Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
224 lines (184 loc) · 8.91 KB

iot-overview.md

File metadata and controls

224 lines (184 loc) · 8.91 KB
Raw

IoT overview

IoT basics

  • Internet of things
  • Extends Internet connectivity beyond standard devices to everyday objects
  • Usually uses IPv6 due to the limited number of IPv4 addresses
  • Operating systems: Linux or Windows (10) IoT

Top-level components

  • Device
    • Includes hardware and software that directly interact with the world.
    • They connect to a network to communicate with each other, or to centralized applications
  • Gateway
    • Enables services to reach cloud services.
    • Infrastructure component providing security and protocol translations
    • Also used as a service that process data on behalf of group or cluster devices.
    • Often a device e.g. smart home hub.
    • Usually from the same vendor
  • Cloud
  • Sensors
    • Detects, measures or indicates any specific physical quantity
    • E.g. light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure, or similar entities
    • Converts them into any other form which is mostly, electrical pulses.

IoT communication models

Device-To-Device (D2D)

  • Direct communication between devices
  • Uses a medium such as Bluetooth Low Energy etc.
  • Common in home automation systems e.g. light bulbs or wearables e.g. smart watch and heart monitor.
  • Simpler security
  • E.g. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)
    • Uses Vehicle Ad Hoc Network (VANET)
      • Based on MANET i.e. decentralized wireless network (without routers)

Device-To-Cloud (D2C)

  • IoT device directly communicating with the cloud server
  • Often uses ethernet or WiFi
  • Lets the user (and an application) to obtain remote access to a device
  • E.g. smart card for dogs, remote monitoring
  • Two credentials:
    • the network access credentials (such as the mobile device's SIM card)
    • credentials for cloud access
  • E.g. Nest Learning Thermostat

Device-To-Gateway (DTG)

  • IoT devices basically connect to an intermediary device to access a cloud service
  • Often includes an application software operating on a local gateway device (like a smartphone or a "hub")
  • Gateway provides security, protocol translation and usually does aggregation
  • E.g. Samsung SmartThing ecosystem

Back-end data-sharing

  • Extends device-to-cloud model
  • Access are granted to the uploaded data to third-parties
  • E.g. Map My Fitness that compiles data from other applications

Layered architecture

Five-layers of IoT architecture

Edge technology layer

  • Also known as perception layer or hardware layer
  • Physical objects (hardware components)
    • Covers IoT capable devices
    • E.g. sensors, actuators, heat sensor, RFID tags, readers, device itself
  • Connects devices within network and server
  • Gathers environment data
  • Key security components
    • Encryption and key agreement
    • Sensor data protection
  • Vulnerabilities
    • Eavesdropping: real time attack to intercept privacy communications.
    • Node Capture: capturing a key node such as gateway to reveal information.
    • Fake Node and Malicious: adding node to input fake data to stop transmitting real information
    • Replay (play back) attack: eavesdrops a communication and reusing it to authenticate.
    • Timing Attack: Extract secrets by observing respond time

Access gateway layer

  • Also known as network layer or transport layer
  • Handles data transmission i.e. transferring the data through network
  • E.g. Wi-Fi, bluetooth
  • Enables communication
    • Connects two endpoints e.g. a clients with a device.
    • Includes the initial data handling.
    • Through e.g. message routing, message identification, and subscriptions.
  • Key security components
    • Encryption
    • Identity authentication
  • Vulnerabilities
    • Denial of Service (DoS) Attack with redundant requests
    • Main-in-The-Middle (MiTM) Attack: to intercept and manipulate data in real-time
    • Storage Attack: Changing data stored in device or cloud
    • Exploit attack: Exploits vulnerabilities in an application, system or hardware

Internet layer

  • Responsible for end-points connectivity.
  • Carries out communication between two endpoints.
    • E.g. device-to-device, device-to-cloud, device-to-gateway and back-end data-sharing.

Middleware layer

  • Also known as processing layer
  • Responsible for device and information management.
  • Handles data analytics
    • I.e. storing, processing and analysis of data.
    • E.g. data analysis, data aggregation, data filtering, device information discovery, and access control.
  • Behaves as interface for two-way communication between
  • Key security components
    • Key security layer, secure cloud computing, antivirus
  • Vulnerabilities
    • Exhaustion: Can disturb memory, battery e.g. after effect of a DoS
    • Malware

Application layer

  • The user interface for
    • Graphic data representation
    • Controlling, managing and commanding IoT devices.
  • Responsible for delivering service and data to users.
    • A service is application-specific e.g. industrial, manufacturing, automobile, security, healthcare...
  • Key security components
    • Authentication
    • Key agreement
  • Vulnerabilities
    • Cross site scripting: injecting code through e.g. JavaScript
    • Malicious code attack: can activate itself or require user attention to perform an action.
    • Dealing with Mass Data
      • Caused by massive amount of data transmission
      • Can lead to data loss and network disturbance

Other IoT layers

Business layer

  • Includes business models
  • System management
  • Key security components
    • Privacy protection
  • Vulnerabilities
    • Business logic attack: exploits a programming flaw
    • Zero-day attack: exploits security hole unknown to the vendor

IoT connectivity

Wireless IoT connectivity

Approx. range up to Connectivity Speed
10 cm NFC 424 kbit/s
1 m RFID 300 tags per second
10 m Li-Fi 100 gbit/s
60 m Bluetooth low energi (BLE) 1 or 2 mbit/s
100 m  WiFi 1300 mbit/s
1 km Wi-Fi HaLow 78 mbit/s
2 km 5G 20 gbit/s
30 km LTE-Advanced 300 mbit/s
70 km Celullar - (depends on 4g etc.)
1000 km LPWAN 200 kbit/s
World-wide VSAT 16 mbit/s

Short-range wireless communication

  • Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
    • Newer versions of bluetooth (after 4.0)
    • Optimized for battery usage.
  • Wi-Fi
    • Wireless network protocol using radio waves.
    • Wi-Fi 6 specification standard (2020) is the latest standard (x6 faster).
  • Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID)
    • Data storage tag that can be attached to an item for tracking
    • Passive tag has range up to 1m while active tags can go up to 100m.
    • Used in e.g. passports, credit cards.
  • Li-Fi (Light-Fidelity)
    • Similar to Wi-Fi, but using visible light for communication
  • Near-Field Communication (NFC)
    • Based on a radio frequency (RF)
    • Used e.g. in phones, payment cards
    • Must either either physically touch or be in a few centimeters of each other.

Medium-Range Wireless Communication

  • LTE-Advanced: Formally submitted as a candidate 4G, often being described as 3.9G.
  • Wi-Fi HaLow: low power, long-range, also known as "WiFi for Internet of Things"
  • 5G: Introduced in 2019, highest with minimum of 10 Gbps

Long Range Wireless Communication

  • Low-Power Wild-Area Network (LPWAN)
    • Long range communication (up to 10 km) at a low bit rate
  • (VSAT) Very Small Aperture Terminal
    • World-wide satellite communication technology uses small dish antennas
  • Cellular using e.g. radio towers to spread e.g. 4G, 5G..

Wired IoT connectivity

  • Ethernet (cat 6 up to 10 Gbps speed)
  • Power-Line Communication (PLC) : using electrical wiring to carry power and data, around 200 Mbit/s.