Internet of Things: The Protocols and Applications

This article discusses the concept of IoT technology and its building blocks, including packet switching, client/server computing, and the TCP protocol. It also explores IIoT and Industry 4.0, IoT solutions for animal welfare, and operational issues and mitigation strategies for deploying IoT in farms.

Running head: INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
Internet of Things: The Protocols and Applications
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Author’s note

1INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
Table of Contents
1. Description of IoT Technology...................................................................................................2
2. Building Blocks of the Internet....................................................................................................3
3. Discussion on IIoT and Industry 4.0............................................................................................4
3.1 Discussion on Industrial IoT (IIoT).......................................................................................4
4. IoT Solution for Animal Welfare................................................................................................5
4.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................5
4.2 System Architecture...............................................................................................................5
4.3 Network Deployment.............................................................................................................6
4.4 Testing...................................................................................................................................7
4.5 Road Map...............................................................................................................................7
4.6 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................7
5. Operational Issues and Deploying IoT in Farm and Mitigation Strategies.................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

2INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
1. Description of IoT Technology
The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a concept within computing that would be able
to describe the idea of connecting each of the physical objects. These objects would be able to
connect and communicate with each other and thus identify themselves within an enclosed
network. The term of IoT is primarily identified with RFID as the primary method of
communication.
The framework of IoT would be able to include each of the sensor based technology, QR
codes and wireless technologies (Lee and Lee 2015). A particular object defined within the IoT
framework could be a person who would have a heart monitor implant, an automobile that would
have inbuilt sensors for alerting the driver in case of any additional need, a farm animal that
would have a biochip transponder and many others. These devices would be assigned with an IP
address and thus they would be able to conduct the transfer of data within the connected
network. In the recent times, different organizations are making use of the IoT technology for
operating in an efficient manner, understanding the demands of customers in a better manner and
thus deliver enhance mode of customer service (Gao and Bai 2014). The use of IoT devices and
the decisions gained from them would be able to help in improving the making of decisions and
thus increase the business value.
The IoT technology helps in extending the connectivity of the internet beyond the reach
of traditional devices such as laptop and desktop computers, tablets and smartphones. The reach
of the connectivity has diversified to a different range of devices and everyday used objects that
would be able to utilize the embedded technology (Huh, Cho and Kim 2017). These are mainly
used for communicating and interacting with the external environment with the help of Internet

3INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
technology. Some of the examples of IoT connected devices are security systems, cars,
thermostats, electric lights, alarm clocks, vending machines and many others.
Different business could also leverage the applications of IoT in order to automate the
safety tasks in order to make them perform testing with the aid of networked sensors and
cameras for the purpose of detection of the ways of customer engagement with products.
2. Building Blocks of the Internet
The computer internet technology primarily refers to the hardware, software and different
transmission protocols that are mainly used for connecting computers in a network. The internet
technology is meant for the purpose of receiving and sending of data from one computer to
another based within a small network.
The three basic building blocks of the Internet technology are packet switching,
client/server computing and the TCP protocol.
Packet Switching – Packet switching is defined as a method for the transfer of data
within a network in the form of packet. This method is also defined as the method of splitting of
messages into parcels, routing the messages along the communication paths and then
reassembling them at the final destination point (Diamantopoulos et al. 2015). At the destination
point, the small data packets would be reassembled that would belong to the same file. The
technique of packet switching mainly make use of Store and Forward technique in order to
switch between packets.
Client/Server Computing – The technique of client/server computing normally refers to
the powerful client side computers that would be connected to more than one server computers.
The client computer is much powerful in order to display, process the message and store the

4INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
large files that might include sound and graphical files. The server side computers are mostly
dedicated to some commonly used functions that would be mostly be needed by the clients.
These include file storage services and also allow the software applications and different utility
programs for the use by the client (Goodyear 2017). The client-server computing service can be
considered as an environment that would be needed appropriately for the allocation of
application processing between the processes of client and server.
The TCP Protocol – The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) can be defined as a
standard that would be able to define the way of establishment and maintenance of a network
conversation through the use of application programs for the purpose of exchange of data. The
TCP protocol primarily work with the Internet protocol and thus defines the way in which
computers would send packets of data from one computer to another (Duke et al. 2015). The IP
and TCP would together form the basic rules that would define the framework of Internet. The
TCP protocol is defined as a set of certain protocols that would specify the messages and the way
in which the messages would be formatted, compressed, ordered and checking of errors. The IP
protocol would also be able to provide the scheme of addressing for the Internet.
3. Discussion on IIoT and Industry 4.0
3.1 Discussion on Industrial IoT (IIoT)
The Industrial IoT (IIoT) is defined as the use of IoT technology for the purpose of
providing enhancement within the manufacturing and industrial processes. The IIoT technology
primarily incorporates the use of Big Data and machine learning technologies for the major
purpose of harnessing of sensor data, automation technologies and machine-to-machine (M2M)
communication that have existed within the industrial framework for several years.

5INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
The principle philosophy behind the IIoT is based on smart machines that are far better
than humans in terms of accuracy and high level of consistency (Mourtzis, Vlachou and Milas
2016). They help in capturing and communication of messages in real-time data. The collected
data enables companies to gain the factor of problems and inefficiencies in a fast manner. The
use of IIoT technology also helps the industries in saving money and time. They also help in
supporting the efforts of business intelligence (BI).
In the manufacturing industry, IIoT technology holds a major potential for the control
over quality, green and sustainable practices, overall supply chain efficiency and supply chain
traceability (Sanchez-Iborra and Cano 2016). In an entire industrial setting, IIoT is the primary
key to the various processes such as enhanced field service, energy management, predictive
maintenance (PdM) and asset tracking.
4. IoT Solution for Animal Welfare
4.1 Introduction
The damage to crops is mostly caused due to animal attacks and is considered as the
major fears that reduces the production of crops. The prime methods for countering the problem
involves the making use of electrified mesh fences, organic or chemical substances and gas
cannons (Catarinucci et al. 2014). This discussion primarily puts emphasis on the impact of IoT
based solutions that would be introduced on farms for increasing the productivity and profits
based on better management of the welfare of animals.
4.2 System Architecture
The system architecture that would be used within the farms are weather monitoring
system, ultrasound repeller device and the implementation of back-end system.

6INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
The operating system within these devices are mainly enhances with the use of an open
source system that is known as RIOT. This helps in providing of additional features such as well-
organized network stack, multi-threading and allocation of memory (Baccelli et al. 2018). The
RIOT OS was mainly released in the year 2013 and is entirely based on the microkernel
architectural framework. The OS is based on real-time use cases. In the part of networking, the
RIOT OS makes use of a network stack that would be primarily be based on IP and further
supported by IEEE 802.15.4, IPv6, UDP, CoAP and RPL. The OS is programmed with C/C++
syntax and are supported by multiple threads. A memory passing IPC is also present within the
threads.
The weather monitoring system consists of a real-time and observation over historic data
that are in relation to the weather condition based in the territory of farmers. The device is fully
solar-powered and is connected with various sensors such as humidity and temperature sensors,
direction and win-speed sensors (Shang, Afanasyev and Zhang 2016). The device mainly
communicates over the use of Wi-Fi technology that also supports the back-end systems. The
device helps in gaining real-time knowledge based on the conditions of weather to the farmers
and thus help them in performing a preferable treatment to the crops.
4.3 Network Deployment
The deployment of the devices primarily comprises of low-power consuming solar
repeller devices that would be equipped with a driver. These are meant for the purpose of the
amplification of the speaker and sound. The different devices that are mainly running on RIOT-
OS systems are interrelated with the help of a full mesh 6LowPAN network (Kamilaris et al.
2016). The system based on weather monitoring is mainly positioned along with the repeller

7INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
devices. The devices mainly consist with a low-power consuming microcontroller, which would
be able to transmit the data collected from the weather to the W-Fi gateway.
4.4 Testing
The effectiveness of the weather monitoring system and other devices would mainly be
provided during the period of testing of each of the devices. During the testing phase, the
weather station would be connected with the help of a Wi-Fi network to the present gateway.
4.5 Road Map
With the positive impact gained from the testing phase, the next steps that would be
carried out would mainly focus on the improvement of the effectiveness of the monitoring and
repelling systems (Vermesan and Friess 2014). The hardware part should be further enhanced
with the impact of sensors that would also monitor the conditions of soil and measure the amount
of moisture within the soil. On the part of the software, it would be crucial for the addition and
further improvement of the data analytic system.
4.6 Conclusion
Based on the discussion, it could be concluded that an integrative approach should be
used within the technology of IoT based on open source systems and low powered devices. The
primary goal of the use of IoT supported devices within the agricultural sector is based on
improving the factor of crop protection against extreme weather conditions and animal attacks.
The future work of research would thus be focused on the present functionalities of the system.
The research would also further investigate on the chances of incorporation of the features within
the present system.

8INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
5. Operational Issues and Deploying IoT in Farm and Mitigation Strategies
The different operational issues for the deployment of IoT technology within farms are:
 Identification of Right Use Cases – Although there has been a huge rise in the
agriculture based technical companies, many of the entrepreneurs have the least
experience based on working within the farm. This has resulted in lots of useless products
resulting in extreme conditions to the farm. The mitigation strategies for this is based on
taking of actionable insights based on overall farm management (Tzounis et al. 2017).
This would help in the identification of problems and thus the farmers would be able to
take necessary action.
 Lack of Connectivity – Slow internet connection is also another major factor that
reduces the productivity within the farm culture. This majorly impacts the gathering of
farm related data, which would further result in making of important decisions by the
farmers (Dlodlo and Kalezhi 2015). This problem could be mitigated with the impact of
raising the technical connectivity within the farms. Faster and widely available internet
connectivity would be helpful in uplifting of the internet infrastructure in the areas
covered by farming.
 Lack of a proper IoT based specific Network – The range of connectivity is also
another hindrance that is being faced within the farms. The range of data that would be
sent from the devices to the farmers should be made large (Chin, Fan and Haines 2014).
A network could also be constructed based on gathering of small bits of data and which
would also promote a longer battery life. The impact of Bluetooth technology would
prove to put a less impact over the IoT framework as the range of signal is small. Hence,
a proper technology should be implemented within the farm that would be able to connect

9INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
all the existing IoT systems. This would further help the farmers in gaining a vast insight
over the conditions of the farm and thus provide better recommendations to the progress
of farm conditions.

10INTERNET OF THINGS: THE PROTOCOLS AND APPLICATIONS
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