data and analysis via big data.

• These are controlled by users and administrators.

• Examples:-applications for home automation apps, security systems, industrial control hub, etc. 

Figure: block diagram of the basic building blocks of the IoT

 IOT WORKING PROCESS: -

 1.            Sensors acquire information with basic resources (names, addresses, etc. related attributes of objects by automatic identification and perception technologies.

2.             Various types of communications technologies are combined with object-related information into the information network, intelligent indexing, and resorting to fundamental resource services (similar to the resolution, addressing, and discovery of the internet).

3.             Intelligent computing technologies (cloud computing, fuzzy recognition, data mining, semantic analysis, etc. ) analyze and process the information, which is related to masses of objects. (used for intelligent decision and control in the physical world objects).

Figure: Layers of the IoT

 

1.            In the Physical layer, all the data is collected by the access system (uniquely identifiable "things") and collects data and goes to the internet devices (like smartphones). Communication via transmission lines (like fiber-optic cable) from the raw data.

2.            All the managed information is handled by the application layer for proper utilization of the data collected.

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IOT LOGICAL DESIGN (ACCORDING TO LAYERS)

 There are four major layers.

 Figure: IoT architecture layers

  1.  Sensor, Connectivity, and Network Layer

• At the bottom of IoT architecture
• This layer consists of RFID tags, sensors, actuators (perform actions).
• Sensors, RFID tags are wireless devices and form the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). WSN has finite storage capacity, restricted communication bandwidth, and have small processing speed.
• Sensors are active in nature, collect real-time information and process.
• Connect with networks (like WAN, PAN, etc.) for communicating the raw data to the next layer (Gateway and Network Layer).
• Examples of sensors– temperature sensor, moisture sensor (atmosphere or soil, water quality), etc.

Figure: Sensor, Connectivity, and Network Layer

 2.  Gateway and Network Layer

• This layer is responsible for integrating various network protocols.
• Responsible for routing the data coming from the Sensor, Connectivity, and Network layer and passing it to Management Service Layer.
• This layer has a large storage capacity for storing the vast amount of data collected by the sensors, RFID tags, etc. Also, this layer needs to have a consistently trusted performance in terms of public, private, and hybrid networks.
• Different IoT device works on different kinds of network protocols. All these protocols are required to be integrated into a single layer.
• This layer uses embedded OS, Signal Processors, Modulators, Micro-Controllers, etc. Above the gateway we have the Gateway Networks which are LAN(Local Area Network), WAN(Wide Area Network), etc.

3.    Management Service Layer

• This layer is used for managing IoT services which is responsible for Securing Analysis of IoT devices, Information (Stream Analytics, Data Analytics), Device Management.
• Data management is required to extract the necessary information from the vast amount of raw data collected by the sensor devices to produce a valuable result of all the data collected. This action is performed in this layer.
• This layer helps in doing immediate response to the situation by abstracting data, extracting information, and managing the data flow.
• This layer is also responsible for data mining, text mining, service analytics, etc.
• This layer includes IoT/M2M Application Services for Analytics Platform, Operational Support Service (OSS) which includes Device Modeling, Security which includes Access Controls, Encryption, Identity Access Management, Device Configuration and Management, Business Rule Management (BRM), and Business Process Management (BPM).

Figure: Management Service Layer

 4.  Application Layer

• The application layer is the topmost layer of IoT architecture which is responsible for the effective utilization of the data collected.
• Various IoT applications include Home Automation, E-health, E-Government, etc.
• There are two types of applications which are Horizontal Market which includes Fleet Management, Supply Chain, etc., and on the Sector-wise application of IoT, we have energy, healthcare, transportation, etc. 

Figure: Application Layer

 

Smart Environment Application Domains 

Figure: Smart Environment Application Domains

 were, 

• WLAN stands for Wireless Local Area Network which includes Wi-Fi, WAVE, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/p/n/ac/ad, and so on
• WPAN stands for Wireless Personal Area Network which includes Bluetooth, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, IEEE 802.15.4, UWB, and so on.

Figure: Smart Environment Application Domains: Service Domain and their Services classified.

 

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