Data communication protocols

IoT is defined as a network of physical devices such as home appliances, electronic components and other connectivity that enables these things to collect and share data. It is an advanced technology in the field of communication that provides a platform to connect two or more peripheral devices. It involves various kinds of networks and devices such as laptops, desktops, smartphones and many more (Al-Fuqaha, et al., 2015). The main aim of this report is to highlight the importance of IoT in this modern generation and technologies and network protocols used by IoT for communication purpose. It uses internet connectivity to interconnect two or more computing devices and the main advantage of this technology is that users can send their data for long distance. This report is explaining the concept of an internet of thing, communication protocols used by IoT and technical challenges faced by this technology.

There are numbers of data communication protocols used by the internet of thing for communication purpose which are the following:

• Satellite
• Wi-Fi
• Radiofrequency
• Bluetooth
• NFC
• RFID

Satellite communication provides a platform to interconnect two or more mobile networks which are located on a very long distance. In this type of network protocol, a machine to machine communication is used because it connects two different computer devices by using cell networks. Generally, IoT used this kind of system to produce a large computer network which is used for long-distance communication (Da, et al., 2014).

• Provide a stable connection between transmitter and receiver
• Universal compatibility

• More costly
• Large power consumption

Wi-Fi is a wireless fidelity which uses the IEEE 802.11 standard by which users can transfer their data or information without using any connecting wire. The frequency range of this communication protocol is between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz which is very less as compare to other networks (Domingo, 2012). For home-based application internet of thing used this type of communication protocol because it is a more effective and flexible process.

• Affordable
• Large bandwidth
• Easily controlled and implemented

• Required large amount of power
• Less secure
• Unstable and inconsistency

RF communication is one of the advanced communication protocol that provides communication between two devices. It is observed that ZigBee and Z-wave use low power RF waves to transfer data or information from one person to another. In which signal converts into RF waves after that it transfers from one location to another and the main benefit of this protocol is that it is more efficient rather than other (Gubbi, et al., 2013).

• Large accuracy
• More effective process
• Reduce noise and distortion

• Less secure
• Low bandwidth
• Cannot be used for long distance

There are numbers of applications of IoT in this modern era, for example, smart city, smart car, smart health, smart farming, smart TV, smart home, smart buildings, smart appliances and wearables. In which smart city is a popular application of this technology because it changed the way of the city and provides a platform to send data or signals from one location to another (Irmak, and Bozdal, 2018)? Automatic traffic controlling, car parking and smart devices all these are examples of smart cities.

Satellite

                                                                Figure: Internet of thing applications

                                                                               (Source: By author)

The internet of thing is an advanced technology which is used for controlling and monitors purpose. This technology involves numbers of electronics devices, sensors and smart devices to control the home appliances system such as embedded, temperature sensor and many more (Loo, Mauri, and Ortiz, 2016). Internet of thing faced many challenges during the generation of smart devices for home which are the following:

Security challenges

Connectivity challenges

Privacy challenges

Compatibility and longevity challenges

Security is a very serious problem on the internet of thing due to which users can lose their private details and information. The problem of baby monitor, drug infusion pumps, hacking of cameras, smart fridges, and malware attacks all these are caused by IoT technology. In which numbers of networks connected with two or more peripheral devices that increase various malicious attacks because hackers target on computer networks (Madakam, Ramaswamy, and Tripathi, 2015). It is studied that hackers first identify the location and authentic servers and produce malware traffic to block the user’s mobile networks and other devices.

Lack of privacy is also a very common issue occurs in the internet of thing and it is observed that internet of thing uses wireless networks to transfer data which are very less private. Data generation in a single appliance is very less sensitive and when it combines with other smart devices they reduce the privacy of user’s data. In many cases, hackers produce malicious software to encrypt the communication system by which consumers can lose their private information like bank details, and many more (Perera, Liu, and Jayawardena, 2015).

Connecting numbers of devices with each other is one of the biggest challenges in the internet of thing and it is very difficult to make a high-level communication system. In this modern generation, users transfer their data or signals by using computer networks for which they require proper configuration system. Most of the organization developed their own communication network but they face the problem of connectivity and this type of issue occur due to lack of proper configuration and set up (Pothuganti, and Chitneni, 2014). The future internet of thing will completely depend upon decentralizing network and consumers can use smart hubs and networks improve the connection between transmitter and receiver. Information and technology develop a peer to peer communication to configure and identify the authentic sources for transferring a signal from one device to other.

Wi-Fi

IoT is growing very fast in the last few years and it uses numbers of wireless technologies for communication purposes such as Zigbee, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. For proper communication, it requires many hardware and software which is very difficult to compete with the large network. Non-unified cloud service is also a compatibility issue due to which users can lose their all relevant information. There are many other problems also occurs in IoT technology such as lack of M2M protocols, configuration conflict, and diversities in firmware (Tyagi, and Bhardwaj, 2018).

There are many communication technologies used by the internet of thing, for example, SigFox, Lora, LTE-M, NB-IoT, 2G and 3G. All these are very advanced technologies that have the ability to transfer data from one location to another without using any connecting wires. The data rate of Sig fox is around 3 kbit/s which is very less but for LoRaWAN it is between 3 and 50 kbit/s. For NB-IoT the rate is between 20 and 250 kilobits per second and for 3G it is very high that is 168 megabit per second. According to recent studies, the current consumption of Sig Fox is very high (32-51 mA) due to which most of the users avoid the use of this technology (Venkatesh, Thong, and Xu, 2012). As compare to LoRaWAN the current consumption is almost 40 mA and for 3G it is 460 mA by which users use 3G technologies to communicate with another person. The communication range of Sig Fox is between 3- 10-kilo meter in an urban area but in rural, it is very high (30-50 km). For LoraWAN it is very less that is below 5 km but in 2G and 3G it is very large such as 50 and 70 km by which users can send their data over long distance.

Conclusion

This report is completely based on the internet of thing and their applications and with the help of this research readers can enhance their knowledge in the field of IoT technology. The use of IoT is growing rapidly because most of the organizations share their data by using internet connectivity and today all home appliances can be controlled by this technology.  This report described the application of IoT, communication protocols used by this process, and technical challenges faced by IoT during generation of smart devices. There are mainly four kinds of network protocols used by IoT to transfer data such as satellite, Wi-Fi, RFID and NFC which are described in this report. Users should ensure that they use security programmes and technologies like firewall and encryption to avoid the data breach and cyber-crimes.

References

Al-Fuqaha, A., Guizani, M., Mohammadi, M., Aledhari, M. and Ayyash, M., (2015) Internet of things: A survey on enabling technologies, protocols, and applications. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 17(4), pp.2347-2376.

Da Xu, L., He, W. and Li, S., (2014) Internet of things in industries: A survey. IEEE Transactions on industrial informatics, 10(4), pp.2233-2243.

Domingo, M.C., (2012) An overview of the Internet of Things for people with disabilities. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 35(2), pp.584-596.

Gubbi, J., Buyya, R., Marusic, S. and Palaniswami, M., (2013) Internet of Things (IoT): A vision, architectural elements, and future directions. Future generation computer systems, 29(7), pp.1645-1660.

Irmak, E. and Bozdal, M., (2018) Internet of Things (IoT): The Most Up-To-Date Challenges, Architectures, Emerging Trends and Potential Opportunities. population, 179(40), pp. 12-14.

Loo, J., Mauri, J.L. and Ortiz, J.H. eds., (2016) Mobile ad hoc networks: current status and future trends. CRC Press.

Madakam, S., Ramaswamy, R. and Tripathi, S., (2015) Internet of Things (IoT): A literature review. Journal of Computer and Communications, 3(05), p.164.

Perera, C., Liu, C.H. and Jayawardena, S., (2015) The emerging internet of things marketplace from an industrial perspective: A survey. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, 3(4), pp.585-598.

Pothuganti, K. and Chitneni, A., (2014) A comparative study of wireless protocols: Bluetooth, UWB, ZigBee, and Wi-Fi. Advance in Electronic and Electric Engineering, 4(6), pp.655-662.

Tyagi, B. and Bhardwaj, P., (2018) IoT: Security Challenges. On Emerging Trends In Information Technology (NCETIT’2018) with the theme-‘The Changing Landscape Of Cyber Security: Challenges, 12(2), p.83.

Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y. and Xu, X., (2012) Consumer acceptance and use of information technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. MIS Quarterly, 14(4), pp.157-178.