IoT PHYSICAL SERVERS AND CLOUD OFFERINGS

IoT PHYSICAL SERVERS AND CLOUD OFFERINGS

Introduction to Cloud Computing:
The Internet of Things (IoT) involves the internet-connected devices we use to perform the processes
and services that support our way of life. Another component set to help IoT succeed is cloud
computing, which acts as a sort of front end. Cloud computing is an increasingly popular service that
offers several advantages to IOT, and is based on the concept of allowing users to perform normal
computing tasks using services delivered entirely over the internet. A worker may need to finish a major
project that must be submitted to a manager, but perhaps they encounter problems with memory or space
constraints on their computing device. Memory and space constraints can be minimized if an application
is instead hosted on the internet. The worker can use a cloud computing service to finish their work
because the data is managed remotely by a server. Another example: you have a problem with your
mobile device and you need to reformat it or reinstall the operating system. You can use Google Photos
to upload your photos to internet-based storage. After the reformat or reinstall, you can then either move
the photos back to you device or you can view the photos on your device from the internet when you
want.
Concept
In truth, cloud computing and IoT are tightly coupled. The growth of IoT and the rapid development of
associated technologies create a widespread connection of ―things. This has lead to the production of
large amounts of data, which needs to be stored, processed and accessed. Cloud computing as a
paradigm for big data storage and analytics. While IoT is exciting on its own, the real innovation will
come from combining it with cloud computing. The combination of cloud computing and IoT will
enable new monitoring services and powerful processing of sensory data streams. For example, sensory
data can be uploaded and stored with cloud computing, later to be used intelligently for smart
monitoring and actuation with other smart devices. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to transform data to
insight and drive productive, cost-effective action from those insights. The cloud effectively serves as
the brain to improved decision-making and optimized internet-based interactions. However, when IoT
meets cloud, new challenges arise. There is an urgent need for novel network architectures that
seamlessly integrate them. The critical concerns during integration are quality of service (QoS) and
quality of experience (QoE), as well as data security, privacy and reliability. The virtual infrastructure
for practical mobile computing and interfacing includes integrating applications, storage devices,
monitoring devices, visualization platforms, analytics tools and client delivery. Cloud computing offers
a practical utility-based model that will enable businesses and users to access applications on demand
anytime and from anywhere.

Fig: CLOUD COMPUTING

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Characteristics
First, the cloud computing of IoT is an on-demand self service, meaning it‘s there when you
need it. Cloud computing is a web-based service that can be accessed without any special assistance
or permission from other people ; however, you need at minimum some or to internet access.
Second, the cloud computing of IoT involves broad network access, meaning it offers
several connectivity options. Cloud computing resources can be accessed through a wide variety of
internet-connected devices such as tablets, mobile devices and laptops. This level of convenience
means users can access those resources in a wide variety of manners, even from older devices.
Again, though, this emphasizes the need for network access points.
Third, cloud computing allows for resource pooling, meaning information can be shared with those
who know where and how (have permission) to access the resource, anytime and anywhere. This
lends to broader collaboration or closer connections with other users. From an IoT perspective, just
as we can easily assign an IP address to every "thing" on the planet, we can share the "address" of
the cloud-based protected and stored information with others and pool resources.
Fourth, cloud computing features rapid elasticity, meaning users can readily scale the
service to their needs. You can easily and quickly edit your software setup, add or remove users,
increase storage space, etc. This characteristic will further empower IoT by providing elastic
computing power, storage and networking.
Finally ,the cloud computing of IoT is a measured service, meaning you get what you pay
for. Providers can easily measure usage statistics such as storage, processing, bandwidth and active
user accounts inside your cloud instance. This pay per use (PPU) model means your costs scale
with your usage. In IoT terms, it's comparable to the ever-growing network of physical objects that
feature an IP address for internet connectivity, and the communication that occurs between these
objects and other internet-enabled devices and systems; just like your cloud service, the service
rates for that IoT infrastructure may also scale with use.
Service and Deployment Service models
Service delivery in cloud computing comprises three different service models: software as a
service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
Software as a service (SaaS) provides applications to the cloud‘s end user that are mainly accessed
via a web portal or service-oriented architecture-based web service technology. These services can
be seen as ASP (application service provider) on the application layer. Usually, a specific company
that uses the service would run, maintain and give support so that it can be reliably used over a
long period of time.
Platform as a service (PaaS) consists of the actual environment for developing and
provisioning cloud applications. The main users of this layer are developers that want to develop
and run a cloud application for a particular purpose. A proprietary language was supported and
provided by the platform (a set of important basic services) to ease communication, monitoring,
billing and other aspects such as startup as well as to ensure an application‘s scalability and
flexibility. Limitations regarding the programming languages supported, the programming model,
the ability to access resources, and the long-term persistence are possible disadvantages.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provides the necessary hardware and software upon which a
customer can build a customized computing environment. Computing resources, data storage
resources and the communications channel are linked together with these essential IT resources to
ensure the stability of applications being used on the cloud. Those stack models can be referred to

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as the medium for IoT, being used and conveyed by the users in different methods for the greatest
chance of interoperability. This includes connecting cars, wearable’s, TVs, smart phones, fitness
equipment, robots, ATMs, and vending machines as well as the vertical applications, security and
professional services, and analytics platforms that come with them.

Deployment models
Deployment in cloud computing comprises four deployment models: private cloud, public
cloud, community cloud and hybrid cloud.
A private cloud has infrastructure that‘s provisioned for exclusive use by a single
organization comprising multiple consumers such as business units. It may be owned, managed and
operated by the organization, a third party or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off
premises.
A public cloud is created for open use by the general public. Public cloud sells services to
anyone on the internet. (Amazon Web Services is an example of a large public cloud provider.)
This model is suitable for business requirements that require management of load spikes and the
applications used by the business, activities that would otherwise require greater investment in
infrastructure for the business. As such, public cloud also helps reduce capital expenditure and
bring down operational IT costs.
A community cloud is managed and used by a particular group or organizations that have
shared interests, such as specific security requirements or a common mission.
Finally, a hybrid cloud combines two or more distinct private, community or public cloud
infrastructures such that they remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or
proprietary technology that enables data and application portability. Normally, information that‘s
not critical is outsourced to the public cloud, while business-critical services and data are kept
within the control of the organization.

CLOUD STORAGE API

A cloud storage API is an application program interface that connects a locally-based
application to a cloud-based storage system, so that a user can send data to it and access and work
with data stored in it. To the application, the cloud storage system is just another target device, like
tape or disk-based storage. An application program interface (API) is code that allows two software
programs to communicate with each other. The API defines the correct way for a developer to write
a program that requests services from an operating system (OS) or other application. APIs are
implemented by function calls composed of verbs and nouns. The required syntax is described in
the documentation of the application being called.

How APIs work

APIs are made up of two related elements. The first is a specification that describes how
information is exchanged between programs, done in the form of a request for processing and a
return of the necessary data. The second is a software interface written to that specification and
published in some way for use. The software that wants to access the features and capabilities of the
API is said to call it, and the software that creates the API is said to publish it.
Why APIs are important for business
The web, software designed exchange information via the internet and cloud computing have all

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combined to increase the interest in APIs in general and services in particular. Software that was
once custom-developed for a specific purpose is now often written referencing APIs that provide
broadly useful features, reducing development time and cost and mitigating the risk of errors. APIs
have steadily improved software quality over the last decade, and the growing number of web
services exposed through APIs by cloud providers is also encouraging the creation of cloud-
specific applications, internet of things (IoT) efforts and apps to support mobile devices and users.
Three basic types of APIs
APIs take three basic forms: local, web-like and program-like.

1. Local APIs are the original form, from which the name came. They offer OS or middleware
services to application programs. Microsoft's .NET APIs, the TAPI (Telephony API) for voice
applications, and database access APIs are examples of the local API form.

2. Web APIs are designed to represent widely used resources like HTML pages and are accessed
using a simple HTTP protocol. Any web URL activates a web API. Web APIs are often called
REST (representational state transfer) or RESTful because the publisher of REST interfaces doesn't
save any data internally between requests. As such, requests from many users can be intermingled
as they would be on the internet.

3. Program APIs are based on remote procedure call (RPC) technology that makes a remote
program component appear to be local to the rest of the software. Service oriented architecture
(SOA) APIs, such as Microsoft's WS-series of APIs, are program APIs.

IoT/Cloud Convergence
Internet-of-Things can benefit from the scalability, performance and pay-as-you-go nature of cloud
computing infrastructures. Indeed, as IoT applications produce large volumes of data and comprise
multiple computational components (e.g., data processing and analytics algorithms), their
integration with cloud computing infrastructures could provide them with opportunities for cost-
effective on-demand scaling. As prominent examples consider the following settings:
A Small Medium Enterprise (SME) developing an energy management IoT product, targeting smart
homes and smart buildings. By streaming the data of the product (e.g., sensors and WSN data) into
the cloud it can accommodate its growth needs in a scalable and cost effective fashion. As the
SMEs acquires more customers and performs more deployments of its product, it is able to collect
and manage growing volumes of data in a scalable way, thus taking advantage of a pay-as-you-grow‖
model. Moreover, cloud integration allows the SME to store and process massive datasets collected
from multiple (rather than a single) deployments.
A smart city can benefit from the cloud-based deployment of its IoT systems and applications. A
city is likely to deploy many IoT applications, such as applications for smart energy management,
smart water management, smart transport management, urban mobility of the citizens and more
.These applications comprise multiple sensors and devices, along with computational components.
Furthermore, they are likely to produce very large data volumes. Cloud integration enables the city
to host these data and applications in a cost-effective way. Furthermore, the elasticity of the cloud
can directly support expansions to these applications, but also the rapid deployment of new ones
without major concerns about the provisioning of the required cloud computing resources.

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A cloud computing provider offering pubic cloud services can extend them to the IoT area,
through enabling third-parties to access its infrastructure in order to integrate IoT data and/or
computational components operating over IoT devices. The provider can offer IoT data access and
services in a pay-as-you-fashion, through enabling third-parties to access resources of its
infrastructure and accordingly to charge them in a utility-based fashion.
These motivating examples illustrate the merit and need for converging IoT and cloud
computing infrastructure. Despite these merits, this convergence has always been challenging
mainly due to the conflicting properties of IoT and cloud infrastructures, in particular, IoT devices
tend to be location specific, resource constrained, expensive (in terms of development/ deployment
cost) and generally inflexible (in terms of resource access and availability). On the other hand,
cloud computing resources are typically location independent and inexpensive, while at the same
time providing rapid and flexibly elasticity. In order to alleviate these incompatibilities, sensors and
devices are virtualized prior to integrating their data and services in the cloud, in order to enable
their distribution across any cloud resources. Furthermore, service and sensor discovery
functionalities are implementing on the cloud in order to enable the discovery of services and
sensors that reside in different locations.
Based on these principles the IoT/cloud convergence efforts have started since over a
decade i.e. since they very early days of IoT and cloud computing. Early efforts in the research
community (i.e. during 2005-2009) have focused on streaming sensor and WSN data in a cloud
infrastructure. Since 2007 we have also witnessed the emergence of public IoT clouds, including
commercial efforts. One of the earliest efforts has been the famous Pachube.com infrastructure
(used extensively for radiation detection and production of radiation maps during earth quakes in
Japan). Pachube.com has evolved (following several evolutions and acquisitions of this
infrastructure) to Xively.com, which is nowadays one of the most prominent public IoT clouds.
Nevertheless, there are tens of other public IoT clouds as well, such as Things Worx, Things Speak,
Sensor-Cloud, Realtime.io and more. The list is certainly non- exhaustive. These public IoT clouds
offer commercial pay-as-you-go access to end-users wishing to deploying IoT applications on the
cloud. Most of them come with developer friendly tools, which enable the development of cloud
applications, thus acting like a PaaS for IoT in the cloud. Similarly to cloud computing
infrastructures, IoT/cloud infrastructures and related services can be classified to the following
models:
1. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) IoT/Clouds: These services provide the means for
accessing sensors and actuator in the cloud. The associated business model involves the IoT/Cloud
provide to act either as data or sensor provider. IaaS services for IoT provide access control to
resources as a prerequisite for the offering of related pay-as-you-go services.
2. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) IoT/Clouds: This is the most widespread model for IoT/cloud
services, given that it is the model provided by all public IoT/cloud infrastructures outlined above.
As already illustrate most public IoT clouds come with a range of tools and related environments
for applications development and deployment in a cloud environment. A main characteristic of
PaaS IoT services is that they provide access to data, not to hardware. This is a clear differentiator
comparing to IaaS.
3. Software-as-a-Service(SaaS)IoT/Clouds: SaaS IoT services are the ones enabling their uses to
access complete IoT-based software applications through the cloud, on-demand and in a pay- as-
you-go fashion. As soon as sensors and IoT devices are not visible, SaaS IoT applications resemble

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very much conventional cloud-based SaaS applications. There are however cases where the IoT
dimension is strong and evident, such as applications involving selection of sensors and
combination of data from the selected sensors in an integrated applications. Several of these
applications are commonly called Sensing-as-a- Service, given that they provide on-demand access
to the services of multiple sensors. Note that SaaS IoT applications are typically built over a PaaS
infrastructure and enable utility based business models involving IoT software and services.

These definitions and examples provide an overview of IoT and cloud convergence and why it is
important and useful. More and more IoT applications are nowadays integrated with the cloud in
order to benefit from its performance, business agility and pay-as-you-go characteristics. In
following chapters of the tutorial, we will present how to maximize the benefits of the cloud for
IoT, through ensuring semantic interoperability of IoT data and services in the cloud, thus enabling
advanced data analytics applications, but also integration of a wide range of vertical (silo) IoT
applications that are nowadays available in areas such as smart energy, smart transport and smart
cities. We will also illustrate the benefits of IoT/cloud integration for specific areas and segments of
IoT, such as IoT-based wearable computing.

Case Study in IoT: Smart Cities

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is the novel cutting-edge technology which proffers to connect
plethora of digital devices endowed with several sensing, actuation and computing capabilities
with the Internet, thus offers manifold new services in the context of a smart city. The appealing
IoT services and big data analytics are enabling smart city initiatives all over the world. These
services are transforming cities by improving infrastructure, transportation systems, reduced traffic
congestion, waste management and the quality of human life. In this paper, we devise a taxonomy
to best bring forth a generic overview of IoT paradigm for smart cities, integrated information and
communication technologies (ICT), network types, possible opportunities and major requirements.
Moreover, an overview of the up-to-date efforts from standard bodies is presented. Later, we give
an overview of existing open source IoT platforms for realizing smart city applications followed
by several exemplary case studies. In addition, we summarize the latest synergies and initiatives
worldwide taken to promote IoT in the context of smart cities. Finally, we highlight several
challenges in order to give future research directions.

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An illustration of IoT based smartcity

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A representation of IoT based smart city taxonomy IOT

BASED SMART CITY TAXONOMY

This section presents a taxonomy of IoT based smart cities which categorizes the
literature on the basis of existing communication protocols, major service providers, network
types, standardization efforts, offered services, and crucial requirements.
Communication Protocols
IoT based smart city realization significantly relies on numerous short and wide range
communication protocols to transport data between devices and backend servers. Most
prominent short range wireless technologies include Zig-Bee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wireless
Metropolitan Area Network (WiMAX) and IEEE 802.11p which are primarily used in smart
metering, e-healthcare and vehicular communication. Wide range technologies such as Global
System for Mobile communication (GSM) and GPRS, Long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-
Advanced are commonly utilized in ITS such as vehicle-to infrastructure (V2I), mobile e-
healthcare, smart grid and infotainment services. Additionally, LTE-M is considered as an
evolution for cellular IoT (C-IoT). In Release 13, 3GPP plans to further improve coverage,
battery lifetime as well as device complexity [7]. Besides well-known existing protocols, LoRa
alliance standardizes the LoRaWAN protocol to support smart city applications to primarily
ensure interoperability between several operators. Moreover, SIGFOX is an ultra narrowband
radio technology with full star-based infrastructure offers a high scalable global network for

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realizing smart city applications with extremely low power consumption. A comparative
summary of the major communication protocols.
Service Providers
Pike Research on smart cities estimated this market will grow to hundreds of billion dollars by
2020, with an annual growth of nearly 16 billion. IoT is recognized as a potential source to
increase revenue of service providers. Thus, well-known worldwide service providers have
already started exploring this novel cutting edge communication paradigm. Major service
providers include Telefonica, SK telecom, Nokia, Ericsson, Vodafone, NTT Docomo, Orange,
Telenor group and AT&T which offer variety of services and platforms for smart city
applications such as ITS and logistics, smart metering, home automation and e-healthcare.
Network Types
IoT based smart city applications rely on numerous network topologies to accomplish a
fully autonomous environment. The capillary IoT networks offer services over a short range.
Examples include wireless local area networks (WLANs), BANs and wireless personal area
networks (WPANs). The application areas include indoor e-healthcare services, home
automation, street lighting. On the other hand, applications such as ITS, mobile e-healthcare and
waste management use wide area networks (WANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), and
mobile communication networks. The above networks pose distinct features in terms of data,
size, coverage, latency requirements, and capacity.
Case Study in IoT: Smart Environment
The rapid advancements in communication technologies and the explosive growth of
Internet of Things (IoT) have enabled the physical world to invisibly interweave with actuators,
sensors, and other computational elements while maintaining continuous network connectivity.
The continuously connected physical world with computational elements forms a smart
environment. A smart environment aims to support and enhance the abilities of its dwellers in
executing their tasks, such as navigating through unfamiliar space and moving heavy objects for
the elderly, to name a few. Researchers have conducted a number of efforts to use IoT to
facilitate our lives and to investigate the effect of IoT based smart environments on human life.
This paper surveys the state-of-the-art research efforts to enable the IoT-based smart
environments. We categorize and classify the literature by devising a taxonomy based on
communication enablers, network types, technologies, local area wireless standards, objectives,
and characteristics. Moreover, the paper highlights the unprecedented opportunities brought
about by IoT-based smart environments and their effect on human life. Some reported case
studies from different enterprises are also presented. Finally, we discuss open research
challenges for enabling IoT-based smart environments. Immense developments and increasing
miniaturization of computer technology have enabled tiny sensors and processors to be
integrated into everyday objects. This advancement is further supported by tremendous
developments in areas such as portable appliances and devices, pervasive computing , wireless
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sensor networking, wireless mobile communications, machine learning-based decision making,

IPv6 support, human computer interfaces, and agent technologies to make the dream of smart
environment a reality. A smart environment is a connected small world where sensor-enabled
connected devices work collaboratively to make the lives of dwellers comfortable. The term
smart refers to the ability to autonomously obtain and applies knowledge; and the term
environment refers to the surroundings. Therefore, a smart environment is one that is capable of
obtaining knowledge and applying it to adapt according to its inhabitant’s needs to ameliorate
their experience of that environment.
The functional capabilities of smart objects are further enhanced by interconnecting them
with other objects using different wireless technologies. In this context, IPv6 plays a vital role
because of several features, including better security mechanisms, scalability in case of billion of
connected devices, and the elimination of NAT barriers1. This concept of connecting smart
objects with the Internet was first coined by Kevin Ashton as ―Internet of Things‖ (IoT).
Nowadays ,IoT is receiving attention in a number of fields such as healthcare, transport ,and
industry, among others. Several research efforts have been conducted to integrate IoT with smart
environments. The integration of IoT with a smart environment extends the capabilities of smart
objects by enabling the user to monitor the environment from remote sites. IoT can be integrated
with different smart environments based on the application requirements. The work on IoT-based
smart environments can generally be classified into the following areas: a) smart cities, b) smart
homes, c) smart grid, d) smart buildings, e) smart transportation, f) smart health, and g) smart
industry illustrates the IoT-based smart environments. The taxonomy of the IoT based smart
environment. The devised taxonomy is based on the following parameters: communication
enablers, network types, technologies, wireless standards, objectives, and characteristics
Communication Enablers
Communication enablers refer to wireless technologies used to communicate across the Internet.
The key wireless Internet technologies are WiFi, 3G, 4G, and satellite. WiFi is mainly used in
smart homes, smart cities, smart transportation, smart industries, and smart building
environments; whereas, 3G and 4G are mainly used in smart cities and smart grid environments.
Satellites are used in smart transportation, smart cities, and smart grid environments. Table
presents the comparative summary of the communication technologies used in IoT based smart
environments.
Network Types
IoT-based smart environments rely on different types of networks to perform the collaborative
tasks for making the lives of inhabitants more comfortable. The main networks are wireless local
area networks (WLANs), wireless personal area networks (WPANs), wide area networks
(WANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), and wireless regional area networks (WRANs).
These networks have different characteristics in terms of size, data transfer, and supported reach
ability.

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Technologies
IoT-based smart environments leverage various technologies to form a comfortable and suitable ecosystem.
These technologies are include sensing, communication, data fusion, emerging computing, and information
security. Sensing technologies are commonly used to acquire data from various locations and transmit it
using communication technologies to a central location. The emerging computing technologies, such as
cloud computing and fog computing, deployed in the central location, leverage the data fusion technologies
for integrating the data coming from heterogeneous resources. In addition, smart environments also use
information security technologies to ensure data integrity and user privacy.
Local Area Wireless Standards
The commonly used local area wireless standards in IoT-based smart environments are IEEE 802.11, IEEE
802.15.1, and IEEE 802.15.4. These standard technologies are used inside the smart environment to
transfer the collected data among different devices. IEEE 802.11 is used in smart homes, smart buildings
,and smart cities.IEEE802.15.1 and IEEE802.15.4 have relatively shorter coverage than IEEE 802.11 and
are used mainly in sensors and other objects deployed in the smart environments.

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