ICT369 Internet Of Things Connectivity

The prime determination of this essay is to determine the connectivity aspects of Internet of things. This paper will provide in depth knowledge about the different challenges and issues related to connectivity. All the different connectivity devices used in smart cities are discussed in this paper with prime importance. Now coming to the meaning of connectivity, it can be said that it is the process by which the user data are added to the network, processed, stored and finally analyzed using different types of platform. This working principal is used in almost every networking system (Zanella et al., 2014). The concept of data intensive environment can be successfully implemented using the concept of IoT connectivity. There are many advantages regarding the connectivity in both industrial sector and domestic sector and at the same time it can be said that there are different types of issues as well related to it which will be discussed in the later units of this paper.

The internet of things can be defined as a network of physical device, vehicles, home appliances, electronic gadgets, software, sensors and acculators. Connectivity is a very essential aspect of the cloud and network communication now a day as a huge number of corporations are getting the benefit of using cloud services to avoid data explosion. Adaptation is the key to success in the IoT world, along with that it can be said that connectivity is very important for the evolving networking technologies also (Andreev et al., 2015). The improved connectivity aspects are really helpful in optimizing the available resource in a private corporation as it provides a huge amount of security and privacy to the data which are circulated with the organization or outside it.

There are generally two categories of connectivity of internet of things in the smart city which is the short range wireless connectivity and the long range wireless connectivity. Even the satellite connections are also dependent on the connectivity of the internet of things (Mahmoud & Mohamad, 2016). The connectivity of internet of things in cellular technology is growing at a rapid speed. By the end of the year 2021 there will be around more than 30 billion users of cellular internet of things. The growth of the non-cellular internet of things are also not far behind the cellular technology. The growth of the users of the non-cellular technology was found to be around 3-4% every year. The enhanced connectivity options will give rise many new technologies as well. The extensive growth and development in the field of cellular technology is also seen, as the 5^th generation wireless technology rolling down the floor by the end of 2019.

Connectivity is the main reason behind the successful implementation of the internet of things in different sectors such as healthcare industry, farming, fishing and space technology. The different types of wireless internet of things sensors which transmit information about the soil moisture and other non-living resources are used in the farming technology (Mumtaz et al., 2017). Internet of things with alarm systems are connected in each corner of the museums and government building which provides security to the living and the non-living aspects of the organization. Long term protection can be provided to the homeowners with the help of improved internet of things based technologies. The different types of wearable fitness devices are also based on the connectivity of the internet of things. The devices have improved connection in every environment irrespective of the climate and other adverse conditions (Bello, Zeadally & Badra, 2017). The connectivity of internet of things is also used in the healthcare industries as it helps in monitoring the activity levels of the patients, these devices provide efficient feedback on heart rate and respiration.

There are different categories of stakeholder who are associated with the designing and development of the internet of things connectivity such as the chipset and the radio makers, platform vendors are the other stakeholders associated with the IoT based devices. The manufacturers of the devices and the corporation which implements those systems in their environment are other types of stakeholders associated with the internet of things. The corporations which have implemented the internet of things or planning to use internet of things can select from more than 30 different connectivity options having different bandwidth, range, reliability, cost, specifications and network management features. The choice of the internet of things is generally based on the needs and requirements of the corporations.  The different types of connectivity solutions which are generally chosen by the global corporations are the unlicensed one, low power, LPWA, cellular and extra-terrestrial (Madakam, Ramaswamy & Tripathi, S2015). Each of these categories has a unique characteristic’s and specifications comparing the bandwidth, range and the other connectivity feature. The full potential of the internet of things based systems are properly analyzed before they are incorporated into a system. The unlicensed solutions are very much expensive compared with the other type of types of connectivity devices, however it can be said that the unlicensed devices are more prone to outside interferences such as the adverse weather conditions such as the thunder storms and cyclones, electrical obstacles. Transmission of the signals of the wireless technologies is not very smooth due to the different building barriers.

The different connectivity options are discussed in this section of the paper. Our first topic of discussion is the LPWA which is the Low Power Wide Area connectivity. The two main specifications of the LPWA are low power and wide area. Low power specification allows devices to operate for many years which collects data on an hourly basis and it has a significant impact on the battery self-discharge and degradation (Mineraud et al., 2016). The wide area delivers at least 500 meters of signal range from the gateway of the device to the end point. There are connectivity issues mostly in the urban and the underground locations.

The LPWA provides longer battery and extensive range with a lower cost than the other type of connectivity options (Patton et al., 2014). LPWA is a huge aspect of internet of things connectivity. Around 20 percent of the total global networking population is covered by the LPWA networks and the growth and development in the field of networking technology are enhancing the service provided by this connectivity option. The application of the low power mode wide area is increasing the internet of things connectivity. Some of the global corporations are developing and implementing the proprietary LPWA technologies such as the Link labs, Lora, weightless and Sigfox. The narrow band IoT is the most widely used connectivity option these days. Each of the options has its own characteristics features such as the Sigma have the capability to manage its own network whereas LoRa has the support of more than 400 networking partner. The narrowband technology internet of things depends upon the existing cellular technology and are applied in large scale productions.

Cellular connectivity is the other important aspect of the connectivity in the internet of things. The availability and the reliability of the cellular connectivity are much more than the LPWA. The speed provided by the cellular connectivity is a maximum of 100 megabytes per second (Höller et al., 2014). The limitation associated with the cellular connectivity is the higher maintenance cost and higher power consumption. As most of the IoT based systems run on a battery so the higher battery consumption is bigger issue for all those IoT based systems.

The other type of connectivity is the extra-terrestrial connectivity which is used in the space technology specially in the satellite. Even the most recent microwave technologies are also using the extraterrestrial connectivity. Even this technology is also used in the defence sector also in the unmanned drones (Zachariah et al., 2015). This type of connectivity has low to medium bandwidth and the reliability provided by this connectivity varies from medium to high so it can be said that the effectiveness of this connectivity is maintained. However, this is not usually used in the industrial sector due to the compatibility issues.

The internet of things connectivity is used in different types of industries in smart cities such as the automotive industry where the bandwidth is potentially low and have a very low capability to manage a network (Aijaz & Aghvami, 2015). The manufacturing industry uses the internet of things in optimizing their operations, it has a very low bandwidth but is very much reliable. Asset management is very much useful in the defence industry which uses the internet of things connectivity. The internet of things connectivity is managed with the help of the network which has a very long range and is very much reliable. Yield optimization and asset management are one of the specification of internet of things used in the agricultural industry which have a higher reliability. Predictive maintenance is one of the main specification of the internet of things used in mining industry, construction industry, oil and gas sector, it has a very low bandwidth. Asset management is one of the most important specifications of the insurance industry which uses the advanced internet of things connectivity. Remote monitoring which is one of the most important specifications of the healthcare industry which is extensively managed with the help of the advanced internet of things connectivity.

The other essential application of the internet of things connectivity is energy management in the consumer industries (Jin et al., 2014). Productivity optimization, personalization, energy monitoring is the other important feature of this industry which are actively managed by the internet of things.

Data rate and Connectivity cost are the other types of issues related to the application of internet of things connectivity. The growth and development in the field of broadband have led to the growth of the cellular bands (Wortmann & Flüchter, 2015). The growth of the LTE bands with TDD options is also very much on the rising scale. The measurement of the frequencies is much better evaluated with the help of the internet of things connectivity. There are significant developments in the meter bands, centimeter bands and millimeter band. Water quality monitoring can be done with the help of the internet of things.

There are several types of short range wireless technologies such as the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee which are the most commonly used IoT enabled devices (Weyrich & Ebert, 2016). The satellite technologies which uses the internet of things connectivity are VSAT, LPWAN and BGAN. These IoT connectivity technologies provides the network infrastructure and the capability to communicate between more than one device.

The enhanced specifications of the internet of things connectivity are discussed in this research essay and this unit of the paper will be focusing on the limitations (Mihovska & Sarkar, 2018). The prime limitation of IoT connectivity is the resistance to change in the business organization who are planning to implement new IoT based technologies in their existing environment. Management of the complexities associated with the incorporation of the IoT based technologies is very much crucial for the maximum effectiveness of those technologies. Protocol proliferation is the other type of complexity associated with IoT connectivity. The higher energy consumption is the other type of drawback of the IoT connectivity. There are different types of compatibility issues related to the application if the internet of things connectivity (Lee & Lee, 2015). Data security is the other important networking challenges associated with the internet of things connectivity.

From the above paper, it can be concluded that connectivity is one of the prime foundations of the internet of things connectivity as it is responsible for supporting the digital transformation and development of the new business models and offerings. Billions of internet of things devices can be connected with the help of the cellular networks.  The connectivity of the internet of things provides reliability, security and scalability to all its users. The future of the internet of things connectivity is very much optimistic due to the constant evolvement of technologies. The needs and requirements of the users are changing every day which is the main reason behind the introduction of the newer networking technologies. The importance of data which are transmitted from one system to another is increasing everyday as any kind of data leakage may cause huge loss to business organizations who are implementing the internet of things connectivity.

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