Introduction to IoT ecosystem

Basics of IoT

IoT (Internet of Things) refers to a network where devices communicate to devices and devices communicate to software applications over the internet. This web-enabled devices/internet enabled devices will usually collect data, send and act upon data from their surrounding environment.

•      The IoT network consists of Edge side (sensors, actuators and controllers connected to the internet) and Cloud side.

•      The devices on the Edge side can either connect to the internet directly or using an Edge (IoT) gateway.

The Edge gateway is used for:

•       Providing a connection to the internet for devices that cannot connect to the internet on their own. These devices don’t have feature to connect to the Internet.

•       Local functionality/control that must work even without internet availability

•       Edge analytics: Pre-processing the data before it is sent to the internet services or data processing services that should be available even when no internet connectivity is available

Basics of IoT – Cloud:

The cloud part in an IoT network is divided in SaaS, PaaS and IaaS parts. The basic explanation of those terms given below:

•       SaaS (Software as a Service): the software applications that are running on specific IaaS and example: do data processing or control of device parameters or notify the users of certain states

•       PaaS (Platform as a Service):  Platform tools and services used to build the software applications in the cloud

•       IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): Data centers, Virtual machines, Firewalls, Network gateways/routers used to host the software applications

•       IT Operations: Support and maintenance of the above elements.

Figure 1 IoT ecosystem

This is called IoT ecosystem where the system consists of network of sensors, actuators, smart objects, cloud, smart hand held devices, and all these are connected to send a command  or request for information over the network to an IoT enabled device.