Although all of this may come soon, we still need to understand the myriad behind-the-scenes technology that makes dreams a reality. Without them, dreams will never be realized.

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The technology behind the Internet of Things
Written By Calio Huang
Although all of this may come soon, we still need to understand the myriad behind-the-scenes
technology that makes dreams a reality. Without them, dreams will never be realized.
The Internet of Things has allowed us to see a better future: refrigerators can automatically order
food, bridges can alert cars to road icing, or smart devices that monitor an individual's health and
send real-time data to a doctor's phone. Although all of this may come soon, we still need to
understand the myriad behind-the-scenes technology that makes dreams a reality. Without them,
dreams will never be realized.
An Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interconnected digital devices, machines, objects,
animals, or people that have unique identifiers and the ability to transmit and share data over a
network. There is no need for human or human interaction with the device. The Internet of
Things aims to bridge the gap between the physical world and the virtual world and create a
smart environment where individuals and society as a whole can live in smarter, more
comfortable ways. Although it may sound a bit exaggerated, the Internet of Things has indeed
become part of our daily lives and will always be there. With all of this in mind, let's briefly
review the support technologies behind the IoT world.
What constitutes the Internet of Things technology?
Given the diversity and a sheer number of IoT technology solutions, it can be a daunting task if
you want to find a way out in the maze of IoT technology. However, for the sake of simplicity, we
divide the Internet of Things technology into four basic levels:
▲ equipment hardware
The device is actually the "thing" on the Internet of Things. As an interface between the real
world and the digital world, they have different sizes, shapes, and technical complexity, and the
specific attributes depending on the tasks they need to perform in a particular IoT deployment.
Whether it's a needle-sized microphone or a heavy construction machine, almost every physical
object (even a living thing such as an animal or a human) can be measured and collected by

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adding the necessary instruments (by adding sensors or actuators and appropriate software). The
necessary data becomes a networked device. Of course, sensors, actuators or other telemetry
devices can also act as stand-alone smart devices.
▲ device software
This is actually the reason why networked devices become "smart." The software is responsible
for communicating with the cloud, collecting data, integrating devices, and performing real-time
data analysis in the IoT network. In addition, device software can also meet the user's ability to
visualize data and interact with IoT systems.
▲Communication
Once the device hardware and software are in place, there must be another layer that will
provide smart objects with ways and means to exchange information with other IoT worlds.
While communication mechanisms are indeed closely related to devise hardware and software, it
is critical to consider them as a separate layer. The communication layer includes physical
connectivity solutions (mobile, satellite, local area network) and specific protocols used in
different IoT environments (Zigbee, Thread, Z-Wave, MQTT, LWM2M). Choosing the
corresponding communication solution is one of the important links in building the IoT
technology system. The technology chosen not only determines the way in which data is sent to
and received from the cloud, but also determines how the device is managed and how it
communicates with third-party devices. We will cover some of the current communication
solutions in detail later in this article.
▲ platform
As mentioned earlier, with intelligent hardware and installed software, devices can “perceive”
what is happening around them and communicate with users through specific communication
channels. The IoT platform is a place to collect, manage, process, analyze, and present all of this
data in a user-friendly manner. Therefore, what makes this solution particularly valuable is not
only its data collection and management capabilities, but also its ability to discover useful insights
from the data. Similarly, there are many IoT platforms on the market. Which platform to choose
depends on the requirements of the specific IoT project and the architecture and IoT technology
stack, reliability, custom attributes, protocols used, hardware agnosticism , safety and
cost-effectiveness. It is also worth mentioning that the platform can be installed locally or in the
cloud.
Connectivity solutions in the IoT technology stack
There are many IoT applications in real life, and there is no lack of connectivity solutions behind
these applications. Depending on the needs of the use case, each connection option can provide
different application support scenarios, while balancing power, range, and bandwidth. For
example, if you are building a smart home, you might want to integrate an indoor temperature
sensor and heating controller into your smartphone so you can remotely monitor the
temperature of each room and adjust it in real-time based on current needs. In this case, Thread
is recommended, which is designed for home automation environments.
Given the diversity and diversity of communication standards and protocols, one may question
the actual need to develop new solutions. The reason is that existing network protocols, such as
Transmission Control Protocol/Network Protocol (TCP/IP), are often not efficient enough and

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consume too much power to work efficiently in emerging IoT technology applications. This
section provides a brief overview of the major alternative network protocols specifically for use in
IoT systems.
An overview of the most popular IoT wireless connectivity technologies and the breakdown of RF
range for each solution: short-range solutions, mid-range solutions, and remote WAN solutions.
Short-range IoT solution:
▲Bluetooth
As a mature short-range connection technology, Bluetooth technology is considered to be a key
solution for the future wearable electronics market, such as wireless headsets or geo-location
sensors, especially considering its wide integration with smartphones. Among them, the
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol is designed to be cost-effective and reduces power
consumption and requires very little device power. However, this is a compromise: BLE may not
be the most effective solution when transferring large amounts of data frequently.
▲ Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is one of the earliest implementations of IoT applications,
providing location solutions for IoT applications, especially in the area of supply chain
management and logistics, which requires the ability to determine the location of objects within
a building. The future of RFID technology clearly goes far beyond simple location services, ranging
from tracking hospital patients to improving healthcare efficiency, to providing real-time
commodity location data to minimize store out-of-stock conditions.
Medium range solution:
▲Wi-Fi
It is based on IEEE 802.11 and is still the most widely known and well-known wireless
communication protocol. Its widespread use in the IoT space is primarily limited by power
consumption above average because of the need to maintain high signal strength and fast data
transfer for better connectivity and reliability. As a key technology for the development of the
Internet of Things, WI-FI provides a broad base for an incredible number of IoT solutions, but it
also needs to be managed and used in marketing to bring more profit to service providers and
users.
▲ZigBee
This popular wireless mesh network standard is most frequently used in traffic management
systems, home electronics, and machinery industries. Built on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, Zigbee
supports low data exchange rates, low power operation, security, and reliability.
▲Thread
Designed for smart home products, Thread uses IPv6 connectivity to enable connected devices to
communicate with each other, access services in the cloud, or interact with users through Thread
mobile applications.
Remote Wide Area Network (WAN) Solution:
▲NB-IoT
NB-IoT is the product of 3GPP technology, a new wireless technology standard that ensures
extremely low power consumption (10 years of battery life). In addition, it can use the existing
network infrastructure, which not only ensures its effective use within the global coverage of the

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LTE network but also guarantees its signal quality. In many cases, this is why many users choose
NB-IoT instead of choosing a solution that requires building a local network such as LoRa or
Sigfox.
▲LTE-Cat M1
LTE Cat M1 is a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) connectivity standard for connecting IoT
and M2M devices with medium data rate requirements. It supports longer battery life cycles and
provides greater coverage than cellular technologies such as 2G, 3G or LTE Cat 1.
Compatible with existing LTE networks, CAT M1 does not require operators to build new
infrastructure to implement it. Compared to NB? IoT, LTE Cat M1 is ideal for mobile use cases
because it handles switching between towers like high-speed LTE. For example, if a vehicle needs
to travel through several different network elements to move from point A to point B, then the
Cat M1 device behaves the same as a mobile phone and does not lose connectivity. In contrast,
NB? IoT devices must re-establish a new connection at some point after reaching a new network
element.
Compatible with existing LTE networks, CAT M1 does not require operators to build new
infrastructure to implement it. Compared to NB? IoT, LTE Cat M1 is ideal for mobile use cases
because it handles switching between towers like high-speed LTE. For example, if a vehicle needs
to travel through several different network elements to move from point A to point B, then the
Cat M1 device behaves the same as a mobile phone and does not lose connectivity. In contrast,
NB? IoT devices must re-establish a new connection at some point after reaching a new network
element.
Another big advantage is that voice support is supported via VoLTE (LTE Voice), which means it
can be used for applications that require a certain level of interpersonal interaction, such as
certain health and security applications (eg, instant solutions and alarm panels).
▲LoRaWAN
Lorawan is a low-power, long-range WAN protocol optimized for low power consumption and
supporting large networks with millions of devices. For wide area network (WAN) applications,
LoRaWAN is designed to provide low-power WAN capabilities to support low-cost, mobile and
secure two-way communication in the Internet of Things, M2M, smart city and industrial
applications.
▲Sigfox
The idea behind Sigfox is to provide an efficient connectivity solution for low-power M2M
applications that require low levels of data transmission, while WI-FI coverage is too short, and
mobile networks are too expensive and too power-hungry. Sigfox uses UNB technology, which
enables it to handle low data transfer speeds of 10 to 1000 bits per second. (Source of the
Internet of Things) Compared with cellular mobile communication solutions, its energy
consumption is reduced by nearly 100 times, while the typical standby time of 2.5Ah batteries
can reach 20 years. Sigfox provides a powerful, energy-efficient, and scalable network that
supports communication across thousands of kilometers across thousands of battery-powered
devices. Sigfox has proven to be suitable for a wide range of M2M applications, including smart
street lights, smart meters, patient monitors, security devices and environmental sensors.
to sum up

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IoT technology has emerged in our homes, public spaces, offices, and factories, and, given its
speed of development, seems to be getting closer to the results of survey agencies. However, the
real problem should not be when, but how to connect to achieve the highest possible efficiency
while ensuring key performance such as safety and cost-effectiveness. So, from a practical point
of view, the key to success seems to boil down to choosing the right IoT technology from among
many existing solutions.