Architecture of Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things (IoT) technology has a wide range of applications and the use of the Internet of
Things is growing so faster. It is the networking of physical objects that contain electronics
embedded within their architecture to communicate and sense interactions amongst each other or
to the external environment.
Architecture of IoT
The architecture of IoT is divided into 4 different layers i.e. Sensing Layer, Network Layer, Data
processing Layer, and Application Layer.
 Sensing Layer: The sensing layer is the first layer of the Internet of Things architecture and
is responsible for collecting data from different sources. This layer
includes sensors and actuators that are placed in the environment to gather information
about temperature, humidity, light, sound, and other physical parameters. Wired or wireless
communication protocols connect these devices to the network layer.
 Network Layer: The network layer of an IoT architecture is responsible for providing
communication and connectivity between devices in the IoT system. It includes protocols
and technologies that enable devices to connect and communicate with each other and with
the wider internet. Examples of network technologies that are commonly used in IoT
include WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and cellular networks such as 4G and 5G technology.
Additionally, the network layer may include gateways and routers that act as intermediaries
between devices and the wider internet, and may also include security features such as
encryption and authentication to protect against unauthorized access.
 Data processing Layer: The data processing layer of IoT architecture refers to the software
and hardware components that are responsible for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting
data from IoT devices. This layer is responsible for receiving raw data from the devices,
processing it, and making it available for further analysis or action. The data processing
layer includes a variety of technologies and tools, such as data management systems,
analytics platforms, and machine learning algorithms. These tools are used to extract
meaningful insights from the data and make decisions based on that data. Example of a
technology used in the data processing layer is a data lake, which is a centralized repository
for storing raw data from IoT devices.
 Application Layer: The application layer of IoT architecture is the topmost layer that interacts
directly with the end-user. It is responsible for providing user-friendly interfaces and
functionalities that enable users to access and control IoT devices. This layer includes
various software and applications such as mobile apps, web portals, and other user
interfaces that are designed to interact with the underlying IoT infrastructure. It also includes
middleware services that allow different IoT devices and systems to communicate and share
data seamlessly. The application layer also includes analytics and processing capabilities
that allow data to be analyzed and transformed into meaningful insights. This can include
machine learning algorithms, data visualization tools, and other advanced analytics
capabilities.
Architecture of IoT
Advantages of IoT
 Execute multiple tasks at a time like a computer.
 Easiest internet connectivity
 Works on GUI (Graphical User Interface) mode because of HDMI port.
 Best suited for server-based applications i.e., can be connected via SSH–Secure Shell-to
access the Rpi command line remotely and file sharing via FTP–File Transfer Protocol.
 More reliable for software applications.
Disadvantages of IoT
 Security concerns and potential for hacking or data breaches.
 Privacy issues related to the collection and use of personal data.
 Dependence on technology and potential for system failures.
 Limited standardization and interoperability among devices.
 Complexity and increased maintenance requirements.
 High initial investment costs.
 Limited battery life on some devices.
 Concerns about job displacement due to automation.
 Limited regulation and legal framework for IoT, which can lead to confusion and uncertainty.
Modern Applications of IoT
 Smart Grids and energy saving
 Smart cities
 Smart homes/Home automation
 Healthcare
 Earthquake detection
  Radiation detection/hazardous gas detection
 Smartphone detection
 Water flow monitoring
 Traffic monitoring
 Smart door lock protection system
 Robots and Drones
 Healthcare and Hospitals, Telemedicine applications
 Biochip Transponders (For animals in farms)
 Heart monitoring implants (Example Pacemaker, ECG real time tracking

Difference between IoT and M2M

1. Internet of Things : IOT is known as the Internet of Things where things are said to be the
communicating devices that can interact with each other using a communication media. Usually every day
some new devices are being integrated which uses IoT devices for its function. These devices use various
sensors and actuators for sending and receiving data over the internet. It is an ecosystem where the
devices share data through a communication media known as the internet or Iot is an ecosystem of
connected physical object that are accessible through internet. Iot means anything which can be connected
to internet and can be controlled or monitored using internet from smart devices or PC.
2. 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 an technology that helps the devices to connect between devices
without using 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).
M2M is communication could carried over mobile networks, for ex- GSM-GPRS, CDMA EVDO Networks .
In M2M communication, the role of mobile networks is largely confined to server as a transport networks.
M2M is only subset of IoT .
Difference between IoT and M2M :

Basis of IoT M2M

Abbreviation Internet of Things Machine to Machine

Devices have objects that are responsible Some degree of intelligence is

Intelligence
for decision making observed in this.

Connection type The connection is via Network and using

The connection is a point to point
used various communication types.
Basis of IoT M2M

Traditional protocols and

Communication Internet protocols are used such
communication technology
protocol used as HTTP, FTP, and Telnet.
techniques are used

Data is shared between other applications

Data is shared with only the
Data Sharing that are used to improve the end-user
communicating parties.
experience.

Internet connection is required for Devices are not dependent on the

Internet
communication Internet.

Type of It supports point-to-point

It supports cloud communication
Communication communication.

Involves the usage of both Hardware and

Computer System Mostly hardware-based technology
Software.

A large number of devices yet scope is

Scope Limited Scope for devices.
large.

Business 2 Business(B2B) and Business

Business Type used Business 2 Business (B2B)
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.

Communication and device

Centric Information and service centric
centric.

Approach used Horizontal enabler approach Vertical system solution approach .

Devices/sensors, connectivity, data Device, area networks, gateway,

Components
processing, user interface Application server.

Smart wearables, Big Data and Cloud, Sensors, Data and Information,
Examples
etc. etc.
Basis of IoT M2M

Sensors in Internet of Things(IoT)

Generally, sensors are used in the architecture of IOT devices.
Sensors are used for sensing things and devices etc.
A device that provides a usable output in response to a specified measurement.
The sensor attains a physical parameter and converts it into a signal suitable for processing (e.g. electrical,
mechanical, optical) the characteristics of any device or material to detect the presence of a particular
physical quantity.
The output of the sensor is a signal which is converted to a human-readable form like changes in
characteristics, changes in resistance, capacitance, impedance, etc.

IOT HARDWARE
Transducer :
 A transducer converts a signal from one physical structure to another.
 It converts one type of energy into another type.
 It might be used as actuator in various systems.
Sensors characteristics :
1. Static
2. Dynamic
1. Static characteristics :
It is about how the output of a sensor changes in response to an input change after steady state condition.
 Accuracy: Accuracy is the capability of measuring instruments to give a result close to the true
value of the measured quantity. It measures errors. It is measured by absolute and relative errors.
Express the correctness of the output compared to a higher prior system. Absolute error =
Measured value – True value
Relative error = Measured value/True value
  Range: Gives the highest and the lowest value of the physical quantity within which the sensor can
actually sense. Beyond these values, there is no sense or no kind of response.
e.g. RTD for measurement of temperature has a range of -200`c to 800`c.
 Resolution: Resolution is an important specification for selection of sensors. The higher the
resolution, better the precision. When the accretion is zero to, it is called the threshold.
Provide the smallest changes in the input that a sensor is able to sense.
 Precision: It is the capacity of a measuring instrument to give the same reading when repetitively
measuring the same quantity under the same prescribed conditions.
It implies agreement between successive readings, NOT closeness to the true value.
It is related to the variance of a set of measurements.
It is a necessary but not sufficient condition for accuracy.
 Sensitivity: Sensitivity indicates the ratio of incremental change in the response of the system with
respect to incremental change in input parameters. It can be found from the slope of the output
characteristics curve of a sensor. It is the smallest amount of difference in quantity that will change
the instrument’s reading.
 Linearity: The deviation of the sensor value curve from a particularly straight line. Linearity is
determined by the calibration curve. The static calibration curve plots the output amplitude versus
the input amplitude under static conditions.
A curve’s slope resemblance to a straight line describes linearity.
 Drift: The difference in the measurement of the sensor from a specific reading when kept at that
value for a long period of time.
 Repeatability: The deviation between measurements in a sequence under the same conditions.
The measurements have to be made under a short enough time duration so as not to allow
significant long-term drift.
Dynamic Characteristics :
Properties of the systems
 Zero-order system: The output shows a response to the input signal with no delay. It does not
include energy-storing elements.
Ex. potentiometer measure, linear and rotary displacements.
 First-order system: When the output approaches its final value gradually.
Consists of an energy storage and dissipation element.
 Second-order system: Complex output response. The output response of the sensor oscillates
before steady state.
Sensor Classification :
 Passive & Active
 Analog & digital
 Scalar & vector
1. Passive Sensor –
Can not independently sense the input. Ex- Accelerometer, soil moisture, water level and
temperature sensors.
2. Active Sensor –
Independently sense the input. Example- Radar, sounder and laser altimeter sensors.
3. Analog Sensor –
The response or output of the sensor is some continuous function of its input parameter. Ex-
Temperature sensor, LDR, analog pressure sensor and analog hall effect.
 4. Digital sensor –
Response in binary nature. Design to overcome the disadvantages of analog sensors. Along with
the analog sensor, it also comprises extra electronics for bit conversion. Example – Passive infrared
(PIR) sensor and digital temperature sensor(DS1620).
5. Scalar sensor –
Detects the input parameter only based on its magnitude. The answer for the sensor is a function of
magnitude of some input parameter. Not affected by the direction of input parameters.
Example – temperature, gas, strain, color and smoke sensor.
6. Vector sensor –
The response of the sensor depends on the magnitude of the direction and orientation of input
parameter. Example – Accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetic field and motion detector sensors.
Types of sensors –
 Electrical sensor :
Electrical proximity sensors may be contact or non contact.
Simple contact sensors operate by making the sensor and the component complete an electrical circuit.
Non- contact electrical proximity sensors rely on the electrical principles of either induction for detecting
metals or capacitance for detecting non metals as well.
 Light sensor:
Light sensor is also known as photo sensors and one of the important sensor.
Light dependent resistor or LDR is a simple light sensor available today.
The property of LDR is that its resistance is inversely proportional to the intensity of the ambient light i.e
when the intensity of light increases, it’s resistance decreases and vise versa.
 Touch sensor:
Detection of something like a touch of finger or a stylus is known as touch sensor.
It’s name suggests that detection of something.
They are classified into two types:
1. Resistive type
2. Capacitive type
Today almost all modern touch sensors are of capacitive types.
Because they are more accurate and have better signal to noise ratio.
 Range sensing:
Range sensing concerns detecting how near or far a component is from the sensing position, although they
can also be used as proximity sensors.
Distance or range sensors use non-contact analog techniques. Short range sensing, between a few
millimetres and a few hundred millimetres is carried out using electrical capacitance, inductance and
magnetic technique.
Longer range sensing is carried out using transmitted energy waves of various types eg radio waves,
sound waves and lasers.
 Mechanical sensor:

Any suitable mechanical / electrical switch may be adopted but because a certain amount of force is
required to operate a mechanical switch it is common to use micro-switches.
  Pneumatic sensor:
These proximity sensors operate by breaking or disturbing an air flow.
The pneumatic proximity sensor is an example of a contact type sensor. These cannot be used where light
components may be blown away.
 Optical sensor:
In there simplest form, optical proximity sensors operate by breaking a light beam which falls onto a light
sensitive device such as a photocell. These are examples of non contact sensors. Care must be exercised
with the lighting environment of these sensors for example optical sensors can be blinded by flashes from
arc welding processes, airborne dust and smoke clouds may impede light transmission etc.
 Speed Sensor:
Sensor used for detecting the speed of any object or vehicle which is in motion is known as speed sensor
.For example – Wind Speed Sensors, Speedometer ,UDAR ,Ground Speed Radar .
 Temperature Sensor:
Devices which monitors and tracks the temperature and gives temperature’s measurement as an electrical
signal are termed as temperature sensors .These electrical signals will be in the form of voltage and is
directly proportional to the temperature measurement .
 PIR Sensor:
PIR stands for passive infrared sensor and it is an electronic sensor that is used for the tracking and
measurement of infrared (IR) light radiating from objects in its field of view and is also known as
Pyroelectric sensor .It is mainly used for detecting human motion and movement detection .
 Ultrasonic Sensor:
The principle of ultrasonic sensor is similar to the working principle of SONAR or RADAR in which the
interpretation of echoes from radio or sound waves to evaluate the attributes of a target by generating the
high frequency sound waves .

Actuators in IoT
An IoT device is made up of a Physical object (“thing”) + Controller (“brain”) + Sensors + Actuators +
Networks (Internet). An actuator is a machine component or system that moves or controls the mechanism
of the system. Sensors in the device sense the environment, then control signals are generated for the
actuators according to the actions needed to perform.
A servo motor is an example of an actuator. They are linear or rotatory actuators, can move to a given
specified angular or linear position. We can use servo motors for IoT applications and make the motor
rotate to 90 degrees, 180 degrees, etc., as per our need.
The following diagram shows what actuators do, the controller directs the actuator based on the sensor
data to do the work.
Working of IoT devices and use of Actuators
The control system acts upon an environment through the actuator. It requires a source of energy and a
control signal. When it receives a control signal, it converts the source of energy to a mechanical operation.
On this basis, on which form of energy it uses, it has different types given below.
Types of Actuators :
1. Hydraulic Actuators –
A hydraulic actuator uses hydraulic power to perform a mechanical operation. They are actuated by a
cylinder or fluid motor. The mechanical motion is converted to rotary, linear, or oscillatory motion, according
to the need of the IoT device. Ex- construction equipment uses hydraulic actuators because hydraulic
actuators can generate a large amount of force.
Advantages :

 Hydraulic actuators can produce a large magnitude of force and high speed.
 Used in welding, clamping, etc.
 Used for lowering or raising the vehicles in car transport carriers.
Disadvantages :
 Hydraulic fluid leaks can cause efficiency loss and issues of cleaning.
 It is expensive.
 It requires noise reduction equipment, heat exchangers, and high maintenance systems.
2. Pneumatic Actuators –
A pneumatic actuator uses energy formed by vacuum or compressed air at high pressure to convert into
either linear or rotary motion. Example- Used in robotics, use sensors that work like human fingers by using
compressed air.
Advantages :
 They are a low-cost option and are used at extreme temperatures where using air is a safer option
than chemicals.
 They need low maintenance, are durable, and have a long operational life.
 It is very quick in starting and stopping the motion.
Disadvantages :
 Loss of pressure can make it less efficient.
 The air compressor should be running continuously.
 Air can be polluted, and it needs maintenance.
3. Electrical Actuators –
An electric actuator uses electrical energy, is usually actuated by a motor that converts electrical energy
into mechanical torque. An example of an electric actuator is a solenoid based electric bell.
Advantages :

 It has many applications in various industries as it can automate industrial valves.

 It produces less noise and is safe to use since there are no fluid leakages.
 It can be re-programmed and it provides the highest control precision positioning.
Disadvantages :
 It is expensive.
 It depends a lot on environmental conditions.

Basics of Computer Networking

A computer network is a collection of interconnected devices that share resources and information. These
devices can include computers, servers, printers, and other hardware. Networks allow for the efficient
exchange of data, enabling various applications such as email, file sharing, and internet browsing.
Basic Terminologies of Computer Networks
 Network: A network is a collection of computers and devices that are connected together to enable
communication and data exchange.
 Nodes: Nodes are devices that are connected to a network. These can include computers, Servers,
Printers, Routers, Switches, and other devices.
 Protocol: A protocol is a set of rules and standards that govern how data is transmitted over a
network. Examples of protocols include TCP/IP, HTTP, and FTP.
 Topology: Network topology refers to the physical and logical arrangement of nodes on a network.
The common network topologies include bus, star, ring, mesh, and tree.
 Service Provider Networks: These types of Networks give permission to take Network Capacity
and Functionality on lease from the Provider. Service Provider Networks include Wireless
Communications, Data Carriers, etc.
 IP Address: An IP address is a unique numerical identifier that is assigned to every device on a
network. IP addresses are used to identify devices and enable communication between them.
 DNS: The Domain Name System (DNS) is a protocol that is used to translate human-readable
domain names (such as www.google.com) into IP addresses that computers can understand.
 Firewall: A firewall is a security device that is used to monitor and control incoming and outgoing
network traffic. Firewalls are used to protect networks from unauthorized access and other security
threats.
How Does a Computer Network Work?
Basics building blocks of a Computer network are Nodes and Links. A Network Node can be illustrated as
Equipment for Data Communication like a Modem, Router, etc., or Equipment of a Data Terminal like
connecting two computers or more. Link in Computer Networks can be defined as wires or cables or free
space of wireless networks.
The working of Computer Networks can be simply defined as rules or protocols which help in sending and
receiving data via the links which allow Computer networks to communicate. Each device has an IP
Address, that helps in identifying a device.
What do Computer Networks do?
Computer networks first developed in 1950 for military and defense purpose. At that time they are mainly
used to send data through telephone lines and had limited use in business or science.
Today computer networks are essential for businesses also. Modern networks offer more than just
connecting devices. They play a key role in helping businesses adapt to the digital world and succeed.
These networks have become more flexible, automated, and secure, making them even more important in
today’s business environment.
Modern computer networks can:
 Work Virtually: The physical network can be divided into smaller virtual networks. In these virtual
networks, devices are connected and can send data through multiple physical routes. For example,
many business networks use the internet this way.
 Connect on a Large Scale: Modern networks link many smaller, spread-out networks into one big,
powerful system. Automation and monitoring tools help manage and adjust the network as needed,
allowing it to grow or shrink based on demand.
 Adapt Quickly: Many networks are controlled by software, so changes can be made quickly
through a digital dashboard. This allows traffic to be managed easily.
 Keep Data Secure: Built-in security features like encryption and access control protect data.
Additional protections like antivirus software, firewalls, and malware protection can be added to
strengthen network security.

Types of Enterprise Computer Networks

 LAN: A Local Area Network (LAN) is a network that covers a small area, such as an office or a
home. LANs are typically used to connect computers and other devices within a building or a
campus.
 WAN: A Wide Area Network (WAN) is a network that covers a large geographic area, such as a city,
country, or even the entire world. WANs are used to connect LANs together and are typically used
for long-distance communication.
 Cloud Networks: Cloud Networks can be visualized with a Wide Area Network (WAN) as they can
be hosted on public or private cloud service providers and cloud networks are available if there is a
demand. Cloud Networks consist of Virtual Routers, Firewalls, etc.
These are just a few basic concepts of computer networking. Networking is a vast and complex field, and
there are many more concepts and technologies involved in building and maintaining networks. Now we
are going to discuss some more concepts on Computer Networking.
 Open system: A system that is connected to the network and is ready for communication.
 Closed system: A system that is not connected to the network and can’t be communicated with.
Types of Computer Network Architecture
Computer Network falls under these broad Categories:
 Client-Server Architecture: Client-Server Architecture is a type of Computer Network Architecture
in which Nodes can be Servers or Clients. Here, the server node can manage the Client Node
Behaviour.
 Peer-to-Peer Architecture: In P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Architecture, there is not any concept of a
Central Server. Each device is free for working as either client or server.
Network Devices
An interconnection of multiple devices, also known as hosts, that are connected using multiple paths for the
purpose of sending/receiving data or media. Computer networks can also include multiple
devices/mediums which help in the communication between two different devices; these are known
as Network devices and include things such as routers, switches, hubs, and bridges.

Network Devices
Network Topology

The Network Topology is the layout arrangement of the different devices in a network. Some types of
network topologies are:
 Bus Topology: In bus topology all devices are connected to a single central cable called a bus.
Data is sent along this cable and all devices share the same connection. Simple and cheap to set
up but if the main cable fails the whole network goes down.
 Star Topology: In star topology all devices are connected to a central node called hub or switch.
The hub controls the flow of data between devices. If one device fails the rest of the network is
unaffected. But, if the central hub fails the whole network stops working.
 Ring Topology: In ring topology devices are connected in a circular loop with each device
connected to two others. Data travels in one direction (or sometimes both) passing through each
device until it reaches its destination. A failure in one device can affect the whole network.
 Mesh Topology: In mesh topology every device is connected to every other device in the network.
It provides multiple paths for data so if one path fails another can take over.
 Tree Topology: Tree topology is the combination of star and bus topology. Tree topology is good for
organizing large networks and allows for easy expansion.
 Hybrid Topology: Hybrid topology is the combination of two or more different topologies (like star
and mesh). It is flexible and can be customized based on the network’s specific needs.

Network Topology
OSI Model
OSI stands for Open Systems Interconnection. It is a reference model that specifies standards for
communications protocols and also the functionalities of each layer. The OSI has been developed by the
International Organization For Standardization and it is 7 layer architecture. Each layer of OSI has different
functions and each layer has to follow different protocols. The 7 layers are as follows:
 Physical Layer
 Data link Layer
 Network Layer
 Transport Layer
 Session Layer
 Presentation Layer
 Application Layer
Network Protocols
A protocol is a set of rules or algorithms which define the way how two entities can communicate across the
network and there exists a different protocol defined at each layer of the OSI model. A few such protocols
are TCP, IP, UDP, ARP, DHCP, FTP, and so on.
 Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP): TCP/IP is the foundational protocol
suite of the internet, enabling reliable communication. TCP Ensures data is delivered reliably and in
order and IP routes data packets to their destination based on IP addresses.
 Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and HTTPS: HTTP and HTTPS protocols used for
transmitting web pages. In HTTP communication is unsecured and in HTTPS secured
communication using SSL/TLS encryption.
 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): SMTP protocol used to send email. SMTP protocol works
with other protocols like POP3 and IMAP for email retrieval.
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP): FTP protocol used for transferring files between computers. Includes
commands for uploading, downloading, and managing files on a remote server.
 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP): DHCP protocol automatically assigns IP
addresses to devices on a network. Reduces manual configuration and IP address conflicts.
 Domain Name System (DNS): DNS Translates human-friendly domain names into IP addresses.
Ensures seamless navigation on the internet.

 Unique Identifiers of Network

IP Address (Internet Protocol address): Also known as the Logical Address, the IP Address is the
network address of the system across the network. To identify each device in the world-wide-web, the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) assigns an IPV4 (Version 4) address as a unique identifier to
each device on the Internet. The length of an IPv4 address is 32 bits, hence, we have 232 IP addresses
available. The length of an IPv6 address is 128 bits.
In Windows Type “ipconfig” in the command prompt and press ‘Enter’, this gives us the IP address of the
device. For Linux, Type “ifconfig” in the terminal and press ‘Enter’ this gives us the IP address of the
device.
MAC Address (Media Access Control address): Also known as physical address, the MAC Address is
the unique identifier of each host and is associated with its NIC (Network Interface Card). A MAC address is
assigned to the NIC at the time of manufacturing. The length of the MAC address is: 12-nibble/ 6 bytes/ 48
bits Type “ipconfig/all” in the command prompt and press ‘Enter’, this gives us the MAC address.
Port: A port can be referred to as a logical channel through which data can be sent/received to an
application. Any host may have multiple applications running, and each of these applications is identified
using the port number on which they are running.
A port number is a 16-bit integer, hence, we have 216 ports available which are categorized as shown
below:

Port Types Range

Well known Ports 0 – 1023

Registered Ports 1024 – 49151

Ephemeral Ports 49152 – 65535

Number of ports: 65,536

Range: 0 – 65535
Type “netstat -a” in the command prompt and press ‘Enter’, this lists all the ports being used.

List of Ports
Socket: The unique combination of IP address and Port number together is termed a Socket.
Other Related Concepts
DNS Server: DNS stands for Domain Name System. DNS is basically a server that translates web
addresses or URLs (ex: www.google.com) into their corresponding IP addresses. We don’t have to
remember all the IP addresses of each and every website. The command ‘nslookup’ gives you the IP
address of the domain you are looking for. This also provides information on our DNS Server. \

Domain IP Address
ARP: ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol. It is used to convert an IP address to its
corresponding physical address(i.e., MAC Address). ARP is used by the Data Link Layer to identify the
MAC address of the Receiver’s machine.
RARP: RARP stands for Reverse Address Resolution Protocol. As the name suggests, it provides the IP
address of the device given a physical address as input. But RARP has become obsolete since the time
DHCP has come into the picture.
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a critical component of computer networking. It converts easily
recognizable domain names, such as www.example.com, into numerical IP addresses that computers use
to identify each other on the network.
How DNS Works?
DNS works efficiently, translating user-friendly domain names into IP addresses, allowing seamless
navigation on the internet. Below step by step working of DNS:
 User Input: When a user enters a domain name in a browser, the system needs to find its IP
address.
 DNS Query: The user’s device sends a DNS query to the DNS resolver.
  Resolver Request: The DNS resolver checks its cache for the IP address. If not found, it forwards
the request to the root DNS server.
 Root DNS Server: The root DNS server provides the address of the TLD (Top-Level Domain)
server for the specific domain extension (e.g., .com).
 TLD DNS Server: The TLD server directs the resolver to the authoritative DNS server for the actual
domain.
 Authoritative DNS Server: The authoritative DNS server knows the IP address for the domain and
provides it to the resolver.
 Response to User: The resolver stores the IP address in its cache and sends it to the user’s
device.
 Access Website: With the IP address, the user’s device can access the desired website.
Network Security
Ensuring the security of a network is crucial to protect data and resources from unauthorized access and
attacks. Key aspects of network security include:
 Firewalls: Devices or software that monitor and control incoming and outgoing network traffic based
on security rules.
 Encryption: The process of encoding data to prevent unauthorized access. Commonly used
in VPNs, HTTPS, and secure email.
 Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS): Tools that monitor network traffic for suspicious activity and
potential threats.
 Access Control: Mechanisms that restrict access to network resources based on user identity and
role.
 Regular Updates and Patching: Keeping software and hardware up to date to protect against
vulnerabilities.
Why Use Computer Networks?
Computer network play a important role in modern life. Here are some key benefits of computer networks:
 Fast and Easy Communication: Networks enable all types of digital communication, like emails,
messaging, file sharing, video calls, and streaming.
 More Storage Space: Suppose if we don’t have a cloud storage then we have to store data in
physical files that will consume a physical space so computer network provide a storage for storing
data.
 Easier Sharing of Information: Networks make it simpler for users and teams to share resources
and information. Teams can collaborate more easily, and users get faster response from network
devices.
 Better Security: Well designed networks are more reliable and give businesses more options for
keeping data safe. They come with built-in security features like encryption and access controls to
protect sensitive information from cyber threats.

What is Data Management?

Over the last few decades, the constant development of cloud systems, artificial intelligence, and
the Internet of Things has achieved remarkable growth in collaborating with big data. With the more
complex structures, data management contributes a lot at the enterprise level to manage the data. It is
most important to understand that the data management system plays an important role in ensuring the
smooth functioning of businesses and organizations that mainly deal with data.
An efficient approach of collecting, filtering, as well as deploying data sets in a structured manner to
achieve the projected organization’s goals and decision-making process. In the effective data
management system, it is the most important process for the information technology sector. It runs
business applications by providing analytical information. The whole process is a combination of different
functions that are collectively developed to ensure accessibility to the data. In this blog, we are going to
discuss today the critical concepts of data management and its significance, with the associated risks
and difficulties of the data handling process.
What is Data Management?
Data management is a functional system for collecting and analyzing raw datasets. The main goal of this
process is to help people, and organizations and optimize the use of data by maintaining the policy and
regulations. There are some key components of data management include as:
It is the first and foremost process, where you need to collect and gather the data from various sources in a
raw format. They could be structured or unstructured. You need to sort the data in a secure and organized
manner. This step involves selecting appropriate storage technology based on the data volume.
Collection of data is the first and foremost process, where you need to collect and gather the data from
various sources in a raw format. They could be structured or unstructured. You need to sort the data in a
secure and organized manner. This step involves selecting appropriate storage technology based on the
data volume. Processing the data is an important process to filter the data into a structured format. It
involves data cleaning, aggregating, and enhancing the dataset to make it more meaningful. When you
need to assure the accuracy and reliability of the data, you should maintain the data quality which involves
the validation rules, and error-checking processes.
Maintaining data security and privacy processes implement security measures to protect the data from
unauthorized access, security breaches, and data loss by imposing data encryption and access control.
Furthermore, it is important to analyze the data by applying the data mining process, machine learning,
and data visualization processes. There are different types of data management lifecycles in the market,
by which organizations can maintain the business and regulatory requirements to develop a durable data
set. It leads to managing the process of metadata and provides detailed information about
the structure, mining process, and data usage to perform the process effectively.
Importance of Data Management
In today’s data-driven world, data management has become a paramount concept, which involves various
organizations, storage, processing, and data protection. It increases data accuracy and accessibility to
ensure user reliability. Here are some key reasons that make Data Management very important:
1. Informed Decision-Making Process: Data is the most important component for businesses and
organizations because they make their important decisions based on data. A proper data
management process ensures that the decision-makers have direct access to the updated
information which helps to make effective choices.
2. Data Quality and Efficiency: A well-managed data set leads to a streamlined process, which helps
to maintain data quality and efficiency. It reduces error risks and poor decision-making.
3. Compliance and Customer Trust: Many organisations have strict regulations to maintain the data
management process properly. It also follows effective processes to handle client data responsibly.
4. Strategy Development and Innovation: In the modern context, data is a valuable asset that can
help organisations to identify trends and potential opportunities with the challenges. It helps to
understand the organisations to culture the market trends with customer behaviour. On the other
hand, effective data management allows you to analyse the previous data to identify the patterns
which lead to the development of new products and solutions.
 5. Long-term Sustainability: Proper data management helps organisations to plan for the long run. It
helps to master data management efficiently by reducing redundancies, data duplication, and
unnecessary storage costs.
6. Competitive Advantage: Proper data management entitles organisations to explore market trends,
customer behaviours, and other insights that can help them outperform competitors.
Data Management Responsibilities and Roles in IT industry
In the IT field, data management involves various job roles and responsibilities to process data properly.
Different data management job roles collaborate with the users to handle the different aspects of data
management. Here are some common data management jobs in the IT industry –
 Data Manager: They are responsible for overseeing the whole data management strategy. They
define the data handling policies and standards by ensuring the data quality, accuracy, and
compliance regulations.
 Database Administrator: The job role is related to the database management system. Here the
main work is to manage and maintain the databases to store the relevant data by ensuring overall
performance and security.
 Data Architect: Data architects design the structure and architecture of the database and whole
data systems. It includes the data models and schemas with the developed relationships between
the data set to achieve the business requirements.
 Data Analyst: Respective persons perform the data analysis process with data visualisation by
analysing the current trends and patterns.
 Data Scientist: They utilise statistical data processing, specifically machine learning techniques,
and algorithms to solve complex problems. They mostly collaborate with the businesses and
technical teams to deploy the production models.
 Data Security Analyst: They are responsible to implement and manage the security measures to
protect the data from breaches and unnecessary access. They monitor all the data access by
ensuring the security policies in collaboration with the IT and security teams.
 Chief Data Officers: CDOs hold a strategic role in the IT field and check the data-related activities
by defining the data management strategies to achieve the business goals and objectives.
Risks and Challenges in Data Management
While effective data management can produce significant benefits, on the other hand, there are so many
risks and challenges related to it. Here are some aspects of them:
 Security and Privacy: Unauthorised access to sensitive data by hacking can be a cause of data
breaches, which can expose confidential information and may cause financial losses for an
organisation.
 Data Quality: Poor data quality and duplicate data lead to stemming errors during data collection,
leading to incorrect decision-making. It occupies valuable storage and creates confusion during the
analysis process.
 Data Governance: Lack of data ownership and access control can lead to inconsistent data
management. This process leads to security risks and compromises the security of data.
 Data Integration Process: Integrating the data from various sources is difficult, as it contains
different formats and complex structures. It disrupts the proper decision-making and process of data
analysis.
 Data Scaling: Scaling the data management systems is needed to increase the data loads to
maintain the performance by overcoming technical challenges.
  Data Lifecycle Management: Organisations need to be transparent in their data retention policies
which helps to determine the data processing time and which data needs to be deleted. Data
disposal is also needed for security measures to prevent unauthorised access.
 Data Analysis: Analysing complex and various data sets, required to create the advanced analytics
tools. For actionable data insight development, it is needed to understand the business context
properly with the particular domain knowledge.

Overview of Everything as a Service (XaaS)

Before only cloud computing technology was there and various cloud service providers were providing
various cloud services to the customers. But now a new concept has emerged i.e Everything as a Service
(XaaS) means anything can now be a service with the help of cloud computing and remote accessing.
Where cloud computing technologies provide different kinds of services over the web networks. In
Everything as a Service, various tools and technologies, and services are provided to users as a service.
Before XaaS and cloud services, companies have to buy licensed products and install them, had to all
securities on their site and provide infrastructure for business purposes. With XaaS, business is simplified
as they have to pay for what they need. This Everything as a Service is also known as Anything as a
Service.
Examples of XaaS :
As XaaS stands for “Everything as a service”, There are many examples. There are many varieties of cloud
computing models like –
1. Software as a Service (SaaS)
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
3. Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)
4. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
5. Communication as a Service (CaaS)
6. Network as a Service (NaaS)
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
7. Desktop as a Service (DaaS) etc.
SaaS provides many software applications like Google Apps, and Microsoft Office 365. Similarly, PaaS
offers AWS, Heroku, Apache Stratos, and other sources relating to application development and testing.
IaaS helps to deploy and configure virtual machines and manage these remotely. IaaS also provide
services to Azure and Google Computer Engine.
Everything as a Service Model Examples :
1. Hardware as a Service (HaaS) –
Managed Service Providers (MSP) provide and install some hardware on the customer’s site on
demand. The customer uses the hardware according to service level agreements. This model is
very similar to IaaS as computing resources present at MSP’s site are provided to users substituted
for physical hardware.
2. Communication as a Service (CaaS) –
This model comprises solutions for different communication like IM, VoIP, and video conferencing
applications which are hosted in the provider’s cloud. Such a method is cost-effective and reduces
time expenses.
 3. Desktop as a Service (DaaS) –
DaaS provider mainly manages storing, security, and backing up user data for desktop apps. And a
client can also work on PCs using third-party servers.
4. Security as a Service (SECaaS) –
In this method, the provider integrates security services with the company’s infrastructure through
the internet which includes anti-virus software, authentication, encryption, etc.
5. Healthcare as a Service (HaaS) –
The healthcare industry has opted for the model HaaS service through electronic medical records
(EMR). IoT and other technologies have enhanced medical services like online consultations, health
monitoring 24/7, medical service at the doorstep e.g. lab sample collection from home, etc.
6. Transport as a Service (TaaS) –
Nowadays, there are numerous apps that help in mobility and transport in modern society. The
model is both convenient and ecological friendly e.g. Uber taxi services is planning to test flying
taxis and self-driving planes in the future.
Benefits in XaaS :
 Cost Saving –
When an organization uses XaaS then it helps in cost-cutting and simplifies IT deployments.
 Scalability –
XaaS can easily handle the growing amount of work by providing the required resources/service.
 Accessibility –
It helps in easy accessing and improving accessibility as long as the internet connection is there.
 Faster Implementation –
It provides faster implementation time to various activities of the organization.
 Quick Modification –
It provides updates for modification as well as undergoes quick updating by providing quality
services.
 Better Security –
It contains improved security controls and is configured to the exact requirements of the business.
 Boost innovation –
While XaaS is used it Streamlines the operations and frees up resources for innovation.
 Flexibility –
XaaS provides flexibility by using cloud services and multiple advanced approaches.
Disadvantages in XaaS :
 Internet Breakage –
Internet breaks sometimes for XaaS service providers where there can also be issues in internet
reliability, provisioning, and managing the infrastructure resources.
 Slowdown –
When too many clients are using the same resources at the same time, the system can slow down.
 Difficult in Troubleshoot –
XaaS can be a solution for IT staff in day-to-day operational headaches, but if anywhere problem
occurs it is harder to troubleshoot it as in XaaS multiple services are included with various
technologies and tools.
 Change brings problems –
If a XaaS provider discontinues a service or alters it gives an impact on XaaS users.
XaaS is on the rise now :
Public cloud services are growing at an exponential rate. Researchers assumed that global cloud
computing revenue is going to reach $342 billion dollars by 2025. Through the XaaS model by servitization,
products and services are combined through which businesses innovate faster and enhance their
relationship with customers which further increases their revenue.
Future of XaaS :
A combination of cloud computing and good internet access allows accessing good quality XaaS services
and better improvement of XaaS. Some companies are not confident to take XaaS because of security and
business governance concerns. But service providers increasingly reveal these concerns which allow
organizations which put additional workloads into the cloud.

IoT and Cloud Computing

One component that improves the success of the Internet of Things is Cloud Computing. Cloud computing
enables users to perform computing tasks using services provided over the Internet. The use of the Internet
of Things in conjunction with cloud technologies has become a kind of catalyst: the Internet of Things and
cloud computing are now related to each other. These are true technologies of the future that will bring
many benefits.
Due to the rapid growth of technology, the problem of storing, processing, and accessing large amounts of
data has arisen. Great innovation relates to the mutual use of the Internet of Things and cloud technologies.
In combination, it will be possible to use powerful processing of sensory data streams and new monitoring
services. As an example, sensor data can be uploaded and saved using cloud computing for later use as
intelligent monitoring and activation using other devices. The goal is to transform data into insights and thus
drive cost-effective and productive action.
Benefits And Functions of IoT Cloud:
There are many benefits of combining these services –
1. IoT Cloud Computing provides many connectivity options, implying large network access. People
use a wide range of devices to gain access to cloud computing resources: mobile devices, tablets,
laptops. This is convenient for users but creates the problem of the need for network access points.
2. Developers can use IoT cloud computing on-demand. In other words, it is a web service accessed
without special permission or any help. The only requirement is Internet access.
3. Based on the request, users can scale the service according to their needs. Fast and flexible means
you can expand storage space, edit software settings, and work with the number of users. Due to
this characteristic, it is possible to provide deep computing power and storage.
4. Cloud Computing implies the pooling of resources. It influences increased collaboration and builds
close connections between users.
5. As the number of IoT devices and automation in use grows, security concerns emerge. Cloud
solutions provide companies with reliable authentication and encryption protocols.
6. Finally, IoT cloud computing is convenient because you get exactly as much from the service as you
pay. This means that costs vary depending on use: the provider measures your usage statistics. A
growing network of objects with IP addresses is needed to connect to the Internet and exchange
data between the components of the network.
It is important to note that cloud architecture must be well-designed since reliability, security, economy, and
performance optimization depends upon it. Using well-designed CI/CD pipelines, structured services, and
sandboxed environments results in a secure environment and agile development.
Comparison of Internet of Things and Cloud Computing:
Cloud is a centralized system helping to transfer and deliver data and files to data centers over the Internet.
A variety of data and programs are easy to access from a centralized cloud system.
The Internet of Things refers to devices connected to the Internet. In the IoT, data is stored in real-time, as
well as historical data. The IoT can analyze and instruct devices to make effective decisions, as well as
track how certain actions function.
Cloud computing encompasses the delivery of data to data centers over the Internet. IBM divides cloud
computing into six different categories:
1. Platform as a Service (PaaS) –
The cloud contains everything you need to build and deliver cloud applications so there is no need
to maintain and buy equipment, software, etc.
2. Software as a Service (SaaS) –
In this case, applications run in the cloud and other companies operate devices that connect to
users’ computers through a web browser.
3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) –
IaaS is an option providing companies with storage, servers, networks and hubs processing data for
each use.
4. Public cloud –
Companies manage spaces and provide users with quick access through the public network.
5. Private cloud –
The same as a public cloud, but only one person has access here, which can be an organization, an
individual company, or a user.
6. Hybrid cloud –
Based on a private cloud, but provides access to a public cloud.
Now, the Internet of Things refers to connecting devices to the Internet. Everyday devices such as cars and
household appliances may have an Internet connection, and with the advancement of the Internet of
Things, more and more devices will join this list.
Pairing with edge computing:
Data processing at the network edge or edge computing is used with IoT solutions and enables faster
processing and response times. To get a better understanding of how this works, consider a large factory
with many implemented IoT sensors. In this situation, it makes sense, before sending data to the cloud for
processing, to aggregate it close to the border to prevent cloud overload by reducing direct connections.
Data centers with this approach make data processing much faster. Yet, an approach that is only based on
the edge will never provide a complete view of business operations. If there is no cloud solution, then the
factory only controls each unit individually. Also, it has no way of imagining how these units work in relation
to each other. This is why only the combination of the edge and the cloud will enable businesses to benefit
from IoT developments.
The Role of Cloud Computing on the Internet of Things:
Cloud computing works to improve the efficiency of daily tasks in conjunction with the Internet of Things.
Cloud computing is about providing a path for data to reach its destination while the Internet of Things
generates a huge amount of data.
According to Amazon Web Services, there are four benefits of cloud computing:
1. No need to pre-guess infrastructure capacity needs
2. Saves money, because you only need to pay for those resources that you use, the larger the scale,
the more savings
3. In a few minutes, platforms can be deployed around the world
4. Flexibility and speed in providing resources to developers
Thus, the role of cloud computing in IoT is to work together to store IoT data, providing easy access when
needed. It’s important to note that cloud computing is an easy way to move large data packets across the
Internet generated by the IoT.
What is IoT Security?
IoT Security is based on a cybersecurity strategy to defend against cyberattacks on IoT devices and the
vulnerable networks they are linked to. There is no built-in security on IoT devices, as IoT devices behave
without being noticed by traditional cybersecurity systems and transport data over the internet in an
unencrypted manner, IoT security is necessary to assist in avoiding data breaches.
Security was not considered during the design of IoT devices. The constant diversity and expansion of IoT
devices and communication channels raises the possibility that cyber attacks may target your company.
What is IoT Security?
IoT security is a technology area that particularly focuses on protecting connected devices and networks in
IoT. The act of protecting these devices and making sure they don't bring risks into a network is known as
IoT security. Attacks are likely to occur to anything linked to the Internet at some time. From the Internet of
Things devices, Attackers may utilize remote access to steal data by using a variety of strategies, including
credential theft and vulnerability exploitation.
Types of IoT Security
IoT security encompasses a multi-layered approach to protect devices, networks, and data. It involves both
user and manufacturer responsibilities.
1. Network Security
This focuses on safeguarding the overall IoT network infrastructure. It involves:
 Establishing a strong network perimeter: Implementing firewalls, intrusion detection systems,
and access controls to prevent unauthorized entry.
 Enforcing zero-trust architecture: Assuming every device and user is potentially malicious,
requiring continuous verification.
 Securing network communication: Encrypting data transmitted between devices and using
secure protocols.
2. Device Security

This centers on protecting individual IoT devices:

 Embedded security agents: Employing lightweight software to monitor device behavior and detect
anomalies.
 Firmware hardening: Ensuring device software is free from vulnerabilities through rigorous testing
and updates.
 Secure boot process: Verifying the integrity of the device's operating system before startup.
3. Data Security
This safeguards the information generated and transmitted by IoT devices:
 Data encryption: Protecting data both at rest and in transit using strong encryption algorithms.
 Data privacy: Implementing measures to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access.
 Data integrity: Ensuring data accuracy and consistency through checksums and other techniques.
How Does IoT Security Work?

 IoT devices are any devices that can store data by connecting to the cloud.
  IoT devices need a special set of cybersecurity guidelines because of how they differ from
conventional mobile devices. They lack the benefit of built-in security guidelines seen in
mobile operating systems like iOS and Android.
 A lot of information is stored in the cloud, if an attacker manages to get access to the user's
account, it might be exploited for identity theft or privacy invasion.
 Although there isn't a single solution for IoT security, cybersecurity experts have made it their
mission to inform manufacturers and developers about secure coding practices and how to
strengthen cloud activity defences.
Importance of IoT Security
 Cyberattacks are a continual concern because of the unusual way that IoT devices are
manufactured and the enormous volume of data they process.
 IoT security is necessary, as evidenced by some high-profile cases in which a common IoT device
was an advantage to breach and attack the wider network.
 Strong IoT security is desperately needed, as seen by the regular threat of vulnerabilities, data
breaches, and other dangers related to the use of IoT devices.
 IoT security, which encompasses a broad variety of tactics, strategies, protocols, and activities
aimed at reducing the growing IoT vulnerabilities of contemporary firms, is essential for
corporations.
Benefits of IoT Security

Below are some benefits of IoT Security

 Network protection: By identifying and preventing threats like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
attacks, which can disrupt and harm the whole network, security solutions may aid in the protection
of the Internet of Things as a whole.
 Privacy protection: These solutions shield user privacy from unauthorized surveillance, data theft,
and device tracking by protecting IoT devices.
 Scalability: Strong IoT security is scalable in that it can keep up with the expansion of an
organization's IoT environment and guarantee security protocols work even as the number of
connected devices rises.
 Device protection: IoT security ensures the lifetime and correct operation of devices by protecting
them from viruses, hacking, and unauthorized access.
IoT Security Issues and Challenges
Below are some challenges of IoT Security
 Lack of industry foresight: Certain sectors and their products have undergone digital changes at
the same rate as organizations. In an attempt to increase productivity and save costs, the
automotive and healthcare sectors have broadened their range of IoT devices.
 Lack of encryption. The majority of network traffic coming from Internet of Things devices is not
encrypted which raises the risk of data breaches and security concerns. By making sure every
device is encrypted and secured, these risks may be averted.
 Multiple connected devices: Nowadays, the majority of homes have several linked devices. The
disadvantage of this ease of use is that all linked devices within the same home will malfunction if
one item malfunctions due to a security misconfiguration.
 Resource constraints. Not every IoT device has the processing capacity to include
complex firewalls or antivirus programs. Some devices can hardly connect to other devices at all.
Which Industries are Most Vulnerable to IoT Security Threats?
Cyberattacks pose significant risks to various industries.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing sector has become a prime target of cybercriminals since its wide dependency on
interconnected systems and supply chains is at an all-time high. The most widespread threats are:
 Industrial spying: This refers to an act where competitors or nation-states that steal or attempt to
steal a company's intellectual property, product designs, or even the way in which a particular
product is being manufactured.
 Supply chain attacks: Suppliers or third-party vendors are compromised to get access to the target
organization.
 Ransomware: Critical systems are encrypted, and in return for their restoration and hence return of
operations, a huge ransom is demanded, hence financial loss and production disturbance.
 IoT vulnerabilities: All kinds of vulnerabilities that exist in industrial IoT devices are exploited to
interrupt operations or steal data.
Finance and Insurance
The financial sector has been of interest to each attacker, for the reason that it contains sensitive financial
information and huge amounts of money. The various threats posed against them are:
 Fraudulent activities: Entail financial fraud, including identity theft, account takeover, and
fraudulent transactions.
 Cyber spying: Financial data, trade secrets, customer information can be stolen for competitive
advantage.
 Ransomware: Bringing financial services to an absolute standstill, entailing huge financial losses
and reputational damage.
 Insider threats: Those people who have some kind of access to sensitive information may bring
along certain risks because of negligence or malicious intentions.
Energy and Utilities
The energy sector provides critical services and represents high-value targets. Potential threats include:
 Cyber-physical attacks: These are attacks aimed at IT and OT systems with the view to disrupt
power generation, distribution, or transmission.
 Data breaches: exposure of sensitive customer information, financial data, and operational data.
 Spying: Intellectual property, trade secrets, and critical infrastructure information are stolen.
 Sabotage: This includes attacks on infrastructures, which cause disruptions of operations, resulting
in blackouts and losses of production.
Retail
Processing vast amounts of customer data and transacting thousands of sales daily, the retail industry
becomes a more tantalizing target for attackers by the day. Some common threats include:
 POS attacks: Stealing payment card data either via malware or through skimming.
 Data breaches: Exposure of personal information of customers, which can lead to identity theft and
financial losses.
 Supply chain attacks: Targeting suppliers or logistic providers to cause disruption in its operations
or stealing data.
 E-commerce fraud: It includes unauthorized access to online shops and processing fraudulent
orders and crimes related to payment.
Healthcare
The healthcare sector contains sensitive information about the patients, making it one of the most prized
targets for cybercriminals. Some of the important threats include:
 Ransomware: This could disrupt patient care, followed by financial loss and reputational damage.
 Data breaches: Exposure of patient records, including personally identifiable information, medical
history, and financial data.
 Insider threats: Those employees or contractors who have access to patient data and become a
source of risk owing to negligence or malice.
 Medical device vulnerabilities: The exploitation of medical devices for vulnerabilities will then
allow the disruption of operations or data theft.
Public Administration
Governmental organizations manage sensitive information, critical infrastructure, and national security;
therefore they are susceptible to the following threats.
 Cyber spying: It involves the theft of classified information, intellectual property, and national
security secrets.
 Disinformation and propaganda: the spreading of fake information in order to change opinion,
public opinion, or destroy confidence in government.
 Ransomware: Affecting government services that disrupt financial operations and attack the
reputation.
 Supply chain attack: To gain access to sensitive information, attack the weakest link in the supply
area, which includes government contractors or suppliers.
Education and Research

Educational institutions store data of sensitive nature about all their students and employees, besides data
from lucrative research, all being a doomed target. These threats include:
 Data breaches: Personal data exposure of students, employees, financial data, and academic
records.
 Property theft: theft of research data, patents, and academic publications.
 Ransomware: This disrupts all the campus operations, including online learning and all the
administrative systems.
 Insider threats: Insider threats of the category of students, faculty, or staff are in line with sensitive
information risks.
Which IoT Devices are Most Vulnerable to Security Breaches?
Some IoT devices are more vulnerable than others due to factors like processing power, connectivity, and
the sensitivity of data they handle.
Some of the most vulnerable IoT devices asr follows:
Home IoT Devices
 Smart cameras: This device mostly comes with weak default passwords and less good encryption.
It can also be easily hacked and used for spying purposes.
 Smart speakers: Even though they are voice-controlled per se, they can turn out to be a potential
target for eavesdropping and data theft.
 Smart TVs: Web-connected; can be vulnerable to malware, data breaches, and adware.
Wearable Devices
 Smartwatches and fitness trackers: Even though these devices are majorly used to collect the
least amount of personal data, this kind of sensitive information might be discovered upon
infringement.
 Medical devices—pacemakers and insulin pumps—which, when hacked, may lead to fatal
results.
Industrial IoT Devices
 ICS (Industrial Control Systems): These are utilized in the control of critical infrastructure, such as
power plants and factories, and may become targets for cyber-attacks that can cause physical
damage or disruptions.
 Connected vehicles: Connectivity in vehicles has increased with years; therefore, so have the
chances of car hacking, which could result in remotecar control or data theft.
Other Vulnerable Devices
 Home Routers: As the gateway to your entire home network, a weak router can give way to the
compromise of all devices connected to it.
 Smart thermostats: It looks harmless, but they could have actually been part of a botnet or even
used as spies over your home.
Which Industries Need IoT Security?
IoT Security thus has a huge role in various industries because most of them are getting interconnected.
Some of the sectors that really need strong IoT Security:
 Healthcare: Even medical devices, like pacemakers, insulin pumps, and remote patient monitoring
systems, are susceptible to cyber-attacks that may result in the loss of lives.
 Manufacturing: Cyber attacks paralyze ICS/OT environments of critical infrastructure and bring
with them enormous financial losses and safety hazards.
 Energy and Utilities: This sector represents critical infrastructure that is accompanied by a high
utilization of IoT devices, powering power grids and water treatment plants, among others, making
them very attractive targets for cyber-attacks that may have catastrophic consequences.
 Transportation: Autonomous vehicles, smart traffic systems, and connected cars use vast volumes
of data, making them quite vulnerable to hacking and subsequent data breaches.
 Financial Services: IoT-related devices used in banking, payments, and financial transactions
process sensitive financial data and hence require robust security measures against fraud and data
theft.
 Retail: Point-of-sale systems, inventory management data, and customer data are all at risk if IoT
devices are compromised.
 Government: IoT security is necessary for critical infrastructure, national security, and citizen data.
 Agriculture: Cyber-attacks on smart farms and IoT-enabled equipment can affect food production
and its supply chain.
 Building Automation: Security is required for smart buildings with IoT-enabled systems against
unauthorized access and data breaches.
How to protect IoT systems and devices?
Here are the steps to secure IoT Devices
  DNS filtering: Using the Domain Name System to restrict harmful websites is known as DNS
filtering. When DNS filtering is added to a network including IoT devices, it stops such devices from
connecting to domains that are not authorized.
 Encryption: Without encryption, data transfers between IoT devices are susceptible to on-path and
external attackers while travelling over the network. Consider encryption as a means of protecting a
letter's contents during transit via the postal service, similar to an envelope.
 Device authentication: Internet of Things (IoT) devices are connected to servers, other networked
devices, and one other. All connected devices must undergo authentication to prevent unwanted
inputs or requests from third parties.
 Security of credentials: If at all feasible, IoT device admin credentials must be updated. It is
recommended to avoid sharing login credentials between various apps and devices, instead every
device should have its password. In doing so, credential-based attacks are less likely.
Tools to Secure IoT Devices
 ForeScout Platform: This protects and ensures on a network the consent of all managed and
unmanaged devices, including IT, IoT, and OT devices, using zero trust principles.
 Microsoft Defender for IoT: Microsoft Defender for IoT helps enterprises manage, discover, and
protect their IoT and OT devices. Extra features include network and device threat monitoring
around the clock, identifying every asset and device.
 Asimily: Asimily is a complete IoT security platform that focuses on medical and laboratory
equipment.
 AWS IoT Device Defender: AWS IoT Device Defender is Amazon's Internet of Things security
management service. AWS IoT Device Defender allows administrators to authorize security
measures such as authentication and permission.

CHAPTER 2
IoT Hardware Devices
Building blocks of IoT Hardware

1. “Things”: Things in IoT are any devices that are capable of connecting to the internet. They can transmit,
retrieve and store huge amounts of data that they collect from the surrounding. They include home
appliances such as geysers, microwaves, thermostats and refrigerators
2. Data Acquisition module: As the term suggests, this module is responsible for acquiring data from the
physical surroundings or environment. These could include changes in the temperature, movement,
humidity and pressure.
3. Data processing module: This module includes computers that process the data acquired from the
previous module. They analyze the data, store data for future references and other purposes.
4. Communication module: This is the final building block and this module is responsible for
communication with third party vendors. This could include device to device, device to server or device to
user.
IoT Hardware Devices
1. Sensors
A sensor is an IoT device that senses physical changes in the environment and sends the data for
manipulation via a network. Clouds store the data for future references. Sensors monitor data and collect
information constantly.
2. Microcontrollers
A microcontroller is a small computer that is capable of performing operations. It sits on a semiconductor
integrated circuit chip. Microcontollers usually operate on a single function and hence differ from regular
computers. They perform a variety of tasks in a relatively simpler manner. We will learn further about
microcontrollers in a while.
3. Wearable devices
Wearable devices are a benchmark revolution of the IoT industry. These are Iot devices that humans can
wear on their bodies to regulate and perform a variety of tasks. These wearables are capable of tracking
glucose levels, monitor heart attack risks, coagulation and asthma monitoring, daily step and calorie
consumption tracking.
4. Basic devices
Traditional computers such as desktops, tablets and cellphones are still an integral part of any IoT
ecosystem. Desktops offer users with simple access to a lot of information and cell phones allow remote
access to Iot devices using APIs.
5. Datasheets
Datasheets give the details about the functionality of any hardware components. It is important to study
the datasheet of any hardware before making a purchase to make sure you are buying the right product.
Datasheets offer you detailed information on the parameters of the hardware, its physical size, different
voltage and electrical parameters, maximum current usage and the number of input/output pins.
Datasheets are highly useful as they give you all the information you need before buying complicated
hardware components.
6. Integrated circuits
Integrated circuits are chips. They are microcontrollers. You can buy empty chips in the market and
download any kind of design into the chip. They are made using Silicon and it is packaged into shapes of
rectangles. These chips contain complicated logic circuits, gates, registers, switches, I/O terminals and flip
flops.
Integrated circuits do a variety of functions, they can perform arithmetic and logical calculations. They act
as processors too. They contain binary coded information which is programmed to perform a set of
tasks.
Standard chips are available in the market that perform a fixed set of operations. You can also construct
chips to perform your desired set of functions and these are known as custom made chips.
Types of IoT hardware
It is easier to develop an IoT application these days due to the ease in the availability of boards, Integrated
circuits, prototype kits and platforms. These hardware components are low cost and reliable, they offer
flexibility and the choice to design custom sensors with specific applications. At the same time you can also
specify the networking area, data management and other functionalities you want your IoT application to
have.
The two most common System on a chip(SoS) Integrated Circuits these days are Micro Controllers
and Single-board computers. SoCs place microprocessors, storage, networking and data processing on
a single unit in the chip and thus they are largely in use in the market to manufacture IoT devices. There is
a wide range of hardware components to choose from and based on your requirements you can pick the
one that matches your proptype perfectly.
a. Microcontrollers
Microcontrollers are a type of SoC that provides data processing and storage units. They contain a
processor for processing , ROMs and ROMS for storage.
IoT hardware is tightly constrained. There is a lot to fit in a tiny amount of space unlike a desktop or a
laptop. When you start building an IoT system, you must pick a microcontroller that fits your desired
purpose. You might have to look at its datasheet to understand the properties and specifications.
Microcontrollers are the centre of the IoT system. They have properties such as Datapath Bandwidth.
Datapath Bandwidth specifies the number of bits in the registers. The more bits the more accurate the
results are.
Microcontrollers connect to all the components of the system and thus they must have
adequate input/output pins. Microcontrollers must have performance depending on what system you are
developing. IoT systems are real time applications which require timers. Digital to Analog converters
and Low-power modes.
Microcontrollers use a communication protocol to communicate with one another. The most common ones
used are UART, I2C, SPI etc. The protocols are helpful when you are building bigger systems that require
constant communication with other devices.
We mainly use microcontrollers for low power requirement, simple tasks.
The common and popular microcontrollers available are Arduino Uno, Particle Electron and Espressif
Systems ESP8266-01.
b. Single-Board Computer(SBC)
SBCs are single board computers that contain all the processing and computing properties of a computer
on a single board. SBCs have memory units to store code and data, input and output units and
microprocessors for computing. It also includes an in-built RAM. Cellphones, video game consoles,
appliances use SBCs.
They are a preferred choice in Iot industrial applications as they improve the functionality of a regular
computer, they are easily available and reduce the cost of transportation. SBCs deliver high performance
and are extremely reliable Iot hardware devices.
Based on the kind of project you are making, you choose a SBC that fits into all your needs for that specific
project. SBCs are ready made and available in the market at cheap prices as compared to desktops and
computers.
The types of SBCs commonly available in the market are Raspberry Pis, Beagleboard and Qualcomm
DragonBoard 410c.
IoT Data Communication Protocols
Below you'll find a brief breakdown of the some of the different IoT data protocols, namely:
 Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT)
 HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
 Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)

Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT)

Designed to be lightweight, so it can work in very low bandwidth networks, MQTT allows communication
between nodes in both reliable and unreliable networks. MQTT follows a publish/subscribe architecture,
meaning that there are nodes (brokers) that make the information available, while others (clients) can read
the available information after subscribing by accessing the corresponding URL.
A use case of MQTT is in a smart factory where there are temperature sensors installed along with the
production plant. The installed sensors will connect to the MQTT broker and will publish the data within
sensor topics, as follows:

sensors/temperature/assemblyLineInit

Afterward, the MQTT clients, which can be of several types and quantities, will subscribe to the same topic
in order to read the temperature data. An example of an MQTT architecture can be seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1. MQTT's publish/subscribe architecture. Image used courtesy of MQTT

In addition, MQTT defines three levels of quality of service, depending upon the reliability, from lowest to
highest:
 Level 0: there is no guarantee of the message delivery.
 Level 1: the delivery is guaranteed, but it is possible to receive duplicate messages.
 Level 2: the delivery is guaranteed and there will be no duplicates.

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

This protocol has been the origin of data communication for the World Wide Web (WWW), so logically it is
being used in the IoT world. However, it is not optimized for it because of the following:
 The HTTP is made for two systems communicating to each other at a time, not more, so it is time
and energy-consuming to connect several sensors to get information.
 The HTTP is unidirectional, made for one system (client) to be sending one message to another one
(server). This makes it quite hard to escalate an IoT solution.
 Power consumption: HTTP relies on Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which requires a lot of
computing resources, so it is not suitable for battery-powered applications.

Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)

CoAP is a web transfer protocol to be used with limited networks with low bandwidth and low availability. It
follows a client/server architecture and is built similarly to HTTP, supporting the REST model: servers make
resources available with an URL, and clients can make requests of types GET, POST, PUT and DELETE.
The CoAP communication links are 1:1 and UDP-based, so the delivery is not guaranteed. CoAP is made
to work in highly congested networks, where nodes do not have a lot of intelligence and are not always
working.

Data Distribution Service (DDS)

Similar to MQTT, DDS follows a publish-subscribe methodology, with the main difference being that there
are no brokers. It means that all publishers (i.e., temperature sensors) and subscribers (i.e., mobile
phones) are all connected to the same network. This network is known as Global Data Space (GDS) and it
interconnects each node with all the other ones to avoid bottlenecks. An example of the DDS GDS can be
seen in Figure 2.
Figure 2. A DDS Global Data Space. Image used courtesy of the DDS Foundation

Furthermore, any node can leave or join the network, since they are dynamically discovered.

WebSocket
Linked to the HTTP protocol, the WebSocket technology establishes a TCP connection between a browser
and a server, and then both of them exchange information until the connection is closed. Figure 3 shows a
high-level comparison between HTTP and WebSocket.

Although this protocol can be seen as an improvement of the HTTP connection, the WebSocket is still very
overloaded and heavy for IoT applications.

Advanced Message Queue Protocol (AMQP)

In the beginning, AMQP was not initially created for IoT applications, but for banking environments. AMQP
accepts publish/subscribe architectures, as well as request/response types. It is TCP-based, so delivery is
guaranteed, as well as acknowledgment, which makes this protocol reliable, with the consequent overhead
message reliability.
Compared to MQTT, AMQP offers two Quality of Service levels:
 At most once: the sender does not wait until having an acknowledgment from the receiver to delete
a message.
  At least once: for each message, the sender will receive an acknowledgment from the receiver
before deleting the message. In a case where the acknowledgment is lost, the message is re-sent.
 Exactly once: the messages are sent only once. It requires special coordination between the sender
and the receiver.

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)

It is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) and in the past, it was known as Jabber. It is an open-
source, decentralized, secure protocol to exchange XML messages.
A characteristic factor of XMPP is its addressing method and how nodes are identified. It uses a Jabber ID
with the format [email protected], which allows two nodes to interchange information regardless of
the distance between them.

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA)

It is a standard made for industrial communication, strongly oriented to guarantee interoperability between
manufacturers, operating systems, and programming languages. The OPC foundation reported that many
industrial vendors are currently (as of 2022) adopting the OPC UA as the open standard.
All in all, the OPC UA is a transport-agnostic protocol, so it supports both of the previously used
architectures: request/response (such as WebSocket or HTTP), as well as the publish/subscribe (such as
the MQTT).

Synchronous Communication
The pattern of communication known as “synchronous communication” occurs when services
exchange requests and answers, typically waiting for a response before proceeding. This means
that when a microservice sends a request to another microservice, it will stop and wait for a
response before continuing with its function.
Example of Synchronous Communication:
 HTTP Request-Response: One microservice can submit an HTTP request to another
microservice and wait for a response by using HTTP protocols such as REST or SOAP.
 RPC (Remote Procedure Call): Services can use RPC frameworks like gRPC to make remote
procedure calls and wait for the response before continuing.
 Synchronous Messaging: Some message brokers support synchronous messaging patterns,
where a service sends a message and waits for a response from another service.

 Asynchronous Communication
 Asynchronous communication refers to a communication pattern where services
exchange messages or data without waiting for an immediate response. This allows
services to operate independently and asynchronously, enabling decoupling and
scalability in distributed systems.
Differences between Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication

Below are the differences between Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication:

Feature Synchronous Communication Asynchronous Communication

Real-time interaction where services Communication where services send

Definition wait for responses messages without waiting

Waiting for Services wait for responses before Services do not wait for responses and
Response proceeding continue immediately

Requires services to be available at the Services can communicate at their

Timing same time convenience

Message Queues, Event-Driven

HTTP Request-Response, RPC
Examples Architecture, Background Processing

Less flexible, as services need to be More flexible, as services can

Flexibility available simultaneously communicate independently

Generally simpler to implement and Can be more complex due to message

Complexity understand buffering and error handling
Feature Synchronous Communication Asynchronous Communication

Can be less scalable, as services may More scalable, as services can handle
Scalability block while waiting multiple requests concurrently

Errors may be more challenging to handle

Easier to handle immediate failures
Error Handling due to asynchronicity

Suitable for real-time interactions and Suitable for decoupling services and
Use Cases request-response patterns handling high loads

MQTT
MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is an OASIS standard messaging protocol for the
Internet of Things (IoT). It is designed with an extremely lightweight publish/subscribe messaging model,
making it ideal for connecting IoT devices with a small code footprint and minimal network bandwidth and
exchanging data in real-time between connected devices and cloud services.
MQTT can not only be used as a gateway to access communication on the device side, but also as a
Device-Cloud Communication Protocol. Most gateway protocols such as ZigBee and LoRa can be
converted into MQTT Protocol to connect to the Cloud.
 Lightweight and Reliable: MQTT messages are compact, enabling stable transmission on
severely constrained hardware devices and networks with low bandwidth and high latency.
 Publish/Subscribe Model: Based on the publish/subscribe model, its advantage lies in decoupling
publishers and subscribers - they don't need to establish a direct connection or be online
simultaneously.
 Designed for IoT: Provides comprehensive IoT application features such as keep alive
mechanism, will message, QoS, topic, and security management.
 More Complete Ecosystem: It covers client and SDK platforms in all languages, and has mature
Broker server software, supporting a vast number of topics, millions of device connections, and rich
enterprise integration capabilities.
MQTT is a messaging protocol that uses a publish-subscribe model, which is different from the traditional
client-server model. It separates the message sender (publisher) from the receiver (subscriber), making it
an efficient way to send and receive messages in a distributed network. Multiple publishers can send
messages to a subscriber, and multiple subscribers can receive messages from a publisher simultaneously.
MQTT today is widely used in the IoT, Industrial IoT (IIoT), Internet of Vehicles (IoV), and Connected Cars,
as well as in a wide variety of industries such as automotive, manufacturing, telecommunications,
transportation & logistics, and oil & gas, etc.
MQTT is the standard communication protocol of the IoT platform of top Cloud providers such as AWS IoT
Core, Azure IoT Hub, and Alibaba Cloud IoT platform. It is also the preferred protocol for gateways and
Cloud in various industries.
Learn more about MQTT protocol: MQTT Guide 2024.

6. CoAP
CoAP is an HTTP-like Protocol in the IoT world, used on resource-constrained IoT devices. Its detailed
specification is defined in RFC 7252.
IoT devices have limited resources like CPU, RAM, Flash, and network bandwidth. Direct data exchange
using TCP and HTTP is unrealistic. CoAP protocol emerged to solve this problem and enable these devices
to connect to the network smoothly.
CoAP incorporates HTTP design ideas and develops practical functions specific to resource-limited
devices.
 Based on the message model.
 Its transport layer is based on UDP Protocol and supports restricted devices.
 Uses request/response model similar to HTTP and binary format which is more compact than the
text format of HTTP.
 Supports two-way communication.
 Lightweight and low power consumption.
 Supports reliable transmission, data re-transmission, and block transmission to ensure reliable
arrival of data.
 Supports IP multicast.
 Supports observation mode.
 Supports asynchronous communication.
Compared with MQTT, CoAP is lighter with lower overhead, and it is more suitable for certain device and
network environments.

Introduction of ZigBee
ZigBee is a Personal Area Network task group with low rate task group 4. It is a technology of home
networking. ZigBee is a technological standard created for controlling and sensing the network. As we know
that ZigBee is the Personal Area Network of task group 4 so it is based on IEEE 802.15.4 and is created by
Zigbee Alliance.
ZigBee is an open, global, packet-based protocol designed to provide an easy-to-use architecture for
secure, reliable, low power wireless networks. Flow or process control equipment can be place anywhere
and still communicate with the rest of the system. It can also be moved, since the network doesn’t care
about the physical location of a sensor, pump or valve.
IEEE802.15.4 developed the PHY and MAC layer whereas, the ZigBee takes care of upper higher layers.
ZigBee is a standard that addresses the need for very low-cost implementation of Low power devices with
Low data rates for short-range wireless communications.
IEEE 802.15.4 supports star and peer-to-peer topologies. The ZigBee specification supports star and two
kinds of peer-to-peer topologies, mesh and cluster tree. ZigBee-compliant devices are sometimes specified
as supporting point-to-point and point-to-multipoint topologies
Types of ZigBee Devices:
 Zigbee Coordinator Device: It communicates with routers. This device is used for connecting the
devices.
 Zigbee Router: It is used for passing the data between devices.
 Zigbee End Device: It is the device that is going to be controlled.
General Characteristics of Zigbee
Standard:
 Low Power Consumption
 Low Data Rate (20- 250
kbps)
 Short-Range (75-100 meters)
 Network Join Time (~ 30
msec)
 Support Small and Large
Networks (up to 65000
devices (Theory); 240
devices (Practically))
 Low Cost of Products and Cheap Implementation (Open Source Protocol)
 Extremely low-duty cycle.
 3 frequency bands with 27 channels.
Features of Zigbee:
1. Stochastic addressing: A device is assigned a random address and announced. Mechanism for
address conflict resolution. Parents node don’t need to maintain assigned address table.
2. Link Management: Each node maintains quality of links to neighbors. Link quality is used as link cost in
routing.
3. Frequency Agility: Nodes experience interference report to channel manager, which then selects
another channel
4. Asymmetric Link: Each node has different transmit power and sensitivity. Paths may be asymmetric.
5. Power Management: Routers and Coordinators use main power. End Devices use batteries.
Advantages of Zigbee:
1. Designed for low power consumption.
2. Provides network security and application support services operating on the top of IEEE.
3. Zigbee makes possible completely networks homes where all devices are able to communicate and
be
4. Use in smart home
5. Easy implementation
6. Adequate security features.
7. Low cost: Zigbee chips and modules are relatively inexpensive, which makes it a cost-effective
solution for IoT applications.
8. Mesh networking: Zigbee uses a mesh network topology, which allows for devices to communicate
with each other without the need for a central hub or router. This makes it ideal for use in smart
home applications where devices need to communicate with each other and with a central control
hub.
9. Reliability: Zigbee protocol is designed to be highly reliable, with robust mechanisms in place to
ensure that data is delivered reliably even in adverse conditions.
Disadvantages of Zigbee :
 1. Limited range: Zigbee has a relatively short range compared to other wireless communications
protocols, which can make it less suitable for certain types of applications or for use in large
buildings.
2. Limited data rate: Zigbee is designed for low-data-rate applications, which can make it less
suitable for applications that require high-speed data transfer.
3. Interoperability: Zigbee is not as widely adopted as other IoT protocols, which can make it difficult
to find devices that are compatible with each other.
4. Security: Zigbee’s security features are not as robust as other IoT protocols, making it more
vulnerable to hacking and other security threats.
Architecture of Zigbee:
Zigbee architecture is a combination of 6 layers.
1. Application Layer
2. Application Interface Layer
3. Security Layer
4. Network Layer
5. Medium Access Control Layer
6. Physical Layer

 Physical layer: The lowest two layers i.e the physical and the MAC (Medium Access Control) Layer
are defined by the IEEE 802.15.4 specifications. The Physical layer is closest to the hardware and
directly controls and communicates with the Zigbee radio. The physical layer translates the data
packets in the over-the-air bits for transmission and vice-versa during the reception.
 Medium Access Control layer (MAC layer): The layer is responsible for the interface between the
physical and network layer. The MAC layer is also responsible for providing PAN ID and also
network discovery through beacon requests.
 Network layer: This layer acts as an interface between the MAC layer and the application layer. It is
responsible for mesh networking.
 Application layer: The application layer in the Zigbee stack is the highest protocol layer and it
consists of the application support sub-layer and Zigbee device object. It contains manufacturer-
defined applications.
Zigbee Applications:
 1. Home Automation
2. Medical Data Collection
3. Industrial Control Systems
4. meter reading system
5. light control system
6. Commercial
7. Government Markets Worldwide

Differences between TCP and UDP

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) both are protocols of the
Transport Layer Protocols. TCP is a connection-oriented protocol whereas UDP is a part of the Internet
Protocol suite, referred to as the UDP/IP suite. Unlike TCP, it is an unreliable and connectionless protocol.
In this article, we will discuss the differences between TCP and UDP.
What is Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)?
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is one of the main protocols of the Internet protocol suite. It lies
between the Application and Network Layers which are used in providing reliable delivery services. It is a
connection-oriented protocol for communications that helps in the exchange of messages between different
devices over a network. The Internet Protocol (IP), which establishes the technique for sending data
packets between computers, works with TCP.

Features of TCP
 TCP keeps track of the segments being transmitted or received by assigning numbers to every
single one of them.
 Flow control limits the rate at which a sender transfers data. This is done to ensure reliable delivery.
 TCP implements an error control mechanism for reliable data transfer.
 TCP takes into account the level of congestion in the network.
Applications of TCP
  World Wide Web (WWW) : When you browse websites, TCP ensures reliable data transfer
between your browser and web servers.
 Email : TCP is used for sending and receiving emails. Protocols like SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol) handle email delivery across servers.
 File Transfer Protocol (FTP) : FTP relies on TCP to transfer large files securely. Whether you’re
uploading or downloading files, TCP ensures data integrity.
 Secure Shell (SSH) : SSH sessions, commonly used for remote administration, rely on TCP for
encrypted communication between client and server.
 Streaming Media : Services like Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify use TCP to stream videos and
music. It ensures smooth playback by managing data segments and retransmissions.
Advantages of TCP
 It is reliable for maintaining a connection between Sender and Receiver.
 It is responsible for sending data in a particular sequence.
 Its operations are not dependent on Operating System .
 It allows and supports many routing protocols.
 It can reduce the speed of data based on the speed of the receiver.
Disadvantages of TCP
 It is slower than UDP and it takes more bandwidth.
 Slower upon starting of transfer of a file.
 Not suitable for LAN and PAN Networks.
 It does not have a multicast or broadcast category.
 It does not load the whole page if a single data of the page is missing.
What is User Datagram Protocol (UDP)?
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a Transport Layer protocol. UDP is a part of the Internet Protocol suite,
referred to as the UDP/IP suite. Unlike TCP, it is an unreliable and connectionless protocol. So, there is no
need to establish a connection before data transfer. The UDP helps to establish low-latency and loss-
tolerating connections establish over the network. The UDP enables process-to-process communication.

Features of UDP
  Used for simple request-response communication when the size of data is less and hence there is
lesser concern about flow and error control.
 It is a suitable protocol for multicasting as UDP supports packet switching .
 UDP is used for some routing update protocols like RIP(Routing Information Protocol) .
 Normally used for real-time applications which can not tolerate uneven delays between sections of a
received message.
Application of UDP
 Real-Time Multimedia Streaming : UDP is ideal for streaming audio and video content. Its low-
latency nature ensures smooth playback, even if occasional data loss occurs.
 Online Gaming : Many online games rely on UDP for fast communication between players.
 DNS (Domain Name System) Queries : When your device looks up domain names (like converting
“www.example.com” to an IP address), UDP handles these requests efficiently .
 Network Monitoring : Tools that monitor network performance often use UDP for lightweight, rapid
data exchange.
 Multicasting : UDP supports packet switching, making it suitable for multicasting scenarios where
data needs to be sent to multiple recipients simultaneously.
 Routing Update Protocols : Some routing protocols, like RIP (Routing Information Protocol), utilize
UDP for exchanging routing information among routers.
Advantages of UDP
 It does not require any connection for sending or receiving data.
 Broadcast and Multicast are available in UDP.
 UDP can operate on a large range of networks.
 UDP has live and real-time data.
 UDP can deliver data if all the components of the data are not complete.
Disadvantages of UDP
 We can not have any way to acknowledge the successful transfer of data.
 UDP cannot have the mechanism to track the sequence of data.
 UDP is connectionless, and due to this, it is unreliable to transfer data.
 In case of a Collision, UDP packets are dropped by Routers in comparison to TCP.
 UDP can drop packets in case of detection of errors.
Which Protocol is Better: TCP or UDP?
The answer to this question is difficult because it totally depends on what work we are doing and what type
of data is being delivered. UDP is better in the case of online gaming as it allows us to work lag-free. TCP is
better if we are transferring data like photos, videos, etc. because it ensures that data must be correct has
to be sent. In general, both TCP and UDP are useful in the context of the work assigned by us. Both have
advantages upon the works we are performing, that’s why it is difficult to say, which one is better.
Difference Between TCP and UDP
Where TCP is Used?
 Sending Emails
 Transferring Files
 Web Browsing
Where UDP is Used?
 Gaming
 Video Streaming
 Online Video Chats
Differences between TCP and UDP

Basis Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

UDP is the Datagram-oriented

TCP is a connection-oriented protocol. protocol. This is because there is
Connection orientation means that the no overhead for opening a
communicating devices should establish a connection, maintaining a
Type of Service
connection before transmitting data and connection, or terminating a
should close the connection after transmitting connection. UDP is efficient for
the data. broadcast and multicast types of
network transmission.

The delivery of data to the

TCP is reliable as it guarantees the delivery
Reliability destination cannot be guaranteed
of data to the destination router.
in UDP.
Basis Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

TCP provides extensive error-

UDP has only the basic error-
Error checking checking mechanisms. It is because it
checking mechanism
mechanism provides flow control and acknowledgment of
using checksums.
data.

Acknowledgment An acknowledgment segment is present. No acknowledgment segment.

Sequencing of data is a feature of There is no sequencing of data in

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). this UDP. If the order is required, it
Sequence
means that packets arrive in order at the has to be managed by the
receiver. application layer.

UDP is faster, simpler, and more

Speed TCP is comparatively slower than UDP.
efficient than TCP.

There is no retransmission of lost

Retransmission of lost packets is possible in
Retransmission packets in the User Datagram
TCP, but not in UDP.
Protocol (UDP).

TCP has a (20-60) bytes variable length UDP has an 8 bytes fixed-length
Header Length
header. header.

Weight TCP is heavy-weight. UDP is lightweight.

Handshaking Uses handshakes such as SYN, ACK, SYN- It’s a connectionless protocol i.e.
Techniques ACK No handshake

Broadcasting TCP doesn’t support Broadcasting. UDP supports Broadcasting.

TCP is used by HTTP, UDP is used by DNS , DHCP ,

Protocols
HTTPs , FTP , SMTP and Telnet . TFTP, SNMP , RIP , and VoIP .

UDP connection is a message

Stream Type The TCP connection is a byte stream.
stream.

Overhead Low but higher than UDP. Very low.

Basis Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

This protocol is used in situations

This protocol is primarily utilized in situations where quick communication is
when a safe and trustworthy communication necessary but where
Applications
procedure is necessary, such as in email, on dependability is not a concern,
the web surfing, and in military services. such as VoIP, game streaming,
video, and music streaming, etc.

Example: Suppose there are two houses, H1 and H2, and a letter has to be sent from H1 to H2. But there
is a river in between those two houses. Now how can we send the letter?
Solution 1: Make a bridge over the river and then it can be delivered.
Solution 2: Get it delivered by a pigeon.
 Consider the first solution as TCP . A connection has to be made (bridge) to get the data (letter)
delivered. The data is reliable because it will directly reach another end without loss of data or error.
 The second solution is UDP . No connection is required for sending the data. The process is fast as
compared to TCP, where we need to set up a connection(bridge). But the data is not reliable: we
don’t know whether the pigeon will go in the right direction, will drop the letter on the way, or some
issue is encountered mid-travel.

What is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is used for short-range wireless voice and data communication. It is a Wireless Personal Area
Network (WPAN) technology and is used for data communications over smaller distances. This generation
changed into being invented via Ericson in 1994. It operates within the unlicensed, business, scientific, and
clinical (ISM) bands from 2.4 GHz to 2.485 GHz.
Bluetooth stages up to 10 meters. Depending upon the version, it presents information up to at least 1
Mbps or 3 Mbps. The spreading method that it uses is FHSS (Frequency-hopping unfold spectrum). A
Bluetooth network is called a piconet and a group of interconnected piconets is called a scatter net.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a wireless technology that lets devices like phones, tablets, and headphones connect to each
other and share information without needing cables. Bluetooth simply follows the principle of transmitting
and receiving data using radio waves. It can be paired with the other device which has also Bluetooth but it
should be within the estimated communication range to connect. When two devices start to share data,
they form a network called piconet which can further accommodate more than five devices.
Key Features of Bluetooth
 The transmission capacity of Bluetooth is 720 kbps.
 Bluetooth is a wireless technology.
 Bluetooth is a Low-cost and short-distance radio communications standard.
 Bluetooth is robust and flexible.
 The basic architecture unit of Bluetooth is a piconet.
Architecture of Bluetooth

The architecture of Bluetooth defines two types of networks:

Piconet
Piconet is a type of Bluetooth network that contains one primary node called the master node and seven
active secondary nodes called slave nodes. Thus, we can say that there is a total of 8 active nodes which
are present at a distance of 10 meters. The communication between the primary and secondary nodes can
be one-to-one or one-to-many. Possible communication is only between the master and slave; Slave-slave
communication is not possible. It also has 255 parked nodes, these are secondary nodes and cannot take
participation in communication unless it gets converted to the active state.

Scatternet
It is formed by using various piconets. A slave that is present in one piconet can act as master or we can
say primary in another piconet. This kind of node can receive a message from a master in one piconet and
deliver the message to its slave in the other piconet where it is acting as a master. This type of node is
referred to as a bridge node. A station cannot be mastered in two piconets.

Bluetooth Protocol Stack

 Radio (RF) Layer: It specifies the details of the air interface, including frequency, the use of
frequency hopping and transmit power. It performs modulation/demodulation of the data into RF
signals. It defines the physical characteristics of Bluetooth transceivers. It defines two types of
physical links: connection-less and connection-oriented.
 Baseband Link Layer: The baseband is the digital engine of a Bluetooth system and is equivalent
to the MAC sublayer in LANs. It performs the connection establishment within a piconet,
addressing, packet format, timing and power control.
 Link Manager Protocol Layer: It performs the management of the already established links which
includes authentication and encryption processes. It is responsible for creating the links, monitoring
their health, and terminating them gracefully upon command or failure.
 Logical Link Control and Adaption (L2CAP) Protocol Layer: It is also known as the heart of the
Bluetooth protocol stack. It allows the communication between upper and lower layers of the
Bluetooth protocol stack. It packages the data packets received from upper layers into the form
expected by lower layers. It also performs segmentation and multiplexing.
 Service Discovery Protocol (SDP) Layer: It is short for Service Discovery Protocol. It allows
discovering the services available on another Bluetooth-enabled device.
 RF Comm Layer: It is a cabal replacement protocol. It is short for Radio Frontend Component. It
provides a serial interface with WAP and OBEX. It also provides emulation of serial ports over the
logical link control and adaption protocol(L2CAP). The protocol is based on the ETSI standard TS
07.10.
  OBEX: It is short for Object Exchange. It is a communication protocol to exchange objects between
2 devices.
 WAP: It is short for Wireless Access Protocol. It is used for internet access.
 TCS: It is short for Telephony Control Protocol. It provides telephony service. The basic function of
this layer is call control (setup & release) and group management for the gateway serving multiple
devices.
 Application Layer: It enables the user to interact with the application.

Bluetooth Protocol Stack

Types of Bluetooth
Various types of Bluetooth are available in the market nowadays. Let us look at them.
 In-Car Headset: One can make calls from the car speaker system without the use of mobile
phones.
 Stereo Headset: To listen to music in car or in music players at home.
 Webcam: One can link the camera with the help of Bluetooth with their laptop or phone.
 Bluetooth-Equipped Printer: The printer can be used when connected via Bluetooth with mobile
phone or laptop.
 Bluetooth Global Positioning System (GPS): To use Global Positioning System (GPS) in cars,
one can connect their phone with car system via Bluetooth to fetch the directions of the address.
Applications of Bluetooth
 It can be used in wireless headsets, wireless PANs, and LANs.
 It can connect a digital camera wireless to a mobile phone.
  It can transfer data in terms of videos, songs, photographs, or files from one cell phone to another
cell phone or computer.
 It is used in the sectors of Medical healthcare, sports and fitness, Military.
Advantages

 It is a low-cost and easy-to-use device.

 It can also penetrate through walls.
 It creates an Ad-hoc connection immediately without any wires.
 It is used for voice and data transfer.
Disadvantages
 It can be hacked and hence, less secure.
 It has a slow data transfer rate of 3 Mbps.
 Bluetooth communication does not support routing

 Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi is a small single-board computer (SBC). It is a credit card-sized computer that can be plugged
into a monitor. It acts as a minicomputer by connecting the keyboard, mouse, and display. Raspberry Pi has
an ARM processor and 512MB of RAM. The architecture of Raspberry Pi is discussed in this article.
The following diagram shows the architecture of Raspberry Pi:

The following diagram shows some main blocks of Raspberry Pi:

Raspberry Pi mainly consists of the following blocks:

 Processor: Raspberry Pi uses Broadcom BCM2835 system on chip which is an ARM processor
and Video core Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). It is the heart of the Raspberry Pi which controls
the operations of all the connected devices and handles all the required computations.
 HDMI: High Definition Multimedia Interface is used for transmitting video or digital audio data to a
computer monitor or to digital TV. This HDMI port helps Raspberry Pi to connect its signals to any
digital device such as a monitor digital TV or display through an HDMI cable.
 GPIO ports: General Purpose Input Output ports are available on Raspberry Pi which allows the
user to interface various I/P devices.
 Audio output: An audio connector is available for connecting audio output devices such as
headphones and speakers.
  USB ports: This is a common port available for various peripherals such as a mouse, keyboard, or
any other I/P device. With the help of a USB port, the system can be expanded by connecting more
peripherals.
 SD card: The SD card slot is available on Raspberry Pi. An SD card with an operating system
installed is required for booting the device.
 Ethernet: The ethernet connector allows access to the wired network, it is available only on the
model B of Raspberry Pi.
 Power supply: A micro USB power connector is available onto which a 5V power supply can be
connected.
 Camera module: Camera Serial Interface (CSI) connects the Broadcom processor to the Pi
camera.
 Display: Display Serial Interface (DSI) is used for connecting LCD to Raspberry Pi using 15 15-pin
ribbon cables. DSI provides a high-resolution display interface that is specifically used for sending
video data.
What is Arduino?
Arduino is an open-source, cross-platform, very simple hardware and software environment intended for
interactive projects. It could be an electronic board having a microcontroller—a computer in one chip—
besides a development environment within which one writes, compiles, and ultimately downloads code onto
the microcontroller. The Arduino boards were designed to make simple engagements with an electronic
system easy for both supporters and audiences: beginners, enthusiasts, and learners.
Advantages of Arduino
 User Friendly: Arduino IDE is so user-friendly that even a complete beginner finds it very easy to
learn.
 Above all: Open-source, Arduino has an enormous community providing a huge number of
tutorials, libraries, and other resources.
 variety of shields: There exist a variety of shields that can give extended capabilities to an Arduino
for wireless, motor control, and even Internet connectivity.
 Economical: Arduino boards are much cheaper in price than most other microcontrollers or
development boards.
 Platform Independent: The Arduino Software runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Disadvantages of Arduino
 Limited Computational Power: The processing and memory resources of the Arduino boards are
actually quite limited, so they cannot be used for higher operations, such as an operating system
workable through intensive computation.
 Absence of Multitasking: Arduino boards are fundamentally designed for single-task execution,
signifying their inability to manage several tasks concurrently.
 Connectivity is limited: While shields can absolutely extend the connective selection, the basic
model of an Arduino does have its features lacking, such as Wi-Fi and Ethernet.

 Difference between Arduino and Raspberry Pi

 S
No. Arduino Raspberry Pi

In the year 2005, the classrooms of the

In the year 2012, Eben Upton first introduced
1. Interactive Design Institute in Ivrea,
the Raspberry Pi device in February.
Italy, first introduced the Arduino board.

Control unit of the Arduino is from the The control unit of Raspberry Pi is from the
2.
At mega family. ARM family.

While Raspberry Pi is based on a

3. Arduino is based on a microcontroller.
microprocessor.

While Raspberry Pi computes data and produces

It is designed to control the electrical
valuable outputs, and controls components in a
4. components connected to the circuit
system based on the outcome of its
board in a system.
computation.

Arduino boards have a simple hardware While Raspberry Pi boards have a complex
5.
and software structure. architecture of hardware and software.

6. CPU architecture: 8 bit. CPU architecture: 64 bit.

7. It uses very little RAM, 2 kB. While Raspberry Pi requires more RAM, 1 GB.

While Raspberry Pi clocks a processing speed

8. It clocks a processing speed of 16 MHz.
of 1.4 GHz.

9. It is cheaper in cost. While Raspberry Pi is expensive.

While Raspberry Pi has a lower I/O current

10. It has a higher I/O current drive strength.
drive strength.

11. It consumes about 200 MW of power. While it consumes about 700 MW of power.

12. Its logic level is 5V. Its logic level is 3V.

13. It does not have internet support. It has inbuilt Ethernet port and WiFi support.

14. It has higher current drive strength. It has lower current drive strength.

Some of the applications of Arduino are Some of the applications of Raspberry Pi are
15. traffic light countdown timer , Weighing Stop motion cameras , Robot Controllers ,
machines , etc. Game Servers.
 S
No. Arduino Raspberry Pi

Operating systems are required in

16. Operating System is required in Raspberry Pi.
Arduino.

17. Two tiny cores Arduino with 32 MHz Single core and 700 MHz