Internet of Things
In the simplest terms the internet of things{ IoT } is how we describe the digital connected universe of everyday physical devices. These devices are embedded with internet connectivity, sensors and other hardware that allow communication and control via the web.
Another definition of internet of things {IoT} is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
Consumer IoT Vs Industrial IoT
But what exactly is the industrial IoT and distinguishes it from consumer-oriented applications such as smart fridges and conditioners.
Here are some important distinctions to help delineate the boundary between the consumer and industrial IoT ecosystems
- IIoT devices are built to be industrial strength while a FitBit may get occasionally splashed in the rain and Amazon Dash buttons will likely come into contact with the products they are tracking, sensors destined for industrial deployment need to be able to survive environments that simply wouldn’t be encountered by consumers. Such conditions include extreme humidity and temperature as well as highly corrosive environments such as those encountered with waste water infrastructure such as sewers. In addition in line industrial IoT sensors that measure fluids like water and oil often need to be submerged within the liquids they are measuring. Such devices need to meet the gruelling industrial waterproofing standard set down by the IP68 certification.
Devices also often need to be HAZLoc certified to prove that they can withstand explosive and combustible environments.
- IoT DEVICE HAVE UNIQUE COMMUNICATIONS AND POWER REQUIREMENTS:
IIoT Sensors are often installed to measure parameters at remote infrastructure that is difficult to physically access. Such infrastructure can be situated below the surface
{ for example, at water reservours}, offshore { for example an oil wells}, or even in a remote stretch of desert not accessible by roadway { at a weather station}
Deploying technicians to inspect these assets is difficult and expensive. To minimize the amount of field visit required, IIoT devices need to be engineered to have the maximum possible battery life, which is often achieved by building them with industrial-grade batteries.
IIoT’s unique, low-power, low bandwidth requirements have spurred the development of a series of nascent network families such as LPWAN and NB-IoT that are the primary means of connecting these devices to central servers. These are engineered precisely with IoT devices need in mind, which are not addressed adequately by either networks { which offer high bandwidths are therefore excessively taxing on batteries} and protocols such as WiFi and Bluetooth { which are not scalable}
Consumer products, on the other hand, are generally located in easily accessible locations and can therefore often avail of either fixed sources of power or conventional, consumer grade batteries.
- IIoT SYSTEMS MUST BE DESIGNED FOR SCALABILITY:
Deploying complex water monitoring systems with hundreds of midpoints and endpoints spread over hundreds of kilometers is a far more complex endeavor than even most ambitions of consumer home automation projects. Because IIoT system can result in the generation of billions of data points, considering also has to be afforded to the means of transmitting the information from the sensors to their final destination- usually an industrial control system such as SCADA { Supervisory Control and data acquisition} Platform
In order to not overwhelm these centralized system with data, IIoT manufacturers are increasingly devising hardware that can carry out preliminary analytics directly at the device-level rather on a program running in a cloud-based server { an emergent methodology known as edge computing or Fog computing}
Consumer IoT applications naturally tend to involve few devices and data points. Minimizing throughput to central servers is therefore less of concern.
- IIoT MUST MEET UNIQUE CYBER-SECURITY STANDARDS
Cyber-Security is an important challenge facing the internet of things { IoT} with 70% of the commonly use IoT devices containing vulnerabilities, according to Hewlett Packard research.
