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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.


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