Module 3

IoT Processing Topologies and Types

 Module 3

IoT Processing Topologies and Types: Data Format, Importance of Processing in IoT,

Processing Topologies, IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations, Processing

Offloading.

Reference
Textbook 1: Chapter 6 – 6.1 to 6.5
 Learning Outcomes

• List common data types in IoT applications

• Understand the importance of processing

• Explain the various processing topologies in IoT

• Understand the importance of processing off loading toward achieving scalability and cost-

effectiveness of IoT solutions

• Determine the importance of choosing the right processing topologies and associated

considerations while designing IoT applications

• Determine the requirements that are associated with IoT-based processing of sensed and

communicated data.
 Data Format

• The Internet is a vast space where huge quantities and varieties of data are generated regularly and

flow freely.

• As of January 2018, there are a reported 4.021 billion Internet users worldwide.

• The massive volume of data generated by this huge number of users is further enhanced by the

multiple devices utilized by most users.

• Data-generating sources, non-human data generation sources such as sensor nodes and automated

monitoring systems further add to the data load on the Internet.

• This huge data volume is composed of a variety of data such as e-mails, text documents (Word docs,

PDFs, and others), social media posts, videos, audio files, and images, as shown in Fig.
 Data Format

Various data generating and storage sources connected to the Internet

 Data Format

Data can be broadly grouped into two types based on how they can be accessed and stored:

1. Structured data

2. Unstructured data.
 Data Format
1. Structured data
• These are text data that have a pre-defined structure.

• Structured data are associated with relational database management systems (RDBMS).

• Primarily created by using length-limited data fields such as phone numbers, social security numbers, etc.

• Even if the data is human or machine generated, these data are easily searchable by querying algorithms

as well as human generated queries.

• Common usage of this type of data is associated with flight or train reservation systems, banking systems,

inventory controls, etc.

• Established languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL) are used for accessing these data in

RDBMS.

• In the context of IoT, structured data holds a minor share of the total generated data over the Internet.
 Data Format
2. Un Structured data
• All the data on the Internet, which is not structured, is categorized as unstructured.

• These data types have no pre-defined structure and can vary according to applications and data generating

sources.

Example

• Human-generated unstructured data include text, e-mails, videos, images, phone recordings, chats. etc.

• Machine-generated unstructured data include sensor data from traffic, buildings, industries, satellite,

imagery, surveillance videos etc.

• This data type does not have fixed formats, which makes it very difficult for querying algorithms to perform a

look-up.

• Querying languages such as NoSQL are generally used for this data type.
 Importance of Processing in IoT

• The vast amount and types of data flowing through the Internet necessitate the need for

intelligent and resourceful processing techniques.

• It is important to decide when to process and what to process?

The data to be processed is categorized into three types based on the urgency of processing:

1) Very time critical

2) Time critical

3) Normal
 Importance of Processing in IoT
Example
1) Very time critical: Flight control data, healthcare etc. : Few milliseconds to make decision

2) Time critical: vehicle, traffic, home automation, surveillance: Few seconds

3) Normal: Less data sensitive domains: Agriculture, environmental monitoring: Few minutes to

hours

Processing Requirements
1) Very time critical: Data Processing requirements are exceptionally high

2) Time critical: Processing requirements allow for the transmission of data to be processed to

remote locations or through collaborative processing.

3) Normal: Have no particular time requirements for processing the data urgently.
 Processing Topologies
• The identification and intelligent selection of processing requirement of an IoT application are one of the

crucial steps in deciding the architecture of the deployment.

The various processing solutions are categorized into two large topologies:

1. On-site

2. Off-site

a. Remote processing
b. Collaborative processing
 Processing Topologies
On-site processing
• The on-site processing topology signifies that the data is processed at the source itself.
• Very time critical applications that have a very low tolerance for latencies.
• Applications associated with healthcare and flight control systems (Realtime systems) have a quick data
generation rate.
• These show rapid temporal (time) changes, if missed, leads to catastrophic damages.
• The processing infrastructure should be fast and robust enough to handle such data.

Event detection using an on-site processing topology

 Processing Topologies
Off-site processing
• The off-site processing allows for latencies (due to processing or network latencies)

• It is significantly cheaper than on-site processing topologies.

• Difference in cost is mainly due to the low demands and requirements of processing at the source itself.

• Not required to process data on an urgent basis.

• Sensor node is responsible for the collection and framing of data that is transmitted to another location

(remote location: server or cloud) for processing.

• Off-site topology has a few dedicated high-processing enabled devices.

• Multiple nodes can be used to share their processing power in order to collaboratively process the data.
 Processing Topologies
Off-site processing
Remote processing
• Most common processing topologies prevalent in present-day IoT solutions.

• It encompasses sensing of data by various sensor nodes; the data is then forwarded to a remote server or a

cloud-based infrastructure for further processing and analytics.

• The processing of data from hundreds and thousands of sensor nodes can be simultaneously offloaded to a

single, powerful computing platform.

• This results in massive cost and energy savings by enabling the reuse and reallocation of the same

processing resource.

• Enabling the deployment of smaller and simpler processing nodes at the site of deployment.
 Processing Topologies
Off-site processing
Remote processing

Event detection using an off-site remote processing topology

 Processing Topologies
Off-site processing
Collaborative processing
• This processing topology used in scenarios with limited or no network connectivity, especially systems

lacking a network.

• This topology is quite economical for large-scale deployments spread over vast areas, where providing

networked access to a remote infrastructure is not viable.

• In such scenarios, the solution is to club together the processing power of nearby processing nodes and

collaboratively process the data.

• This approach also reduces latencies due to the transfer of data over the network.

• Additionally, it conserves bandwidth of the network, especially ones connecting to the Internet.
 Processing Topologies
Off-site processing
Collaborative processing
This topology is beneficial for

applications such as agriculture,

where an intense and temporally

high frequency of data processing is

not required, as agricultural data is

generally logged after long intervals.

Event detection using a collaborative processing topology

 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations

• The main consideration for IoT solution is the selection of the processor.

• The selection is governed by many parameters that affect the usability, design, and affordability of the

designed IoT sensing and processing solution.

• The main factor is the processor.

1. Size

2. Energy

3. Cost

4. Memory

5. Processing Power

6. I/O rating

7. Add-ons
 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations

Size
• Crucial factors for deciding the form factor and the energy consumption of a sensor node.

• Larger the form factor, larger is the energy consumption of the hardware.

• Large form factors are not suitable for a significant bulk of IoT applications, which rely on minimal form

factor solutions (e.g., wearables).

Energy
• The energy requirements of a processor is the most important deciding factor in designing IoT-based

sensing solutions.

• Higher the energy requirements, higher is the energy source (battery) replacement frequency.

• This lowers the long-term sustainability of sensing hardware for IoT-based applications.
 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations

Cost

• Cheaper cost of the hardware enables a much higher density of hardware deployment by users of an

IoT solution.

Memory

• The memory requirements (both volatile and non-volatile memory) determines the capabilities the

device.

• Features such as local data processing, data storage, data filtering, data formatting, etc. rely heavily on

the memory.

• Devices with higher memory tend to be costlier.

 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations
Processing power
• Processing power is vital in deciding what type of sensors can be accommodated with the IoT
device/node, and what processing features can integrate on-site with the IoT device.
• The processing power also decides the type of applications the device can be associated with.
• Applications that handle video and image data require IoT devices with higher processing power.

I/O rating
• The processor, is the deciding factor in determining the circuit complexity, energy usage, and support of
various sensing solutions and sensor types.
• Newer processors have a I/O voltage rating of 3.3 V, as compared to 5 V for the older processors.
• This translates to requiring additional voltage and logic conversion circuitry to interface legacy
technologies and sensors with the newer processors.
• The low power consumption due to reduced I/O voltage levels, this additional voltage and circuitry
affects the complexity of the circuits & also the costs.
 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations

Add-ons

• The support of various add-ons a processor, an IoT device provides, such as ADC units, in-built clock

circuits, connections to USB and ethernet, inbuilt wireless access capabilities, etc. helps in defining the

robustness and usability of IoT device in various application scenarios.

• The provision for these add-ons also decides how fast a solution can be developed.
 Processing Offloading

• The processing offloading paradigm is important for the development of densely deployable,

energy-conserving, miniaturized, and cheap IoT-based solutions for sensing tasks.

• Majority of IoT applications, the bulk of the processing is carried out remotely in order to keep the

on-site devices simple, small, and economical.

Data offloading is divided into three parts:

1) Offload location: Outlines where all the processing can be offloaded in the IoT architecture.

2) Offload decision making: How to choose where to offload the processing to and by how much.

3) Offloading considerations: Deciding when to offload.

 Processing Offloading

The various data generating and storage sources connected to the Internet and the data types contained within it.
 Processing Offloading

Offload location

• The choice of offload location decides the applicability, cost, and sustainability of the IoT application

and deployment.

• The offload location are categorized into four types

1. Edge

2. Fog

3. Remote Server

4. Cloud
 Processing Offloading
Offload location

1. Edge: Data processing is facilitated

to a location at or near the source.

Purpose: Offloading to the edge is

done to achieve aggregation, manipulation,

bandwidth reduction, and other data

operations directly on an IoT device.

E.g.: Autonomous Vehicle, Health care devices, Security solutions

 Processing Offloading
Offload location

2. Fog: is a decentralized computing infrastructure.

Purpose: conserve network bandwidth, reduce latencies,

restrict the amount of data flowing through the Internet, and

enable rapid mobility support for IoT devices.

• The data, computing, storage and applications are

shifted to a place between the data source and the

cloud.

E.g.: Video Surveillance

 Processing Offloading
Offload location

3. Remote Server: A remote server with good processing power is used with IoT-based applications

to offload the processing from resource constrained IoT devices.

• Rapid scalability is an issue with remote servers, and are costlier and hard to maintain.
 Processing Offloading
Offload location

4. Cloud: Configurable computer system, access to

configurable resources, platforms, and high-level

services through a shared pool, hosted remotely.

• Cloud enables massive scalability of solutions as

they can enable resource enhancement in an

on-demand manner, without acquiring and

configuring new and costly hardware.

 Offload decision making

• Where to offload and how much to offload is the major deciding factors in the deployment of an offsite

processing topology.

• The decision making is done considering data generation rate, network bandwidth, the criticality of

applications, processing resource available at the offload site, etc.

• Offload decision making approaches are;

1. Naive Approach

2. Bargaining based approach

3. Learning based approach

 Offload decision making

1. Naive Approach

• It is a rule-based approach in which the data from IoT devices are offloaded to the nearest location

based on the offload criteria.

• Statistical measures are used for generating the rules for offload decision making.
 Offload decision making

2. Bargaining based approach

• Processing-intensive approach

• Enables the improvement of network traffic congestion, enhances QoS (quality of service) parameters

such as bandwidth, latencies, etc.

• Approach tries to maximize the QoS by reducing the qualities of certain parameters & enhancing the

others

Example: Game theory is a common example of the bargaining based approach.

Quality of service (QoS) is the use of technologies that work on a network to control traffic and ensure the performance of critical
applications with limited network capacity.
 Offload decision making

3. Learning based approach:

• Rely on past behavior and trends of data flow through the IoT architecture.

• The optimization of QoS parameters is done by learning from historical trends and optimizing previous

solutions.

• The memory and processing requirements are high during the decision making stages.

Example of a learning based approach is machine learning.

Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence, defined as the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human
behavior.
 Offloading Considerations

• The parameters need to be considered while deciding on the offloading type.

1. Bandwidth

2. Latency

3. Criticality

4. Resources

5. Data Volume
 Offloading Considerations

1. Bandwidth: The maximum amount of data that can be transmitted over the network between two

points. Data-carrying capacity used to describe the data rate of that network.

2. Latency: It is the time delay incurred between the start and completion of an operation.

• Latency can be due to the network (network latency) or the processor (processing latency).

3. Criticality: Defines the importance of a task being pursued by an IoT application.

• The more critical a task is, the lesser latency is expected from the IoT solution.

• Example: Detection of fire Vs. Detection of agricultural field parameters.

 Offloading Considerations

4. Resources: Signifies the actual capabilities of an offload location.

• The capabilities may be the processing power, analytical algorithms, etc.

5. Data volume: The amount of data generated by a source that can be handled by the offload location.

• For large and dense IoT deployments, the offload location should be robust enough to address the

processing issues related to huge data volumes.

End of Module