Unit 3

Unit -3
Topics to be covered
Design Principles for Web Connectivity: Web Communication Protocols for
connected devices, Message Communication Protocols for connected devices,
SOAP, REST, HTTP Restful and Web Sockets. Internet Connectivity Principles:
Internet Connectivity, Internet based communication, IP addressing in IOT, Media
Access control.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Web Communication Protocols for connected devices-The protocols are used for
communication between machines or between a machine and server. Due to
constraints in processing capabilities and the low power requirements of IoT devices
(which are generally meant to be deployed in environments with constant battery
power) with limited bandwidth capabilities, a need was felt for dedicated standards
and protocols especially designed for IoT. Since those who manufacture IoT devices
and those who create the IoT platforms are different, this required industry standards
and protocols that were not high on power consumption, bandwidth usage, or
processing power and could be adopted easily by all IoT players— hardware
manufacturers, software developers or cloud solutions/service providers.
 

List of IoT communication protocols:

· CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol)-Constrained Application Protocol
(CoAP) is an Internet application protocol for constrained devices (defined in RFC
7228). It enables constrained devices to communicate with the wider Internet using
similar protocols. CoAP is designed for use between devices on the same
constrained network, between devices and general nodes on the Internet, and
between devices on different constrained networks joined by the Internet. It is an
application layer protocol designed for network constrained IoT devices like wireless
sensor network nodes, and is often termed the lightweight version of HTTP with
support for REST APIs. It can run on most devices that support UDP or a UDP
analogue.
 
· Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy-While MQTT and CoAP are infrastructure-
independent, which means that it doesn’t matter whether you’re connected to a wired
or a wireless network, Bluetooth provides only wireless communication over radio
frequency (2.4GHz spectrum in the ISM band) using an industry standard that was
initially used to share files between mobile phones and is now powerful enough to
play music (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile/A2DP), stream data, or build your
next IoT device. Bluetooth, generally, is divided into three categories.
o Bluetooth Classic: This is meant for high data rate applications like streaming audio
wirelessly.
o Bluetooth Smart or Low Energy/BLE: This is meant for low powered battery-
operated devices that stream low packets of data.
o Bluetooth SmartReady: These are essentially the ‘hub’ devices such as
computers, smartphones, etc. They support both the ‘classic’ and ‘smart’ devices.
Bluetooth is a sophisticated ad hoc networking protocol, and is now especially
designed from the ground up for IoT. It provides a stable connection and
communication channel, which is extremely low profile and low powered. An obvious
example is fitness trackers, which even though powered on throughout the day, can
last for months on a single charge or run on a coin cell battery, all thanks to BLE
(Bluetooth Low Energy). Bluetooth Classic has fixed profiles like UART over
Bluetooth class and A2DP class for audio streaming. On the other hand, Bluetooth
Low Energy provides GATT or Generic Attribute Profile, which allows users to define
their own
 
 
profile using Bluetooth, like in the case of a heart rate monitor. BLE is extremely
flexible and useful in the IoT space..
 
Message Communication Protocols for connected devices:
· MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport)-It was created about 15 years back
for monitoring remote sensor nodes, and is designed to conserve both power and
memory. It is based on the ‘Publish Subscribe’ communication model, where a broker
is responsible for relaying messages to MQTT clients. This allows multiple clients to
post messages and receive updates on different topics from a central server known
as the MQTT broker. This is similar to subscribing to a YouTube channel, where you
get notified whenever a new video is posted. Using MQTT, a connected device can
subscribe to any number of topics hosted by an MQTT broker.
SOAP-OAP (originally Simple Object Access Protocol) is a protocol specification for
exchanging structured information in the implementation of web services in computer
networks. Its purpose is to induce extensibility, neutrality and independence. It uses
XML Information Set for its message format, and relies on application layer protocols,
most often Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(SMTP), for message negotiation and transmission.
SOAP allows processes running on disparate operating systems (such as Windows
and Linux) to communicate using Extensible Markup Language (XML). Since Web
protocols like HTTP are installed and running on all operating systems, SOAP allows
clients to invoke web services and receive responses independent of language and
platforms. SOAP provides the Messaging Protocol layer of a web services protocol
stack for web services. It is an XML-based protocol consisting of three parts:
· an envelope, which defines the message
·
·  structure and how to process it
· a set of encoding rules for expressing instances of application-defined datatypes
· a convention for representing procedure calls and responses
 
SOAP has three major characteristics:
· extensibility (security and Web Services Addressing are among the extensions
under development)
· neutrality (SOAP can operate over any protocol such as HTTP, SMTP, TCP, UDP, or Java
Message Service)
· independence (SOAP allows for any programming model)
As an example of what SOAP procedures can do, an application can send a SOAP
request to a server that has web services enabled—such as a real-estate price
database—with the parameters for a search. The server then returns a SOAP
response (an XML-formatted document with the resulting data), e.g., prices, location,
features. Since the generated data comes in a standardized machine-parsable
format, the requesting application can then integrate it directly.
The SOAP architecture consists of several layers of specifications for:
· Message format
· Message Exchange Patterns (MEP)
· Underlying transport protocol bindings
· Message processing models
· Protocol extensibility

REST-REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for developing

web services. REST is popular due to its simplicity and the fact that it builds upon
existing systems and features of the internet's HTTP in order to achieve its
objectives, as opposed to creating new standards, frameworks and technologies.
 
Advantages of REST-A primary benefit of using REST, both from a client and
server's perspective, is REST-based interactions happen using constructs that are
familiar to anyone who is accustomed to using the internet's Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP).
An example of this arrangement is REST-based interactions all communicate their
status using standard HTTP status codes. So, a 404 means a requested resource
wasn't found; a 401 code means the request wasn't authorized, a 200 code means
everything is OK; and a 500 means there was an unrecoverable application error on
the server. Similarly, details such as encryption and data transport integrity are solved
not by adding new frameworks or technologies, but instead by relying on well-known
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and Transport Layer Security (TLS).
 
Disadvantages of REST-The benefit of REST using HTTP constructs also creates
restrictions, however. Many of the limitations of HTTP likewise turn into shortcomings
of the REST architectural style. For example, HTTP does not store state-based
information between request-response cycles, which means REST-based
applications must be stateless and any state management tasks must be performed
by the client.
 
HTTP Restful-In REST architecture, a REST Server simply provides access to
resources and the REST client accesses and presents the resources. Here each
resource is identified by URIs/ Global IDs. REST uses various representations to
represent a resource like Text, JSON and XML. JSON is now the most popular format
being used in Web Services.
HTTP Methods
The following HTTP methods are most commonly used in REST based architecture.
· GET − Provides a read only access to a resource.
· PUT − Used to create a new resource.
· DELETE − Used to remove a resource.
· POST − Used to update an existing resource or create a new resource.
· OPTIONS − Used to get the supported operations on a resource.
 
Restful Web Services-A web service is a collection of open protocols and standards
used for exchanging data between applications or systems. Software applications
written in various programming languages and running on various platforms can use
web services to exchange data over computer networks like the Internet in a manner
similar to inter-process communication on a single computer. This interoperability
(e.g., between Java and Python, or Windows and Linux applications) is due to the
use of open standards. Web services based on REST Architecture are known as
Restful Web Services.
 
Web    Sockets-    WebSocket is    a    computer communications      protocol,     
providing full- duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection. The
WebSocket protocol was
 
 
standardized by the IETF as RFC 6455 in 2011, and the WebSocket API in Web IDL is
being standardized by the W3C.
WebSocket  is  a different TCP protocol from HTTP.  Both protocols  are located at
layer 7 in   the OSI model and, as such, depend on TCP  at  layer  4.  Although  they 
are  different, RFC  6455 states that WebSocket "is designed to work over HTTP
ports 80 and 443 as well as to support HTTP proxies and intermediaries" thus making
it compatible with the HTTP protocol. To achieve compatibility, the WebSocket
handshake uses the HTTP Upgrade header to change from the HTTP protocol to the
WebSocket protocol.
 
Internet Connectivity-It defines various concepts mentioned below:
Internet Service Providers (ISP)-Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a company
offering access to internet. They offer various services:
· Internet Access
· Domain name registration
· Dial-up access
· Leased line access
ISP Types- ISPs can broadly be classified into six categories as shown in the
following diagram:

Fig 3.1 ISP Categories

 
Access Providers-They provide access to internet through telephone lines, cable Wi-Fi or
fiber optics.
Mailbox Provider-Such providers offer mailbox hosting services.
Hosting ISPS-Hosting ISPs offers e-mail, and other web hosting services such as
virtual machines, clouds etc.
Virtual ISPS-Such ISPs offer internet access via other ISP services.
Free ISPS-Free ISPs do not charge for internet services.
Connection Types-There exists several ways to connect to the internet. Following
are these connection types available:
· Dial-up Connection
· ISDN
· DSL
· Cable TV Internet connections
· Satellite Internet connections
· Wireless Internet Connections

 
 
Dial-up Connection-Dial-up connection uses telephone line to connect PC to the
internet. It requires a modem to setup dial-up connection. This modem works as an
interface between PC and the telephone line. There is also a communication program
that instructs the modem to make a call to specific number provided by an ISP.
Dial-up connection uses either of the following protocols:
· Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP)
· Point to Point Protocol (PPP)
The following diagram shows the accessing internet using modem:

Fig 3.2.1 Dial-up connections

 
ISDN-ISDN is acronym of Integrated Services Digital Network. It establishes the
connection using the phone lines which carry digital signals instead of analog signals.
There are two techniques to deliver ISDN services:
· Basic Rate Interface (BRI)
· Primary Rate Interface (PRI)
Key points:
· The BRI ISDN consists of three distinct channels on a single ISDN line: t1o 64kbps
B (Bearer) channel and one 16kbps D (Delta or Data) channels.
· The PRI ISDN consists of 23 B channels and one D channels with both have operating
capacity of 64kbps individually making a total transmission rate of 1.54Mbps.
The following diagram shows accessing internet using ISDN connection:

Fig 3.2.2 ISDN Connections

 
DSL-DSL is acronym of Digital Subscriber Line. It is a form of broadband connection
as it provides connection over ordinary telephone lines.
Following are the several versions of DSL technique available today:

 
· Asymmetric DSL (ADSL)
· Symmetric DSL (SDSL)
· High bit-rate DSL (HDSL)
· Rate adaptive DSL (RDSL)
· Very high bit-rate DSL (VDSL)
· ISDN DSL (IDSL)
All of the above mentioned technologies differ in their upload and download speed, bit
transfer rate and level of service.
The following diagram shows that how we can connect to internet using DSL technology:

Fig 3.2.3 DSL Connections

 
Cable TV Internet Connection
Cable TV Internet connection is provided through Cable TV lines. It uses coaxial
cable which is capable of transferring data at much higher speed than common
telephone line.
Key Points:
· A cable modem is used to access this service, provided by the cable operator.
· The Cable modem comprises of two connections: one for internet service and other
for Cable TV signals.
· Since Cable TV internet connections share a set amount of bandwidth with a
group of customers, therefore, data transfer rate also depends on number of
customers using the internet at the same time.
The following diagram shows that how internet is accessed using Cable TV connection:

Fig 3.2.4 Cable TV Connections

 
 
Satellite Internet Connection-Satellite Internet connection offers high speed
connection to the internet. There are two types of satellite internet connection: one
way connection or two way connection.
In one way connection, we can only download data but if we want to upload, we
need a dialup access through ISP over telephone line.
In two way connection, we can download and upload the data by the satellite. It
does not require any dialup connection.
The following diagram shows how internet is accessed using satellite internet
connection:

Fig 3.2.5 Satellite Connections

 
Wireless Internet Connection-Wireless Internet Connection makes use of radio
frequency bands to connect to the internet and offers a very high speed. The wireless
internet connection can be obtained by either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
Key Points:
· Wi-Fi wireless technology is based on IEEE 802.11 standards which allow the
electronic device to connect to the internet.
· Bluetooth wireless technology makes use of short-wavelength radio waves and helps to
create personal area network (PAN).
 
Internet based communication-In much of the world the Internet is becoming the
primary medium for communication in business. Internet communication tools save
money in a variety of ways. Email, instant messaging and social networking are all
free. There are many different kinds of Internet communications tool, such as email,
VoIP, forums, online chat and social networking among others. Using the latest tools
and methods of communicating over the Internet is essential for bringing your
business into the modern age of communication and marketing.
 
VoIP and Internet Telephony-It is common for voice communications to be carried
out over the Internet using voice over Internet protocol software. VoIP allows you to
call a telephone -- either a fixed or mobile phone -- over the Internet. This is often
considerably cheaper than calling from a telephone, particularly with international
calls. One of the most popular Internet telephony tools is Skype. With Skype and
similar Internet telephony tools, you can conduct free voice conversations between
two computers.

 
· Email-The original Internet communication tool, email is still an essential tool
every business should have. In spite of this, with the rise of messaging through
social networking sites and instant messages, email is not quite as important as it
used to be.
· Social Networking-Social networking is all about forming groups, sharing online
content and exchanging information. In addition to being a major part of social life in
the modern world, social networking is an invaluable tool for Internet marketing since
it provides a user-friendly and highly accessible platform upon which to exchange
information on products and services. For example, if someone likes an article on
your business blog or website, he may decide to share it with his friends over
Facebook or Twitter.
· Forums-Forums, like email, have also been around since the dawn of the Internet.
Forums provide a place to exchange messages and participate in conversations. The
main differences from instant messaging are that forums are generally public and the
communications are not in real time. Forums and their regular posters and readers
form communities that can be valuable to your business.
 
IP addressing in IOT- We can connect Internet of Thing or device to the Internet.
How we connect depends ultimately on what we actually want to do with the device.
Shown below is a typical home network. This would normally consist of a router /
firewall that connect to your ISP (Internet Service Provider). The connection to your
ISP could by via ADSL or Ethernet using a fiber service for example.

Fig 3.3 IP addressing in Home Networks

 
When the home router connects to the ISP it will be assigned an IP address which is
what is used to communicate with servers or other service on the Internet. This is a
public IP address and is addressable by the internet. In the diagram above the public
IP address is 111.246.59.246.
 
 
This is your public IP address you used to connect to the cactus.io server to view this
page.182.73.155.114
(If there is more than one IP then you might be connecting using a proxy server or
VPN service), be aware that this IP address will change every time that your home
router is rebooted or reconnects to the ISP. Some ISP's allow you to pay extra for a
fixed IP address. However most will not for home internet services.
 
Connect to a Web Server-When we enter a URL into our browser it will use a DNS
server to convert the name to an IP address. The DNS server would normally be
provided by your ISP. In the example above we are using cactus.io for the URL. The
DNS server would then return the IP address of 104.130.130.228. The browser will
then try to connect to the server via the router. The router will connect to the remote
server using the public IP address assigned to your router. The server hosting
cactus.io will then send data back to your router using your public ip address
(111.246.59.246). The router will then transmit this data back to your PC using the
private IP address of 192.168.1.10.
 
Connect to an Internal IoT Device-We can connect to a web server running on our
IoT device by entering the IP address of http://192.168.1.45 into the browser URL.
The connection will be made in this case via the switch built into the home router. The
switch knows what port the IoT device is connected to and transmits and receives
data via this port. The router has no role in this network request as it's a private IP
address and the PC and IoT device are on the same network.
 
How to connect my device to the Internet
This all depends on the role of the device and we have the following options:
· Option 1) We access this device only on the home / business network
· Option 2) The device only connects to a local / remote server
· Option 3) We access this device from the Internet using a Static Public IP Address
· Option 4) We access this device from the Internet using a Dynamic Public IP
Address
Option 1) Access this device only on the home / business network-In this
scenario the IoT device is configuring as a server. The easiest way is to assign a
static IP address. This address is coded into the sketch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig 3.4 IP addressing in Business Network
 
 

When a client connects to the IoT device it passes through the switch and out to the
device it is connected to. No routing is required here.
Option 2) Device connects to a local / remote server-For this scenario the IoT
device initiates a connection to a local or remote server. This could be using a http
REST POST or configured as MQTT client. It could also be a custom connection
method as long as it initiates the connection to the remote service.
Because the device is creating the connection it allows us to use DHCP and a
dynamically assigned IP address.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig 3.5 Client-Server Communication
 
In the diagram above two of the devices send a HTTP REST Post to a server in the
cloud. If the remote server accepts the connection and data it will generally respond
with a 200 OK. The client will then close the connection until the next post is sent.
 
Option 3) Access the Device from the Internet with Static Public IP Address
The world is running out of IPV4 IP addresses. This means ISP's are pretty strict on
giving out static IP addresses. It's much easier for them to use a dynamic pool of IP
addresses to assign to their clients.
 Generally home internet services are not available with a static IP address. However
you might be able to pay extra for this functionality. Some business accounts are
available with a static IP address. The most common reason for wanting a static ip is
for hosting a email server.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

In this diagram above

  we could use http://1.127.48.156 or http://1.127.48.156:49155
to connect to the IoT server. In the first URL we do not specify a port number so the
browser will use the default port of 80. In the second URL we use the port 49155. By
using a random private port number we improve the security for our IoT server. If
someone does a port scan they will always check port 80 as it's a default. They might
not bother scanning private port numbers
If you have multiple IoT devices you can setup port forwarding on the router to
recognize different port numbers.
 
Option 4) Access the Device from the Internet with Dynamic Public IP Address-
One of the most common ways of dealing with a dynamic public (WAN) IP addresses
is to use a Dynamic DNS Service provider. Some of these services are free but most
require a monthly payment. Most routers these days support third party Dynamic
DNS service providers. You configure the router with the provider, username and
password. When the router detects a WAN interface IP address change it updates
the DDNS service provider with the new IP details.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fig 3.7 Public IP Addressing

 
When you sign up with one of these providers you provide a domain name you would
like to use. In the example below the name we used is cactusio. This is a sub domain
for dydns.com. When we enter http://cactusio.dydns.com into the browser it will do a
dnslookup on cactusio.dydns.com. If it’s a valid domain it will respond with the IP
address which just happens to be the public (WAN) IP address of the home / office
router.
The office router will detect the data packet matches a record in the port forwarding
table and pass the data onto the IoT device using the static IP of 192.168.1.45. The
IoT device will respond with the appropriate html to view in the internet client browser.
 
Media Access control
In Layer 2 of a network, the Media Access Control (MAC) sub-layer provides
addressing and channel access control mechanisms that enable several terminals or
network nodes to communicate in a network.
The MAC sub-layer acts as an interface between the logical link control (LLC)
Ethernet sub-layer and Layer 1 (the physical layer). The MAC sub-layer emulates a
full-duplex logi

communication channel in a multipoint network. This channel may provide unicast,

multicast or broadcast communication service. The MAC sub-layer uses MAC
protocols to prevent collisions. In Layer 2, multiple devices on the same physical link
can uniquely identify one another at the data link layer, by using the MAC addresses
that are assigned to all ports on a switch. A MAC algorithm accepts as input a secret
key and an arbitrary-length message to be authenticated, and outputs a MAC
address.