THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE IOT (Internet Of Things).

As promised earlier from my last post "Capitalizing on the Internet of Things: What we need to Understand" I promised to talk about "The Buildings Blocks of Internet of Things" But I would start by apologizing for the time taken to put out this post because I have been traveling.

From the continuation of my last post we will start by talking about "Sensor Nodes".

Fortunately for engineers and product designers everywhere, it has become rather easy to find very capable small computers that can be rolled into an object to bring it into the Internet of Things. More to the point, it's become easy to find embedded systems that make use of the same operating systems and programming languages used in business servers and workstations.

It's difficult to overstate the importance of being able to use common operating systems and programming languages to develop prototypes and production systems for the Internet of Things. Embedded systems have been around for decades, but for most of their existence programmers have needed special software development environments to write code in unique languages (often, but not always, a variation on assembler for the processor sitting at the heart of the computer).

Sensing Nodes -The types of sensing nodes needed for the IoT vary widely, depending on the applications involved. Sensing nodes could include a camera system for image monitoring; water or gas flow meters for smart energy; radar vision when active safety is needed; RFID readers sensing the presence of an object or person; doors and locks with open/close circuits that indicate a building intrusion; or a simple thermometer measuring temperature. The bottom line is that there could be many different types of sensing nodes, depending on the applications. Who could forget the heat-seeking mechanical bugs that kept track of the population of a building in the movie Minority Report? Those mechanical bugs represent potential sensing nodes of the future.
These nodes will all carry a unique ID and can be controlled separately via a remote command and control topology. Use cases exist today in which a smartphone with RFID and/or NFC and GPS functionality can approach individual RFID/NFC-enabled “things” in a building, communicate with them and register their physical locations on the network. Hence, RFID and NFC will have a place in remote registration, and, ultimately, command and control of the IoT.

Layers of Local Embedded Processing Nodes

Embedded processing is at the heart of the IoT. Local processing capability is most often provided by MCUs, hybrid microcontrollers/microprocessors (MCUs/MPUs) or integrated MCU devices, which can provide the “real-time” embedded processing that is a key requirement of most IoT applications. Use cases vary significantly, and fully addressing the real-time embedded processing function requires a scalable strategy (using a scalable family of devices), as one size will not fit all.
In the home automation example, depending on the size or type of residence, requirements could vary from a simple network to a more complex structure with hierarchical, nested subnetworks controlled at different levels. For example, in a single-family home, all windows, doors, electrical outlets and/or electrical equipment and thermostats could have simple embedded controllers that communicate with a master MCU/MPU hybrid device for command and control of the entire house. In turn, this master device can communicate via the Internet with a variety of “clients,” from the security service provider and other service providers to portals that can give the homeowner access to remotely control all of these connected “things.” In an apartment building, the same idea can be extended, with an even more complex, layered network hierarchy that includes apartment-level command and control, as well as floorlevel and building-level command and control.
There are a few requirements that make an MCU ideal for use in the IoT.
? Energy efficiency: First and foremost, the MCU needs to be energy-efficient. In many cases, the sensing nodes are battery-operated satellite nodes, so a low-power spec is a basic requirement. For example, an MCU in a battery-operated thermostat that wakes up once every few minutes to check the temperature and adjust the AC based on its findings needs to consume as little power as possible to minimize battery replacement. Integrated circuit (IC) designers have many ways to reduce power consumption, including low-leakage process technologies, best-in-class low-power non-volatile memory/flash memory technologies, architectural innovations and various clocking schemes. For batteryoperated nodes, all of those techniques are needed to achieve the lowest possible power consumption.
? Embedded architecture with a rich software ecosystem: The wide variety of potential IoT applications needs a software development environment that ties together the applications, the command, control and routing processing and the security of the node and system. While the importance of software in MCU solutions has increased during the past few years, for MCUs supporting the IoT, even more software, tools and enablement will be needed. A broad ecosystem with easily accessible support is key to enabling the development of embedded processing nodes and IoT applications.
? Portfolio breadth that enables software scalability: The ability to reuse software and leverage existing software investment is a key success factor for companies developing IoT applications. Software reuse enables the rapid rollout of multi-layered architectures (in which the embedded processor is tasked with different layers and levels of tracking, command, control and routing functions).
? Portfolio breadth that cost-effectively enables different levels of performance and a robust mix of I/O interfaces: The diversity of things to be controlled in the IoT, along with the different use cases, the number of things in a micro-network, different levels of service required and different interfaces in a heterogeneous environment will lead to the need for different tiers of devices, with diverse I/Os required for the various applications. A “one size fits all” approach will not be cost- or performance-optimized enough to satisfy the needs of this market.
? Cost-effectiveness: As with any other market, mass adoption will not take place until a certain price point for the solutions is reached. Like all other systems, the overall cost is the sum of the parts of the system plus the cost of the services required for the system. The overall system cost must be affordable for the paradigm shift to take hold in everyday life, so product cost is a very relevant factor.

? Quality and reliability: Unlike your mobile phone, laptop or other electronic device that you may change every two years, product life cycles in the industrial market are at least 10-15 years. Even inside a home, certain devices, such as thermostats, aren’t changed that often. When you add the automotive market to the mix, more stringent reliability requirements and harsh environmental conditions must be supported. Hence, quality, reliability and longevity requirements for these markets are keys to the success of the IoT paradigm shift.
  Although shifting the bulk of heavy-duty data processing and analysis to remote supercomputing nodes in the network cloud is available and allows the local nodes “live longer” (not become obsolete as fast), there is still a balance between how much local vs. remote processing will be needed. This is especially important for time-critical applications that prefer local processing.

? Security: For the local embedded processing node at the physical layer, there are a variety of cryptographic engines and security accelerators to support data encryption (e.g. DES, AES, etc.) and authentication (e.g. SHA, etc.). Additional layers of security software, as well as best practices related to boot-up routines, are among the variety of security approaches available.
Wired and Wireless Communication Capability The role of the communication node is to transfer information gathered by the sensing nodes and processed by local embedded processing nodes to the destinations identified by the local embedded processing nodes. And, once the data is remotely processed and new commands are generated, the communication node brings back the new commands to the local embedded processing nodes to execute a task.
Sometimes this could be as simple as sensing a fridge door being left open based on energy use, and after analyzing the data, automatically closing the door via a mechanical mechanism or generating a warning for the homeowners’ “home automation app.” Or, it could be as sophisticated as communication to an autonomous vehicle to avoid an accident.

Here’s what we mean by secure information:
? Information needs to be available when needed: This is the most basic level of security.  If the information regarding an intruder in your house gets sent to the police station the next day, that information loses its value. The assurance that the services and their underlying infrastructure can process, store and deliver the data when and where it’s needed is the first aspect of a secure system. In certain cases, redundant infrastructure needs is required to ensure this will happen.
? Information needs to be confidential: Hence, the owner of the information decides which authorized people, groups or organizations can access it. Safeguarding the information obtained by IoT services is critical, or those services will lose the users’ trust. Mechanisms must be put in place to ensure confidentiality of the information exchanged. This is a tough balancing act, as there are a whole host of IoT-related services designed to leverage data mining and generate push services. The “opt out” mechanism for such services would be subject to the governance of the IoT.
? The integrity of data needs to be assured: Assurance that the information is accurate, authentic, timely and complete is key. Unless the data can be trusted and relied upon, it cannot be used for its intended purposes, and the entire service paradigm around that data will break down.
The security of the system is as good as the last threat it was able to prevent, and, as soon as it gets broken, one needs to implement new ways of making it secure again. If the recent hacking of credit card and personal information from reputable outlets on the Internet is any indication of the challenges facing IoT services, the Internet security infrastructure available today is inadequate to manage IoT services.
During the summer of 2010, malware targeted electronic process control systems for the first time instead of the traditional credit cards and personal information. The Stuxnet Trojan horse worm that attacked Siemens process control systems at nuclear plants demonstrated incredible levels of sophistication and showed the potential damage that could be done to undermine the security of the IoT.

Connectivity: Internet connectivity is either contained in the item itself, or a connected hub, smartphone, or base station. If it's the latter, then the base station will likely be collecting data from an array of sensor-laden objects, and relaying data to the cloud and back. 

Courtesy Image from Arduino

• Energy-efficiency: Many devices in the IoT may be difficult, costly, or dangerous to access for charging or battery replacement. One may even think of the Mars Curiosity Rover as an example of such a device. Therefore, they may need to be able to operate for a year or more unattended using a conservative amount of energy or be able to wake up only periodically to relay data.
• Cost-effectiveness: Objects that contain sensors may need to be distributed broadly to be useful, as in the case of sensors in food products in supermarkets that would indicate if an item has spoiled. These would need to be relatively inexpensive to purchase and deploy.

Based on my research and level of expertise. These are my own take on the fundamental Building blocks of The Internet of Things. If you have questions or clarifications to make based on this subject/ It related processes of automation and data analysis  you can always reach out to me by placing a comment and also if you are willing to shed more lights in respect the Subject matter of IoT Building blocks please don't hesitate to tell us more by simply commenting.

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