Introduction to Internet of Things (IoT)
Internet of things (IoT) provides IP connectivity to various Things apart from general Desktops, Laptops and Mobile Devices. The term "things" means any physical parameter that could be sensed and connected to Internet. For example a device monitoring temperature and humidity at certain location and relaying the data will become a “thing’” in IoT domain.
IoT is a connecting bridge between physical world and cyber world and Machine to Machine communication i.e. without human intervention is one of the subset of it. IoT Refers to uniquely identifiable objects and their virtual representations in an Internet like structure. IoT all together a new environment in which current Internet will be smartly utilized by all new range of embedded connected things.
Sensors are the building blocks of IoT which can collect parameters and low power wireless embedded systems transmit information to gateway devices. Gateway device will make the parameters available over internet so that parameters are globally accessible. Till now there is no dedicated network stack defined for IoT, as it is a heterogeneous network of networks. The most popular protocols used for realization of IoT are Zigbee and 6lowPAN (IEEE 802.15.4), Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Sample network architecture of IoT is depicted below for reference
Application areas of IoT
- Environmental Monitoring (Habitat, Wildlife, Earthquakes, volcano, water…)
- Smart Homes, Structural Monitoring, Buildings
- Smart Cities
- Transportation
- Healthcare
- Warfare, Physical Intrusion Detection, Surveillance
- Many more…