The Architecture of IoT Internet of Things
IoT Architecture-State of the Art Introduction, State the art, Reference Model and architecture, IoT reference Model - IoT Reference Architecture- Introduction, Functional View, Information View, Deployment and Operational View, Other Relevant architectural views. Real-World Design Constraints- Introduction, Technical Design constraints-hardware is popular again, Data representation and visualization, Interaction, and remote control.
IoT can be classified into a four or five-layered architecture which gives you a complete overview of how it works in real life. The various components of the architecture include the following: Four-layered architecture: this includes the media/device layer, network layer, service and application support layer, and application layer. Five-layered architecture: this includes the perception layer, network layer, middleware layer, application layer, and business layer.
Functions of Each Layer Sensor/Perception layer: This layer comprises of wireless devices, sensors, and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that are used for collecting and transmitting raw data such as temperature, moisture, etc. which is passed on to the next layer. Network layer: This layer is largely responsible for routing data to the next layer in the hierarchy with the help of network protocols. It uses wired and wireless technologies for data transmission.
Middleware layer: This layer comprises databases that store the information passed on by the lower layers where it performs information processing and uses the results to make further decisions. Service and application support layer: This layer involve business process modeling and execution as well as IoT service monitoring and resolution. Application layer: It consists of an application user interface and deals with various applications such as home automation, electronic health monitoring, etc. Business layer: this layer determines the future or further actions required based on the data provided by the lower layers.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has seen an increasing interest in adaptive frameworks and architectural designs to promote the correlation between IoT devices and IoT systems. This is because IoT systems are designed to be categorized across diverse application domains and geographical locations. It, therefore, creates extensive dependencies across domains, platforms, and services.
Considering this interdependency between IoT devices and IoT systems, an intelligent, connection-aware framework has become a necessity, this is where IoT architecture comes into play! Imagine a variety of smart IoT systems from sensors and actuators to internet getaways and Data Acquisition Systems all under the centralized control of one “brain”! The brain here can be referred to as the IoT architecture, whose effectiveness and applicability directly correlate with the quality of its building blocks.
The way a system interacts and the different functions an IoT device performs are various approaches to IoT architecture. Since we can call the architecture the brain, it’s also possible to say that the key causes of poor integration in IoT systems are the shortage of intelligent, connection-aware architecture to support interaction in IoT systems. An IoT architecture is a system of numerous elements that range from sensors, protocols, and actuators, to cloud services, and layers.
Besides, devices and sensors the Internet of Things (IoT) architecture layers are distinguished to track the consistency of a system through protocols and gateways. Different architectures have been proposed by researchers and we can all agree that there is no single consensus on architecture for IoT. The most basic architecture is a three-layer architecture.
The figure below has three layers, namely, the perception, network, and application layers.
(i) The perception layer is the physical layer, which has sensors for sensing and gathering information about the environment. It senses some physical parameters or identifies other smart objects in the environment.
(ii) The network layer is responsible for connecting to other smart things, network devices, and servers. Its features are also used for transmitting and processing sensor data.
(iii) The application layer is responsible for delivering application-specific services to the user. It defines various applications in which the Internet of Things can be deployed, for example, smart homes, smart cities, and smart health.
The three-layer architecture defines the main idea of the Internet of Things, but it is not sufficient for research on IoT because research often focuses on finer aspects of the Internet of Things. That is why we have many more layered architectures proposed in the literature. One is the five-layer architecture, which additionally includes the processing and business layers. The five layers are perception, transport, processing, application, and business layers. The role of the perception and application layers is the same as the architecture with three layers. We outline the function of the remaining three layers.
(i) The transport layer transfers the sensor data from the perception layer to the processing layer and vice versa through networks such as wireless, 3G, LAN, Bluetooth, RFID, and NFC.
(ii) The processing layer is also known as the middleware layer. It stores analyze and process huge amounts of data that come from the transport layer. It can manage and provide a diverse set of services to the lower layers. It employs many technologies such as databases, cloud computing, and big data processing modules.
(iii) The business layer manages the whole IoT system, including applications, business and profit models, and users’ privacy. The business layer is out of the scope of this paper. Hence, we do not discuss it further.
Core IoT Functional Stack
The IoT network must be designed to support its unique requirements and constraints. This section provides an overview of the full networking stack, from sensors all the way to the applications layer. The Core IoT Functional Stack IoT networks are built around the concept of “things,” or smart objects performing functions and delivering new connected services. These objects are “smart” because they use a combination of contextual information and configured goals to perform actions. These actions can be self-contained (that is, the smart object does not rely on external systems for its actions); however, in most cases, the “thing” interacts with an external system to report information that the smart object collects, to exchange with other objects, or to interact with a management platform.
In this case, the management platform can be used to process data collected from the smart object and also guide the behavior of the smart object. From an architectural standpoint, several components have to work together for an IoT network to be operational: “Things” layer: At this layer, the physical devices need to fit the constraints of the environment in which they are deployed while still being able to provide the information needed. Communications network layer: When smart objects are not self-contained, they need to communicate with an external system.
In many cases, this communication uses wireless technology. This layer has four sublayers: Access network sublayer: The last mile of the IoT network is the access network. This is typically made up of wireless technologies such as 802.11ah, 802.15.4g, and LoRa. The sensors connected to the access network may also be wired. Gateways and backhaul network sublayer: A common communication system organizes multiple smart objects in a given area around a common gateway. The gateway communicates directly with the smart objects. The role of the gateway is to forward the collected information through a longer-range medium (called the backhaul) to a headend central station where the information is processed. This information exchange is a Layer 7 (application) function, which is the reason this object is called a gateway.
On IP networks, this gateway also forwards packets from one IP network to another, and it, therefore, acts as a router. Network transport sublayer: For communication to be successful, network and transport layer protocols such as IP and UDP must be implemented to support the variety of devices to connect and media to use.
IoT network management sublayer: Additional protocols must be in place to allow the headend applications to exchange data with the sensors. Examples include CoAP and MQTT. Application and analytics layer: At the upper layer, an application needs to process the collected data, not only to control the smart objects when necessary, but to make an intelligent decision based on the information collected and, in turn, instruct the “things” or other systems to adapt to the analyzed conditions and change their behaviors or parameters. The following sections examine these elements and help you architect your IoT communication network.
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Architecture of IoT Internet of Things