IOT QB II - Answers

1. What are the major factors which influence the choice of sensors in IOT-based sensing solutions?

The choice of sensors in an IoT sensor node is critical and can either make or break the feasibility of an IoT
deployment. The following major factors influence the choice of sensors in IoT-based sensing solutions: 1)
sensing range, 2) accuracy and precision, 3) energy, and 4) device size.

These factors are discussed as follows:

● Sensing Range: The sensing range of a sensor node defines the detection fidelity of that node. Typical
approaches to optimize the sensing range in deployments include fixed k-coverage and dynamic k-coverage.
A lifelong fixed k-coverage tends to usher in redundancy as it requires a large number of sensor nodes, the
sensing range of some of which may also overlap. In contrast, dynamic k-coverage incorporates mobile
sensor nodes post detection of an event, which, however, is a costly solution and may not be deployable in
all operational areas and terrains. Additionally, the sensing range of a sensor may also be used to signify the
upper and lower bounds of a sensor’s measurement range. For example, a proximity sensor has a typical
sensing range of a couple of meters. In contrast, a camera has a sensing range varying between tens of
meters to hundreds of meters. As the complexity of the sensor and its sensing range goes up, its cost
significantly increases.

● Accuracy and Precision: The accuracy and precision of measurements provided by a sensor are critical in
deciding the operations of specific functional processes. Typically,off-the-shelf consumer sensors are low on
requirements and often very cheap. However, their performance is limited to regular application domains.
For example, a standard temperature sensor can be easily integrated with conventional components for
hobby projects and day-to-day applications, but it is not suitable for industrial processes. Regular
temperature sensors have a very low-temperature sensing range, as well as relatively low accuracy and
precision. The use of these sensors in industrial applications, where a precision of up to 3–4 decimal places
is required, cannot be facilitated by these sensors. Industrial sensors are typically very sophisticated, and as
a result, very costly. However, these industrial sensors have very high accuracy and precision score, even
under harsh operating conditions.

● Energy: The energy consumed by a sensing solution is crucial to determine the lifetime of that solution and
the estimated cost of its deployment. If the sensor or the sensor node is so energy inefficient that it requires
replenishment of its energy sources quite frequently, the effort in maintaining the solution and its cost goes
up; whereas its deployment feasibility goes down. Consider a scenario where sensor nodes are deployed on
the top of glaciers. Once deployed, access to these nodes is not possible. If the energy requirements of the
sensor nodes are too high, such a deployment will not last long, and the solution will be highly infeasible as
charging or changing of the energy sources of these sensor nodes is not an option.

● Device Size: Modern-day IoT applications have a wide penetration in all domains of life. Most of the
applications of IoT require sensing solutions which are so small that they do not hinder any of the regular
activities that were possible before the sensor node deployment was carried out. Larger the size of a sensor
node, larger is the obstruction caused by it, higher is the cost and energy requirements, and lesser is its
demand for the bulk of the IoT applications. Consider a simple human activity detector. If the detection unit
is too large to be carried or too bulky to cause hindrance to regular normal movements, the demand for this
 solution would be low. It is because of this that the onset of wearables took off so strongly. The wearable
sensors are highly energy- efficient, small in size, and almost part of the wearer’s regular wardrobe.

2. Explain in detail the characteristics of Actuators

The choice or selection of actuators is crucial in an IoT deployment, where a control mechanism is required after
sensing and processing of the information obtained from the sensed environment.
Actuators perform the physically heavier tasks in an IoT deployment; tasks which require moving or changing
the orientation of physical objects, changing the state of objects, and other such activities.
The correct choice of actuators is necessary for the long-term sustenance and continuity of operations, as well as
for increasing the lifetime of the actuators themselves.

A set of four characteristics can define all actuators:

● Weight: The physical weight of actuators limits its application scope. For example, the use of heavier
actuators is generally preferred for industrial applications and applications requiring no mobility of the IoT
deployment. In contrast, lightweight actuators typically find common usage in portable systems in vehicles,
drones, and home IoT applications. It is to be noted that this is not always true. Heavier actuators also have
selective usage in mobile systems, for example, landing gears and engine motors in aircraft.

● Power Rating: This helps in deciding the nature of the application with which an actuator can be
associated. The power rating defines the minimum and maximum operating power an actuator can safely
withstand without damage to itself. Generally, it is indicated as the power-to-weight ratio for actuators. For
example, smaller servo motors used in hobby projects typically have a maximum rating of 5 VDC, 500 mA,
which is suitable for an operations-driven battery-based power source. Exceeding this limit might be
detrimental to the performance of the actuator and may cause burnout of the motor. In contrast to this, servo
motors in larger applications have a rating of 460 VAC, 2:5 A, which requires standalone power supply
systems for operations. It is to be noted that actuators with still higher ratings are available and vary
according to application requirements.

● Torque to Weight Ratio: The ratio of torque to the weight of the moving part of an instrument/device is
referred to as its torque/weight ratio. This indicates the sensitivity of the actuator. Higher is the weight of the
moving part; lower will be its torque to weight ratio for a given power.

● Stiffness and Compliance: The resistance of a material against deformation is known as its stiffness,
whereas compliance of a material is the opposite of stiffness. Stiffness can be directly related to the modulus
of elasticity of that material. Stiff systems are considered more accurate than compliant systems as they have
a faster response to the change in load applied to it. For example, hydraulic systems are considered as stiff
and non-compliant, whereas pneumatic systems are considered as compliant.

3. Explain the different types of Actuators

Broadly, actuators can be divided into seven classes: 1) Hydraulic, 2) pneumatic, 3) electrical, 4)
thermal/magnetic, 5) mechanical, 6) soft, and 7) shape memory polymers. Figure 2.6 shows some of the
commonly used actuators in IoT applications.
Hydraulic actuators
● A hydraulic actuator works on the principle of compression and decompression of fluids. These actuators
facilitate mechanical tasks such as lifting loads through the use of hydraulic power derived from fluids in
cylinders or fluid motors.
● The mechanical motion applied to a hydraulic actuator is converted to either linear, rotary, or oscillatory
motion. The almost incompressible property of liquids is used in hydraulic actuators for exerting significant
force. These hydraulic actuators are also considered as stiff systems. The actuator’s limited acceleration
restricts its usage.

Pneumatic actuators
● A pneumatic actuator works on the principle of compression and decompression of gases. These actuators
use a vacuum or compressed air at high pressure and convert it into either linear or rotary motion.
Pneumatic rack and pinion actuators are commonly used for valve controls of water pipes. Pneumatic
actuators are considered as compliant systems.
● The actuators using pneumatic energy for their operation are typically characterized by the quick response to
starting and stopping signals. Small pressure changes can be used for generating large forces through these
actuators.
● Pneumatic brakes are an example of this type of actuator which is so responsive that they can convert small
pressure changes applied by drives to generate the massive force required to stop or slow down a moving
vehicle. Pneumatic actuators are responsible for converting pressure into force. The power source in the
pneumatic actuator does not need to be stored in reserve for its operation.

Electric actuators
● Typically, electric motors are used to power an electric actuator by generating mechanical torque. This
generated torque is translated into the motion of a motor’s shaft or for switching (as in relays).
● For example, actuating equipment such as solenoid valves control the flow of water in pipes in response to
electrical signals. This class of actuators is considered one of the cheapest, cleanest and speedy actuator
types available.
Thermal or magnetic actuators
● The use of thermal or magnetic energy is used for powering this class of actuators. These actuators have a
very high power density and are typically compact, lightweight, and economical. One classic example of
thermal actuators is shape memory materials (SMMs) such as shape memory alloys (SMAs).
● These actuators do not require electricity for actuation. They are not affected by vibration and can work with
liquid or gases. Magnetic shape memory alloys(MSMAs) are a type of magnetic actuators.

Mechanical actuators
● In mechanical actuation, the rotary motion of the actuator is converted into linear motion to execute some
movement. The use of gears, rails, pulleys, chains, and other devices are necessary for these actuators to
operate. These actuators can be easily used in conjunction with pneumatic, hydraulic, or electrical actuators.
● They can also work in a standalone mode. The best example of a mechanical actuator is a rack and pinion
mechanism.

Soft actuators
● Soft actuators (e.g., polymer-based) consists of elastomeric polymers that are used as embedded fixtures in
flexible materials such as cloth, paper, fiber, particles, and others. The conversion of molecular level
microscopic changes into tangible macroscopic deformations is the primary working principle of this class
of actuators.
● These actuators have a high stake in modern-day robotics. They are designed to handle fragile objects such
as agricultural fruit harvesting, or performing precise operations like manipulating the internal organs during
robot-assisted surgeries.

Shape memory polymers

● Shape memory polymers (SMP) are considered as smart materials that respond to some external stimulus by
changing their shape, and then revert to their original shape once the affecting stimulus is removed. Features
such as high strain recovery, biocompatibility, low density, and biodegradability characterize these
materials.
● SMP-based actuators function similar to our muscles. Modern-day SMPs have been designed to respond to a
wide range of stimuli such as pH changes, heat differentials, light intensity, and frequency changes,
magnetic changes, and others. Photopolymer/light-activated polymers (LAP) are a particular type of SMP,
which require light as a stimulus to operate.
● LAP-based actuators are characterized by their rapid response times. Using only the variation of light
frequency or its intensity, LAPs can be controlled remotely without any physical contact.
● The development of LAPs whose shape can be changed by the application of a specific frequency of light
have been reported. The polymer retains its shape after removal of the activating light. In order to change
the polymer back to its original shape, a light stimulus of a different frequency has to be applied to the
polymer.

4. Explain in detail how sensors can be classified

Sensors are devices that can measure, or quantify, or respond to the ambient changes in their environment or
within the intended zone of their deployment. They generate responses to external stimuli or physical
phenomena through characterization of the input functions (which are these external stimuli) and their
conversion into typically electrical signals.
The various sensors can be classified based on:
1) power requirements, 2) sensor output, and 3)property to be measured.

● Power Requirements: The way sensors operate decides the power requirements that must be provided for
an IoT implementation. Some sensors need to be provided with separate power sources for them to function,
whereas some sensors do not require any power sources.
● Depending on the requirements of power, sensors can be of two types.
(i) Active: Active sensors do not require an external circuitry or mechanism to provide it with power. It
directly responds to the external stimuli from its ambient environment and converts it into an output
signal. For example, a photodiode converts light into electrical impulses.
(ii) Passive: Passive sensors require an external mechanism to power them up. The sensed properties are
modulated with the sensor’s inherent characteristics to generate patterns in the output of the sensor. For
example, a thermistor’s resistance can be detected by applying voltage difference across it or passing a
current through it.
(iii) Output: The output of a sensor helps in deciding the additional components to be integrated with an
IoT node or system. Typically, almost all modern-day processors are digital; digital sensors can be directly
integrated to the processors. However, the integration of analog sensors to these digital processors or IoT
nodes requires additional interfacing mechanisms such as analog to digital converters (ADC), voltage
level converters, and others.

Sensors are broadly divided into two types, depending on the type of output generated from these sensors, as
follows.
(i) Analog: Analog sensors generate an output signal or voltage, which is proportional (linearly or
nonlinearly) to the quantity being measured and is continuous in time and amplitude. Physical quantities
such as temperature, speed, pressure, displacement, strain, and others are all continuous and categorized as
analog quantities. For example, a thermometer or a thermocouple can be used for measuring the
temperature of a liquid (e.g., in household water heaters). These sensors continuously respond to changes
in the temperature of the liquid.
(ii)Digital: These sensors generate the output of discrete time digital representation (time, or amplitude, or
both) of a quantity being measured, in the form of output signals or voltages. Typically, binary output
signals in the form of a logic 1 or a logic 0 for ON or OFF, respectively are associated with digital sensors.
The generated discrete (non-continuous) values may be output as a single “bit” (serial transmission), eight
of which combine to produce a single“byte” output (parallel transmission) in digital sensors.

● Measured Property: The property of the environment being measured by the sensors can be crucial in
deciding the number of sensors in an IoT implementation. Some properties to be measured do not show high
spatial variations and can be quantified only based on temporal variations in the measured property, such as
ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, and others. Whereas some properties to be measured show high
spatial as well as temporal variations such as sound, image, and others.
● Depending on the properties to be measured, sensors can be of two types.

(i) Scalar: Scalar sensors produce an output proportional to the magnitude of the quantity being measured.
The output is in the form of a signal or voltage. Scalar physical quantities are those where only the
magnitude of the signal is sufficient for describing or characterizing the phenomenon and information
generation. Examples of such measurable physical quantities include color, pressure, temperature, strain,
and others. A thermometer or thermocouple is an example of a scalar sensor that has the ability to detect
 changes in ambient or object temperatures (depending on the sensor’s configuration). Factors such as
changes in sensor orientation or direction do not affect these sensors (typically).

(ii) Vector: Vector sensors are affected by the magnitude as well as the direction and/or orientation of the
property they are measuring. Physical quantities such as velocity and images that require additional
information besides their magnitude for completely categorizing a physical phenomenon are categorized
as vector quantities. Measuring such quantities are undertaken using vector sensors. For example, an
electronic gyroscope, which is commonly found in all modern aircraft, is used for detecting the changes in
orientation of the gyroscope with respect to the Earth’s orientation along all three axes

5. What are the critical factors to be considered during the design of IOT devices ?

The main consideration of minutely defining an IoT solution is the selection of the processor for developing the
sensing solution (i.e., the sensor node). This selection is governed by many parameters that affect the usability,
design, and affordability of the designed IoT sensing and processing solution.
The main factor governing the IoT device design and selection for various applications is the processor.
However, the other important considerations are as follows:

Size: This is one of the crucial factors for deciding the form factor and the energy consumption of a sensor node.
It has been observed that larger the form factor, larger is the energy consumption of the hardware. Additionally,
large form factors are not suitable for a significant bulk of IoT applications, which rely on minimal form factor
solutions (e.g., wearables).

Energy: The energy requirements of a processor is the most important deciding factor in designing IoT-based
sensing solutions. Higher the energy requirements, higher is the energy source (battery) replacement frequency.
This principle automatically lowers the long-term sustainability of sensing hardware, especially for IoT-based
applications.

Cost: The cost of a processor, besides the cost of sensors, is the driving force in deciding the density of
deployment of sensor nodes for IoT-based solutions. Cheaper cost of the hardware enables a much higher density
of hardware deployment by users of an IoT solution. For example, cheaper gas and fire detection solutions would
enable users to include much more sensing hardware for a lesser cost.

Memory: The memory requirements (both volatile and non-volatile memory) of IoT devices determines the
capabilities the device can be armed with. Features such as local data processing, data storage, data filtering, data
formatting, and a host of other features rely heavily on the memory capabilities of devices. However, devices
with higher memory tend to be costlier for obvious reasons.

Processing power: As covered in earlier sections, processing power is vital (comparable to memory) in deciding
what type of sensors can be accommodated with the IoT device/node, and what processing features can integrate
on-site with the IoT device. The processing power also decides the type of applications the device can be
associated with. Typically, applications that handle video and image data require IoT devices with higher
processing power as compared to applications requiring simple sensing of the environment.
I/O rating: The input–output (I/O) rating of IoT device, primarily the processor, is the deciding factor in
determining the circuit complexity, energy usage, and requirements for support of various sensing solutions and
sensor types. Newer processors have a meager I/O voltage rating of 3.3 V, as compared to 5 V for the somewhat
older processors. This translates to requiring additional voltage and logic conversion circuitry to interface legacy
technologies and sensors with the newer processors. Despite low power consumption due to reduced I/O voltage
levels, this additional voltage and circuitry not only affects the complexity of the circuits but also affects the
costs.

Add-ons: The support of various add-ons a processor or for that matter, an IoT device provides, such as analog
to digital conversion (ADC) units, in-built clock circuits, connections to USB and ethernet, inbuilt wireless
access capabilities, and others helps in defining the robustness and usability of a processor or IoT device in
various application scenarios. Additionally, the provision for these add-ons also decides how fast a solution can
be developed, especially the hardware part of the whole IoT application. As interfacing and integration of
systems at the circuit level can be daunting to the uninitiated, the prior presence of these options with the
processor makes the processor or device highly lucrative to the users/ developers.

6. How is collaborative processing different from remote processing ?

Remote processing
● This is one of the most common processing topologies prevalent in present-day IoT solutions. It encompasses
sensing of data by various sensor nodes; the data is then forwarded to a remote server or a cloud-based
infrastructure for further processing and analytics.
● The processing of data from hundreds and thousands of sensor nodes can be simultaneously offloaded to a
single, powerful computing platform; this results in massive cost and energy savings by enabling the reuse
and reallocation of the same processing resource while also enabling the deployment of smaller and simpler
processing nodes at the site of deployment .
● This setup also ensures massive scalability of solutions, without significantly affecting the cost of the
deployment. Figure 6.3 shows the outline of one such paradigm, where the sensing of an event is performed
locally, and the decision making is outsourced to a remote processor (here, cloud).
● However, this paradigm tends to use up a lot of network bandwidth and relies heavily on the presence of
network connectivity between the sensor nodes and the remote processing infrastructure.

Collaborative processing
● This processing topology typically finds use in scenarios with limited or no network connectivity, especially
systems lacking a backbone network. Additionally, this topology can be quite economical for large-scale
deployments spread over vast areas, where providing networked access to a remote infrastructure is not
viable.
● In such scenarios, the simplest solution is to club together the processing power of nearby processing nodes
and collaboratively process the data in the vicinity of the data source itself. This approach also reduces
latencies due to the transfer of data over the network. Additionally, it conserves bandwidth of the network,
especially ones connecting to the Internet.
● Figure 6.4 shows the collaborative processing topology for collaboratively processing data locally. This
topology can be quite beneficial for applications such as agriculture, where an intense and temporally high
frequency of data processing is not required as agricultural data is generally logged after significantly long
intervals (in the range of hours).
● One important point to mention about this topology is the preference of mesh networks for easy
implementation of this topology.

7. What are the various decision making approaches chosen for offloading data in IOT ?

The choice of where to offload and how much to offload is one of the major deciding factors in the deployment
of an offsite-processing topology-based IoT deployment architecture. The decision making is generally
addressed considering data generation rate, network bandwidth, the criticality of applications, processing
resources available at the offload site, and other factors. Some of these approaches are as follows.

• Naive Approach: This approach is typically a hard approach, without too much decision making. It can be
considered as a rule-based approach in which the data from IoT devices are offloaded to the nearest location
based on the achievement of certain offload criteria. Although easy to implement, this approach is never
recommended, especially for dense deployments, or deployments where the data generation rate is high or the
data being offloaded in complex to handle (multimedia or hybrid data types). Generally, statistical measures are
consulted for generating the rules for offload decision making.

• Bargaining based approach: This approach, although a bit processing-intensive during the decision making
stages, enables the alleviation of network traffic congestion, enhances service QoS (quality of service)
parameters such as bandwidth, latencies, and others. At times, while trying to maximize multiple parameters for
the whole IoT implementation, in order to provide the most optimal solution or QoS, not all parameters can be
treated with equal importance. Bargaining based solutions try to maximize the QoS by trying to reach a point
where the qualities of certain parameters are reduced, while the others are enhanced. This measure is undertaken
so that the achieved QoS is collaboratively better for the full implementation rather than a select few devices
enjoying very high QoS. Game theory is a common example of the bargaining based approach. This approach
does not need to depend on historical data for decision making purposes.

• Learning based approach: Unlike the bargaining based approaches, the learning based approaches generally
rely on past behavior and trends of data flow through the IoT architecture. The optimization of QoS parameters
is pursued by learning from historical trends and trying to optimize previous solutions further and enhance the
collective behavior of the IoT implementation. The memory requirements and processing requirements are high
during the decision making stages. The most common example of a learning based approach is machine learning.

8. What are the different data formats found in IOT network traffic streams ?

● The Internet is a vast space where huge quantities and varieties of data are generated regularly and flow
freely. As of January 2018, there are a reported 4.021 billion Internet users worldwide. The massive volume
of data generated by this huge number of users is further enhanced by the multiple devices utilized by most
users.
● In addition to these data-generating sources, non-human data generation sources such as sensor nodes and
automated monitoring systems further add to the data load on the Internet. This huge data volume is
composed of a variety of data such as e-mails, text documents (Word docs, PDFs, and others), social media
posts, videos, audio files, and images, as shown in Figure 6.1.
● However, these data can be broadly grouped into two types based on how they can be accessed and stored: 1)
Structured data and 2) unstructured data.

Structured data
● These are typically text data that have a pre-defined structure [1]. Structured data are associated with
relational database management systems (RDBMS). These are primarily created by using length-limited data
fields such as phone numbers, social security numbers, and other such information.
● Even if the data is human or machine generated, these data are easily searchable by querying algorithms as
well as human generated queries. Common usage of this type of data is associated with flight or train
reservation systems, banking systems, inventory controls, and other similar systems.
● Established languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL) are used for accessing these data in
RDBMS. However, in the context of IoT, structured data holds a minor share of the total generated data over
the Internet.

Unstructured data
● In simple words, all the data on the Internet, which is not structured, is categorized as unstructured. These
data types have no pre-defined structure and can vary according to applications and data-generating sources.
Some of the common examples of human-generated unstructured data include text, e-mails, videos, images,
phone recordings, chats, and others.
● Some common examples of machine-generated unstructured data include sensor data from traffic, buildings,
industries, satellite imagery, surveillance videos, and others. As already evident from its examples, this data
type does not have fixed formats associated with it, which makes it very difficult for querying algorithms to
perform a look-up. Querying languages such as NoSQL are generally used for this data type.