INTERNET OF

THINGS(21CS735)
Module 1 - Emergence of IoT:
Introduction, Evolution of IoT, Enabling IoT and the
Complex Interdependence of Technologies, IoT
Networking Components, Addressing Strategies in
IoT.
Definition
“The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects that
contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact
with their internal states or the external environment.”
Figure: The three characteristic features—anytime, anywhere, and
anything—highlight the robustness and dynamic nature of IoT
Evolution of IoT

Figure: The sequence of technological developments leading to the shaping of the modern day IoT

ATM: The first ATM became operational and connected online for the first
time in 1974.

Web: World Wide Web is a global information sharing and communication

platform. The Web became operational for the first time in 1991. Since then, it
has been massively responsible for the many revolutions in the field of
computing and communication.
• Smart Meters: A smart meter is a device that measures and communicates
information about your energy usage to your supplier and to you. The
earliest smart meter was a power meter, which became operational in early
2000. These power meters were capable of communicating remotely with
the power grid.

Fig: Smart meter

• Smart Dust: These are microscopic computers. Smaller than a grain of
sand each, they can be used in numerous beneficial ways, where regular
computers cannot operate. For example, smart dust can be sprayed to
measure chemicals in the soil or even to diagnose problems in the
human body.
• Figure below shows the various technological interdependencies of IoT
with other domains and networking paradigms such as M2M, CPS, the
Internet of environment (IoE), the Internet of people (IoP), and
Industry 4.0.

Figure 4.7 The interdependence and reach of IoT over various application domains and
networking paradigm
(i) M2M: The M2M or the machine-to-machine paradigm signifies a system
of connected machines and devices, which can talk amongst themselves
without human intervention.
(ii) CPS: The CPS or the cyber physical system paradigm insinuates a closed
control loop—from sensing, processing, and finally to actuation—using a
feedback mechanism. CPS helps in maintaining the state of an environment
through the feedback control loop, which ensures that until the desired state is
attained, the system keeps on actuating and sensing.
iii) IoE: The IoE paradigm is mainly concerned with minimizing and even
reversing the ill-effects of the permeation of Internet-based technologies on
the environment. The major focus areas of this paradigm include smart and
sustainable farming, sustainable and energy-efficient habitats, enhancing the
energy efficiency of systems and processes, and others.
iv) Industry 4.0: Industry 4.0 is commonly referred to as the fourth industrial
revolution pertaining to digitization in the manufacturing industry. The
previous revolutions chronologically dealt with mechanization, mass
production, and the industrial revolution, respectively. This paradigm strongly
puts forward the concept of smart factories, where machines talk to one
another without much human involvement based on a framework of CPS and
IoT.
v) IoP: The Internet of People (IoP) is a concept that describes the connection
between people and the internet, and the ways in which people can
communicate and share data.
• IoP is a new technological movement on the Internet which aims to
decentralize online social interactions, payments, transactions, and other
tasks while maintaining confidentiality and privacy of its user’s data.
IoT versus M2M: M2M or the machine-to-machine paradigm refers to
communications and interactions between various machines and devices.
• These interactions can be enabled through a cloud computing infrastructure,
a server, or simply a local network hub.
• M2M collects data from machinery and sensors, while also enabling device
management and device interaction. Telecommunication services providers
introduced the term M2M, and technically emphasized on machine
interactions via one or more communication networks (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G,
satellite, public networks).
• M2M is part of the IoT and is considered as one of its sub-domains
IoT versus CPS: Cyber physical systems (CPS) encompasses sensing,
control, actuation, and feedback as a complete package.
• In other words, a digital twin is attached to a CPS-based system.
• As mentioned earlier, a digital twin is a virtual system–model relation, in
which the system signifies a physical system or equipment or a piece of
machinery, while the model represents the mathematical model or
representation of the physical system’s behavior or operation.
• IoT versus WoT: IoT versus WoT From a developer’s perspective, the
Web of Things (WoT) paradigm enables access and control over IoT
resources and applications.
• These resources and applications are generally built using technologies
such as HTML 5.0, JavaScript, Ajax, PHP, and others. REST
(representational state transfer) is one of the key enablers of WoT.
• The use of RESTful principles and RESTful APIs (application program
interface) enables both developers and deployers to benefit from the
recognition, acceptance, and maturity of existing web technologies
without having to redesign and redeploy solutions from scratch.
Enabling IoT and the Complex Interdependence of
Technologies
• We can divide the IoT paradigm into four planes:
• Services, local connectivity, global connectivity, and processing. If we
consider a bottom-up view, the services offered fall under the control and
purview of service providers.
• The service plane is composed of two parts: 1) things or devices and 2)
low-power connectivity.
Figure: The IoT planes, various enablers of IoT, and the complex interdependencies
among them
IoT Networking Components
Six types:
1) IoT node
2) IoT router
3) IoT LAN
4) IoT WAN
5) IoT gateway
6) IoT proxy
Figure: A typical IoT network ecosystem highlighting the various networking
components— from IoT nodes to the Internet
• Various IoT nodes within an IoT LAN are configured to one another as well
as talk to the IoT router whenever they are in the range of it.
• The devices have locally unique (LU-x) device identifiers. These identifiers
are unique only within a LAN.
• There is a high chance that these identifiers may be repeated in a new LAN.
• Each IoT LAN has its own unique identifier, which is denoted by IoT LAN-
x in Figure 4.9.
• A router acts as a connecting link between various LANs by forwarding
messages from the LANs to the IoT gateway or the IoT proxy.
IoT Node: These are the networking devices within an IoT LAN.
• Each of these devices is typically made up of a sensor, a processor, and a
radio, which communicates with the network infrastructure (either within
the LAN or outside it).
• The nodes may be connected to other nodes inside a LAN directly or by
means of a common gateway for that LAN.
• Connections outside the LAN are through gateways and proxies.
IoT Router: An IoT router is a piece of networking equipment that is
primarily tasked with the routing of packets between various entities in the
IoT network; it keeps the traffic flowing correctly within the network.
• A router can be repurposed as a gateway by enhancing its functionalities.
IoT LAN: The local area network (LAN) enables local connectivity within
the purview of a single gateway.
• Typically, they consist of short-range connectivity technologies. IoT LANs
may or may not be connected to the Internet.
• Generally, they are localized within a building or an organization.
IoT WAN: The wide area network (WAN) connects various network
segments such as LANs.
• They are typically organizationally and geographically wide, with their
operational range lying between a few kilometers to hundreds of kilometers.
• IoT WANs connect to the Internet and enable Internet access to the segments
they are connecting.
IoT Gateway: An IoT gateway is simply a router connecting the IoT LAN to
a WAN or the Internet.
• Gateways can implement several LANs and WANs.
• Their primary task is to forward packets between LANs and WANs, and the
IP layer using only layer 3.
IoT Proxy: Proxies actively lie on the application layer and performs
application layer functions between IoT nodes and other entities.
• Typically, application layer proxies are a means of providing security to the
network entities under it; it helps to extend the addressing range of its
network.
Addressing Strategies in IoT

Table: Feature-wise difference between IPv4 and IPv6 capabilities

• Compared to IPv4, which relies more on reliable delivery of packets between
source and destination, an IPv6 packet is more address-oriented.
• Due to the increasing rate of devices being connected to the Internet, the
early developers of IPv6 felt the need for accommodating addresses as more
crucial than the need for reliable transmission of packets (which was the
main feature of IPv4-based routing of packets).
The IPv6 address format

Figure: The IPv6 address format

• The first three blocks are designated as the global prefix, which is globally
unique.
• The next block is designated as the subnet prefix, which identifies the subnet
of an interface/gateway through which LANs may be connected to the
Internet.
• Finally, the last four blocks (64 bits) of hexadecimal addresses are
collectively known as the interface identifier (IID).
• IIDs may be generated based on MAC (media access control) identifiers of
devices/nodes or using pseudo-random number generator algorithms.
• The IPv6 addresses can be divided into seven separate address types, which
is generally based on how these addresses are used or where they are
deployed.
• (i) Global Unicast (GUA): These addresses are assigned to single IoT
entities/ interfaces; they enable the entities to transmit traffic to and from the
Internet. In regular IoT deployments, these addresses are assigned to
gateways, proxies, or WANs.
• (ii) Multicast: These addresses enable transmission of messages from a
single networked entity to multiple destination entities simultaneously.
• (iii) Link Local (LL): The operational domain of these addresses are valid
only within a network segment such as LAN. These addresses may be
repeated in other network segments/LANs, but are unique within that single
network segment.
• (iv) Unique Local (ULA): Similar to LL addresses, ULA cannot be routed
over the Internet. These addresses may be repeated in other network
segments/LANs, but are unique within that single network segment.
• (v) Loopback: It is also known as the localhost address. Typically, these
addresses are used by developers and network testers for diagnostics and
system checks.

• (vi) Unspecified: Here, all the bits in the IPv6 address are set to zero and the
destination address is not specified.

• (vii) Solicited-node Multicast: It is a multicast address based on the IPv6

address of an IoT node or entity.
Multihoming in IoT networks
• It is a network configuration in which a node/network connects to multiple
networks simultaneously for improved reliability.
Address management classes
• The IoT deployment and network topology are largely dependent on where it
is deployed.
• Unlike traditional IPv4 networked devices, the newer IoT devices largely
depend on IPv6 for address allocation and management of addresses.
• Keeping these requirements in consideration, the addressing strategies in IoT
may be broadly differentiated into seven classes, as shown in Figure. These
classes are as follows:
• Class 1: The IoT nodes are not connected to any other interface or the Internet
except with themselves.
• This class can be considered as an isolated class, where the communication
between IoT nodes is restricted within a LAN only.
• The IoT nodes in this class are identified only by their link local (LL) addresses,
as shown in Figure.
• These LL addresses may be repeated for other devices outside the purview of this
network class.
• The communication among the nodes may be direct or through other nodes (as in
a mesh configuration).
Class 2: The class 1 configuration is mainly utilized for enabling
communication between two or more IoT LANs or WANs.
• The IoT nodes within the LANs cannot directly communicate to nodes in the
other LANs using their LL addresses, but through their LAN gateways (which
have a unique address assigned to them).
• Generally, ULA is used for addressing; however, in certain scenarios, GUA
may also be used. Figure(b) shows a class 2 IoT network topology.
• L1–L5 are the LL addresses of the locally unique IoT nodes within the LAN;
whereas U1 and U2 are the unique addresses of the two gateways extending
communication to their LANs with the WAN.
• The WAN may or may not connect to the Internet.
Class 3: Figure(c) shows a class 3 IoT network configuration, where the IoT
LAN is connected to an IoT proxy.
• The proxy performs a host of functions ranging from address allocation,
address management to providing security to the network underneath it.
• In this class, the IoT proxy only uses ULA (denoted as Lx-Ux in the figure).
Class 4: In this class, the IoT proxy acts as a gateway between the LAN and the
Internet, and provides GUA to the IoT nodes within the LAN.
• A globally unique prefix is allotted to this gateway, which it uses with the
individual device identifiers to extend global Internet connectivity to the IoT
nodes themselves. This configuration is shown in Figure(d).
• Class 5: This class is functionally similar to class 4. However, the main
difference with class 4 is that this class follows a star topology with the
gateway as the center of the star. All the communication from the IoT nodes
under the gateway has to go through the gateway, as shown in Figure(e).
• Class 6: The configuration of this class is again similar to class 5. However,
the IoT nodes are all assigned unique global addresses (GUA), which enables a
point-to-point communication network with an Internet gateway. A class 6 IoT
network configuration is shown in Figure(f).
• Class 7: The class 7 configuration is shown in Figure(g). Multiple gateways
may be present; the configuration is such that the nodes should be reachable
through any of the gateways.
Addressing during node mobility
(i) Global Prefix Changes: A global prefix in networking is a part of an IP
address that identifies the network portion of the address
• An IP address is divided into two parts: the prefix and the suffix. The prefix
identifies the network portion, while the suffix identifies the host
portion. Global authorities assign prefixes, while local system administrators
assign suffixes.
(ii) Prefix Changes within WANs: Figure(b) abstracts the addressing strategy
for prefix changes within WANs. In case the WAN changes its global prefix, the
network entities underneath it must be resilient to change and function normally.
(iii) Remote Anchoring: Remote anchoring, also known as mobility anchoring,
is a networking feature that involves the use of a mobility anchor to enable
communication between access points and external network nodes.
 The End
By Prof. Bhavana D
GEC, Karwar