#3: Core IoT Standards Overview

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This episode is our first about standards, and in this episode we focus on standards shared with the “I” in the Internet of Things.

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  • IoT standards start with internet and web standards
  • Proprietary ecosystems will have an early advantage
  • Big companies and standards: “It’s complicated”
  • “Standards are like an endlessly-layered cake”
  • IP: “Best effort” (a.k.a. unreliable) packet delivery
  • TCP: Reliable, ordered and error-checked delivery of info
  • UDP: “Spray and pray”
  • REST: A de facto standard for talking to services
  • How toasters will talk
  • Wireless protocols
  • Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth
  • 4G (and 3G, and 2.5G…)
  • Home automation standards
  • “The wiggle-waggle dance of honeybees”

 

One thought on “#3: Core IoT Standards Overview”

  1. Nice podcast, very useful for folks who are very new to the protocols/standards. A link on SlideShare with my first version of protocol comparison used for IoT: http://slidesha.re/1lRD8uk

    My specific feedback on the Podcast:

    1. ZigBee Pro has the challenge,so far, it is not easy for one ZigBee device to interoperate with another (which is well covered in this podcast towards the end). ZigBee leverages the IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless PAN protocol. Today ZigBee has ZigBee Pro (Home Automation, Smart Energy Profiles) – and ZigBee Pro does NOT use IP. ZigBee in the Philips Hue uses a different firmware architecture than in the Nest (BTW the first generation Nest and Hue have the same ZigBee Chip from TI – CC253x, the second generation Nest changed it to Ember/SiLabs).

    2. Interoperability needs to be explored or studied at different “levels” – connectivity (physical medium for moving data/information Wireless – ZigBee/802.15.4, Z-Wave, BT/BLE, M-Bus, Wi-Fi, etc and Wired – Ethernet, PLC etc.), the protocol stack above this connectivity stack – such as an IP Stack or ZigBee Pro stack or the BT Stack etc.

    The interoperability is also impacted at the Protocol Stack level, and as well as Applications. To use the toaster example – Toaster from Company A may use different semantics than Company B.

    3. I personally do not think that the fragmentation or diversity at the connectivity level goes away anytime soon – probably it would be years before that happens. In short while some connectivity media will start dominating – it won’t be sometime before there would be only a few remaining. For example, ZigBee Pro somewhat dominates Smart Meters, Home Automation has Z-Wave as a very popular standard.

    4. While for 4G is converging on LTE (ignoring some providers considering HSDPA+ also as a 4G) – the interoperability is kind of challenge simply because different regions use different frequencies for LTE – unlike 3G/GSM which has very similar/same frequencies globally

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