Library Herald
Year : 2023, Volume : 61, Issue : 1
First page : ( 20) Last page : ( 30)
Print ISSN : 0024-2292. Online ISSN : 0976-2469.
Article DOI : 10.5958/0976-2469.2023.00002.7
Connectivity Technologies for Small Internet of Things (IoT) Devices and Challenges
Singh Jitender1, Singh Gopal2
1Assistant Professor (Guest), Department of Computer Science, University of Delhi, Delhi; E-Mail: jitender100t@gmail.com
2Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Applications, MDU, Rohtak, Haryana; E-Mail: gsbhoria@gmail.com
Abstract
The emergence of new technologies in the 21st century has redefined the way human beings have interacted in public and private spaces. Today, if we want to book a cab, we can easily book the same using our mobile phone within a few seconds if we exclude the human side of delay/error or if we are supposed to commute through other means of public transport such as the metro, we can use smart cards. In terms of performance do we notice any difference? The computing, processing, and operations are done within the blink of an eye. The time taken to complete such tasks is nearly the same but they use different underlying connectivity technologies and through these technologies, mobility and interactions are being redefined. Well, the convenient connectivity technologies for mobile devices with high battery and processing power in current trends of this era are cellular, simply put 3G, 4G, and 5G. However, small or microdevices that may only use sensors or may have limited power and processing cannot be categorized as other mobile devices like smartphones, laptops, PDAs, etc. In the past couple of decades, humans have become the minority as the generator and the receiver of traffic over the Internet. Much of the communication is done in a machine-to-machine manner and this communication has been reshaped by the Internet. If we are to define the Internet, simply put it is the network of computers. However, the Internet of Things on the other hand can be said as the network of “things” or devices or physical “objects”, that may be connected over the Internet. At the same time, the scope of IoT is much broader than the Internet as it covers the dimension of connecting physical objects like fans, air conditioners, lighting systems, surveillance cameras, etc. What has IoT to offer and why IoT is so popular in this era? The IoT offers an advanced level of services where we can connect embedded systems, computing platforms, nanotechnology, etc., all working as independent nodes. Unlike Computers, small sensor-based devices or “things” require a connectivity technology that consumes low power and energy and transmits limited data. Some examples are ZigBee, NFC, Bluetooth, 6LoWPAN, BLE, etc. This is what makes them different from smartphones which consume comparatively higher power and processing. No doubt, due to the increase in the number of connected devices the shortage of addressing also becoming a problem as currently, we use IPv4 and IPv6 addressing for the Internet Protocol and since the active devices are already over 10 billion in count we will soon or later run out of addresses. One example is how the current IPv4 infrastructure is used to transmit IPv6 data, as the internet backbone follows IPv4 addressing so one has to translate the IPv6 address into an IPv4 one. Likewise, discussion about the current solution to this problem and what are the limitations of current addressing methods and future scope.
Keywords
Internet of Things, Internet, Connectivity technology, IP Addresses.