Protocols for IoT

IoT Data Link Protocol

The discussion includes physical (PHY) and MAC layer protocols which are combined
by most standards
• The 802.15.4 IEEE standard is used heavily for connectivity purposes
in IoT.
• The sensed data are to be sent over a network to some remote device,
for further processing. And, based on that processing again that signal
has to be sent from that processor to some remote actuator,which will
do some actuation that will turn on the lights of a room.
• Some signal might be required to be sent to the actuator.
• IEEE 802.15.4 is one such very widely used standards for offering
connectivity in IoT
IEEE 802.15.4 is the most commonly used IoT standard for MAC. It defines a frame
format,headers including source and destination addresses, and how nodes can communicate
with each other.
The frame formats used in traditional networks are not suitable for low power multi-hop
networking in IoT due to their overhead.
In 2008, IEEE802.15.4e was created to extend IEEE802.15.4 and support low power
communication.
It uses time synchronization and channel hopping to enable high reliability, low cost and meet
IoT communications requirements.
Slotframe Structure: IEEE 802.15.4e frame structure is designed for scheduling and
telling each node what to do. A node can sleep, send, or receive information. In the sleep
mode, the node turns off its radio to save power and stores all messages that it needs to
send at the next transmission opportunity. When transmitting, it sends its data and waits
for an acknowledgment. When receiving, the node turns on its radio before the scheduled
receiving time, receives the data, sends an acknowledgement, turn off its radio, delivers
the data to the upper layers and goes back to sleep.
Scheduling: The standard does not define how the scheduling is done but it needs
to be built carefully such that it handles mobility scenarios. It can be centralized by
a manager node which is responsible for building the schedule, informing others
about the schedule and other nodes will just follow the schedule.
• Synchronization: Synchronization is necessary to maintain nodes’ connectivity to
their neighbors and to the gateways. Two approaches can be used:
acknowledgment-based or frame-based synchronization.
In acknowledgement-based mode, the nodes are already in communication and
they send acknowledgment for reliability guarantees, thus can be
used to maintain connectivity as well.
In frame-based mode, nodes are not communicating and hence, they send an empty
frame at pre-specified intervals (about 30 second typically).
Channel Hopping: IEEE802.15.4e introduces channel hopping for time slotted access to the
wireless medium. Channel hopping requires changing the frequency channel using a pre-
determined random sequence. This introduces frequency diversity and reduces the effect of
interference and multi-path fading. Sixteen channels are available which adds to network
capacity as two frames over the same link can be transmitted on different frequency channels at
the same time.
• Network formation: Network formation includes advertisement and joining

components. A new device should listen for advertisement commands and upon
receiving at least one such command, it can send a join request to the advertising
device.
In a centralized system, the join request is routed to the manger node and
processed there while in distributed systems, they are processed locally.
Once a device joins the network and it is fully functional, the formation is
disabled and will be activated again if it receives another join request.
Zigbee
What is ZigBee?
• Technological Standard Created for Control and Sensor Networks
• Based on the IEEE 802.15.4 Standard
• Created by the ZigBee Alliance
IEEE 802.15.4

Zigbee is set of high level communication

protocols based upon the specification produced
by 802.15.4 - standard for wireless personal area
networks (WPANs)
IEEE 802.15.4 & ZigBee In Context
Application Customer

API – “the software”

Security – Network, Security &
32- / 64- / 128-bit encryption ZigBee
Application layers
Alliance
Network – Brand management
Star / Mesh / Cluster-Tree
IEEE 802.15.4
MAC
IEEE – “the hardware”
PHY 802.15.4
– Physical & Media
868MHz / 915MHz / 2.4GHz
Access Control layers
Silicon Stack App
WPANs
A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network used for
communication among computer devices (including
telephones and personal digital assistants) close to one person

A wireless PAN consists of a dynamic group of less than 255 devices

that communicate within a range of about a 33-feet.
IEEE 802 Wireless Space
ZigBee Aims Low
• Low data rate
• Low power consumption
• Small packet devices
ZigBee Vs Other Wireless Protocols
 ZigBee Vs Bluetooth

• Bluetooth targets medium data rate continuous duty

– 1 Mbps over the air, ~700 kbps best case data transfer
– File transfer, streaming telecom audio
– Point to multipoint networking

• ZigBee targets low data rate, low duty cycle

– 250 kbps over the air, 60-115 kbps typical data transfer
– Long battery life (weeks to months)
– More sophisticated networking
ZigBee Applications
ZigBee Network Model
Network Pieces : PAN Coordinator
PAN Coordinator(ZC)
• One and only one in PAN
• “owns” the network
•Starts it
• Allows other devices to join it
• Provides binding and address-table services
• Saves messages until they can be delivered
• And more… could also have i/o capability
• A “full-function device” – FFD
• Mains powered
Network Pieces : Router
Routers(ZR)
• Optional element
Routes messages- Participates in multihop
routing of messages.
• Does not own or start network
• Scans to find a network to join
• A “full-function device” – FFD
Network Pieces : End Devices

End Device(ZED)
• Optional element
Communicates with a single device, does not participate
in routing
• Does not own or start network
• Scans to find a network to join
• Can be an FFD or RFD
• Usually battery powered
 IEEE 802.15.4 Device Types
• Network Coordinator
- Maintains overall network knowledge; most sophisticated of the three
types; most memory and computing power

• Full Function Device (FFD)

- Carries full 802.15.4 functionality and all features specified by the
standard
- Additional memory, computing power make it ideal for a network
router function
- Could also be used in network edge devices where the network touches
other networks or devices that are not IEEE 802.15.4 compliant

• Reduced Function Device (RFD)

- Carriers limited (as specified by the standard) functionality to control
cost and complexity
Network Topologies
 ZigBee Mesh Networking

Slide Courtesy of

Source: http://www.zigbee.org/en/resources/#SlidePresentations
 ZigBee Mesh Networking

Slide Courtesy of

Source: http://www.zigbee.org/en/resources/#SlidePresentations
 ZigBee Mesh Networking

Slide Courtesy of

Source: http://www.zigbee.org/en/resources/#SlidePresentations
 ZigBee Mesh Networking

Slide Courtesy of

Source: http://www.zigbee.org/en/resources/#SlidePresentations
 Zigbee Smart Energy
• ZigBee smart energy is designed for a large range of IoT applications including smart
homes,remote controls and healthcare systems.
• It supports a wide range of network topologies including star, peer-to-peer, or cluster-
tree. A coordinator controls the network and is the central node in a star topology, the
root in a tree or cluster topology and may be located anywhere in peer-to-peer.
• ZigBee standard defines two stack profiles: ZigBee and ZigBee Pro. These stack profiles
support full mesh networking and work with different applications allowing
implementations with low memory and processing power.
• ZigBee Pro offers more features including security using symmetric-key exchange,
scalability using stochastic address assignment, and better performance using efficient
many-to-one routing mechanisms
What is RFID?
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the Wireless
non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic
fields to transfer data for the purpose of automatically
identifying and tracking tags attached to assets
• ADC [Automated Data Collection]

 
RFID
• RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification, is a system for
transferring data over short distances (typically less than 6
inches).
• Often only one of the two devices needs to be powered, while
the other is a passive device.
• This allows for easy use in such things as credit cards, key fobs,
and pet collars as there is no need to worry about battery life.
• The downside is that the reader and the information holder (i.e
credit card) must be very close, and can only hold small amounts
of data
RFID
Identification
• Assign IDs to objects
• Link the ID to additional information about the object
Identification Examples
• Bar Codes
• License Plates
• Social Security Numbers
• Student ID
• Serial Numbers
• Database Key
RFID System
• Tag Reader – Transceiver { A device that can both
transmit and receive communications, in particular a
combined radio transmitter and receiver }

• RFID tag – Transponder { A device for receiving a radio

signal and automatically transmitting a different signal }

• Antenna [Media interface Layer]

RFID Hardware
Magnetic / Inductive Coupling IC or microprocessor

Transceiver
RFID
Tag Reader
Tag
antenna

antenna
RFID Hardware
Propagation Coupling IC or microprocessor

Transceiver
RFID
Tag Reader
Tag
antenna

antenna
Components of a Passive RFID System
Components of a Active RFID System
Tags
• A Tag is a transponder which receives a radio signal and in response to
it sends out a radio signal.

• Tag contains an antenna, and a small chip that stores a small amount
of data

• Tag can be programmed at manufacture or on installation

• Tag is powered by the high power electromagnetic field generated by

the antennas – usually in doorways

• The field allows the chip/antenna to reflect back an extremely weak

signal containing the data
Types of Tags
• Passive Tags
• No battery
• Low cost
• Active Tags
• On-board transceiver
• Battery – must be replaced
• Longer range
• High cost
Different types of tags
Real Tags
Tag Attributes
Passive Tags Active Tags
• Tag Power • Energy transferred using RF • Internal to Tag
from reader

• Tag Battery • No • Yes

• Availability of Power • Only in the field of Radar • Continuous

• Required Signal Strength to • Very High • Very Low

Tag
• Up to 3-5 M • Up to 100 M
• Range
• Few Hundred within 3M of
• Multi Tag Reading reader • 1000’s of tags recognized–
up to 100mph
• 128 bytes of R/W • 128 bytes of R/W with
• Data Storage sophisticated search and
access
RFID Reader
The reader is responsible for orchestrating the
communication with any tags in its read range and then
presenting the tags’ data to an application that can make
use of the data.

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Main functions are to
activate the tags,
structure the communication sequence with the tag and
transfer data between the application software and tags

Readers in all systems can be reduced to two

fundamental functional blocks:
1.Control system and
2.High frequency (HF) interface
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
RFID Reader/Writer (RC522)
 DASH7

DASH7 is a wireless communication protocol for active RFID that operates in globally
available Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band and is suitable for IoT requirements.
It is mainly designed for scalable, long range outdoor coverage with higher data rate
compared to traditional ZigBee. It is a low-cost solution that supports encryption and IPv6
addressing.
It supports a master/slave architecture and is designed for burst, lightweight, asynchronous
and transitive traffic. Its MAC layer features can be summarized as follows
• Filtering: Incoming frames are filtered using three processes; cyclic redundancy check
(CRC) validation, a 4-bit subnet mask, and link quality assessment. Only the frames that pass
all three checks are processed further.
Addressing: DASH7 uses two types of addresses: the unique identifier
which is the EUI-64 ID and dynamic network identifier which is 16-bit
address specified by the network administrator.
• Frame format: The MAC frame has a variable length of maximum
255 bytes including addressing, subnets, estimated power of the
transmission and some other optional fields
Current RFID Applications
• E-Passport
• Toll Collection
• Payment Systems
• Supply Chain
• Access Control
• Animal Tracking
RFID’s Advantages
• Passive
• wireless
• Store data on a tag
• Can be hidden
• Work in harsh environments
• Low cost?
RFID’s Disadvantages
• Lack of standards!
• Short range
• Cost
Evolution of IOT
The evolution of IOT is coinciding with that of RFID and sensor
technologies. RFID technology is a very important and
fundamental groundwork for IOT.

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RFID standards
• ISO
• INCITS
• ICAO
• NIST
• EPC Global
Livestock Tagging
Meet Bobby the Cow

Bobby has an old

fashioned ear tag
for identification.
Bobby’s Part of a Herd
Automated Toll Collection
Potential Applications
• Smart Grocery Store
• Smart Kitchen
Smart Grocery Store
• Every item in the store already has a bar code.
• Why not use an RFID tag?
• Speed up checkouts
Smart Grocery Store

• Several carts this full in early

evening could seriously slow
down the checkout process.
• How much do cashiers cost?
Smart Grocery Store

• Add an RFID tag to all items in

the grocery.
• As the cart leaves the store, it
passes through an RFID
transceiver
• The cart is rung up in seconds.
Smart Groceries Enhanced

• Track products
through their entire
lifetime.

Diagram courtesy How Stuff Works

Bluetooth Low Energy
• Bluetooth low energy or Bluetooth smart is a short range communication protocol with
PHY and MAC layer widely used for in-vehicle networking. Its low energy can reach ten
times less than the classic Bluetooth while its latency can reach 15 times.
• Its access control uses a contentionless MAC with low latency and fast transmission. It
follows master/slave architecture and offers two types of frames: adverting and data
frames.
• The Advertising frame is used for discovery and is sent by slaves on one or more of
dedicated advertisement channels. Master nodes sense advertisement channels to find
slaves and connect them.
• After connection, the master tells the slave it’s waking cycle and scheduling sequence.
Nodes are usually awake only when they are communicating and they go to sleep otherwise
to save their power
Z-Wave
• Z-Wave is a low-power MAC protocol designed for home automation and has been used
for IoT communication, especially for smart home and small commercial domains.
• It covers about 30-meter point-to-point communication and is suitable for small messages
in IoT applications, like light control, energy control, wearable healthcare control and
others.
• It uses CSMA/CA for collision detection and ACK messages for reliable transmission.
• It follows a master/slave architecture in which the master control the slaves, send them
commands, and handling scheduling of the whole network