15CS81- IoT Module-2

HKBK COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, BENGALURU
Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 1

Syllabus- Internet Of Things Technology

Evaluation
• Grade Percentage
– S : 90% and above
– A : 80% - 89%
– B : 70% - 79%
– F : less than 40%
• Syllabus Coverage Schedule
– 1st IA Test : 30% [ Portion- first 1.5 Units ]
– 2nd IA Test : 40% [ Portion- next 2 Units ]
– 3rd IA Test : 30% [ Portion- Last 1.5 Units ]

Evaluation
• Assignments
– Total : 3
– Each Assignment to be submitted before the IA test
begins
• Attendance
– Class Participation: 85%
• You may get detained if you miss (more than) ¼ of the whole
classes
• Academic dishonesty (e.g. cheating, copying, late coming and
etc.) will be taken seriously

Announcement
Class Website
The link for the CMS portal is:
• http://gg.gg/hkbkis or Google class room
• Class information such as lecture notes can be accessible
through this website
• We will also use Moodle for online test

Announcement

Module – 2 Smart Objects: The “Things” in IoT
Smart Objects: The “Things” in IoT:
Sensors, Actuators, and Smart Objects:
 This sections describe the capabilities, characteristics, and functionality of
sensors and actuators.
 It gives detail how the economic and technical conditions are finally right for
IoT to flourish.

Sensors:
 A sensor senses. More specifically, a sensor measures some physical quantity
and converts that measurement reading into a digital representation.
 That digital representation is typically passed to another device for
transformation into useful data that can be consumed by intelligent devices
or humans.
 Sensors provide superhuman sensory capabilities
 Sensors can be readily embedded in any physical objects that are easily
connected to the Internet by wired or wireless networksDr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 11

Sensors:
 There are a number of ways to group and cluster sensors into different
categories, they are:
1. Active or passive 2. Invasive or non-invasive
3. Contact or no-contact 4. Absolute or relative
5. Area of application 6. How sensors measure
7. What sensors measure:

Sensors:
1. Active or passive:
Sensors can be categorized based on whether they produce an energy
output and typically require an external power supply (active) or whether they
simply receive energy and typically require no external power supply (passive).
2. Invasive or non-invasive:
Sensors can be categorized based on whether a sensor is part of the
environment it is measuring (invasive) or external to it (non-invasive).

Sensors:
3. Contact or no-contact:
Sensors can be categorized based on whether they require physical
contact with what they are measuring (contact) or not (no-contact).
4. Absolute or relative:
Sensors can be categorized based on whether they measure on an
absolute scale (absolute) or based on a difference with a fixed or variable
reference value (relative).

Sensors:
5. Area of application:
Sensors can be categorized based on the specific industry or vertical where they are
being used.
6. How sensors measure:
Sensors can be categorized based on the physical mechanism used to measure sensory
input (for example, thermoelectric, electrochemical, piezoresistive, optic, electric, fluid
mechanic, photoelastic).
7. What sensors measure:
Sensors can be categorized based on their applications or what physical variables they
measure.

Sensors: Categorization based on what physical phenomenon a sensor is measuring:

Sensors:
 Sensors come in all shapes and sizes and can measure all types of physical
conditions.
 A fascinating use case to highlight the power of sensors and IoT is in the area
of precision agriculture (sometimes referred to as smart farming), which uses
a variety of technical advances to improve the efficiency, sustainability, and
profitability of traditional farming practices.
 This includes the use of GPS and satellite aerial imagery for determining field
viability; robots for high-precision planting, harvesting, irrigation, and so on;
and real-time analytics and artificial intelligence to predict optimal crop
yield, weather impacts, and soil quality.

Sensors:
 The most significant impacts of precision agriculture are those dealing with sensor
measurement of a variety of soil characteristics.
 These include real-time measurement of soil quality, pH levels, salinity, toxicity levels,
moisture levels for irrigation planning, nutrient levels for fertilization planning.
 All this detailed sensor data can be analyzed to provide highly valuable and actionable
insight to boost productivity and crop yield.
 Figure shows biodegradable, passive microsensors to measure soil and crop and conditions.
 These sensors, developed at North Dakota State University (NDSU), can be planted directly in
the soil and left in the ground to biodegrade without any harm to soil quality.

Sensors:

Sensors:
 IoT and by extension, networked sensors have been repeatedly named among a small
number of emerging revolutionary technologies that will change the global economy and
shape the future.
 The astounding volume of sensors is in large part due to their smaller size, their form factor,
and their decreasing cost.
 These factors make possible the economic and technical feasibility of having an increased
density of sensors in objects of all types.
 most significant accelerator for sensor deployments is mobile phones.
 More than a billion smart phones are sold each year, and each one has well over a dozen
sensors inside it

Sensors:

Sensors:
 There are smart homes with potentially hundreds of sensors, intelligent vehicles with 100+
sensors each, connected cities with thousands upon thousands of connected sensors, and the
list goes on and on.
 Figure shows the explosive year-over-year increase over the past several years and some bold
predictions for sensor numbers in the upcoming years.
 The sensor industry that this number will eclipse a trillion in the next few years.
 In fact, many large players in the sensor industry have come together to form industry
consortia, such as the TSensors Summits (www.tsensorssummit.org), to create a strategy and
roadmap for a trillion sensor economy.
 The trillion-sensor economy will be of such an unprecedented and unimaginable scale that it
will change the world forever.
 This is the power of IoT. Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 26

Sensors:

Actuators:
 Actuators are natural complements to sensors.
 Figure demonstrates the symmetry and complementary nature of these two types of devices.
 sensors are designed to sense and measure practically any measurable variable in the
physical world.
 They convert their measurements (typically analog) into electric signals or digital
representations that can be consumed by an intelligent agent (a device or a human).
 Actuators, receive some type of control signal (commonly an electric signal or digital
command) that triggers a physical effect, usually some type of motion, force, and so on.

Actuators:

Actuators:
 IoT sensors are devices that sense and measure the physical world and (typically) signal their
measurements as electric signals sent to some type of microprocessor or microcontroller for additional
processing.
 Correspondingly, a processor can send an electric signal to an actuator that translates the
signal into some type of movement (linear, rotational, and so on) or useful work that changes
or has a measurable impact on the physical world.
 This interaction between sensors, actuators, and processors and the similar functionality in
biological systems is the basis for various technical fields, including robotics and biometrics.

Actuators:

Actuators:
 Actuators vary greatly in function, size, design, and so on.
 Some common ways that they can be classified include the following:
1. Type of motion
2. Power
3. Binary or continuous
4. Area of application
5. Type of energy

Actuators:
1. Type of motion:
Actuators can be classified based on the type of motion they produce
(for example, linear, rotary, one/two/three-axes).
2. Power:
Actuators can be classified based on their power output (for example, high power, low power, micro power)
3. Binary or continuous:
Actuators can be classified based on the number of stable-state outputs.
4. Area of application:
Actuators can be classified based on the specific industry or vertical where they are used.
5. Type of energy:
Actuators can be classified based on their energy type

Actuators:
The most commonly used classification is based on energy type.
Table shows actuators classified by energy type and some examples for each type

Actuators:
 Sensors provide the information, actuators provide the action.
 The most interesting use cases for IoT are those where sensors and actuators work together
in an intelligent.
 For example, the smart sensors used to evaluate soil quality (by measuring a variety of soil,
temperature, and plant characteristics) can be connected with electrically or pneumatically
controlled valve actuators that control water, pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides, and so on.
 Intelligently triggering a high-precision actuator based on well-defined sensor readings of
temperature, pH, soil/air humidity, nutrient levels, and so on to deliver a highly optimized
and custom environment-specific solution is truly smart farming.

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS):
 One of the most interesting advances in sensor and actuator technologies is in how they are
packaged and deployed.
 Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), sometimes simply referred to as micro-machines,
can integrate and combine electric and mechanical elements, such as sensors and actuators,
on a very small (millimeter or less) scale.
 One of the keys to this technology is a microfabrication technique that is similar to what is
used for microelectronic integrated circuits.
 This approach allows mass production at very low costs.

 The combination of tiny size, low cost, and the ability to mass produce makes MEMS an
attractive option for a huge number of IoT applications.
 MEMS devices have already been widely used in a variety of different applications and can be
found in very familiar everyday devices.
 For example, inkjet printers use micro pump MEMS.
 Smart phones also use MEMS technologies for things like accelerometers and gyroscopes.
 Automobiles were among the first to commercially introduce MEMS into the mass market,
with airbag accelerometers.

 Torsional ratcheting actuator (TRA) MEMS that was
developed by Sandia National Laboratory as a low-
voltage alternative to a micro-engine.
 This MEMS is only a few hundred micrometers across;
a scanning electron microscope is needed to show the
level of detail visible in the figure.
 Micro-scale sensors and actuators are immensely
embeddable in everyday objects, which is a defining
characteristic of IoT.

Smart Objects:
 Smart objects are the building blocks of IoT.
 They transform everyday objects into a network of intelligent objects that are able to learn
from and interact with their environment in a meaningful way.
 If soil sensor is connected as part of an intelligent network that is able to coordinate
intelligently with actuators to trigger irrigation systems as needed based on those sensor
readings, we have something far more powerful.
 The coordinated sensor/actuator set is intelligently interconnected with other
sensor/actuator sets to further coordinate fertilization, pest control, and so on—and even
communicate with an intelligent backend to calculate crop yield potential.

Smart Objects:
 The term smart object is often used interchangeably with terms such as smart sensor, smart
device, IoT device, intelligent device, thing, smart thing, intelligent node, intelligent thing,
ubiquitous thing, and intelligent product.
Definition:
A smart object is a device that has, at a minimum, the following four defining characteristics:
1. Processing unit 2. Sensor(s) and/or actuator(s)
3. Communication device 4. Power source

Smart Objects:
1. Processing unit:
 A smart object has some type of processing unit for acquiring data, processing and
analyzing sensing information received by the sensor(s), coordinating control signals to any
actuators, and controlling a variety of functions on the smart object, including the
communication and power systems.
 The most common is a microcontroller because of its small form factor, flexibility,
programming simplicity, ubiquity, low power consumption, and low cost

Smart Objects:
2. Sensor(s) and/or actuator(s):
 A smart object is capable of interacting with the physical world through sensors and
actuators.
 A sensor learns and measures its environment, whereas an actuator is able to produce some
change in the physical world.
 A smart object does not need to contain both sensors and actuators.
 In fact, a smart object can contain one or multiple sensors and/or actuators, depending upon
the application.

Smart Objects:
3. Communication device:
 The communication unit is responsible for connecting a smart object with other smart
objects and the outside world (via the network).
 Communication devices for smart objects can be either wired or wireless.
 In IoT networks smart objects are wirelessly interconnected for a number of reasons,
including cost, limited infrastructure availability, and ease of deployment.
 There are myriad different communication protocols for smart objects.

Smart Objects:
4. Power source:
 Smart objects have components that need to be powered.
 Most significant power consumption comes from the communication unit of a smart object.
 The power requirements vary greatly from application to application.
 Smart objects are limited in power, are deployed for a very long time, and are not easily
accessible.
 This combination, when the smart object relies on battery power, implies that power
efficiency, judicious power management, sleep modes, ultra-low power consumption
hardware, and so on are critical design elementsDr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 44

Smart Objects:
Characteristics of a Smart ObjectDr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 45

Trends in Smart Objects:
Broad generalizations and trends impacting IoT:
1. Size is decreasing
2. Power consumption is decreasing
3. Processing power is increasing
4. Communication capabilities are improving
5. Communication is being increasingly standardized

1. Size is decreasing:
 In reference to MEMS, there is a clear trend of ever-decreasing size.
 Some smart objects are so small they are not even visible to the naked eye.
 This reduced size makes smart objects easier to embed in everyday objects.
2. Power consumption is decreasing:
 The different hardware components of a smart object continually consume less power.
 This is especially truef or sensors, many of which are completely passive.
 Some battery powered sensors last 10 or more years without battery replacement.

3. Processing power is increasing:
 Processors are continually getting more powerful and smaller.
 This is a key advancement for smart objects, as they become increasingly complex and
connected.
4. Communication capabilities are improving:
 wireless speeds are continually increasing, but they are also increasing in range.
 IoT is driving the development of more and more specialized communication protocols covering
a greater diversity of use cases and environments.

5. Communication is being increasingly standardized:
 There is a strong push in the industry to develop open standards for IoT communication
protocols.
 In addition, there are more and more open source efforts to advance IoT.

Sensor Networks:
 A sensor/actuator network (SANET), is a network of sensors that sense and measure their
environment and/or actuators that act on their environment.
 The sensors and/or actuators in a SANET are capable of communicating and cooperating in a
productive manner.
 Effective and well coordinated communication and cooperation is a prominent challenge,
primarily because the sensors and actuators in SANETs are diverse, heterogeneous, and
resource-constrained.

Sensor Networks:
 SANETs offer highly coordinated sensing and actuation capabilities.
 Smart homes are a type of SANET that display this coordination between distributed sensors
and actuators.
 For example, smart homes can have temperature sensors that are strategically networked
with heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) actuators.
 When a sensor detects a specified temperature, this can trigger an actuator to take action
and heat or cool the home as needed.

Sensor Networks:
The following are some advantages and disadvantages that a wireless-based solution offers:
Advantages:
1. Greater deployment flexibility (especially in extreme environments or hard-to-reach places)
2. Simpler scaling to a large number of nodes
3. Lower implementation costs
4. Easier long-term maintenance
5. Effortless introduction of new sensor/actuator nodes
6. Better equipped to handle dynamic/rapid topology changesDr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 52

Sensor Networks:
Disadvantages:
1. Potentially less secure (for example, hijacked access points)
2. Typically lower transmission speeds
3. Greater level of impact/influence by environment

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs):
Wireless sensor networks are made up of wirelessly connected smart objects, which are referred
to as motes.
The following are some of the most significant limitations of the smart objects in WSNs:
1. Limited processing power
2. Limited memory
3. Lossy communication
4. Limited transmission speeds
5. Limited power

Sensor Networks:
Design Constraints for Wireless Smart ObjectsDr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 55

Sensor Networks:
Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks Smart Objects

Sensor Networks:
 The data aggregation techniques are helpful in reducing the amount of overall traffic (and
energy) in WSNs with very large numbers of deployed smart objects.
 This data aggregation at the network edges is where fog and mist computing are critical IoT
architectural elements needed to deliver the scale and performance required by so many IoT
use cases.

Sensor Networks:
Wirelessly connected smart objects generally have one of the following two communication
patterns:
 Event-driven:
 Transmission of sensory information is triggered only when a smart object detects a
particular event or predetermined threshold.
 Periodic:
 Transmission of sensory information occurs only at periodic intervals.

Module – 2 Connecting Smart Objects
Connecting Smart Objects:
“Communications Criteria,” describes the characteristics and attributes should be considered
when selecting and dealing with connecting smart objects.
The various technologies used for connecting sensors can differ greatly depending on the
criteria used to analyze them.
1. Range 2. Frequency Bands
3. Power Consumption 4. Topology
5. Constrained Devices 6. Constrained-Node Networks

Communications Criteria:
1. Range:
How far does the signal need to be propagated?
what will be the area of coverage for a selected wireless technology?
Should indoor versus outdoor deployments be differentiated?
i. Short range:
The classical wired example is a serial cable.

1. Range:
i. Short range:
Wireless short-range technologies are often considered as an alternative to a serial cable,
supporting tens of meters of maximum distance between two devices.
Examples of short-range wireless technologies are IEEE 802.15.1 Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.7
Visible Light Communications(VLC).

ii. Medium range:
This range is the main category of IoT access technologies.
In the range of tens to hundreds of meters, many specifications and implementations are
available.
The maximum distance is generally less than 1 mile between two devices, although RF
technologies do not have real maximum distances defined, as long as the radio signal is
transmitted and received in the scope of the applicable specification.

ii. Medium range:
Examples of medium-range wireless technologies include IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.15.4, and
802.15.4g WPAN.
Wired technologies such as IEEE 802.3 Ethernet and IEEE 1901.2 Narrowband Power Line
Communications (PLC) may also be classified as medium range, depending on their physical
media characteristics.

iii. Long range:
Distances greater than 1 mile between two devices require long-range technologies.
Wireless examples are cellular (2G, 3G, 4G) and some applications of outdoor IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi
and Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) technologies.
LPWA communications have the ability to communicate over a large area without consuming
much power.
These technologies are therefore ideal for battery-powered IoT sensors.
IEEE 802.3 over optical fiber and IEEE 1901 Broadband Power Line Communications are
classified as long range Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 64

Communications
Criteria:

2. Frequency Bands:
 Radio spectrum is regulated by countries and/or organizations, such as the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
 These groups define the regulations and transmission requirements for various frequency
bands.
 For example, portions of the spectrum are allocated to types of telecommunications such as
radio, television, military, and so on.

Frequency Bands:
 On IoT access technologies, the frequency bands leveraged by wireless communications are
split between licensed and unlicensed bands.
 Licensed spectrum is generally applicable to IoT long-range access technologies and
allocated to communications infrastructures deployed by services providers, public services
(for example, first responders, military), broadcasters, and utilities.
 Examples of licensed spectrum commonly used for IoT access are cellular, WiMAX, and
Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) technologies.

Frequency Bands:
 The ITU has also defined unlicensed spectrum for the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM)
portions of the radio bands for short-range devices (SRDs).
 Unlicensed means that no guarantees or protections are offered in the ISM bands for device
communications.
 For IoT access, these are the most well-known ISM bands:
1. 2.4 GHz band as used by IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
2. IEEE 802.15.1 Bluetooth
3. IEEE 802.15.4 WPAN(Wireless Personal Area Network).

Frequency Bands:
 The frequency of transmission directly impacts how a signal propagates and its practical
maximum range.
 Some communications within the ISM bands operate in the sub-GHz range.
 Sub-GHz bands are used by protocols such as IEEE 802.15.4, 802.15.4g, and 802.11ah, and
LPWA technologies such as LoRa and Sigfox.
 Either for indoor or outdoor deployments, the sub-GHz frequency bands allow greater distances
between devices.
 These bands have a better ability than the 2.4 GHz ISM band to penetrate building infrastructures or go
around obstacles, while keeping the transmit power within regulation.

Frequency Bands:
 The frequency of transmission directly impacts how a signal propagates and its practical
maximum range.
 Some communications within the ISM bands operate in the sub-GHz range.
 Sub-GHz bands are used by protocols such as IEEE 802.15.4, 802.15.4g, and 802.11ah, and
LPWA(Low-Power Wide-Area) technologies such as LoRa and Sigfox.
 Either for indoor or outdoor deployments, the sub-GHz frequency bands allow greater distances
between devices.
 These bands have a better ability than the 2.4 GHz ISM band to penetrate building infrastructures or go
around obstacles, while keeping the transmit power within regulation.

Frequency Bands:
 The disadvantage of sub-GHz frequency bands is their lower rate of data delivery compared
to higher frequencies.
 Most IoT sensors do not need to send data at high rates.
 Therefore, the lower transmission speeds of sub-GHz technologies are usually not a concern
for IoT sensor deployments.
 For example, in most European countries, the 169 MHz band is often considered best suited for wireless
water and gas metering applications.
 This is due to its good deep building basement signal penetration, the low data rate of this frequency
matches the low volume of data that needs to be transmitted.

Frequency Bands:
 Several sub-GHz ranges have been defined in the ISM band.
 The most wellknown ranges are centered on 169 MHz, 433 MHz, 868 MHz, and 915 MHz.
 most IoT access technologies tend to focus on the two sub-GHz frequency regions around
868 MHz and 915 MHz.
 These main bands are commonly found throughout the world and are applicable to nearly all
countries.

Frequency Bands:
 The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), in the
European Radio communications Committee (ERC)Recommendation 70-03, defines the 868
MHz frequency band.
 CEPT was established in 1959 as a coordinating body for European state telecommunications
and postal organizations.
 India, the Middle East, Africa, and Russia have adopted the CEPT definitions.
 Recommendation 70-03 mostly characterizes the use of the 863–870 MHz band, the allowed transmit
power, or EIRP (effective isotropic radiated power), and duty cycle (that is, the percentage of time a
device can be active in transmission).

Frequency Bands:
 EIRP is the amount of power that an antenna would emit to produce the peak power density
observed in the direction of maximum antenna gain.
 The 868 MHz band is applicable to IoT access technologies such as IEEE 802.15.4 and
802.15.4g, 802.11ah, and LoRaWAN.
 Smart objects running over unlicensed bands can be easily optimized in terms of hardware supporting
the two main worldwide sub-GHz frequencies, 868 MHz and 915 MHz.
 However, parameters such as transmit power, antennas, and EIRP must be properly designed to follow
the settings required by each country’s regulations.

3. Power Consumption:
 powered nodes and battery-powered nodes.
 A powered node has a direct connection to a power source, and communications are usually not limited
by power consumption criteria.
 Ease of deployment of powered nodes is limited by the availability of a power source, which makes
mobility more complex.
 Battery-powered nodes bring much more flexibility to IoT devices.
 These nodes are often classified by the required lifetimes of their batteries.

3. Power Consumption:
 For devices under regular maintenance, a battery life of 2 to 3 years is an option.
 IoT wireless access technologies must address the needs of low power consumption and
connectivity for battery-powered nodes.
 This has led to the evolution of a new wireless environment known as Low-Power Wide-Area
(LPWA)
 It is possible to run just about any wireless technology on batteries.
 However, in reality, no operational deployment will be acceptable if hundreds of batteries must be
changed every month

4. Topology:
 Among the access technologies available for connecting IoT devices, three main topology
schemes are dominant: star, mesh, and peer-to-peer.
 For long range and short-range technologies, a star topology is prevalent, as seen with
cellular, LPWA, and Bluetooth networks.
 Star topologies utilize a single central base station or controller to allow communications
with endpoints.

4. Topology:
 For medium-range technologies, a star, peer-to-peer, or mesh topology is common.
 Peer-to-peer topologies allow any device to communicate with any other device as long as
they are in range of each other.
 Obviously, peer-to-peer topologies rely on multiple full-function devices.
 Peer-to-peer topologies enable more complex formations, such as a mesh networking
topology.

4. Topology:

4. Topology:
For example,
indoor Wi-Fi deployments are mostly a set of nodes forming a star topology around their access
points (APs).
Meanwhile,
outdoor Wi-Fi may consist of a mesh topology for the backbone of APs, with nodes connecting
to the APs in a star topology.
Similarly, IEEE 802.15.4 and 802.15.4g and even wired IEEE 1901.2a PLC are generally deployed
as a mesh topology.

4. Topology:
 A mesh topology helps cope with low transmit power, searching to reach a greater overall
distance, and coverage by having intermediate nodes relaying traffic for other nodes.
 Mesh topology requires the implementation of a Layer 2 forwarding protocol known as
mesh-under or a Layer 3 forwarding protocol referred to as mesh over on each intermediate
node.
 An intermediate node or full-function device (FFD) is simply a node that interconnects other
nodes.
 A node that doesn’t interconnect or relay the traffic of other nodes is known as a leaf node,
or reduced-function device (RFD).

5. Constrained Devices:
 The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) acknowledges in RFC 7228 that different
categories of IoT devices are deployed.
 While categorizing the class of IoT nodes is a perilous exercise, with computing, memory,
storage, power, and networking continuously evolving and improving, RFC 7228 gives some
definitions of constrained nodes.
 These definitions help differentiate constrained nodes from unconstrained nodes, such as
servers, desktop or laptop computers, and powerful mobile devices such as smart phones.
 Constrained nodes have limited resources that impact their networking feature set and
capabilities.

 some classes of IoT nodes do not implement an IP stack.
 According to RFC 7228, constrained nodes can be broken down into the classes

6. Constrained-Node Networks:
 While several of the IoT access technologies, such as Wi-Fi and cellular, are applicable to
laptops, smart phones, and some IoT devices, some IoT access technologies are more suited
to specifically connect constrained nodes.
 Typical examples are IEEE 802.15.4 and 802.15.4g RF, IEEE 1901.2a PLC, LPWA, and IEEE
802.11ah access technologies.
 Constrained-node networks are often referred to as low-power and lossy networks (LLNs).
 Low-power in the context of LLNs refers to the fact that nodes must cope with the
requirements from powered and battery-powered constrained nodes.

 Lossy networks indicates that network performance may suffer from interference and
variability due to harsh radio environments.
 Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols that can be used for constrained-node networks must be
evaluated in the context of the following characteristics for use-case applicability:
 data rate and throughput, latency and determinism, and overhead and payload.

Data Rate and Throughput:
• The data rates available from IoT access technologies range from 100 bps with protocols such
as Sigfox to tens of megabits per second with technologies such as LTE and IEEE 802.11ac.
• Technologies not particularly designed for IoT, such as cellular and Wi-Fi, match up well to
IoT applications with high bandwidth requirements.
• Nodes involved with video analytics have a need for high data rates.
• These nodes are found in retail, airport, and smart cities environments for detecting events
and driving actions.

Data Rate and Throughput:
• Short-range technologies can also provide medium to high data rates that have enough
throughput to connect a few endpoints.
• For example, Bluetooth sensors that are now appearing on connected wearables fall into this
category.

Latency and Determinism:
• latency expectations of IoT applications should be known when selecting an access
technology.
• This is particularly true for wireless networks, where packet loss and retransmissions due to
interference, collisions, and noise are normal behaviors.
• On constrained networks, latency may range from a few milliseconds to seconds, and
applications and protocol stacks must cope with these wide ranging values.

Overhead and Payload:
• The minimum IPv6 MTU( maximum transmission unit ) size is expected to be 1280 bytes.
• Therefore, the fragmentation of the IPv6 payload has to be taken into account by link layer
access protocols with smaller MTUs.
• For example, the payload size for IEEE 802.15.4 is 127 bytes and requires an IPv6 payload
with a minimum MTU of 1280 bytes to be fragmented.

Module – 2 IoT Access Technologies
IoT Access Technologies:
Topics that are addressed for each IoT access technology:
1. Standardization and alliances: The standards bodies that maintain the protocols for a
technology
2. Physical layer: The wired or wireless methods and relevant frequencies
3. MAC layer: Considerations at the Media Access Control (MAC) layer, which bridges the
physical layer with data link control
4. Topology: The topologies supported by the technology
5. Security: Security aspects of the technology
6. Competitive technologies: Other technologies that are similar and may be suitable
alternatives to the given technology

IEEE 802.15.4
• IEEE 802.15.4 is a wireless access technology for low-cost and low-data-rate devices that are
powered or run on batteries.
• This access technology enables easy installation using a compact protocol stack while
remaining both simple and flexible.

IoT Access Technologies: IEEE 802.15.4
Standardization and Alliances
• IEEE 802.15.4 or IEEE 802.15 Task Group 4 defines low-data-rate PHY and MAC layer
specifications for wireless personal area networks (WPAN).
• This standard has solution for low complexity wireless devices with low data rates that need
many months or even years of battery life.
• Since 2003, the IEEE has published several iterations of the IEEE 802.15.4 specification, each
labeled with the publication’s year.
• For example, IEEE 802.15.4-2003 was published in 2003, 802.15.4-2006 was released in 2006,
and 802.15.4-2011 and 802.15.4-2015 were issued in 2011 and 2015, respectively.

Protocol Stacks Utilizing IEEE 802.15.4

ZigBee:
• Based on the idea of ZigBee-style networks in the late 1990s, the first ZigBee specification
was ratified in 2004, shortly after the release of the IEEE 802.15.4 specification the previous
year.
• industry support has grown to more than 400 companies that are members of the ZigBee
Alliance.
• Similar to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the Zigbee Alliance is an industry group formed to certify
interoperability between vendors and it is committed to driving and evolving ZigBee as an
IoT solution for interconnecting smart objects.

ZigBee:
• ZigBee solutions are aimed at smart objects and sensors that have low bandwidth and low
power needs.
• products that are ZigBee compliant and certified by the ZigBee Alliance should interoperate
even though different vendors may manufacture them.
• In the 2006 revision, sets of commands and message types were introduced, and increased in
number in the 2007 (called Zigbee pro) iteration, to achieve different functions for a device,
such as metering, temperature, or lighting control.
• These sets of commands and message types are called clusters.

ZigBee:
• For home automation, ZigBee can control lighting, thermostats, and security functions.
• ZigBee Smart Energy brings together a variety of interoperable products, such as smart
meters, that can monitor and control the use and delivery of utilities, such as electricity and
water.
• These ZigBee products are controlled by the utility provider and can help coordinate usage
between homes and businesses and the utility provider itself to provide more efficient
operations.

ZigBee:
• ZigBee utilizes the IEEE 802.15.4 standard at the lower PHY and MAC layers.
• ZigBee specifies the network and security layer and application support layer that sit on top
of the lower layers.
• The ZigBee network and security layer provides mechanisms for network startup,
configuration, routing, and securing communications.
• This includes calculating routing paths in what is often a changing topology, discovering
• neighbors, and managing the routing tables as devices join for the first time.

ZigBee:
• The network layer is also responsible for forming the appropriate topology, which is often a
mesh but could be a star or tree as well.
• From a security perspective, ZigBee utilizes 802.15.4 for security at the MAC layer, using the
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with a 128-bit key and also provides security at the
network and application layers.
• The application support layer interfaces the lower portion of the stack dealing with the
networking of ZigBee devices with the higher-layer applications.

ZigBee:

ZigBee IP:
• With the introduction of ZigBee IP, the support of IEEE 802.15.4 continues, but the IP and
TCP/UDP protocols and various other open standards are now supported at the network and
transport layers.
• The ZigBee-specific layers are now found only at the top of the protocol stack for the
applications.
• ZigBee IP was created to embrace the open standards coming from the IETF’s work on LLNs,
such as IPv6, 6LoWPAN, and RPL.

ZigBee IP:
• They provide for low-bandwidth, low-power, and cost-effective communications when
connecting smart objects.
• ZigBee IP is a critical part of the Smart Energy (SE) Profile 2.0 specification from the ZigBee
Alliance. SE 2.0 is aimed at smart metering and residential energy management systems.
• In fact, ZigBee IP was designed specifically for SE 2.0 but it is not limited to this use case.

ZigBee IP:

ZigBee IP:
• ZigBee IP supports 6LoWPAN as an adaptation layer
• The 6LoWPAN mesh addressing header is not required as ZigBee IP utilizes the mesh-over or
route-over method for forwarding packets.
• ZigBee IP requires the support of 6LoWPAN’s fragmentation and header compression
schemes.
• At the network layer, all ZigBee IP nodes support IPv6, ICMPv6, and 6LoWPAN Neighbor
Discovery (ND), and utilize RPL for the routing of packets across the mesh network.

Physical Layer:
• The 802.15.4 standard supports an extensive number of PHY options that range from 2.4
GHz to sub-GHz frequencies in ISM bands.
• The original IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard specified only three PHY options based on direct
sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulation.
• DSSS is a modulation technique in which a signal is intentionally spread in the frequency
domain, resulting in greater bandwidth.

Physical Layer:
• The original physical layer transmission options were as follows:
• 2.4 GHz, 16 channels, with a data rate of 250 kbps
• 915 MHz, 10 channels, with a data rate of 40 kbps
• 868 MHz, 1 channel, with a data rate of 20 kbps
• only the 2.4 GHz band operates worldwide.

Physical Layer:
IEEE 802.15.4- 2006, 802.15.4-2011, and IEEE 802.15.4-2015 introduced additional PHY
communication options, including the following:
• OQPSK PHY:
• This is DSSS PHY, employing offset quadrature phaseshift keying (OQPSK) modulation.
• OQPSK is a modulation technique that uses four unique bit values that are signaled by phase
changes.
• An offset function that is present during phase shifts allows data to be transmitted more reliably.

Physical Layer:
• BPSK PHY:
• This is DSSS PHY, employing binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) modulation.
• BPSK specifies two unique phase shifts as its data encoding scheme.
• ASK PHY:
• This is parallel sequence spread spectrum (PSSS) PHY, employing amplitude shift keying (ASK)
and BPSK modulation.
• PSSS is an advanced encoding scheme that offers increased range, throughput, data rates, and
signal integrity compared to DSSS. ASK uses amplitude shifts instead of phase shifts to signal

Physical Layer:

Physical Layer:
• The synchronization header for this frame is composed of the Preamble and the Start of
Frame Delimiter fields.
• The Preamble field is a 32-bit 4-byte (for parallel construction) pattern that identifies the
start of the frame and is used to synchronize the data transmission.
• The Start of Frame Delimiter field informs the receiver that frame contents start immediately
after this byte.

Physical Layer:
• The PHY Header portion of the PHY frame shown in Figure is simply a frame length value.
• It lets the receiver know how much total data to expect in the PHY service data unit (PSDU)
portion of the 802.4.15 PHY.
• The PSDU is the data field or payload.

MAC Layer:
The IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer manages access to the PHY channel by defining how devices in the
same area will share the frequencies allocated.
The 802.15.4 MAC layer performs the following tasks:
• Network beaconing for devices acting as coordinators (New devices use beacons to join an 802.15.4
network)
• PAN association and disassociation by a device
• Device security
• Reliable link communications between two peer MAC entities

MAC Layer:
The MAC layer achieves these tasks by using our types of MAC frames are specified in 802.15.4:
1. Data frame: Handles all transfers of data
2. Beacon frame: Used in the transmission of beacons from a PAN coordinator
3. Acknowledgement frame: Confirms the successful reception of a frame
4. MAC command frame: Responsible for control communication between
devices

IEEE 802.15.4
MAC Layer:
Notice that the MAC frame
is carried as the PHY
payload.
The 802.15.4 MAC frame
can be broken down into
the MAC Header, MAC
Payload, and MAC Footer
fields. Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 115

MAC Layer:
• The MAC Header field is composed of the Frame Control, Sequence Number and the
Addressing fields.
• The Frame Control field defines attributes such as frame type, addressing modes, and other
control flags.
• The Sequence Number field indicates the sequence identifier for the frame.
• The Addressing field specifies the Source and Destination PAN Identifier fields as well as the
Source and Destination Address fields.

MAC Layer:
• The MAC Payload field varies by individual frame type.
• For example, beacon frames have specific fields and payloads related to beacons, while MAC
command frames have different fields present.
• The MAC Footer field is nothing more than a frame check sequence (FCS).
• An FCS is a calculation based on the data in the frame that is used by the receiving side to
confirm the integrity of the data in the frame.

Topology:
• IEEE 802.15.4–based networks can be built as star, peer-to-peer, or mesh topologies.
• Mesh networks tie together many nodes.
• This allows nodes that would be out of range if trying to communicate directly to leverage
intermediary nodes to transfer communications.
• Every 802.15.4 PAN should be set up with a unique ID.
• All the nodes in the same 802.15.4 network should use the same PAN ID.

Topology:

Topology:
• Full-function devices (FFDs) and reduced-function devices (RFDs) are defined in IEEE
802.15.4.
• A minimum of one FFD acting as a PAN coordinator is required to deliver services that allow
other devices to associate and form a cell or PAN.
• Notice in Figure that a single PAN coordinator is identified for PAN ID 1.
• FFD devices can communicate with any other devices, whereas RFD devices can
communicate only with FFD devices.

Security:
• The IEEE 802.15.4 specification uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with a 128-bit key
length as the base encryption algorithm for securing its data.
• Established by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2001, AES is a block
cipher, which means it operates on fixed-size blocks of data.
• The use of AES by the US government and its widespread adoption in the private sector has
helped it become one of the most popular algorithms used in symmetric key cryptography.

Security:
• In addition to encrypting the data, AES in 802.15.4 also validates the data that is sent.
• This is accomplished by a message integrity code (MIC), which is calculated for the entire
frame using the same AES key that is used for encryption.
• Enabling these security features for 802.15.4 changes the frame format slightly and
consumes some of the payload.
• Using the Security Enabled field in the Frame Control portion of the 802.15.4 header
is the first step to enabling AES encryption.

Security:
• This Security Enabled field is a single bit that is set to 1 for security.
• Once this bit is set, a field called the Auxiliary Security Header is created after the Source
Address field, by stealing some bytes from the Payload field.
• Next Figure shows the IEEE 802.15.4 frame format at a high level, with the Security
Enabled bit set and the Auxiliary Security Header field present.

Security:

Competitive Technologies:
• The IEEE 802.15.4 PHY and MAC layers are the foundations for several networking profiles
that compete against each other in various IoT access environments.
• These various vendors and organizations build upper-layer protocol stacks on top of an
802.15.4 core.
• A competitive radio technology that is different in its PHY and MAC layers is DASH7.
• DASH7 was originally based on the ISO18000-7 standard and positioned for industrial
communications, whereas IEEE 802.15.4 is more generic.

• Commonly employed in active radio frequency identification (RFID) implementations, DASH7
was used by US military forces for many years, mainly for logistics purposes.
• Active RFID utilizes radio waves generated by a battery-powered tag on an object to enable
continuous tracking.
• The current DASH7 technology offers low power consumption, a compact protocol stack,
range up to 1 mile, and AES encryption.
• Frequencies of 433 MHz, 868 MHz, and 915 MHz have been defined, enabling data rates up
to 166.667 kbps and a maximum payload of 256 bytes.

IEEE 802.15.4 Conclusions:
• The IEEE 802.15.4 wireless PHY and MAC layers are mature specifications that are the
foundation for various industry standards and products
• The PHY layer offers a maximum speed of up to 250 kbps, but this varies based on
modulation and frequency.
• The MAC layer for 802.15.4 is robust and handles how data is transmitted and received over
the PHY layer.
• Specifically, the MAC layer handles the association and disassociation of devices to/from a
PAN, reliable communications between devices, security, and the formation of various
topologies.

IEEE 802.15.4 Conclusions:
• The topologies used in 802.15.4 include star, peer-to-peer, and cluster trees that allow for the
formation of mesh networks.
• From a security perspective, 802.15.4 utilizes AES encryption to allow secure communications
and also provide data integrity. The main competitor to IEEE 802.15.4 is DASH7, another
wireless technology
• IEEE 802.15.4 has an edge in the marketplace through all the different vendors and
organizations that utilize its PHY and MAC layers.
• For IoT sensor deployments requiring low power, low data rate, and low complexity, the IEEE
802.15.4 standard deserves strong consideration.

IoT Access Technologies: IEEE 802.15.4g and 802.15.4e
The IEEE 802.15.4e amendment of 802.15.4-2011 expands the MAC layer feature set to remedy
the disadvantages associated with 802.15.4, including MAC reliability, unbounded latency, and
multipath fading.
In addition to making general enhancements to the MAC layer, IEEE 802.15.4e also made
improvements to better cope with certain application domains, such as factory and process
automation and smart grid.
Smart grid is associated with the modernization of the power grid and utilities infrastructure by
connecting intelligent devices and communications.
IEEE 802.15.4e-2012 enhanced the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer capabilities in the areas of frame
format, security, determinism mechanism, and frequency hopping.

802.15.4g seeks to optimize large outdoor wireless mesh networks for field area networks (FANs).
New PHY definitions are introduced, as well as some MAC modifications needed to support their
implementation.
This technology applies to IoT use cases such as :
• Distribution automation and industrial supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)
environments for remote monitoring and control .
• Public lighting

• Environmental wireless sensors in smart cities
• Electrical vehicle charging stations
• Smart parking meters
• Microgrids
• Renewable energy

 Because 802.15.4g-2012 and 802.15.4e-2012 are simply amendments to IEEE 802.15.4-2011,
the same IEEE 802.15 Task Group 4 standards body authors, maintains, and integrates them
into the next release of the core specification.
 The additional capabilities and options provided by 802.15.4g-2012 and 802.15.4e-2012 led to
additional difficulty in achieving the interoperability between devices and mixed vendors that
users requested.

 To guarantee interoperability, the Wi-SUN Alliance was formed. (SUN stands for smart utility
network.)
 This organization is not a standards body but is instead an industry alliance that defines
communication profiles for smart utility and related networks.
 These profiles are based on open standards, such as 802.15.4g-2012, 802.15.4e-2012, IPv6,
6LoWPAN, and UDP for the FAN profile.

Physical Layer:
 In IEEE 802.15.4g-2012, the original IEEE 802.15.4 maximum PSDU or payload size of 127
bytes was increased for the SUN PHY to 2047 bytes.
 This provides a better match for the greater packet sizes found in many upper-layer protocols.
 For example, the default IPv6 MTU setting is 1280 bytes.
 Fragmentation is no longer necessary at Layer 2 when IPv6 packets are transmitted over IEEE
802.15.4g MAC frames.
 the error protection was improved in IEEE 802.15.4g by evolving the CRC from 16 to 32 bits.

Physical Layer:
 The SUN PHY, as described in IEEE 802.15.4g-2012, supports multiple data rates in bands
ranging from 169 MHz to 2.4 GHz.
 These bands are covered in the unlicensed ISM frequency spectrum specified by various
countries and regions.
 Within these bands, data must be modulated onto the frequency using at least one of the
following PHY mechanisms to be IEEE 802.15.4g compliant:

Physical Layer:
 Multi-Rate and Multi-Regional Frequency Shift Keying (MR-FSK):
 Offers good transmit power efficiency due to the constant envelope of the transmit signal
 Multi-Rate and Multi-Regional Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MR-OFDM):
 Provides higher data rates but may be too complex for low-cost and low-power devices
 Multi-Rate and Multi-Regional Offset Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying (MR-O-QPSK):
 Shares the same characteristics of the IEEE 802.15.4-2006 O-QPSK PHY, making multi-mode
systems more cost effective and easier to design

MAC Layer:
 While the IEEE 802.15.4e-2012 amendment is not applicable to the PHY layer, it is pertinent to
the MAC layer.
 This amendment enhances the MAC layer through various functions, which may be selectively
enabled based on various implementations of the standard.

MAC Layer:
 The following are some of the main enhancements to the MAC layer proposed by IEEE
802.15.4e-2012:
1. Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH):
 TSCH is an IEEE 802.15.4e- 2012 MAC operation mode that works to guarantee media access and channel
diversity.
 Channel hopping, also known as frequency hopping, utilizes different channels for transmission at
different times.
 TSCH divides time into fixed time periods, or “time slots,” which offer guaranteed bandwidth and
predictable latency.

MAC Layer:
1. Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH):
 In a time slot, one packet and its acknowledgement can be transmitted, increasing network capacity
because multiple nodes can communicate in the same time slot, using different channels.
 A number of time slots are defined as a “slot frame,” which is regularly repeated to provide “guaranteed
access.”
 The transmitter and receiver agree on the channels and the timing for switching between channels
through the combination of a global time slot counter and a global channel hopping sequence list, as
computed on each node to determine the channel of each time slot.
 TSCH adds robustness in noisy environments and smoother coexistence with other wireless
technologies, especially for industrial use cases.

MAC Layer:
2. Information elements:
 Information elements (IEs) allow for the exchange of information at the MAC layer in an extensible
manner, either as header IEs (standardized) and/or payload IEs (private).
 Specified in a tag, length, value (TLV) format, the IE field allows frames to carry additional metadata to
support MAC layer services.
 These services may include IEEE 802.15.9 key management, Wi-SUN 1.0 IEs to broadcast and unicast
schedule timing information, and frequency hopping synchronization information for the 6TiSCH
architecture.

MAC Layer:
3. Enhanced beacons (EBs):
• EBs extend the flexibility of IEEE 802.15.4 beacons to allow the construction of application-specific
beacon content.
• This is accomplished by including relevant IEs in EB frames.
• Some IEs that may be found in EBs include network metrics, frequency hopping broadcast schedule, and
PAN information version.

MAC Layer:
4. Enhanced beacon requests (EBRs):
• Like enhanced beacons, an enhanced beacon request (EBRs) also leverages IEs.
• The IEs in EBRs allow the sender to selectively specify the request of information.
• For example, a device can query for a PAN that is allowing new devices to join or a PAN that supports a
certain set of MAC/PHY capabilities.

MAC Layer:
5. Enhanced Acknowledgement:
• The Enhanced Acknowledgement frame allows for the integration of a frame counter for the frame being
acknowledged.
• This feature helps protect against certain attacks that occur when Acknowledgement frames are spoofed.

MAC Layer:

MAC Layer:
• The 802.15.4e MAC is similar to the 802.15.4 MAC
• The main changes shown in the IEEE 802.15.4e header are the presence of the Auxiliary Security Header
and Information Elements field.
• The Auxiliary Security header provides for the encryption of the data frame.
• This field is optionally supported in both 802.15.4e-2012 and 802.15.4, starting with the 802.15.4-2006
specification.
• the IE field contains one or more information elements that allow for additional information to be
exchanged at the MAC layer.

Topology:
• Deployments of IEEE 802.15.4g-2012 are mostly based on a mesh topology.
• because a mesh topology is typically the best choice for use cases in the industrial and smart cities areas
where 802.15.4g-2012 is applied.
• A mesh topology allows deployments to be done in urban or rural areas, expanding the distance between
nodes that can relay the traffic of other nodes.
• Support for battery-powered nodes with a long lifecycle requires optimized Layer 2 forwarding or Layer
3 routing protocol implementations.
• This provides an extra level of complexity but is necessary in order to cope with sleeping battery-
powered nodes. Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 146

Security:
• Both IEEE 802.15.4g and 802.15.4e inherit their security attributes from the IEEE 802.15.4-2006
specification.
• encryption is provided by AES, with a 128-bit key.
• In addition to the Auxiliary Security Header field initially defined in 802.15.4-2006, a secure
acknowledgement and a secure Enhanced Beacon field complete the MAC layer security.

Security:

Security:
The full frame gets authenticated through the MIC at the end of frame.
The MIC is a unique value that is calculated based on the frame contents.
The Security Header field is composed of the Auxiliary Security field and one or more
Information Elements fields.
Integration of the Information Elements fields allows for the adoption of additional security
capabilities, such as the IEEE 802.15.9 Key Management Protocol (KMP) specification.
KMP provides a means for establishing keys for robust datagram security.

Competitive technologies to IEEE 802.15.4g and 802.15.4e parallel the technologies that also
compete with IEEE 802.15.4, such as DASH7.
IEEE 802.15.4 is well established and already deployed in many scenarios, mostly indoors.

IEEE 802.15.4g and 802.15.4e Conclusions:
• IEEE 802.15.4g and 802.15.4e are simply amendments to the IEEE 802.15.4 standard.
• They are mature specifications that are integrated into IEEE 802.15.4-2015.
• They have been successfully deployed in real-world scenarios, and already support millions of
endpoints.
• IEEE 802.15.4g focuses mainly on improvements to the PHY layer, while IEEE 802.15.4e targets
the MAC layer.

IEEE 802.15.4g and 802.15.4e Conclusions:
• These improvements overcome many of the disadvantages of IEEE 802.15.4, such as latency
and vulnerability to multipath fading.
• The Wi-SUN Alliance is an important industry alliance that provides interoperability and
certification for industry implementations.
• Utilizing 802.15.4g as a foundation, the alliance releases profiles, such as the FAN profile, to
help promote the adoption of the technology while guaranteeing interoperability between
vendors.

IEEE 1901.2a
 While most of the constrained network technologies relate to wireless, IEEE 1901.2a-2013 is a
wired technology that is an update to the original IEEE 1901.2 specification.
 This is a standard for Narrowband Power Line Communication (NB-PLC).
 NB-PLC leverages a narrowband spectrum for low power, long range, and resistance to
interference over the same wires that carry electric power.

IoT Access Technologies: IEEE 1901.2a
NB-PLC is often found in use cases such as the following:
 Smart metering:
 NB-PLC can be used to automate the reading of utility meters, such as electric, gas, and water
meters.
 This is true particularly in Europe, where PLC is the preferred technology for utilities deploying
smart meter solutions.
 Distribution automation:
 NB-PLC can be used for distribution automation, which involves monitoring and controlling all
the devices in the power grid.

 Public lighting:
 A common use for NB-PLC is with public lighting—the lights found in cities and along streets,
highways, and public areas such as parks.
 Electric vehicle charging stations:
 NB-PLC can be used for electric vehicle charging stations, where the batteries of electric vehicles
can be recharged.

 Microgrids:
 NB-PLC can be used for microgrids, local energy grids that can disconnect from the traditional
grid and operate independently.
 Renewable energy:
 NB-PLC can be used in renewable energy applications, such as solar, wind power, hydroelectric,
and geothermal heat.

Physical Layer:
 NB-PLC is defined for frequency bands from 3 to 500 kHz.
 The IEEE 1901.2 working group has integrated support for all world regions in order to develop a worldwide standard.
 Specifications include support for CENELEC A and B bands, US FCC-Low and FCC-above-CENELEC, and Japan ARIB
bands.
 CENELEC is the French Comité Européen de Normalisation Électrotechnique, which in English translates to European
Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization.
 This organization is responsible for standardization in the area of electrical engineering for Europe.
 The CENELEC A and B bands refer to 9–95 kHz and 95–125 kHz, respectively.

Physical Layer:
 The FCC is the Federal Communications Commission, a US government organization that regulates interstate and
international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.
 The FCC-Low band encompasses 37.5–117.1875 kHz, and the FCC-above-CENELEC band is 154.6875–487.5 kHz.
 The FCC-above-CENELEC band may become the most useful frequency due to its higher throughput and reduced
interference.

Physical Layer:
 Figure shows the various frequency bands for NB-PLC. most well-known bands are regulated by CENELEC and the FCC,
but the Japan Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) band is also present. The two ARIB frequency
bands are ARIB 1, 37.5–117.1875 kHz, and ARIB 2, 154.6875–403.125 kHz.

Physical Layer:
 IEEE 1901.2a supports the largest set of coding and enables both robustness and throughput.
 The standard includes tone maps and modulations, such as robust modulation (ROBO), differential binary phase shift
keying (DBPSK), differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK), differential 8-point phase shift keying (D8PSK)
for all bands, and optionally 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) for some bands.
 ROBO mode transmits redundant information on multiple carriers, and DBPSK, DQPSK, and D8PSK are all variations of
phase shift keying, where the phase of a signal is changed to signal a binary data transmission.
 ROBO utilizes QPSK modulation, and its throughput depends on the degree to which coding is repeated across
streams.
 For example, standard ROBO uses a repetition of 4, and Super-ROBO utilizes a repetition of 6.

Physical Layer:
 One major difference between IEEE 802.15.4g/e and IEEE 1901.2a is the full integration of different types of
modulation and tone maps by a single PHY layer in the IEEE 1901.2a specification.
 The PHY payload size can change dynamically, based on channel conditions in IEEE 1901.2a.
 Therefore, MAC sublayer segmentation is implemented. If the size of the MAC payload is too large to fit within one
PHY service data unit (PSDU), the MAC payload is partitioned into smaller segments.
 MAC payload segmentation is done by dividing the MAC payload into multiple smaller amounts of data (segments),
based on PSDU size.
 The segmentation may require the addition of padding bytes to the last payload segment so that the final MPDU fills
the PSDU.
 All forms of addressing (unicast and broadcast) are subject to segmentation.

MAC Layer
 The MAC frame format of IEEE 1901.2a is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC frame but
integrates the latest IEEE 802.15.4e-2012 amendment, which enables key features to be
supported.
 One of the key components brought from 802.15.4e to IEEE 1901.2a is information elements.
 With IE support, additional capabilities, such as IEEE 802.15.9 Key Management Protocol and
SSID, are supported.
 Figure provides an overview of the general MAC frame format for IEEE 1901.2.
 Note that the numeric value above each field in the frame shows the size of the field, in bytes.Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 162

MAC Layer

MAC Layer
 IEEE 1901.2 has a Segment Control field.
 This is a new field that was not present in MAC frame for 802.15.4 and 802.15.4e.
 This field handles the segmentation or fragmentation of upper-layer packets with sizes larger
than what can be carried in the MAC protocol data unit (MPDU).

Topology
 Use cases and deployment topologies for IEEE 1901.2a are tied to the physical power lines.
 As with wireless technologies, signal propagation is limited by factors such as noise,
interference, distortion, and attenuation.
 These factors become more prevalent with distance, so most NB-PLC deployments use some
sort of mesh topology.
 Mesh networks offer the advantage of devices relaying the traffic of other devices so longer
distances can be segmented.

IEEE 1901.2a
Topology
 Figure highlights a network
scenario in which a PLC
mesh network is applied to
a neighborhood.

IEEE 1901.2a
Security
 IEEE 1901.2a security offers similar features to IEEE 802.15.4g.
 Encryption and authentication are performed using AES.
 In addition, IEEE 1901.2a aligns with 802.15.4g in its ability to support the IEEE 802.15.9 Key
Management Protocol.

IEEE 1901.2a
Security
The differences are mostly tied to the PHY layer fragmentation capabilities of IEEE 1901.2a and
include the following:
 The Security Enabled bit in the Frame Control field should be set in all MAC frames carrying
segments of an encrypted frame.
 If data encryption is required, it should be done before packet segmentation.
 During packet encryption, the Segment Control field should not be included in the input to
the encryption algorithm. Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 168

IEEE 1901.2a
Security
 On the receiver side, the data decryption is done after packet reassembly.
 When security is enabled, the MAC payload is composed of the ciphered payload and the
message integrity code (MIC) authentication tag for non-segmented payloads.
 If the payload is segmented, the MIC is part of the last packet (segment) only.
 The MIC authentication is computed using only information from the MHR of the frame
carrying the first segment.

IEEE 1901.2a
In the domain of NB-PLC, two technologies compete against IEEE 1901.2a:
G3-PLC (now ITU G.9903) and PRIME (now ITU G.9904).
Both of these technologies were initially developed to address a single use case:
Smart metering deployment in Europe over the CENELEC A band.

IEEE 1901.2a
IEEE 1901.2a Conclusions
IEEE 1901.2a is an open PHY and MAC standard approach to enable the use of Narrowband
Power Line Communication.
The set of use cases for this standard depends on and also benefits from the physical power lines
that interconnect the devices.
The IEEE 1901.2a standard leverages the earlier standards G3-PLC (now ITU G.9903) and PRIME
(now ITU G.9904).

IEEE 802.11ah:
 Wi-Fi lacks sub-GHz support for better signal penetration, low power for battery-powered
nodes, and the ability to support a large number of devices.
 For these reasons, the IEEE 802.11 working group launched a task group named IEEE 802.11ah
to specify a sub-GHz version of Wi-Fi.

IEEE 802.11ah:
Three main use cases are identified for IEEE 802.11ah:
 Sensors and meters covering a smart grid:
• Meter to pole, environmental/agricultural monitoring, industrial process sensors, indoor healthcare
system and fitness sensors, home and building automation sensors
 Backhaul aggregation of industrial sensors and meter data:
• Potentially connecting IEEE 802.15.4g subnetworks
 Extended range Wi-Fi:
• For outdoor extended-range hotspot or cellular traffic offloading when distances already

IoT Access Technologies: IEEE 802.11ah:
Standardization and Alliances:
• In July 2010, the IEEE 802.11 working group worked on an “industrial Wi-Fi” and created the IEEE
802.11ah group.
• The 802.11ah specification would operate in unlicensed sub-GHz frequency bands, similar to IEEE
802.15.4 and other LPWA technologies.
• The industry organization that promotes Wi-Fi certifications and interoperability for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
products is the Wi-Fi Alliance.
• The Wi-Fi Alliance is a similar body to the Wi-SUN Alliance.
• For the 802.11ah standard, the Wi-Fi Alliance defined a new brand called Wi-Fi HaLow.

Physical Layer:
IEEE 802.11ah essentially provides an additional 802.11 physical layer operating in unlicensed
sub-GHz bands.
For example, various countries and regions use the following bands for IEEE 802.11ah:
868–868.6 MHz for EMEAR, 902–928 MHz and associated subsets for North America and Asia-
Pacific regions, and 314–316 MHz, 430–434 MHz, 470–510 MHz, and 779– 787 MHz for China.

MAC Layer:
The IEEE 802.11ah MAC layer is optimized to support the new sub-GHz Wi-Fi PHY while
providing low power consumption and the ability to support a larger number of endpoints.
Enhancements and features specified by IEEE 802.11ah for the MAC layer include the following:
1. Number of devices: Has been scaled up to 8192 per access point.
2. MAC header: Has been shortened to allow more efficient communication.

MAC Layer:
3. Null data packet (NDP) support: Is extended to cover several control and management frames.
• Relevant the controinformation is concentrated in the PHY header and the additional overhead associated with
decoding the MAC header and data payload is avoided.
• This change makes l frame exchanges efficient and less power-consuming for the receiving stations.
4. Grouping and sectorization: Enables an AP to use sector antennas and also group stations (distributing a
group ID).
• In combination with RAW and TWT, this mechanism reduces contention in large cells with many clients by
restricting which group, in which sector, can contend during which time window.Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 177

MAC Layer:
5. Restricted access window (RAW): Is a control algorithm that avoids simultaneous transmissions when
many devices are present and provides fair access to the wireless network.
• By providing more efficient access to the medium, additional power savings for battery-powered devices can be
achieved, and collisions are reduced.
6. Target wake time (TWT): Reduces energy consumption by permitting an access point to define times when a
device can access the network.
• This allows devices to enter a low-power state until their TWT time arrives.
• It also reduces the probability of collisions in large cells with many clients.Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 178

MAC Layer:
7. Speed frame exchange:
Enables an AP and endpoint to exchange frames during a reserved transmit opportunity (TXOP).
This reduces contention on the medium, minimizes the number of frame exchanges to improve channel
efficiency, and extends battery life by keeping awake times short.

Topology:
 While IEEE 802.11ah is deployed as a star topology, it includes a simple hops relay operation
to extend its range.
 It allows one 802.11ah device to act as an intermediary and relay data to another.
 This relay operation can be combined with a higher transmission rate or modulation and
coding scheme (MCS).
 This means that a higher transmit rate is used by relay devices talking directly to the access
point.

Topology:
 Sectorization is a technique that involves partitioning the coverage area into several sectors
to get reduced contention within a certain sector.
 This technique is useful for limiting collisions in cells that have many clients.
 This technique is also often necessary when the coverage area of 802.11ah access points is
large, and interference from neighboring access points is problematic.
 Sectorization uses an antenna array and beam-forming techniques to partition the cell-
coverage area.

Topology:

Security:
 No additional security has been identified for IEEE 802.11ah compared to other IEEE 802.11
specifications.
 These protocols include IEEE 802.15.4, IEEE 802.15.4e, and IEEE 1901.2a, and the security
information for them is also applicable to IEEE 802.11ah.

Competitive technologies to IEEE 802.11ah are IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.15.4e, along with the
competitive technologies highlighted in each of their sections.

IEEE 802.11ah Conclusions:
 The IEEE 802.11ah access technology is an ongoing effort of the IEEE 802.11 working group to
define an “industrial Wi-Fi.”
 Currently, this standard is just at the beginning of its evolution.
 This specification offers a longer range than traditional Wi-Fi technologies and provides good
support for low-power devices that need to send smaller bursts of data at lower speeds.

LoRaWAN:
 It is a new set of wireless technologies known as Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA).
 Particularly well adapted for long-range and battery-powered endpoints, LPWA technologies
open new business opportunities to both services providers and enterprises considering IoT
solutions.

IoT Access Technologies: LoRaWAN:
 Initially, LoRa was a physical layer, or Layer 1, modulation that was developed by a French
company named Cycleo.
 Later, Cycleo was acquired by Semtech.
 Optimized for long-range, two-way communications and low power consumption, the
technology evolved from Layer 1 to a broader scope through the creation of the LoRa
Alliance.

 Semtech LoRa as a Layer 1 PHY modulation technology is available through multiple chipset
vendors.
 To differentiate from the physical layer modulation known as LoRa, the LoRa Alliance uses the
term LoRaWAN to refer to its architecture and its specifications that describe end-to-end
LoRaWAN communications and protocols.
 Next Figure provides a high-level overview of the LoRaWAN layers.
 In this figure, notice that Semtech is responsible for the PHY layer, while the LoRa Alliance
handles the MAC layer and regional frequency bands.Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 188

Physical Layer:
 Semtech LoRa modulation is based on chirp spread spectrum modulation, which trades a
lower data rate for receiver sensitivity to significantly increase the communication distance.
 In addition, it allows demodulation below the noise floor, offers robustness to noise and
interference, and manages a single channel occupation by different spreading factors.
 This enables LoRa devices to receive on multiple channels in parallel.
 LoRaWAN 1.0.2 regional specifications describe the use of the main unlicensed sub-GHz
frequency bands of 433 MHz, 779–787 MHz, 863–870 MHz, and 902–928 MHz, as well as
regional profiles for a subset of the 902– 928 MHz bandwidth.Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 190

Physical Layer:
 LoRa gateway is deployed as the center hub of a star network architecture.
 It uses multiple transceivers and channels and can demodulate multiple channels at once or
even demodulate multiple signals on the same channel simultaneously.
 LoRa gateways serve as a transparent bridge relaying data between endpoints, and the
endpoints use a single-hop wireless connection to communicate with one or many gateways.
 The data rate in LoRaWAN varies depending on the frequency bands and adaptive data rate
(ADR).

Physical Layer:
 ADR is an algorithm that manages the data rate and radio signal for each endpoint.
 The ADR algorithm ensures that packets are delivered at the best data rate possible and that
network performance is both optimal and scalable.
 Endpoints close to the gateways with good signal values transmit with the highest data rate,
which enables a shorter transmission time over the wireless network, and the lowest transmit
power.
 Meanwhile, endpoints at the edge of the link budget communicate at the lowest data rate
and highest transmit power. Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 192

MAC Layer:
 MAC layer is defined in the LoRaWAN specification.
 This layer takes advantage of the LoRa physical layer and classifies LoRaWAN endpoints to
optimize their battery life and ensure downstream communications to the LoRaWAN
endpoints

MAC Layer:
The LoRaWAN specification documents three classes of LoRaWAN devices:
1. Class A:
 This class is the default implementation.
 Optimized for battery powered nodes, it allows bidirectional communications, where a given
node is able to receive downstream traffic after transmitting.
 Two receive windows are available after each transmission.

MAC Layer:
2. Class B:
 This class was designated “experimental” in LoRaWAN 1.0.1 until it can be better defined.
 A Class B node or endpoint should get additional receive windows compared to Class A, but
gateways must be synchronized through a beaconing process.
3. Class C:
 This class is particularly adapted for powered nodes.
 This classification enables a node to be continuously listening by keeping its receive window open
when not transmitting. Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 195

MAC Layer:
 LoRaWAN messages, either uplink or downlink, have a PHY payload composed of a 1-byte
MAC header, a variable-byte MAC payload, and a MIC that is 4 bytes in length.
 The MAC payload size depends on the frequency band and the data rate, ranging from 59 to
230 bytes for the 863–870 MHz band and 19 to 250 bytes for the 902–928 MHz band.

MAC Layer:
 In version 1.0.x, LoRaWAN utilizes six MAC message types.
 LoRaWAN devices use join request and join accept messages for over-the-air (OTA) activation
and joining the network.
 The other message types are unconfirmed data up/down and confirmed data up/down.
 A “confirmed” message is one that must be acknowledged, and “unconfirmed” signifies that
the end device does not need to acknowledge.
 Uplink messages are sent from endpoints to the network server and are relayed by one.

MAC Layer:
 Downlink messages flow from the network server to a single endpoint and are relayed by
only a single gateway.
LoRaWAN endpoints are uniquely addressable through a variety of methods, including the
following:
 An endpoint can have a global end device ID or DevEUI represented as an IEEE EUI-64
address.
 An endpoint can have a global application ID or AppEUI represented as an IEEE EUI-64
address that uniquely identifies the application provider, such as the owner, of the end device.Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 198

MAC Layer:
 In a LoRaWAN network, endpoints are also known by their end device address, known as a
DevAddr, a 32-bit address.
 The 7 most significant bits are the network identifier (NwkID), which identifies the LoRaWAN
network.
 The 25 least significant bits are used as the network address (NwkAddr) to identify the
endpoint in the network.

Topology:
 LoRaWAN topology is often described as a “star of stars” topology.
 The infrastructure consists of endpoints exchanging packets through gateways acting as
bridges, with a central LoRaWAN network server.
 Gateways connect to the backend network using standard IP connections, and endpoints
communicate directly with one or more gateways.

Topology:

Topology:
 LoRaWAN endpoints transport their selected application data over the LoRaWAN MAC layer
on top of one of the supported PHY layer frequency bands.
 The application data is contained in upper protocol layers.
 These upper layers could be raw data on top of the LoRaWAN MAC layer, or the data could be
stacked in multiple protocols.
 For example, it has upper-layer protocols, such as ZigBee Control Layer (ZCL), Constrained
Application Protocol (CoAP), or Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), with or
without an IPv6/6LoWPAN layer. Dr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 202

Topology:
 Figure also shows how LoRaWAN gateways act as bridges that relay between endpoints and
the network servers. Multiple gateways can receive and transport the same packets.
 When duplicate packets are received, deduplication is a function of the network server.
 The LoRaWAN network server manages the data rate and radio frequency (RF) of each
endpoint through the adaptive data rate (ADR) algorithm.
 ADR is a key component of the network scalability, performance, and battery life of the
endpoints.
 The LoRaWAN network server forwards application data to the application serversDr. Syed Mustafa, HKBKCE 203

Security:
 Security in a LoRaWAN deployment applies to different components of the architecture.
 LoRaWAN endpoints must implement two layers of security, protecting communications and
data privacy across the network.
 The first layer, called “network security” but applied at the MAC layer, guarantees the
authentication of the endpoints by the LoRaWAN network server.
 Also, it protects LoRaWAN packets by performing encryption based on AES.

LoRaWAN:
Security:

Security:
 Each endpoint implements a network session key (NwkSKey), used by both itself and the
LoRaWAN network server.
 The NwkSKey ensures data integrity through computing and checking the MIC of every data
message as well as encrypting and decrypting MAC-only data message payloads.
 The second layer is an application session key (AppSKey), which performs encryption and
decryption functions between the endpoint and its application server.

Security:
 Endpoints receive their AES-128 application key (AppKey) from the application owner.
 This key is derived from an application specific root key exclusively known to and under the
control of the application provider.

Security:
LoRaWAN endpoints attached to a LoRaWAN network must get registered and authenticated.
This can be achieved through one of the two join mechanisms:
1. Activation by personalization (ABP):
• Endpoints don’t need to run a join procedure as their individual details, including DevAddr and the
NwkSKey and AppSKey session keys, are preconfigured and stored in the end device.
• This same information is registered in the LoRaWAN network server.

Security:
2. Over-the-air activation (OTAA):
• Endpoints are allowed to dynamically join a particular LoRaWAN network after successfully going
through a join procedure.
• The join procedure must be done every time a session context is renewed.
• During the join process, which involves the sending and receiving of MAC layer join request and join
accept messages, the node establishes its credentials with a LoRaWAN network server, exchanging its
globally unique DevEUI, AppEUI, and AppKey.
• The AppKey is then used to derive the session NwkSKey and AppSKey keys.

LoRaWAN Conclusions:
 The LoRaWAN wireless technology was developed for LPWANs that are critical for
implementing many new devices on IoT networks.
 The term LoRa refers to the PHY layer, and LoRaWAN focuses on the architecture, the MAC
layer, and a unified, single standard for seamless interoperability.
 LoRaWAN is managed by the LoRa Alliance, an industry organization.

LoRaWAN Conclusions:
 The PHY and MAC layers allow LoRaWAN to cover longer distances with a data rate that can
change depending on various factors.
 The LoRaWAN architecture depends on gateways to bridge endpoints to network servers.
 From a security perspective, LoRaWAN offers AES authentication and encryption at two
separate layers.

15CS81- IoT Module-2

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