IoT & M2M

Machine to Machine
This is commonly known as Machine to machine communication. It is a concept where two or more than
two machines communicate with each other without human interaction using a wired or wireless
mechanism. M2M is a technology that helps the devices to connect between devices without using the
internet. M2M communications offer several applications such as security, tracking and tracing,
manufacturing, and facility management. M2M is also named as Machine Type Communication (MTC) in
3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project). The communication could carry over mobile networks, for ex-
GSM-GPRS, CDMA EVDO Networks and the role of mobile networks is largely confined to servers as
transport networks.

Difference between M2M and IoT

Basis of IoT M2M
Abbreviation Internet of Things Machine to Machine
Intelligence Devices have objects that are Some degree of intelligence is
responsible for decision making. observed in this.
Connection type used The connection is via the The connection is a point to
Network and using various point.
communication types.
Communication protocol used Internet protocols are used such Traditional protocols and
as HTTP, FTP, and Telnet. communication technology
techniques are used
Data Sharing Data is shared between other Data is shared with only the
applications that are used to communicating parties.
improve the end-user experience.
Internet Internet connection is required Devices are not dependent on the
for communication. Internet.
Type of Communication It supports cloud communication. It supports point-to-point
communication.
Computer System Involves the usage of both Mostly hardware-based
Hardware and Software. technology.
Scope A large number of devices yet Limited Scope for devices.
scope is large.
Business Type used Business 2 Business(B2B) and Business 2 Business (B2B).
Business 2 Consumer(B2C).
Open API support Supports Open API integrations. There is no support for Open
APIs.
It requires Generic commodity devices. Specialized device solutions.
Centric Information and service centric Communication and device
centric.
Approach used Horizontal enabler approach. Vertical system solution
approach.
Components Devices/sensors, connectivity, Device, area networks, gateway,
data processing, user interface. Application server.
Examples Smart wearables, Big Data and Sensors, Data, and Information,
Cloud, etc. etc.
Sensor Node and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)
A sensor node is a small, low-powered device with a limited sensory range and precision and a modest
processing capability.
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an infrastructure-less wireless network that is deployed in a large
number of wireless sensors (sensor node) in an ad-hoc manner that is used to monitor the system, physical or
environmental conditions.
Sensor nodes are used in WSN with the onboard processor that manages and monitors the environment in a
particular area. They are connected to the Base Station which acts as a processing unit in the WSN System.
Base Station in a WSN System is connected through the Internet to share data.
WSN can be used for processing, analysis, storage, and mining of the data.

Applications of WSN:
1. Internet of Things (IoT)
2. Surveillance and Monitoring for security, threat detection
3. Environmental temperature, humidity, and air pressure
4. Noise Level of the surrounding
5. Medical applications like patient monitoring
6. Agriculture
7. Landslide Detection

Challenges of WSN:
1. Quality of Service
2. Security Issue
3. Energy Efficiency
4. Network Throughput
5. Performance
6. Ability to cope with node failure
7. Cross layer optimization
8. Scalability to large scale of deployment

A modern Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) faces several challenges, including:

Limited power and energy: WSNs are typically composed of battery-powered sensors that have limited
energy resources. This makes it challenging to ensure that the network can function for long periods of time
without the need for frequent battery replacements.
Limited processing and storage capabilities: Sensor nodes in a WSN are typically small and have limited
processing and storage capabilities. This makes it difficult to perform complex tasks or store large amounts
of data.
Heterogeneity: WSNs often consist of a variety of different sensor types and nodes with different
capabilities. This makes it challenging to ensure that the network can function effectively and efficiently.
Security: WSNs are vulnerable to various types of attacks, such as eavesdropping, jamming, and spoofing.
Ensuring the security of the network and the data it collects is a major challenge.
Scalability: WSNs often need to be able to support a large number of sensor nodes and handle large
amounts of data. Ensuring that the network can scale to meet these demands is a significant challenge.
Interference: WSNs are often deployed in environments where there is a lot of interference from other
wireless devices. This can make it difficult to ensure reliable communication between sensor nodes.
Reliability: WSNs are often used in critical applications, such as monitoring the environment or controlling
industrial processes. Ensuring that the network is reliable and able to function correctly in all conditions is a
major challenge.

Components of WSN:
Sensors:
Sensors in WSN are used to capture the environmental variables and which are used for data acquisition.
Sensor signals are converted into electrical signals.
Radio Nodes:
It is used to receive the data produced by the Sensors and send it to the WLAN access point. It consists of a
microcontroller, transceiver, external memory, and power source.
WLAN Access Point:
It receives the data, which is sent by the Radio nodes wirelessly, generally through the internet.
Evaluation Software:
The data received by the WLAN Access Point is processed by a software called Evaluation Software for
presenting the report to the users for further processing of the data which can be used for processing,
analysis, storage, and mining of the data.

Advantages of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN):

Low cost: WSNs consist of small, low-cost sensors that are easy to deploy, making them a cost-effective
solution for many applications.
Wireless communication: WSNs eliminate the need for wired connections, which can be costly and
difficult to install. Wireless communication also enables flexible deployment and reconfiguration of the
network.
Energy efficiency: WSNs use low-power devices and protocols to conserve energy, enabling long-term
operation without the need for frequent battery replacements.
Scalability: WSNs can be scaled up or down easily by adding or removing sensors, making them suitable
for a range of applications and environments.
Real-time monitoring: WSNs enable real-time monitoring of physical phenomena in the environment,
providing timely information for decision making and control.

Disadvantages of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN):

Limited range: The range of wireless communication in WSNs is limited, which can be a challenge for
large-scale deployments or in environments with obstacles that obstruct radio signals.
Limited processing power: WSNs use low-power devices, which may have limited processing power and
memory, making it difficult to perform complex computations or support advanced applications.
Data security: WSNs are vulnerable to security threats, such as eavesdropping, tampering, and denial of
service attacks, which can compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.
Interference: Wireless communication in WSNs can be susceptible to interference from other wireless
devices or radio signals, which can degrade the quality of data transmission.
Deployment challenges: Deploying WSNs can be challenging due to the need for proper sensor placement,
power management, and network configuration, which can require significant time and resources.

Network and Communication Aspects

Wireless Media Access Issues
When it comes to communication using a wireless medium there is always a concern about interference due
to other present wireless communication technologies. Wireless means communication and message transfer
without the use of physical medium i.e., wires.
Different Mobile stations (MS) are attached to a transmitter/receiver which communicates via a shared
channel by other nodes. In this type of communication, it makes it difficult for the MAC design rather than
the wireline networks. The very important issues which are observed are: Half Duplex operation, Time-
varying channel, and Burst channel errors.

1. Half Duplex operation:

Half-duplex transmission means when the sender and receiver both are capable of sharing data but one at a
time. In wireless transmission, it is difficult to receive data when the transmitter is sending the data because
during transmission a large amount or a large fraction of signal energy is leaked while broadcasting. The
magnitude of the transferred signal and received signal differs a lot. Due to which collision detection is not
even possible by the sender as the intensity of the transferred signal is larger than the received one. Hence
this causes the problem of collisions, and the prime focus should be to minimize the collision.

2. Time-varying channel:
Time-varying channels include the three mechanisms for radio signal propagations they are Reflection,
Diffraction, and Scattering.
Reflection –
This occurs when a propagating wave carrying information intrudes on an object that has very large
dimensions than the wavelength of the wave.
Diffraction –
This occurs when the radio path between the transmitter and the receiver is collided by the surface with
sharp edges. This is a phenomenon which causes the diffraction of the wave from the targeted position.
Scattering –
This occurs when the medium through from the wave is traveling consists of some objects which have
dimensions smaller than the wavelength of the wave.
While transmitting the signal by the node these are time shifted and this is called multipath propagation.
While when this node signals intensity is dropped below a threshold value, then this is termed as fade. As a
result, the Handshaking strategy is widely used so that healthy communication can be set up.

3. Burst channel errors:

Burst channel errors are called a contiguous sequence of symbols, which are received in a communication
channel, in which the first and last symbols have an error and there is no evidence of contiguous sub-
sequence of corrected received symbols. When time-varying channels are used then signal strengths are
introduced due to which errors are observed in transmission. For these channels in wireline networks, the Bit
rate is high as 10 -3.

Routing Protocol
 A Router is a process of selecting path along which the data can be transferred from source to the
destination. Routing is performed by a special device known as a router.
 A Router works at the network layer in the OSI model and internet layer in TCP/IP model.
 A router is a networking device that forwards the packet based on the information available in the
packet header and forwarding table.
 The routing algorithms are used for routing the packets. The routing algorithm is nothing but a
software responsible for deciding the optimal path through which packet can be transmitted.
 The routing protocols use the metric to determine the best path for the packet delivery. The metric is
the standard of measurement such as hop count, bandwidth, delay, current load on the path, etc. used
by the routing algorithm to determine the optimal path to the destination.
 The routing algorithm initializes and maintains the routing table for the process of path
determination.

Types of Routing
 Static Routing
 Default Routing
 Dynamic Routing

Static Routing
1. Static Routing is also known as Nonadaptive Routing.
2. It is a technique in which the administrator manually adds the routes in a routing table.
3. A Router can send the packets for the destination along the route defined by the administrator.
4. In this technique, routing decisions are not made based on the condition or topology of the networks.

Default Routing
1. Default Routing is a technique in which a router is configured to send all the packets to the same hop
device, and it doesn't matter whether it belongs to a particular network or not. A Packet is transmitted
to the device for which it is configured in default routing.
2. Default Routing is used when networks deal with the single exit point.
3. It is also useful when the bulk of transmission networks have to transmit the data to the same hp
device.
4. When a specific route is mentioned in the routing table, the router will choose the specific route
rather than the default route. The default route is chosen only when a specific route is not mentioned
in the routing table.

Dynamic Routing
1. It is also known as Adaptive Routing.
2. It is a technique in which a router adds a new route in the routing table for each packet in response to
the changes in the condition or topology of the network.
3. Dynamic protocols are used to discover the new routes to reach the destination.
4. In Dynamic Routing, RIP and OSPF are the protocols used to discover the new routes.
5. If any route goes down, then the automatic adjustment will be made to reach the destination.

Data Aggregation and Dissemination

Data Aggregation
Data Aggregation is the process of one or more sensor nodes and detects the information result from the
other sensor nodes. The aim of the data aggregation is to remove data redundancies and improve the energy
lifetime in wireless sensor network. Therefore, reducing the number of data packets transmitted over the
network because aggregation needs less power as compared to multiple packets sending having same data.
Data aggregation is further divided into four basic approaches.

Cluster Based Approach

Cluster Based Approach is defined as the hierarchical approach in which the whole network is separated into
various cluster. Each cluster has a cluster head, and which is chosen from cluster members. The main role of
cluster head aggregate data received from cluster members locally and then transmits the result to base
station. The cluster head can share information with the sink directly via long range transmissions or multi
hopping using other cluster heads.

Tree Based Approach

The Tree Based Approach is actually defining aggregation concept which is used to make aggregation tree.
This tree defines as minimum spanning tree in which sink node act as root and source node act as leaves.
Data starts flowing from leave nodes up to root nodes. The main disadvantage of this approach is data packet
loss at any level of tree which may cause failure of the whole network.

Multipath Approach
This approach is used to overcome the drawbacks of tree-based approach. Accordingly, to this approach
each and every node could send data packets over multiple paths using multiple neighbors in aggregation
tree. So, a data packet sends from source to destination using multiple paths with the help of intermediate
nodes. An example of this approach like ring topology. Overhead is the disadvantage of this approach.

Hybrid Approach
The Hybrid Approach is the mixture of cluster-based approach, multipath approach and tree based approach.
This approach is mainly used for adaptively for optimal performance of their data aggregation.

Data Dissemination
Data Dissemination is the process in which sensor nodes collect the data and communicate to the base
station or any other interested node. The source node is generating the data and the information to be
reported is known as an event. Those nodes which are interested in event and seek information are known as
sink. So, in this whole process data is routed in sensor network. It is two steps process; in first step interested
nodes are broadcast to their neighbor nodes in the network and in second step nodes after receiving the
request nodes sends requesting data.
There are many data dissemination methods or approaches which are following as:

Flooding
If the destination node does not receive the data packet or specified number of hops is not reached. Then
each node broadcasts the gathered data until the packet reaches their destination node. The main advantage
of flooding is not requiring costly topology maintain or route discovery but it faces several problems like
implosion, overlap and resource blindness.

Gossiping
Gossiping is the version of flooding approach .In this approach the packet is sent to a single neighbor chosen
from the neighbor table randomly instead of broadcasting each packet to the entire neighbor. This process
can take a long time from completion. Gossiping avoids the problem faced in flooding approach like
implosion.

SPIN (Sensor Protocol for Information via Negotiation)

This is the enhancement of flooding protocols based on data centric routing. Flooding has mainly three
problems like: implosion, overlap and resource blindness. To overcome these problems the spin family
protocols used three ways: ADV, REQ, DATA are used. The nodes which are interested in the event to
transmit REQ message for DATA. After receiving REQ message source node sends DATA message to
interested node. In this way data can reach all interested nodes in entire network. This technique prevents the
problems implosion, overlap and resource blindness which is faced by flooding.

Communication Protocol
A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system
to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules,
syntax, semantics and synchronization of communication and possible error recovery methods. Protocols
may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of both.

Web Connectivity using Gateway

Gateway provides a bridge between different communication technologies which means we can say that a
Gateway acts as a medium to open connections between the cloud and controller(sensors/devices) in Internet
of Things (IoT). With the help of gateways, it is possible to establish device-to-device or device-to-cloud
communication. A gateway can be a typical hardware device or software program. It enables a connection
between the sensor network and the Internet along with enabling IoT communication, it also performs many
other tasks such as this IoT gateway performs protocol translation, aggregating all data, local processing,
and filtering of data before sending it to the cloud, locally storing data and autonomously controlling devices
based on some inputted data, providing additional device security.
As IoT devices work with low power consumption (Battery power) in other words they are energy
constrained so if they will directly communicate to cloud/internet it won’t be effective in terms of power. So,
they communicate with Gateway first using short range wireless transmission modes/network like ZigBee,
Bluetooth, etc. as they consume less power, or they can also be connected using long range like Cellular and
Wi-Fi etc. Then Gateway links them to Internet/ cloud by converting data into a standard protocol like
MQTT. using ethernet, Wi-Fi/cellular or satellite connection. And in mostly Gateway is Mains powered
unlike sensor nodes which are battery powered. In practice there are multiple Gateway devices. Let’s think
about a simple IoT gateway, then our smartphone comes into picture as it can also work as a basic IoT
gateway when we use multiple radio technologies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellular network of smart phone to
work on any IoT project in sending and receiving data at that time this also acts as a basic IoT Gateway.

Key functionalities of IoT Gateway:

1. Establishing communication bridge
2. Provides additional security.
3. Performs data aggregation.
4. Preprocessing and filtering of data.
5. Provides local storage as a cache/ buffer.
6. Data computing at edge level.
7. Ability to manage entire device.
8. Device diagnostics.
9. Adding more functional capability.
10. Verifying protocols.

Working of IoT Gateway:

1. Receives data from sensor network.
2. Performs preprocessing, filtering, and cleaning on unfiltered data.
3. Transport into standard protocols for communication.
4. Sends data to cloud.

Advantages of Gateway:
There are several advantages of using a gateway in the Internet of Things (IoT), including:
Protocol translation: IoT devices typically use different communication protocols, and a gateway can
translate between these protocols to enable communication between different types of devices.
Data aggregation: A gateway can collect data from multiple IoT devices and aggregate it into a single
stream for easier analysis and management.
Edge computing: Gateways can perform edge computing tasks such as data processing, analytics, and
machine learning, enabling faster and more efficient decision-making.
Security: Gateways can act as a secure access point for IoT devices, providing a layer of protection against
cyber threats.
Scalability: Gateways can support a large number of IoT devices and can be easily scaled up or down to
meet changing needs.
Improved reliability: Gateways can help to improve the reliability of IoT devices by managing network
connectivity and providing a backup mechanism in case of network failure.
Cost-effective: Gateways can be a cost-effective way to manage and control a large number of IoT devices,
reducing the need for expensive infrastructure and IT resources.

SOAP
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a network protocol for exchanging structured data between nodes.
It uses XML format to transfer messages. It works on top of application layer protocols like HTML and
SMTP for notations and transmission. SOAP allows processes to communicate throughout platforms,
languages and operating systems, since protocols like HTTP are already installed on all platforms.
SOAP was designed by Bob Atkinson, Don Box, Dave Winer, and Mohsen Al-Ghosein at Microsoft in 1998.
SOAP was maintained by the XML Protocol Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium until 2009.

Advantages of SOAP
1. SOAP is a light weight data interchange protocol because it is based on XML.
2. SOAP was designed to be OS and Platform independent.
3. It is built on top of HTTP which is installed in most systems.
4. It is suggested by W3 consortium which is like a governing body for the Web.
5. SOAP is mainly used for Web Services and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

SOAP Building Block

The SOAP building block describes what XML data is sent to the web service and client application. The
following diagram represents the SOAP building block.
Envelope:
It specifies that the XML message is a SOAP message. A SOAP message can be defined as an XML
document containing header and body encapsulated in the envelope. The fault is within the body of the
message.
Header:
This part is not mandatory. But when it is present it can provide crucial information about the applications.
Body:
It contains the actual message that is being transmitted. Fault is contained within the body tags.
Fault:
This section contains the status of the application and also contains errors in the application. This section is
also optional. It should not appear more than once in a SOAP message.

REST
Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style that defines a set of constraints to be used
for creating web services. REST API is a way of accessing web services in a simple and flexible way
without having any processing.
REST technology is generally preferred to the more robust Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
technology because REST uses less bandwidth, simple and flexible making it more suitable for internet
usage. It’s used to fetch or give some information from a web service. All communication done via REST
API uses only HTTP request.

REST Design Principles

Some APIs, such as SOAP or XML-RPC, impose a strict framework on developers. But REST APIs can be
developed using virtually any programming language and support a variety of data formats. The only
requirement is that they align to the following six REST design principles - also known as architectural
constraints:
Uniform interface
All API requests for the same resource should look the same, no matter where the request comes from. The
REST API should ensure that the same piece of data, such as the name or email address of a user, belongs to
only one uniform resource identifier (URI). Resources shouldn’t be too large but should contain every piece
of information that the client might need.
Client-server decoupling
In REST API design, client and server applications must be completely independent of each other. The only
information the client application should know is the URI of the requested resource; it can't interact with the
server application in any other ways. Similarly, a server application shouldn't modify the client application
other than passing it to the requested data via HTTP.
Statelessness
REST APIs are stateless, meaning that each request needs to include all the information necessary for
processing it. In other words, REST APIs do not require any server-side sessions. Server applications aren’t
allowed to store any data related to a client request.
Cacheability
When possible, resources should be cacheable on the client or server side. Server responses also need to
contain information about whether caching is allowed for the delivered resource. The goal is to improve
performance on the client side, while increasing scalability on the server side.
Layered system architecture
In REST APIs, the calls and responses go through different layers. As a rule of thumb, don’t assume that the
client and server applications connect directly to each other. There may be a number of different
intermediaries in the communication loop. REST APIs need to be designed so that neither the client nor the
server can tell whether it communicates with the end application or an intermediary.
Code on demand (optional)
REST APIs usually send static resources, but in certain cases, responses can also contain executable code
(such as Java applets). In these cases, the code should only run on-demand.

HTTP
HTTP stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. It is invented by Tim Berner. HyperText is the type of text
which is specially coded with the help of some standard coding language called HyperText Markup
Language (HTML). HTTP/2 is the successor version of HTTP, which was published on May 2015. HTTP/3
is the latest version of HTTP, which is published in 2022.
The protocols that are used to transfer hypertext between two computers is known as HyperText Transfer
Protocol. HTTP provides standard between a web browser and web server to establish communication. It is
set of rules for transferring data from one computer to another. Data such as text, images, and other
multimedia files are shared on the World Wide Web. Whenever a web user opens their web browser, user
indirectly uses HTTP. It is an application protocol which is used for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia
information systems.

Characteristics of HTTP
HTTP is IP based communication protocol which is used to deliver data from server to client or vice-versa.
1. Server processes a request, which is raised by client and also server and client knows each other only
during current request and response period.
2. Any type of content can be exchanged as long as server and client are compatible with it.
3. Once data is exchanged then servers and client are no more connected with each other.
4. It is a request and response protocol based on client and server requirements.
5. It is connection less protocol because after connection is closed, server does not remember anything
about client and client does not remember anything about server.
6. It is stateless protocol because both client and server does not expecting anything from each other but
they are still able to communicate.

Advantages
1. Memory usage and CPU usage are low because of less simultaneous connections.
 2. Since there are few TCP connections hence network congestion are less.
3. Since handshaking is done at initial connection stage, then latency is reduced because there is no
further need of handshaking for subsequent requests.
4. The error can be reports without closing connection.
5. HTTP allows HTTP pipe-lining of request or response.

Disadvantages
1. HTTP requires high power to establish communication and transfer data.
2. HTTP is less secure, because it does not uses any encryption method like https use TLS to encrypt
normal http requests and response.
3. HTTP is not optimized for cellular phone and it is too gabby.
4. HTTP does not offer genuine exchange of data because it is less secure.
5. Client does not close connection until it receives complete data from server and hence server needs
to wait for data completion and cannot be available for other clients during this time.