Communication Technologies for IoT – Part 1

Infrastructure and Service Discovery Protocols

Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
IIIT Allahabad

Internet of Things
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Connectivity Considerations

●
Connectivity between IoT devices and outside world
dictates network architecture
●
Choice of communication technology dictates IoT device
hardware requirement and costs
●
Due to presence of numerous applications of IoT
enabled devices, a single networking paradigm not
sufficient to all needs of the consumer or IoT device
●
Complexity of networks - interference among devices,
network management, heterogeneity in networks,
protocol standardization within networks

Internet of Things
2
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Network Configuration in IoT

Things

Cheruvu S., Kumar A., Smith N., Wheeler D.M. (2020) Connectivity Technologies for IoT. In: Demystifying Internet of Things
Security. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-2896-8_5

Internet of Things
3
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Some Network Terminologies

LAN : Local short range communication, may or may not

connect to Internet
WAN : Connection of various network segments,
connects to internet
Node : connects to other nodes via LAN, maybe
connected to other nodes via WAN directly
Gateway : A router connecting LAN to WAN and Internet,
can implement several LAN and WAN, forwards packets
between LAN and WAN
Proxy : Performs active application layer functions
between nodes and other entities
Internet of Things
4
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
5-Layered Architecture for IoT

Liliana Antao, Rui Pinto, Jao Pedro Reis, Gil Manuel Goncalves. (2018) : Requirements for Testing and Validating the
Industrial Internet of Things 11th IEEE Conference on Software Testing, Validation and VerificationAt: Västerås - Sweden
doi : 10.1109/ICSTW.2018.00036

Internet of Things
5
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Protocol Architecture for IoT

Application Protocols

Service Discovery
Protocols

Infrastructure
Protocols

Internet of Things
6
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Categorization of IoT Protocols

Source : Internet

Internet of Things
7
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Infrastructure Layer Protocols
●
Infrastructure layer receives and forwards data to the next layer using :
IPv4 or IPv6 protocols
●
Internet Layer Protocol (IP) – process when a packet transmits data identifier for host,
router interface; unacknowledged data flow
●
IPv4 address :

Internet of Things
8
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
IPv4 Data Gram Format

Internet of Things
9
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Infrastructure Layer Protocol :
IPv6 protocol
●
Internet protocol that provides identification and location system of devices and
routes traffic across the internet
●
deals with problem of IPv4 address exhaustion ( protocols are not interoperable)
●
uses a 128-bit address, theoretically approximately 3.4×1038 addresses
●
address are represented as eight groups of four hex digits

Internet of Things
10
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 IPv6 Data Gram Format
●
Provides large address space
●
Permits hierarchical address allocation thus route aggregation across the Internet and limit
expansion of routing tables
●
Provisions additional optimization for delivery of services using routers, subnets and interfaces
●
Manages device mobility, security and configuration aspects
●
Expanded use of multi cast routing

Internet of Things
11
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Infrastructure Layer Protocols :
Routing Protocol (RPL)
RPL : IPv6 based Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks
( protocol for resource constrained networks)
●
Routers are limited in processing power, battery and memory
●
Unstable links, Low data rate, Low packet delivery rate, High packet drop
rate
Such networks include :
Wireless personal area networks (WPANs)
Low Power line communication (PLC)
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN)
Properties of such networks :
●
Capability to optimize and save energy
●
Capability to support traffic patterns other than unicast communication
●
Capability to run routing protocols over link layers with restricted frame sizes

Internet of Things
12
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Infrastructure Layer Protocols :
Routing Protocol (RPL)
RPL
- Designed to support minimal routing through a robust topology
over lossy networks
- Distance vector routing protocol
- RPL supports various type of traffic models :
Multi-point to multi-point, point-to-point
Devices are connected such that there are no cycles – builds Directed Acyclic Graphs

Internet of Things
13
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
RPL Topology :
Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graphs (DODAG)
- DAG rooted at single destination ; No outgoing edges
DODAG is uniquely identified by a combination of RPL Instance and DODAG id
- Rank : Nodes rank is nodes individual position relative to other nodes with respect to DODAG root.
Rank increases in downwards direction
- Root : DAG root of the DODAG; act as border router for the DODAG;
Aggregate routes in the DODAG and may redistribute DODAG Routes into other
protocols; Each node has information about the parent but no information about child

Internet of Things
14
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
RPL Control Messages
- DODAG Information Object (DIO) : used to keep the current rank ( level) of the node, determine
distance of each node to the root based on some specific metrics and choose the preferred path
- Destination advertisement object (DAO) : used to unicast destination information toward selected
parents of a node. Helps to maintain upward and downward traffic
- DODAG information solicitation (DIS) : used by a specific node in order to acquire DIO messages
from another reachable adjacent node
- DODAG Acknowledgement (DAO-ACK) : used as response to DAO message and is sent by a
DAO recipient node such as DAO parent or DODAG root

Internet of Things
15
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
DODAG Construction
- root starts sending location information using DIO message to all levels
- routers that are present at each specific level register the parent paths for each node
- each node propagates its DIO message and the DODAG gets built
- for each node the preferred parent obtained by router is set as default path towards root
- root has capability to store destination prefixes obtained by DIOs of other routers in its DIO
messages to have upward routes. To provide support for downward routes, the routers should
emit and propagate DAO messages to the root by uni casting through parents

Internet of Things
16
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
RPL Routing Modes
- non-storing mode : RPL route messages move towards lower levels based on IP source routing
- storing mode : RPL route messages move towards lower levels based on destination IPv6 address

Internet of Things
17
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Infrastructure Layer Protocols :
IEEE 802.15.4

●
IEEE 802.15.4 specifies Physical and Media Access Control for low rate
wireless personal area network (LR-WPANs)
●
It is maintained by IEEE 802.15 working group
●
It is the basis for Zigbee, WirelessHART protocols which extend the
standard by developing upper layers not defined in IEEE 802.15.4

Internet of Things
18
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 IEEE 802.15.4 Features
●
Allows low cost, low speed ubiquitous computing
●
Low data rate Wireless Personal Area Network
●
Power consumption is minimized due to infrequently occurring
very short packet transmission with low duty cycle
●
Highly tolerant of noise and interference and offers link reliability
●
Uses carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance
(CSMA-CA) for channel access
●
Multiplexing allows multiple users or nodes interference free
access to same channel at different times
●
Transmission for most cases is Line of Sight
●
Best case transmission range achieved outdoors is 1000m
●
Networking topologies defined : Star and Mesh

Internet of Things
19
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 IEEE 802.15.4 Physical and
Media Access Control (MAC) Layer

●
Physical layer
●
provides an interface to the physical layer management entity
● maintains a database of information on related personal area networks
● provides the data transmission service.
● manages the physical radio transceiver, performs channel selection along with
energy and signal management functions
●
MAC layer
● enables the transmission of MAC frames through the use of the physical
channel, manages access to the physical channel and network beaconing.
● controls frame validation, guarantees time slots and handles node
associations.
● facilitates secure services.

Internet of Things
20
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
IEEE 802.15.4 transmission bands

●
Supports three frequency bands using Direct
Spread Spectrum Sequence(DSSS) method
●
Data transmission rates:
●
250 Kbps at 2.4 GHz
●
40 Kbps at 915 MHz
●
20 Kbps at 868 MHz

Internet of Things
21
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
IEEE 802.15.4 network nodes
1. Full function devices (FD) :
●
act as PAN coordinator or normal nodes
●
coordinator has capability to create, control and maintain the network
●
FFDs can store routing table and can implement MAC and can communicate with other devices

2. Reduced function devices (FD) :

- act as PAN coordinator or normal nodes, have constrained resources
3. Topologies : Star, Peer-to-Peer, Cluster-tree

Internet of Things
22
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Infrastructure Layer Protocols :
ZigBee
●
The ZigBee protocol uses the 802.15.4 standard
●
operates in two bands : 868/915MHz and 2.4 GHz
●
Data rate of 868/915 band : 20/40 Kb/s
●
Data rate of 2.4GHz band : 250 Kb/s.
●
The maximum number of nodes is 1024
●
range up to 200 meter.
●
ZigBee can use 128 bit AES encryption.
●
end devices can go to sleep mode to saves battery

Internet of Things
23
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Zigbee Network

●
A Zigbee network is made up of a Coordinator (C) , Router (R) and End Device (E)
●
Coordinator is installed first ;
i. it starts a new PAN (Personal Area Network)
ii. starts other Zigbee components
iii. selects Channel and PAN id
●
Router needs to join the network then it can allow other R & E to join the PAN
●
Zigbee 3. 0 : enables different application areas to communicate and form a homogenous network
●
Supports connectivity with IP networks such as LAN and WAN, products from different
manufacturers can communicate as a single networking devices

Internet of Things
24
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area
Network : 6LoWPAN
●
Supports IPv6 packets over IEEE 802.15.4 WPANs.
●
Low power design - suitable for battery-operated IoT devices.
●
Supports applications that need wireless internet connectivity
at lower data rates for devices with very limited form factor.
●
Initially designed to support IEEE 802.15.4 in 2.4 GHz band,
but now supports wide range of networking media such as
sub-1 GHz band, low power RF, low power WiFi
●
Example usage : automation and entertainment applications
in home, office and factory environments
●
Challenges : management of addresses for devices that
communicate across the two dissimilar domains of IPv6 and
IEEE 802.15.4 is cumbersome

Internet of Things
25
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area
Network : 6LoWPAN
●
Uplink to Internet - IPv6 router (Access point)
●
Connection of components – Edge router
●
Edge router :
- Enables exchange of data between 6LoWPAN devices
and Internet
- enables exchange of data among devices that are part
of 6LoWPAN network
- helps to generate and maintain 6LoWPAN network
●
Host : end point devices
checks routers at regular intervals for data
●
Routers : route data to other nodes in 6LoWPAN network

Internet of Things
26
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Protocol Stack of 6LoWPAN

Data formatting

Ensures multiple apps

running on each device
have their own
communication channel

Device identification using

IPv6 addressing

IPv6 to IEEE802.15.4
adaptation
Error correction, Access to media

Data bit transmission

Internet of Things
27
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Bluetooth
●
Network technology connects mobile devices wirelessly
over a short-range to form a personal area network (PAN).
●
The Bluetooth architecture has its own independent
model with a stack of protocols, instead of following the
standard OSI model or TCP/IP model.
●
Bluetooth works in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and uses
frequency hopping.
●
Data rate up to 3 Mbps and maximum range of 100m.
●
Each application type which can use Bluetooth has its
own profile.

Internet of Things
28
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Bluetooth Architecture

Internet of Things
29
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Bluetooth Architecture
Physical Layer :
Radio : defines frequency band, modulation techniques
Baseband : addressing scheme, packet format, timing, power control
Data Link Layer :
Link Manager Protocol(LMP) : establishes logical link between bluetooth devices,
authentication, message encryption
Logical Link Control and Adaptation Layer : adaption between upper layer frame and baseband
layer frame format
Middleware Layer :
RFComm : provides a serial interface with WAP.
Adopted : protocols adopted from standard models (PPP, UDP, TCP)
Service Discovery : takes care of service-related queries like device information so as to
establish a connection between contending Bluetooth devices.
AT command set
Application Layer :
includes the application profiles that allow the user to interact with the Bluetooth applications

Internet of Things
30
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
●
Short range radio, minimum power and operates long
●
Range : 100 metres ( X10 times of Bluetooth)
●
Latency : 15X lesser than Bluetooth
●
Operating power : 0.01mW to 10mW

Internet of Things
31
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
●
BLE Phy – receives and transmits bits
●
Link – media access control, error control, flow control
●
Host Control Interface – provides a command, event and data interface that
allows link layer to access data from upper layers
●
Logical Link Control Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP) – multiplexing of data
channels; fragmentation and reassembly
●
Generic Access Protocol (GAP) – defines processes related to discovery of
Bluetooth devices
Roles defined by GAP when operating over low energy physical
channels : Broadcaster, Observer, peripheral, central,
●
Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) – specifies a framework using the attribute
protocol(ATT), defines services and their characteristics

Internet of Things
32
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
●
GATT lays down various aspects of service such as service procedures,
characteristics, various aspects that pertain to the broadcast of service
characteristics
●
Two roles specified by GATT profile :
GATT client - a device that wants data; sends request to GATT server
GATT server- a device that has data
●
Attribute Protocol – defines a client and server architecture above BLE logical
transport channel; it allows the GATT server to communicate with the GATT client
by exposing a set of attributes and interfaces
●
Security Manager Protocol ( SMP ) - procedure and behaviour to ensure
security by managing, pairing, authentication and encryption between devices

Internet of Things
33
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 RFID
●
RFID ( Radio Frequency Identification) - wireless microchips used for tagging objects
●
Electronic Product Code (EPC) is a unique identifier stored in an RFID tag that helps track
objects
●
EPC global developed EPC
●
RFID technology – open, scalable, reliable and support for object IDs
●
RFID component – radio signal transponder and Tag reader
●
RFID Tag – electronic chip to store identity of objects; antenna that allows chip
to communicate with the tag reader

Internet of Things
34
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 EPC Code
EPC Code Type I – 96 bit code field

Ex : 01 0000A89 00116F 000169DCO

Internet of Things
35
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Long Term Evolution – Advanced (LTE)
●
Standard for wireless mobile network (4G LTE)
●
Provides high speed data transfer rates for wireless mobile networks
●
LTE broadcast is single frequency network (SF) that operates on broadcast mode

Internet of Things
36
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Z-Wave
●
Low Power Wireless Communication Protocol used for home area network
●
Used for remote control applications for smart homes as well as small sized commercial domains
●
Developed by Zensys, improved by Z-Alliace
●
Operates around 900 MHz

Source : Internet
Working of Z-Wave

Internet of Things
37
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
WiFi

Wi-Fi is a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology based on

the IEEE 802.11 standards.
●
Wi-Fi Devices - Smartphones, Smart Devices, Laptop Computers, PC,
etc.
Applications Areas - Home, School, Computer Laboratory, Office
Building
●
Wi-Fi devices and Access Points (APs) have a wireless
communication range of about 30 meters indoors.
●
Wi-Fi data rate is based on its protocol type :
IEEE 802.11a can achieve up to 54 Mbps
IEEE 802.11b can achieve up to 11 Mbps
IEEE 802.11g can achieve up to 54 Mbps
IEEE 802.11n can achieve up to 150 Mbps
IEEE 802.11ac can achieve up to 866.7 Mbps
IEEE 802.11ad can achieve up to 7 Gbps

Internet of Things
38
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Device or Service Discovery for IoT

●
Need for resource management mechanisms –
capability to register and discover resources in a
self configured, dynamic and efficient way
●
IoT service discovery technologies :
●
Bluetooth beacons
● Wifi Aware

● Physical web

● Open Hybrid

● Chirp

● Shazam

Internet of Things
39
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Device or Service Discovery Technologies for
IoT

●
Bluetooth beacons :
Beacons are sent out consisting of unique identifier which belongs to the beacon
A Bluetooth mobile receives beacons recognizes ID, triggers notifications
●
Wifi Aware :
Update to wifi with beacon like features for discovering and establishing
connection with nearby devices
●
Physical Web :
Device broadcasts beacons containing URL
Mobile os detects physical web signals ( BLE signals)
●
Chirp :
Software that allows devices to communicate using brief melodic tweedles
( alphabets of electronic birdsongs)
●
Shazam :
Mobile app that is used to identify music by taking over a device’s microphone for
few seconds; now used for identifying digital contents associated with all types of
real world objects and experiences

Internet of Things
40
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
Protocols for IoT Service Discovery
●
DNS service discovery (DNS-SD)
●
Multi-cast domain name system (m-DNS)
●
Simple service discovery protocol
(part of UPnP)

Internet of Things
41
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Multi-cast Domain Name System (m-DNS)
●
m-DNS works like a unicast DNS server
●
DNS name space can be used with locally without any additional configuration
●
High level of fault tolerance because of the capability to function even if the infrastructure
failure happens

Working of the multi-cast domain name system (m-DNS)

Ref : The Internet of Things, Enabling Technologies, Platforms and Use Cases: Pethuru Raj and Anupama C. Rajan, CRC Press
Internet of Things
42
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 DNS Service Discovery
●
Helps clients to discover a set of services that are present in the network with the help of
DNS messages; connects devices without any external administration or configuration
●
DNS service discovery uses m-DNS to send packets to specific multicast destinations using
UDP
●
Two step process : i. Finding host names of required services ii. Pairing IP addresses to
host names using m-DNS

Service discovery of printer service using DNS-SD protocol

Ref : The Internet of Things, Enabling Technologies, Platforms and Use Cases: Pethuru Raj and Anupama C. Rajan, CRC Press
Internet of Things
43
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Universal Plug and Play
●
UPnP device can join a network dynamically ( automatically) and obtain IP addresses of other
devices and at the same time convey its capabilities to other devices; no administration or
configuration
●
Basic components of UPnP – Devices, Services, Control points
●
Devices- container for services and other nested devices
●
Control points – device discovery and control by receiving device descriptions and by
invoking service actions
●
Services – set of services offered by the UPnP devices

Ref : Internet
Internet of Things
44
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal
 Prominent IoT Service Discovery Products
●
Bonjour - zero configuration and service discovery protocol from Apple
the networking architecture provides features that help and discover TCP or
IP based services available in LAN or WAN. It can connect a printer to network
without assigning a IP address to it.
●
Consul - health discovery of services; Product of Hashi Corp.
key or value store for dynamic configuration of services; support for multi-data centre
integration with any additional layers of abstraction
Architecture – Consul agent in each node ( for health checking),
Consul server stores data. Components that need to discover services can either
query consul servers or consul agent.
●
AllJoyn - Open source framework from AllSeen Alliance
Devices operating in this framework share data irrespective of their manufacturer,
brand, operating system and other technical specifications
Two components – AllJoyn apps and AllJoyn routers. They communicate among
themselves

Internet of Things
45
Instructor : Dr. Bibhas Ghoshal