The document discusses notes from the field on topics related to the Internet of Things. It summarizes popular perceptions of IoT, highlights the need for a flexible hardware data logger on the edge with diverse interfaces and connectivity, and describes how single board computers are enabling new interfacing, connectivity, compute and storage capabilities at the edge. It also outlines a topology with sensors and actuators connecting to gateways for connectivity to the internet/IP network, and lists components that are typically part of an IoT platform including device management, identity, messaging, data storage, and machine learning.

1. Notes from the (greasy) field
Ranjit Nair

2. © 2013‐14 Altizon Systems Pvt. Ltd. Confidential
About me
 Co‐founder, CTO of Altizon
– Dabble with frameworks
• Much to the frustration of the engineers
here
– Lifelong Java lover but enamored by Ruby
and NodeJS these days
– Love writing UIs
• Which look like engineers built them
– Map reduce everything
 Motorcyclist
– Think before you buy an Enfield
 Love traveling
 Occasional photographer
– Who cannot use PS.
 Love Bangalore !
– And Toit is just a short distance away

3. Popular perceptions about IOT
https://nest.com/ https://jawbone.com/up http://mycariq.com/
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Morpheus says

5. Islands of data at the Edge
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 We have SCADA !
– Focused on acquisition and control.
– And focused on local data availability
– And focused on operators and supervisors
 Machines are diverse
– And are jealously guarded by a privileged few.
– My machine, my controller, my data
 Standards adoption is slow
– http://www.mtconnect.org
– OMAC/OPC
 Immediate need of the hour. A flexible hardware
data logger on the edge
– An open hardware platform
– With diverse interfaces
– That provides wired and wireless connectivity
– Has an ecosystem of modules
– And runs Linux
• Okay, that is really not necessary 
– Doesn’t exist, but getting there

6. Hardware that’s changing the world
http://www.arduino.cc/
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 Single board computers
– Makers onboard. Manufacturers follow suit
 Interfacing
– GPIO, Serial, Modbus, USB
 Connectivity
– Ethernet, Wi‐Fi,
ZigBee,GSM/GPRS/Edge/3G/4G
 Compute and storage
 OS
– Linux variants or an RTOS
 RTC
 Higher level programming
– Python, Java, Javascript
 TLS
 Rapidly Prototype and then build
http://www.raspberrypi.org
http://goo.gl/0JvYUA
http://goo.gl/k4H36q
http://www.libelium.com

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Topology
http://goo.gl/LmQjA5
 Sensors and actuator modules
– Wired
• Modbus
– Wireless
• WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee
– Plug and play
• Autodiscovery
• Identity
• Metadata driven
 Gateways
– Higher powered
• Compute and storage
• Reasonable connectivity
• Mesh
– Pathway to the Internet/IP network

8. Components of an IoT Platform
Device Mgmt
Identity
RBAC
API
MT
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Sensor
Sensor
Sensor
Gateway
HTTP
MQTT
Message
Bus
Aggregations
Alerting
Notifications
Time‐Series Data Store
ML

9. We’re Hiring !