Introduction

Before reading this article, I highly recommend reading the following previous parts of the series:
Topics covered
IoT Network Protocols
To understand IoT Networks let’s have a look at this picture.
IoT Network
Figure: IoT Network
In an IoT network, the following are some of the technologies.
Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) includes networks like Zigbee, Bluetooth, 6LowPAN, etc.
On a slightly larger wireless network area scale, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) includes Wi-Fi.
On a larger scale, mobile communication technologies like 2G, 3G,4G, and LTE remain. Smartphones and mobile communication systems will be used and they will connect to the base stations and base stations will provide connectivity to a Wide Area Network (WAN) including the internet.
Considering this, we can think of many other options.
Smartphones are equipped with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, therefore we can think of an IoT network. The most common topology control is the WPAN that is Bluetooth or Near Feild Communication (NFC). The WPAN is connected to a smartphone and the smartphone can bring the signal up using 3G, 4G and LTE using the base station and the base station will connect that to the WAN.
Therefore we get a technology linking on another technology.
Wearable IoT Networks
This is a technology where the preceding explanation is brought into reality.
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth
IEEE 802.15.4 Standard
ZigBee
A Zigbee network is made up of a Coordinator (C) that is required to establish a network connection. Coordinator ‘C’ establishes a PAN, a router (R), that provides the network connection to the end devices and End Device (E) that are the IoT devices connected to the network.
The following describes an IPv6 over Low-power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPANs):
In the 6LoWPAN node, Bluetooth smart devices can connect to the internet over Bluetooth Smart using a border router. The border router acts as a device connected to the internet and provides access for the nodes to the internet.
Z-Wave
The Z-Wave protocol is an interoperable, wireless, RF-based communications technology designed specifically for control, monitoring and status reading applications in residential and light commercial environments.
UDP
In the diagram below, we get a clear differentiation of IP Suite and IP Smart Object (IoT) suite.
clear differentiation of IP Suite
IoT Network Architecture
Autonomous Network Architecture
Example: Autonomous information collected by the parking sensor due to the occupancy of parking slots in a wireless manner and sent to the control center.
Autonomous Network Architecture
Figure: Autonomous Network Architecture
Ubiquitous Network Architecture
Examples
Structural Health Monitoring: Monitoring the health of any structure, large or small, like buildings, bridges and so on. Passive wireless sensors are embedded within a concrete structure that sends radio signals of suitable amplitude and phase characteristics periodically using radio frequencies. The data collected from these sensors are then analyzed to detect anomalies.
Ubiquitous Network Architecture
Figure: Ubiquitous Network Architecture
That’s all for this article. Hope this was helpful and you enjoyed reading!!
References:
P.S.: This article has been posted on my blog.
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