Building an IoT network can be overwhelming, but you can make your idea come to life with a key objective/goal in mind and the right tools and support.
The IoT Hardware Toolkit
In your network toolkit, you will typically have:
- Sensors and Actuators (to collect data and activate things),
- Controllers (to combine and process the data from the sensors and control the actuators)
- and Gateways (to provide coverage to your sensors and connect to the internet so data can be passed data back and forth to the application).
You will also need to be able to view and manage your data; that is where the Scopious IoT Ltd app excels.
First, Let's Talk Strategy...
5 Key IoT Aspects You Must Consider When Designing an IoT Network
1. Scale
The scale of a typical IT network is on the order of several hundred devices—typically printers, mobile wireless devices, laptops, servers, and so on. But when a network scale goes from a few hundred endpoints to hundreds of thousands, the IT engineers lack the required skills to design a network to support millions of routable IP endpoints.
2. Security
The frequency and impact of cyber attacks in recent years have increased dramatically. Protecting corporate data from intrusion and theft is one of the main functions of the IT department.
IoT systems require consistent mechanisms of authentication, encryption, and intrusion prevention techniques that understand the behaviour of industrial protocols and can respond to attacks on critical infrastructure.
For optimum security, IoT systems must:
- Identify and authenticate all entities involved in the IoT service (i.e., gateways, endpoint devices, home networks, roaming networks, and service platforms).
- Ensure all user data shared between the endpoint device and back-end applications is encrypted.
3. Constrained Devices and Network
Most IoT sensors are designed for a single job and are typically small and inexpensive. This means they often have limited power, CPU, and memory and transmit only when something important happens.
If an IT network has performance constraints, the solution is simple: Upgrade to a faster network.
With IoT, if too many devices are in one location and impacting performance, we can add more capacity to scale as much as we need.
4. Data
IoT devices generate a mountain of data. In general, most IT shops don’t care much about the unstructured chatty data generated by devices on the network. However, in IoT, the data is like gold, enabling businesses to deliver new IoT services that enhance the customer experience, reduce cost, and provide new revenue opportunities.
Although most IoT-generated data is unstructured, the insights it provides through analytics can revolutionise processes and create new business models.
For example: Imagine a smart city with a few hundred thousand smart streetlights connected through an IoT network.
Without the proper tools, however, when all this data is combined, it can become difficult to manage and analyse effectively and challenging to identify needed solutions.
5. Legacy Device Support
Supporting legacy devices in an IT organisation is not usually a big problem. If someone’s computer or operating system is outdated, they upgrade. If someone uses a mobile device with an outdated Wi-Fi standard, such as 802.11b or 802.11g, we can deny them access to the wireless network, and they will be forced to upgrade.
In IoT systems, end devices will likely be on the network for a long time—sometimes decades.
As IoT networks are deployed, they need to support the older devices already present on the network and devices with new capabilities.
"There is a direct relationship between the IoT technology we choose, and the type of connectivity topology this technology allows"
Next: Your Hardware Checklist What to connect, where to connect, how much data to transport at what interval and over what distance.
IoT is overwhelming and knowing where to begin can be difficult but it doesn't have to be. Luckily the team at Scopious are experts in this area and have the know-how and tools to get you started with confidence. Talk to a consultant today.
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The Scopious Difference
Need help building your network? The Scopious team offer a friendly consulting service to discuss your needs and hardware options.
When you connect your network with the Scopious application, you can start using the intelligence of automation without sharing data offshore.
The Scopious brand is founded by Director of Go Wireless NZ Ltd, a well respected New Zealand Distributor of trusted wireless hardware and accessories so you are backed by the same experienced, expertise.