How to choose the right IOT protocol

The term “Internet of Things” refers to the implementation of a system in which objects in the physical world are connected to each other through sensors or actuators that communicate without the need for wires, i.e., “wireless.”

If you want to delve into the world of Iot and, therefore, wireless communications, you will immediately notice the myriad of different protocols that can be worked with to transmit data from one device to another.

Since the last three decades, there has been a lot of development and use that has taken place on the Internet for effective communication. Today, these communications have continued to

connect various Internet devices, which are seen as the Internet of Things (IoT), which is the most popular technology that includes Machine to machine Connectivity (M2M). This M2M

communication device includes sensors, RFID, Wi-Fi, data? networks, activators, LTE, WLAN etc. These devices process themselves and exchange information without human input that enabled the world of computer networking for greater accuracy and efficiency.

Therefore choosing appropriate protocol is very hard task, in choosing the right law, first we need to understand the requirements of the IoT system messages. Choosing a standard and efficient data protocol is a challenging and daunting task for any organization.

Unlike the Web, which uses a single HTTP protocol, IoT cannot rely on a single protocol for all its needs. Therefore, many of data protocols are convenient to select for various types of needs of the IoT system. Some of them are designed to handle applications that require fast and reliable business transactions such as AMQP and JMS. Many of them are developed to deal with applications that need data collection on a compressed network such as MQTT and CoAP. Most of them are created to control request that necessitate instant messaging (IM) and online presence detection such as XMPP and SIP. A few of them are produced to hold web applications that demand Internet connectivity like the restful client / server protocol HTTP and CoAP. This clearly indicates that the future of IoT is in several data protocols and any single process will not work with all possible IoT cases. In addition, Communication protocols are very decisive to assemble data and determine how to IoT interaction done. As a result, it is necessary to investigate the benefits and protocols of IoT data systems to find their exact fit.

Think about your options for wireless communication these days, and three primary protocols come to mind: WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular. Each of these has been massively successful and shouldn’t be overlooked for consumer electronics designers. If you’re putting out anything billed as “smart” or “connected” for the consumer segment, including WiFi and Bluetooth (or both) is almost mandatory at this point. However, there’s a lot that goes on behind the wireless protocol, with IoT application layer protocols being implemented on devices to support different messaging modes or full-on communication over the internet. The IoT world can be an alphabet soup of wireless protocols and application layer protocols, so it can be difficult to see where to get started outside of just using WiFi and Bluetooth to provide connectivity between devices. I’ve seen more designers jump into the world of IoT development and even releasing some open-source projects that integrate several capabilities into a single package. However, most of these just go the easy route of using WiFi + Bluetooth/BLE to provide some flexible connectivity options. There are actually many more IoT wireless protocols and data layers that will work very well for your system without all the overhead of WiFi and Bluetooth. Choosing the best option for your project requires pairing hardware to support your desired wireless protocol and an application protocol to support messaging. With the right combination, you can build a product that’s more reliable and faster than the typical WiFi + Bluetooth system using lightweight protocols. Today, there are plenty of options for building your project with wireless protocols, and there are over a dozen wireless options you can implement to build out your platform. With the obvious growth in connected consumer and office products over the past decade, there is always demand for the massively successful WiFi + Bluetooth combination that can connect to the internet connection. However, other combinations of wireless protocols and application layers quickly reveal their worth in particular applications. Then, there is the chipset to consider. In-demand products that might need WiFi + Bluetooth or Zigbee are highly integrated. Many mobile chipset makers will offer SoCs that integrate MCU functionality onto the same die as a transceiver and even a power amplifier for transmission. To get started, you need to think about basic requirements for your device like data throughput and power consumption, both of which relate to the protocol you select.

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How many IoT protocols are there?

In short, a lot. The IoT is heterogeneous, meaning that there are all sorts of different smart devices, protocols, and applications involved in a typical IoT system. Different projects and use cases might require different kinds of devices and protocols.

For example, an IoT network meant to collect weather data over a wide area needs a bunch of different types of sensors, and lots of them. With that many sensors, the devices need to be lightweight and low-power, otherwise the energy required to transmit data would be enormous. In such an instance, low-power is the main priority, over, say, security or speed of transmission.

If, however, an IoT system consists of medical sensors on ambulances, sensors that transmit patient data ahead to hospitals, time is clearly going to be of the essence. What’s more, HIPAA requires special security protocols for health data. So a higher-power, faster, and more secure protocol would be necessary.

Since there are so many different types of IoT systems and so many different applications, experts have figured out a way to sort all the components of IoT architecture into different categories, called layers. These layers allow IT teams to home in on the different parts of a system that may need maintenance, as well as to promote interoperability. In other words, if every system adheres to, or can be defined by, a specific set of layers, the systems are more likely to be able to communicate with each other through those layers.

One of the best frameworks for how you can understand IoT layers is the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, which defines seven different layers in a top-down architecture. Top-down just means that the layers are defined starting from what the typical person uses to interact with an IoT system, like a smartphone app or website, and going down all the way to, for example, the ethernet cables that work in the background to transmit data.

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Here are the layers:

-The application layer, which encompasses the mobile and web applications through which you might interact with the devices in an IoT system.

-The presentation layer, which encrypts and transforms data collected by IoT devices so that the application layer can present the information in a readable format.

-The session layer, which acts as a kind of scheduler for incoming and outgoing data. Whenever two devices need to communicate within an IoT system, the system needs to schedule that communication by opening a session.

-The transport layer, which is like a fleet of trucks in a shipping company, except that this layer transports packets of data instead of shipping containers.

-The network layer, which is like the post office for data, coordinating where and when the system transfers data. Routers are the primary part of the network layer that tell data packets how to get to their destinations.

-The data link layer, which corrects errors due to abnormalities or damaged hardware at the physical layer and links different devices so they can transfer data through the network layer.

-The physical layer, which is made up of ethernet cables, cell towers, etc.

OSI is a conceptual model, meaning that it’s not always how IoT systems actually appear. Just like a factory might be divided into different maintenance zones to simplify the process of finding and solving problems with different machines, the seven layers of OSI allow IT teams to zero in on where the cause of an error might lie. Plus, the OSI model presents a convenient method for explaining in detail the different possible parts of an IoT network.

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1-???????? IoT application protocols

The application layer of a network enables network entities to identify and interact with each other.?

1.???? MQTT (Message Queueing Telemetry Transport)

MQTT is a lightweight communication protocol specifically designed for IoT and M2M applications. It’s ideal for remote environments or applications with limited bandwidth. MQTT uses a connection oriented publish/subscribe architecture, where MQTT applications can either publish (transmit) or subscribe to (receive) topics, and an MQTT broker passes information from the publishing client to the subscribed client.

So for instance, an oil rig may have a predictive maintenance sensor that detects changes in vibrations and uses the MQTT protocol. The sensor “publishes” the vibration level to the broker, which the MQTT broker then passes to a software application that has subscribed to the topic “vibrations,” which can then trigger an alert when the level is above a threshold. .

2.???? HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)

Hypertext Transfer Protocol is the most widely used protocol for navigating the Internet and to make data available over REST-APIs. The main advantage of using HTTP for IoT is that web application developers can use the same mechanism to send data to a Webserver - via an HTTP POST request.

The drawbacks are that HTTP uses a connectionless request-respond communication, meaning every message needs to include authentication information—which requires data and energy consumption. Nevertheless HTTP might be ideal for use cases which have fewer data and battery constraints and where devices already need to call existing REST-APIs.?

Like MQTT and MQTT over WebSocket, HTTP is one of the protocols that is supported by standard IoT cloud services such as AWS IoT and Azure IoT.?

3.???? WebSocket

WebSocket is a bi-directional communication protocol designed to quickly send large quantities of data in web applications. A WebSocket establishes a connection between client and server and therefore after the initial connection establishment—every single message only has small overhead. Devices and servers can simultaneously transmit and receive data in real-time, making this protocol best-suited for IoT applications where low latency is critical, communication happens frequently, and data consumption is less important.

4.???? AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol)

AMQP is an open source protocol for Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM). It’s designed to facilitate communications between systems, devices, and applications from multiple vendors—and it was not directly designed for IoT. Opposed to MQTT it supports more routing options than just publish / subscribe on topics—but this flexibility comes with complexity on application setup and additional protocol overhead. AMQP is also supported by Azure IoT for device communication.

5.???? CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol)

Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is designed for low-power, lossy networks, also known as “constrained” networks. CoAP is usually paired with User Datagram Protocol (UDP)?which makes it highly efficient, making it appealing for IoT applications where battery conservation is important. For example, it’s often used in smart meter communications. CoAP can also use TCP or SMS as transport mechanism.?

6.???? LwM2M (Lightweight Machine-to-Machine)

The Lightweight Machine-to-Machine (LwM2M) protocol builds on CoAP for a highly efficient low-power communication, but LwM2M also specifies device management and provisioning functionality. Therefore, LwM2M, for example, has a standardized procedure to clarify which security mechanism is used and how device firmware is updated. As LwM2M is build on top of CoAP it can be used with?UDP, TCP,? and SMS for data transport.

7.???? XMPP (Extensive Messaging and Presence Protocol)

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is a communications protocol built on Extensible Markup Language (XML). XMPP was initially designed for instant messaging (IM)—which also explains that it comes with an overhead for the exchange of presence information and is not optimized for memory constrained devices. Nevertheless XMPP allows for the definition of the message format and therefore handles very well structured data, as well as establishes a device’s identity and facilitates communications between different platforms. This open-source technology is highly accessible and is still being enhanced with new IoT-related developments.

8.???? DDS (Data Distribution Service )

Data Distribution Service protocol is a real-time, interoperable communication protocol designed for solutions that require significant coordination, reliable transmissions, and distributed processing between the devices itself. Instead of sending data to a central hub or broker, data can be directly been exchanged between peers making it more robust and efficient. DDS uses a publish/subscribe mechanism where devices subscribe to a topic and devices sending to the topic are then using multicast to distribute the information to the subscribers. DDS can use TCP and UDP as transmission protocol.?

9.???? SMS / SMPP (Short Message Peer-to-Peer Protocol)

Short Message Service allows devices and applications to send and receive text messages over a cellular connection. Cellular Iot devices use Short Message Services (SMS) to send and receive data to the application or to another peer in the mobile communication network.

An application can communicate with devices programmatically by connecting to the Short Message Service Center (SMSC) of a service provider using the Short Message Peer-to-Peer Protocol (SMPP) or an SMS Rest-API. Telematics providers can use SMPP to provision and configure their devices remotely.??

10.? USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)

Also known as “Feature Codes” or “Quick Codes,” USSD?is a messaging protocol used in cellular networks based on the Global system for mobile GSM. IoT businesses use USSD to retrieve text-based data (such as location, temperature, and other status updates) from IoT devices without relying on a data connection. Unfortunately, since many carriers are sunsetting?their 2G and 3G??networks, USSD will become obsolete in the near future.?

11.? Simple Sensor Interface (SSI) protocol

SSI enables IoT sensors to transmit data to or receive data from a terminal such as a computer or mobile device. As the name implies, the protocol is not very complex, so communicating via SSI uses very little power. However, there’s been no update to the protocol since 2006, so it may already be obsolete.

2-???????? Industry-specific IoT application protocols

In telecommunications, it’s fairly common for unique protocols to emerge in order to optimize and improve networking capabilities for particular use cases. Here are some examples of protocols that were designed with a specific IoT application or industry in mind.

1.???? OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol)

Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is an open standard communication protocol for electric vehicle EV charging?stations. It defines interactions between EV charging stations and a central system - mainly the Charging Station Management System (CSME), helping to facilitate security, transactions, diagnostics, devic management and more. While in the beginning using SOAP - newer OCPP protocols support communication via WebSocket and JSON over WebSockets.?

2.???? IEC 62056

IEC 62056-21 is a set of standards for electricity meters. Designed by the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), the protocols define data exchanges for meter reading, as well as tariff and load control. The intent of this protocol is to standardize these communications internationally.

3.???? OBD2/CAN bus

The On Board Diagnostics 2 (OBD2) protocol defines communications between a vehicle’s electrical systems and its OBD port. When one of these systems experiences a malfunction, it uses OBD2 to communicate the relevant Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs) to the OBD port. Nowadays ODB2 is used to capture vehicle telematics information such as temperature, velocity, fuel consumption, brake or tire pressure. The CAN bus is another protocol that works in conjunction with OBD2, defining how the communication takes place between microcontrollers of the vehicle.?

4.???? OPC UA

OPC Unified Architecture (UA) is an interoperable, open-source communication protocol used in industrial Iot , specifically to exchange data between connected sensors and the cloud. This highly versatile protocol isn’t tied to a specific operating system, programming language, or communication protocol, making it useful for non-industrial applications as well.

5.???? Wireless M-bus

Wireless M-bus is a specialized European standard designed for smart meter communication. Devices are communicating in a star like topology with a central gateway or data logger. The Wireless M-bus protocol suite that goes across the physical and link-layer (EN 13757-2) and application layer (EN 13757-3) has good indoor penetration based on the use of low frequencies (169, 433 and mainly 868 MhZ) and has a wide adoption in Europe.? However, this open source protocol doesn’t have a certification standard, so providers and manufacturers who use it aren’t always compatible.?

3-???????? IoT protocols for consumer devices

Consumer IoT devices become more valuable when they can communicate with devices from different brands, which may rely on different connectivity solutions. Some manufacturers develop their own proprietary protocols to provide specific functionality to particular devices, but at times they’ll collaborate to enable interoperability.

1.???? Matter

Matter is a recently developed application protocol born out of a collaboration between Google, Apple, Amazon, Samsung SmartThings, and the Zigbee Alliance (now the Connectivity Standards Alliance). It was designed to enable communication and improve compatibility between smart home devices from different vendors.

2.???? Weave

Weave is an IoT protocol which Nest Labs developed and Google later acquired. While it was initially developed for Nest products, Google plans to integrate it with connected Android devices as well. It’s compatible with ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), cellular networks, and other IPv6 technologies.

3.???? Homekit Accessory Protocol (HAP)

Apple developed HAP so that manufacturers could produce third-party devices that can communicate with Apple products around the home. For example, consumers can control smart lights, connected locks, and IoT thermostats from their Apple products if these other devices were developed with HAP.

4.???? KNX

KNX is an open standard used for building automation, which descends from three European protocols: European Home Systems Protocol (EHS), BatiBus, and European Installation Bus (EIB). It typically operates over twisted pair links, but can use other links as well.

5.???? X10

X10 was developed in 1975 to enable remote control of household devices including lamps, appliances, and outlets. It’s the oldest networking technology specifically designed for connecting home devices and it’s still widely used today. X10 includes specifications for using Power Line Communication (PLC) and RF.

6.???? Z-Wave

Z-Wave is a smart home protocol that uses a mesh network topology to connect devices to a central hub. It offers longer range than early generations of Bluetooth and uses less power than WiFi. When a consumer issues a command to a connected device through a smartphone or PC, the data packet uses the mesh of connected devices as nodes to reach the central hub, which then routes the data through the nearby devices to reach its intended destination.?

4-?????? IoT transport protocols

Transport layer protocols define how data gets packaged, sent, and received. In IoT, the best protocol for your device depends on what needs to be sent and which quality is more important for your use case: speed or reliability.

1-???? UDP (User Datagram Protocol)

User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a transport protocol that prioritizes speed over reliability, using a connectionless process to send data packets to a destination. Due to its low latency, UDP is ideal for time-sensitive use cases like video streaming, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), video gaming, and Domain Name System (DNS) lookups.

2-???? TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sets the parameters for data exchanges between software applications, confirms what is being sent, where it’s coming from, where it’s going, and whether or not it arrived correctly. TCP prioritizes accuracy over speed, ensuring that data arrives in order, with minimal errors, and without duplication. If data gets lost in transmission, TCP requests the data packets be resent.

5-???????? Network layer IoT protocols

The network layer packages transmissions and routes data packets from one network entity (such as a router, server, node, application, or device) to another, determining the path they will take to get there.

1-???? IP (Internet Protocol)

Internet Protocol is basically the key to the Internet. It gives network entities an IP address, which allows other network entities to send them data packets even if they are not on the same network.

6-???????? Physical and data link layer IoT protocols

Physical and data link layer protocols arguably have the biggest impact on your IoT solution’s capabilities and service. These are the standards that define the type of network your device relies on, which determines what kind of coverage, signal strength, power consumption, and data throughput you’ll be working with.

1.???? Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is a suite of wireless network protocols built primarily on IEEE 802. It creates a Local Area Network that nearby devices can connect to. While these networks are ubiquitous in homes and businesses and can offer good data throughput, Wi-Fi isn’t ideal for many IoT applications, as basic structures like walls can greatly disrupt its signal strength, and since nearly all Wi-Fi networks use 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequency bands, they’re prone to interference. It also consumes more power than protocols that were designed with IoT devices in mind.

2.???? LTE (Long Term Evolution)

LTE is a 4G standard that is built on 2G and 3G cellular infrastructure to provide significantly faster data speeds and new applications including multimedia streaming, Voice over IP, and video conferencing. LTE is widely used today and offers excellent coverage, but is not suitable for battery-powered IoT devices and is quite expensive. Therefore, for IoT use cases, there is also a variant LTE CAT-1 which is more simple and less costly, but still not feasible for battery powered devices.??

3.???? GSM

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) specifies how 2G (second generation) cellular networks operate. Despite being three decades old, it’s currently the most widely used network technology in IoT applications due to its simplicity, affordability, and accessibility. As MNOs shut down their 2G networks, IoT manufacturers need to weigh the risks of continuing to rely on GSM or using it as a backup.

4.???? GPRS

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is an upgrade to 2G networks, sometimes referred to as 2.5G. It provides higher data rates and additional services, including “always on” Internet access and Internet applications for IoT devices.

5.???? UMTS

Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS) has become practically synonymous with 3G, the third generation of cellular networks. It offers greater bandwidth, more efficient use of the radio spectrum, and more advanced cellular capabilities than GSM, including video transmission. UMTS has been popular in IoT because it consumes less power than 4G LTE, but offers greater throughput than GSM. However, UMTS is almost two decades old, and carriers are sunsetting their 3G networks to free bandwidth for newer networks. So depending on where you deploy, relying on UMTS could be a gamble—the standard may not last as long as your device.

6.???? 5G

5G networks are designed to achieve a peak download speed of 20 Gbps and peak upload speed of 10 Gbps. The average rates are more like 100 Mbps for downloads and 50 Mbps for uploads. This is several times faster than 5G’s predecessor, 4G, and the theoretical peak speeds are 100 times faster. Even though in developed countries early 5G technology has been rolled out, it is still early for the use of 5G in IoT because of device costs and energy consumption.???

7.???? NB-IoT

Narrowband Iot NB-Iot is a specialized cellular network made for the Internet of Things. This standard enables devices to utilize frequencies within a carrier’s licensed bands and use minimal power, particularly when a device isn’t transmitting. It allows devices to use power-saving features, but it has drawbacks as well—the main being that there is no redundant coverage available with NB-IoT, and global deployments require multiple providers as roaming is difficult with NB-IoT.

8.???? LTE-M

Long Term Evolution Machine Type Communication (LTE-M) is a type of 4G cellular network specifically designed for the Internet of Things. LTE-M provides many of the same advantages as NB-IoT, but it has 10 times faster data speeds and offers better coverage due to the possibility to roam between networks.? (Notably, NB-IoT has?slightly?better indoor penetration.)

9.???? NFC (Near Field Communication)

NFC builds on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to facilitate connectivity between two devices that are within 1.5 inches (or 4cm) of each other. If one of these devices is connected to the Internet, NFC also enables the other device to access online services through the connection. This niche protocol continues to play an integral role in daily life through applications like tap-to-pay.

10.? PLC (Power Line Communication)

PLC leverages existing energy infrastructure to facilitate IoT communication. With PLC, power lines provide the infrastructure for data transmissions in addition to electricity. Since it builds on existing infrastructure, PLC is a relatively simple connectivity solution, but unfortunately, it’s also not very reliable. Electrical currents can and do interfere with data transmissions.

11.? MIoTy

MIoTy is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) standard that uses telegram splitting and unlicensed frequency bands to provide efficient, large-scale connectivity for industrial IoT applications. It splits data into subpackets and applies error-correcting codes before sending them, making transmissions more resistant to interference. MIoTy is open source and standardized by the mioty alliance.?

12.? LoRa (Long Range)

LoRa is the physical layer standard that makes LoRaWAN possible. It uses spread spectrum modulation to increase signal strength, improve security, and enable multiple-access communications. LoRa builds on the chirp spread spectrum to distribute signals across a greater bandwidth. LoRa uses unlicensed low frequency bands 169 MHz, 433 MHz (Asia), 868 MHz (Europe), and 915 MHz (North America).?

13.? LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network)

LoRaWAN is the communication protocol that builds on LoRa to connect devices to a network. It’s a type of LPWAN standard designed for IoT applications. It uses very little power, has good coverage, and works well indoors. However, unless you can find a LoRaWAN vendor with coverage in the area you’re deploying, you have to deploy and manage your own infrastructure. This can be especially challenging when you have multiple deployments.?

14.? Sigfox

Sigfox networks use very small frequency bands and each country only has a single Sigfox network operator. This standard is used in everything from retail stores to industrial IoT to smart alarm systems, but while it has coverage up to 1,000 kilometers, devices that use Sigfox can only send and receive extremely small messages, which makes firmware updates and data-intensive processes impossible.

15.? Neocortec

Neocortec is a proprietary mesh networking protocol that boasts “cable-like reliability” and emphasizes simplicity. Data transmission goes from node to node until it reaches its destination. Similar to IP networks Neocortec also providers acknowledge (TCP like) and un-acknowledge UDP like data transport. It’s meant to be fast to set up, low maintenance, and simple to develop with. This is an IoT connectivity solution that requires manufacturers to build and manage their own infrastructure on site. Neocortec uses unlicensed bands such as 868 and 915 MhZ and 2.4GHz.

16.? Weightless

Weightless is an open Low Power networking standard protocol driven by the Weightless alliance operating in unlincensed sub-GHZ bands. There were three distinct Weightless standards, each of which relies on different technology:

·?????? Weightless-W - operating in TV whitespace

·?????? Weightless-N - offering uplink only LPWAN communication?

·?????? Weightless-P - providing bi-directional LPWAN communication

Based on the success of only Weightless-P now the other standards are not further developed and Weightless-P has been renamed to purely Weightless.

Weightless is an ultra ultra narrow-band (12.5khz) LPWAN technology that allows Weightless capable devices to communicate with a Weightless base station over km wide distances. With radio resource scheduling it provides efficient and collision free data transmission which is a benefit compared to LoRaWan.

7-???????? IoT security protocols

Most IoT application protocols already include their own end-to-end security mechanism. The security protocols listed here are just for devices where end-to-end encryption is impossible.

1-???? IPSec (Internet Protocol Security)

Is a protocol suite that secures network communications at the IP layer. It facilitates two-way authentication between network entities exchanging data, then uses keys to authorize data packets. While IPsec is an option for powerful gateway, low resource IoT devices will not be able to handle the processing and data overhead. An alternative in Cellular IoT is to offload the security to the cellular service provider which then establishes an IPsec connection between the mobile network and the IoT application.?????

2-???? OpenVPN (Open Virtual Private Network)

Is a versatile, open source protocol for creating Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) using a point-to-point or site-to-site model. It uses 256-bit encryption to protect your data packets and enables a client and server to authenticate each other with a pre-shared key and a certificate. In IoT, OpenVPN is essential for remotely maintaining, analyzing, and troubleshooting your devices.

3-???? TLS (Transport Layer Security)

I s the most widely used security protocol for communications over the Internet. Through a series of back-and-forth protocol messges, TLS establishes a “handshake” between a client and server to authenticate client and server and then to start an encrypted data transmission. TLS relies on certificate authorities that proves the authenticity of a device or server certificate to proof the identity of communication parties.

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Choosing the right IoT protocol

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Choosing a Wireless Protocol: Before embarking on hardware procurement, aligning your system's requirements with a suitable IoT protocol is crucial. Here are key considerations when selecting an IoT protocol for your system:

1-Operating Frequency and Coexistence:

If wireless functionality is involved, determining the operating frequency is essential and may depend on the environment. Most IoT protocols operate in unlicensed bands, posing coexistence challenges due to the effectively unregulated nature of the band, except for EMC requirements. Certain chipsets are specifically engineered to support coexistence under an IEEE 802 series standard.

2-Power Consumption and Range:

Assess whether the network endpoint will function on battery power or at higher frequencies that demand more power. Determine the power required to achieve the desired range. Some protocols excel in low-power consumption, making them suitable for battery-operated devices.

3-Data Throughput:

Consider the nature of your system—whether it involves streaming media or transmitting small data packets. Evaluate if communication is intermittent or requires continuous data transmission/reception. Sub1 GHz protocols offer lower data rates in the kbps range, adequate for many lightweight data acquisition tasks.

4- Network Topology:

Two standard IoT network topologies are star and mesh. Star networks may necessitate a centralized gateway to mediate messaging between endpoint devices, depending on the wireless protocol standard and application layer protocol. Certain mesh networks, such as Zigbee, also require a gateway device. Selecting an IoT protocol involves trade-offs; for instance, working at a higher frequency demands more power for transmission to achieve the required range but offers a higher data rate. Additionally, meeting data rate requirements may be challenging based on the required topology.

5-Security:

Especially critical in sectors like defense, utilities, industrial systems, and automotive, security is a complex facet of IoT design and development. It evolves constantly at the software level and in terms of network management.

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