IoT Building Blocks: The Foundation of a Connected World
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly transforming the way we live, work, and interact with our environment. From smart homes and cities to advanced industrial… okay, wait. Timeout.
Not everyone is an IoT expert, and not everyone wants to be. But many stakeholders do need to get up to speed on the basics without all the noise.
If you are new to IoT, tasked with playing a business or management role in an IoT project, or just want to start at the very foundations, let’s take a quick, plain-language tour of the components that define IoT and its ecosystem, without the hype.
What is IoT?
IoT refers to connecting machines, vehicles, appliances, and other familiar consumer and industrial products to the Internet. Anything within range of an Internet “gateway” – a hardwired network cable, a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi hub, or a cell tower – can potentially be connected, and become part of the IoT ecosystem.
That connection is often two-way, one that allows people or computers to get data, like status information from a sensor on a device, another to send commands to control behavior or modes of that device. Some simple devices can even be either send or get only.
Your smartphone is one such device, but Internet-connected phones, PCs, and laptops are the default use case for the cloud in the first place. So when we talk about IoT, we’re typically referring to more specialized devices – smart bulbs, sprinkler valves, door locks, security cameras, industrial controls, and millions of other command and control use cases in smart homes, smart cities, and smart factories.
From the Cloud to the Edge
At the highest level, you can regard the major components of IoT systems as the servers in the cloud, the Internet gateways, and ultimately, the remote devices with their microprocessors and the actuators and sensors that exchange data through the Internet and make control settings locally as appropriate.
It’s not like it makes sense to connect everything we use to the Internet.
A kitchen blender only needs to be so smart.
But when it does make sense, though, the benefits can be dramatic.
Devices in factories and homes, even those hundreds of miles from cloud resources, become more affordable when they leverage those shared cloud resources to do all the heavy lifting.
High-powered servers in the cloud perform command-control logic and store massive amounts of data about system performance, and squeeze actionable insights from that data, minimizing the compute required near the device without limiting visibility and control where it matters.
The location of all these devices is at the so-called “edge”; they are the farthest devices from the core computing infrastructure in the cloud. The edge is generally where IoT interacts with the real world. It’s also where power and computing resources are the most scarce, where miniaturization is most valued, and where the only plausible data connection to the device is often wireless – Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or cell phone network.
The Big Use Cases
You’ve probably heard of many common IoT use cases – self-driving cars, industrial robots, smart cities, smart homes, and wearables. Devices that comprise these systems are all enabled by the basic building blocks of devices. Understand these use cases, and you can understand how the building blocks support them.
Smart Homes
IoT devices like smart thermostats, security cameras, and lighting systems use MCUs, sensors, and actuators to automate tasks, enhance security, and improve energy efficiency.
Smart Cities
Traffic management systems, smart grids, and waste management solutions leverage sensors, connectivity, and edge computing to monitor and manage city operations efficiently.
Industry
Sensors collect data from machinery to monitor performance and predict failures, while edge computing and AI algorithms analyze data in real-time to optimize production processes.
Wearables
Wearables include fitness and health-related monitors to track heart rate, number of steps, and blood pressure, and more.
The Building Blocks of an IoT Device
The capabilities that enable all the use cases above spring from the same fundamental building blocks:
- Microcontroller Unit (MCU, including its OS and code)
- Controllers
- Sensors
- Communication module
- Power module
Some of these building blocks are implemented through tightly integrated hardware and software components, but they’re so tightly integrated that talking about them functionally makes more sense than listing them separately.
Processors and Microcontrollers
At the heart of every IoT device is a processor or microcontroller (MCU), executing the software that controls the device’s operations and responses. These are the brains of IoT devices, executing the software instructions that govern the device’s functions.
Their programs essentially collect data from a sensor, use that data to determine what actions are appropriate, then send the appropriate command to actuators that execute those actions. The sensor data and action taken is typically sent to the cloud, and sometimes some or all of the logic which uses sensor data to determine what actions to take, is done in the cloud too.
Microcontroller Units (MCUs)
MCUs act as the brain of IoT devices, executing the software that controls the device’s operations. These compact, low-power computers integrate a processor, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals, making them ideal for controlling a wide range of devices, from sensors in smart homes to traffic lights in smart cities.
As a rule, MCU’s aren’t all that intelligent. They act as traffic controllers for the sensor and command data. However, with rising interest in pushing AI and ML into IoT devices, there is a revolution underway to produce brand new chips which are optimized for ML on small devices.
Specialized IoT operating systems manage the hardware resources and provide the necessary tools for running applications on IoT devices.
That includes some secondary functions like middleware, security, and network communication.
IoT Middleware
Middleware facilitates communication between hardware and applications, acting as a bridge that enables seamless data exchange and management.
Security Software
Security mechanisms, including encryption and secure boot, protect IoT devices and data from unauthorized access and cyber threats. Security software provides crucial encryption and protection mechanisms to safeguard IoT devices and their data from cyber threats.
Communication
Connectivity software bridges the gap between IoT devices and the network, enabling them to communicate with each other and with cloud services. This can be achieved through various wired and wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and cellular networks, as appropriate to the required range, bandwidth, and power consumption of the device.
Sensors and Controllers
A big part of what the MCU programs do is manage signaling to and from electronic or electromechanical devices – everything from light bulbs and motorized blinds to valves in a refinery – all of which, in their most rudimentary form, are either a sensor or a controller – one or other of the two most basic functions of an IoT device.
These functions may be on separate devices or the same one, and when they are spread over multiple devices, they need to communicate and share data with one another either directly or indirectly.
These functional components warrant a deeper explanation.
Sensors
Sensors are the eyes and ears of devices, gathering data from the environment — temperature, humidity, motion, or even the state of the device itself — to be processed and acted upon. Sensors collect data such as temperature, humidity, motion, smoke, carbon monoxide, and light from the environment or the device itself.
Integrated sensors can also measure the position of a motor or servo or the functional status (is it working right?). In a cooling system, the local MCU needs both the temperature and the current position of a related vent, for example, to decide how to adjust it.
Controllers
Actuators provide the muscle; they take electronic commands and convert them into physical actions. Actuators are the tools used to act on data from sensors. They play a pivotal role in interacting directly with the environment, such as controlling motors, opening valves, turning on lights, or adjusting thermostats. For example, a smart thermostat uses sensors to detect room temperature and actuators to open and close vents in heating or cooling systems accordingly.
Control Loops
Software decisions directly impact hardware actions through control loops, where data analysis results in commands that actuators execute, affecting the physical world.
The control loop is where software decisions directly influence hardware actions, creating a dynamic system capable of responding to environmental changes.
Real-time processing and responses are vital for applications requiring immediate action, such as industrial automation or emergency responses; real-time processing and responses are enabled by edge computing and real-time operating systems.
Where in the past IoT devices were relatively dumb devices, with a fixed function, this is beginning to change as engineers start to bring machine learning to the edge. In the future, IoT devices may do considerably more local processing and analysis of sensor data because it is not only faster, it is more efficient than sending all of the data to the cloud for analysis.
IoT Trends and the Bottom Line
The building blocks of IoT—MCUs, sensors and actuators, connectivity, edge computing, AI and ML, and specialized supercomputers—collectively form the backbone of every connected device populating the consumer, community, and industrial IoT landscape.
If you envisage IoT playing any part of an upcoming project, your key takeaway should really be that IoT is not a technology unto itself. Rather it’s a way of thinking about communicating between products and how Internet connectivity extends value and opens new doors, making boxes that were previously black, more transparent.
This provides greater control and visibility to information about processes and systems that was previously unavailable. Understanding these components is the first step toward leveraging IoT technology for innovative solutions.
As the IoT ecosystem continues to evolve, the need for strategic partnerships for time to market remain paramount. The journey into the IoT landscape is complex but rewarding, offering endless possibilities for those ready to explore the potential of these building blocks.
In rapidly evolving markets being first to market is everything, and partnerships are a critical element in helping you get there. This is particularly true in the world of IoT where there are so many dependencies and design considerations to be factored in. It is almost impossible for startups to have the complete set of skills and resources to pull off IoT projects on their own.
But choose your partner wisely, because it is important they don’t just add more head-count to your team than you now have to manage. The most successful partnerships are ones in which the partner reduces the management overhead and solves challenges that are outside your core competencies, without draining your resources.
Such alliances are not just a trend but a strategic imperative when dealing with ever-shrinking development windows and increased competitive pressure. Partnering with the right team lets you harness new possibilities in technology long before it is mainstream, and to integrate these advancements into new products, faster than ever before.
If you have a project and would like to evaluate its feasibility, give us a call!
