Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

Chapter 6 IoT Processing Topologies and Types

6.1 Data Format: In an IoT system, a massive volume of data generated by this huge number of users is
further enhanced by the multiple devices utilized by most users. In addition to these data-generating
sources, non-human data-generation sources such as sensor nodes and automated monitoring systems
further add to the data load on the Internet. This huge data volume is composed of a variety of data
such as e-mails, text documents (Word docs, PDFs, and others), social media posts, videos, audio files,
and images. These data can be broadly grouped into TWO types based on how they can be accessed and
stored:

1. Structured data
2. Unstructured data

Structured data is highly specific, typically text data, and is stored in a predefined format. Typical
examples are product databases, contact lists, etc. These are primarily created by using length-limited
data fields such as phone numbers, social security numbers, and other such information. Common
usage of this type of data is associated with flight or train reservation systems, banking systems,
inventory controls, and other similar syste ms. Languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL) are
used for accessing these data in database management systems.

Unstructured data: These data types have no pre-defined structure and can vary according to
applications and data-generating sources. Examples are documents, videos, audio files, posts on social
media, and emails. In simple words, all the data on the internet is categorized as unstructured. Querying
languages such as NoSQL are generally used for this data type.

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 Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

6.2 Importance of Processing in IoT: Data processing is more crucial with the rapid advanc emen ts in
IoT. Intelligent and resource ful processing techniques are required to process vast amounts and types
of data flowing through the Internet. it is also importan t to decide when to process and what to
process. We first divide the data to be processed into THREE types based on the urgency of processing:

1. Very time-critical data

2. Time-critical data
3. Normal data

 Very time-critical data: These data have a very low processing latency, typically in the range
of a few milliseconds. Data from sources such as flight control system s, healthcare, etc need
immediate decision support. Processing requirements are exceptionally high. Processing the
data in place or nearer to the source is crucial.
 Time-critical data: Data from sources that can tolerate normal processing latency are deemed
as time-critical data. These data, generally associated with sources such as vehicles, traffic,
smart home systems, surveillance systems, and others, can tolerate a latency of a few seconds.
These data are to be processed in remote locations processors such as clouds.
 Normal data: These data, can tolerate a processing latency of a few minutes to a few hours
and are typically associated with less data-sensitive domains such as agriculture,
environmental monitoring, and others. Typically have no particular time requiremen ts for
processing urgently.
6.3 Processing Topologies: The various processing solutions are divided into two large topologies:

1. On-site processing topologies

2. Off-site processing topologies: It further divides into

 Remote processing topologies

 Collaborative processing topologies

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 Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

1. On-site processing topologies: In this topology, the data is processed at the source itself. It is
used in applications that have a very low tolerance for latencies. These latencies may result
from the processing hardware or the network. Applications such as healthcare and flight control
systems (real-time systems). The processing infrastructure is fast and robust enough to handle
such data. See figure 6.2 shows the on-site processing topology, where an event (here, fire) is
detected utilizing a temperature sensor connected to a sensor node. The sensor node processes
the information from the sensed event and generates an alert. The node additionally has the
option of forwarding the data to a remote infrastructure for further analysis and storage.

2. Off-site processing: Here processing is not done at the source point. It allows for latencies and
is significantly cheaper than on-site processing topologies. In this topology, the sensor node is
responsible for the collection and framing of data to be transmitted to another location for
processing. Simpler sensor node borrows processing from high processing enabled device to

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 Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

accomplish their task. Multiple nodes can come together to share their processing power to
collaboratively process the data. It is divided into TWO types.

 Remote processing: It is the most common processing topology used in present-d ay IoT
solutions. It encompasses sensing data by various sensor nodes; the data is then forwarded to
a remote server or a cloud-based infrastructure for further processing and analytics. Figure 6.3
shows the outline of one such paradigm, where the sensing of an event is performed locally,
and the decision-making is outsourced to a remote processor

 Advantages: Massive cost and energy savings by enabling the reuse and reallocation of the
same processing resource. It ensures the massive scalability of solutio ns, without significantly
affecting the cost of the deployment.
Drawback: It requires a lot of network bandwidth. Need good network connectivity between the
sensor nodes and the remote processing infrastructure.

Collaborative processing: Here Sensors cooperatively process data from multiple sources to serve a
high-level task. It typically finds use in scenarios with limited or no network connectivity. Figure 6.4
shows the collaborative processing topology for collaboratively processing data locally.

Advantages: This topology can be quite economical for large-scale deployments spread over vast areas
where remote infrastructure is not viable. This approach also reduces latencies due to the transfer of
data over the network. It conserves the bandwidth of the network, especially those connecting to the
Internet. This topology can be quite beneficial

for applications such as agriculture.

Drawback: This topology needs costlier mesh networks for implementation.

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 Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

6.3 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations: The processor is the main factor for IoT device
design and selection for various applications. Other important consideration s to design an IoT device
are:
1. Size
2. Energy
3. Cost
4. Memory
5. Processing power
6. I/O Rating
7. Add-ons

Size: size and energy consumption are crucial factors of a sensor node. The larger the size factor
consumes more energy. Additionally, large-size factors are not suitable for many IoT applications.
Energy: Energy efficient processor is the most important factor in designing IoT- based sensing
solutions. The higher the energy requirements, the higher the battery replacemen t frequency. This
principle is not a good option for IoT-based applications.

Cost: Cheaper cost of the hardware enables a much higher density of hardware deploym ent. For
example, cheaper gas and fire detection solutions would enable users to include much more sensing
hardware for a lesser cost.

Memory: devices with higher memory tend to be costlier. But features such as local data processing,
data storage, data filtering, data formatting, and a host of other features rely heavily on the memory
capabilities of devices.

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 Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

Processing power: In deciding what type of sensors can be accommodated with the IoT device/node,
and what processing features can integrate on-site. The processing power also decides the type of
applications the device can be associated with. For example, if the application involves video or audio
needs more processing power than other simple sensin g IoT applications.

Input /output (I/O) rating: Primarily the processor, is the deciding factor in determining the circuit
complexity, energy usage, and requirements for support of various sensing solutions and sensor types.
Some processors have a meager I/O voltage rating of 3.3 V, as compared to 5 V for somewhat older
processors. This needs additional voltage and logic conversion circuitry and increases the cost and
complexity of the node.

Add-ons: IoT device provides, such analog to digital conversion (ADC) units, connection s to USB and
Ethernet, and inbuilt wireless access capabilities for various IoT applicatio ns. These add-ons also decide
how fast a solution can be developed others helps in defining the robustness and usability of a
processor or IoT device in various Application Scenarios.

6.4 Processing Offloading: This tech niqu e in the Io T conte xt is the transfer of resource-intensive
computational tasks to a separate external device in the network. It is important for the development
of densely deployable, energy-conserving, miniaturize d, and cheap IoT-based solutions for sensing
tasks. Figure 6.5 shows the typical outline of an IoT deployment with the various layers of processing
that are encountered spanning vastly different application domains from as near as sensing the
environment to as far as cloud-based infrastructure. For the majority of IoT applications, the bulk of
the processing is carried out remotely to keep the on-site devices simple, small, and economical. The
processing procedure is as follows:
 For off-site processing, data from the sensing layer can be forwarded to the fog or cloud or
contained within the edge layer.
 The edge layer makes use of devices within the local network to process data that is similar to
the collaborative processing topology as shown in fig 6.4
 Fog nodes are localized within a geographic area and serve the IoT node within a small
coverage area.
 Forwarding data to a cloud or a remote server requires the device to be connected to the
internet.

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 Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

Data offloading is divided into THREE parts:

1. Offload Location:(where all the processing can be offloaded in the IoT architecture)
2. Offload Decision:(How to choose where to offload the processing to and by how much)
3. Offloading Considerations: (Deciding when to offload)

Offload location: The choice of offload location decides the applicability, cost, and sustainability
of the IoT application and deployment. The offload location is into FOUR types:

1. Edge: Offloading processing to the edge implies that the data processing is facilitated to a
location at or near the source of data generation itself.
2. Fog: Fog computing is a decentralized computing infrastructure. The data, computing,
storage, and applications are shifted to a place between the data source and the cloud
resulting in significantly reduced latencies and network bandwidth usage.
3. Remote Server: A simple remote server with good processing power may be used with IoT-
based applications to offload the processing from resource- constrained IoT devices.

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 Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

4. Cloud: A cloud is provisioned for processing offloading so that processing resources can be
rapidly provisioned with minimal effort over the Internet, which can be accessed globally.
Cloud enables massive scalability of solutions.
Offload Decision Making: The choice of where to offload and how much to offload is addressed
considering data generation rate, network bandwidth, the criticality of applications, processing resource
available at the offload site, and other factors. Main three approaches are as follows.
 Naive Approach

 Bargaining-based approach

 Learning-based approach

1. Naive Approach: This rule-based approach, in which the data from IoT devices are offloaded
to the nearest location based on the achievement of certain offload crite ria. Statistical
measures are consulted for generating the rules.

2. Bargaining-based approach: To maximize the quality of service (bandwid th, latencies) by

reaching a point where the qualities of certain parameters are reduc ed, while the others are
enhanced. QoS is achieved collaboratively for better full implementation.

3. Learning-based approach: It relies on past behavior and trends of data flow through the IoT
architecture. The optimization of QoS parameters is done by learning from historical trends
and trying to optimize previous solutions further and enhance the collective behavior of the
IoT implementation.

Offloading Considerations: offloading parameters need to be considered while deciding upon the
offloading type to choose arising from the nature of the IoT application and the hardware being used to
interact with the application. These parameters are as follows

 Bandwidth
 Latency
 Criticality
 Resources
Bandwidth: The maximum amount of data that can be simultaneously transmitted over the network
between two points. The bandwidth of a wired or wireless network is also considered to be its data-
carrying capacity and often used to describe the data rate of that network.

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 Introduction to IoT (BETC205A) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

Latency: It is the time delay between the start and completion of an operation, which is due to physical
limitations of the infrastructure in the network or the processor which is associated with an operation.

Criticality: It defines importance of a task being pursued by an IoT application. The more critical a
task is the lesser latency is expected. For example, detection of fires using an IoT solution has higher
criticality than detection of agricultural field parameters.
Resources: It signifies the actual capabilities (like processing power, the analytical algorithm, etc.) of an
offload location.

Data Volume: The amount of data generated by a source or sources that can be simultaneously
handled by the offload location. Typically, for large and dense IoT deployments, the offload location
should be robust enough to address the processing issue s related to massive data volumes.

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