How to select hardware for your IoT Solution
Written by Morne Maree
When you start thinking about building an IoT solution, the current belief is that “the first area of consideration is the hardware”, which isn’t totally true. In reality, it is a combination of all the elements of the Full stack IoT Platform that you might have chosen before, or are considering choosing. We have discussed the Full Stack IoT platform before. The choice of your IoT Platform influences your flexibility when expanding the scope of your IoT solution capability, and if done well, you can future-proof your investment.
In this Episode, we’re going to have a look at the different types of IoT hardware Elements used in IoT solutions. We’ll also see how IoT hardware is being deployed and used in the real world.
- Edge Device – Sensor
- Gateways
We will leave Server Hardware (On-premises or cloud-hosted) for a later discussion
The importance of choosing the correct hardware is due to the fact that the value of data is a key driver behind implementing IoT solutions. Figuring out what data points (Also known as endpoints) to be collected, and deciding how the data is collected, has an important role in your architecture.
The hardware implemented in an IoT solution often includes a network infrastructure (communication channel) that’s used to connect devices. However, some devices could be stand-alone (semi dumb device). How would this work? A sensor, for example, could collect temperature data or collect data about how a bridge is being stressed and store that data over time, but not deliver those data at once to a network database and allow the data to be processed to give actionable insights. A technician could check in on a regular schedule and collect the data from the device using an internet-connected tool which then delivers the data to the database. Some devices could be legacy (dumb devices), with limited ability to communicate or make changes to how it works based on inputs.
Some argue that when a device is no longer able to connect to the internet, the ‘internet’ part of IoT no longer applies so the device should no longer be considered an IoT device.
Other hardware (gateway) involved in a broad IoT solution doesn’t collect data at all, but rather brokers communication with other hardware and cloud services. Let’s look at types of hardware used in IoT solutions and talk about the role they play.
IP-enabled Devices (edge device or sensor)
An IP-enabled device is a device that can set up a connection to a network–for many IoT devices, this means the internet–and have a unique identity on that network. IP stands for internet protocol and defines the way messages are delivered over a network. A message in networking terms is a packet of information, and a single packet could deliver part of a text message or a video file. Most data transferred over the internet uses this communication protocol.
Examples
In terms of IoT, an IP-enabled device is one that can connect directly to a network (such as the internet) and send or receive data. Common examples are pre-paid electricity meters, installed in many South African Homes that uses an internet connection to communicate with a central server. But industrial-grade IoT devices can be IP-enabled as well; IP-enabled devices require special hardware to enable this functionality.
Usage
As you might expect, people deploy IP-enabled devices in scenarios where data needs to be collected, delivered, and analysed in real-time or near real-time. IP-enabled devices enable live connections to the other networked devices or services so data can be transmitted without interaction from a technician.
Non-IP Enabled Devices
As mentioned above, it’s not necessary for a device to be IP-enabled to be a part of an IoT solution. Some devices don’t use IP to connect to other parts of an IoT solution but can use other protocols. These devices don’t connect to the internet as such, but their messages are routed to the internet via other hardware such as a field gateway, which we’ll discuss below.
Devices can use industry-specific protocols, and short-range communication technologies to connect to other hardware. These protocols and communication technologies were discussed here before.
Usage
Devices of this type can be useful in scenarios where data from a number of devices needs to be aggregated, cleaned up, and possibly even analysed by the edge gateway before being sent to a cloud service. Since IP-enabled devices typically take more resources, low-powered or resource or space-constrained devices can use protocols with lower resource consumption requirements that send to a device that doesn’t have these constraints.
Sensors
This category can be split into sensors and smart sensors:
The IEEE, in a definition of the Internet of Things (IoT), writes this about sensors:
‘Sensors are one of the key building blocks of IoT. As ubiquitous systems, they can be deployed everywhere–from military battlefields to South African Cape vineyards and on the Nelson Mandela Bridge. They can also be implanted under human skin, in a purse or on a T-shirt. Some can be as small as four millimetres in size, but the data they collect can be received hundreds of kilometres away. They complement human senses and have become indispensable in many industries, from healthcare to construction. Sensors have a key advantage in that they can anticipate human needs based on information collected about their context. Their intelligence, ‘multiplied’ by the value offered by multiple networks (The whole is greater than the sum of its parts), allows them not only to report about the external environment but also to take action without human intervention.’
Within an intelligent networked system, sensors perform the functions of input devices. They serve as ‘eyes’, collecting information about their environment.
We can define a sensor, then, as a device that collects a specific type of data about the physical environment. As IoT as technology grows, the list of available sensors most likely will grow with it. There also are communities that will help you build your own sensors if the one you need doesn’t exist.
A smart sensor according to IoT Agenda is ‘a device that takes input from the physical environment and uses built-in compute resources to perform predefined functions upon detection of specific input and then process data before passing it on’. In other words, the device itself processes the data to some degree on the edge before sending it to the next node in the IoT architecture.
Sensors of both types can be embedded on other devices that manage communication with a network or stand-alone and handle all the necessary functions needed to collect and communicate data.
Examples
Sensors that can collect data on a wide variety of things. Many more sensors are available, and more are actively being developed.
Examples of measurable data points from sensors
Location | Energy | Sonar | Temperature | Pressure | Light | Humidity | Flow | Usage
Sensors are used whenever a discrete bit of information needs to be collected about something in the physical environment.
Edge Devices and Field Gateways
A field gateway is a specialised device-appliance or general-purpose software that acts as a communication enabler and, potentially, as a local device control system and device data processing hub. A field gateway can perform local processing and control functions toward the devices; on the other side, it can filter or aggregate the device telemetry and thus reduce the amount of data being transferred to the cloud back-end.
A field gateway’s scope includes the field gateway itself and all devices that are attached to it. As the name implies, field gateways act outside dedicated data processing facilities and are usually collocated with the devices.
A field gateway is different from a mere traffic router in that it has an active role in managing access and information flow. It is an application-addressed entity and network connection or session terminal. For example, gateways in this context may aid in device provisioning, data filtering, batching and aggregation, buffering of data, protocol translation, and event rules processing. NAT devices or firewalls, in contrast, do not qualify as field gateways since they are not explicit connection or session terminals, but rather route (or deny) connections or sessions made through them.
This is a brief introduction to the growing world of IoT devices. The devices you’ll need for a solution will depend largely on what data you’re interested in collecting, how you want to work with that data, and the devices that are available on the market or that you have the capability of building.
Now that we understand the “theory” behind the hardware device we will look at “How to select hardware device” in the South African and SADC context.
Stay tuned for Episode 3 coming soon.
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