21CS735

Model Question Paper-I/II with effect from 2023 – 24 (CBCS Scheme)

USN

Seven Semester B.E. Degree Examination Internet of Things (IOT)

TIME: 03 Hours [Link]

Note: Answer any FIVE full questions, choosing at least ONE question from each MODULE.

*Bloom’s
Module-1 Taxonomy Marks
Level
Q.01 a L1 6
Explain Evolution of IoT.
The technologies that laid the foundation of connected systems by achieving
easy integration to daily lives, popular public acceptance, and massive
benefits by using connected solutions can be considered as the founding
solutions for the development of IoT.

• ATM (1974) : ATMs or automated teller machines are cash distribution

machines, which are linked to a user’s bank account. ATMs dispense cash
upon verification of the identity of a user and their account through a
specially coded card. The central concept behind ATMs was the availability
of financial transactions even when banks were closed beyond their regular
work hours. These ATMs were money dispensers.
• Web (1991): World Wide Web is a global information sharing and
communication platform. Since then, it has been massively responsible for the
many revolutions in the field of computing and communication.
• Smart Meters(2000) : The earliest smart meter was a power meter, which
became [Link] power meters were capable of communicating
remotely with the power grid. They enabled remote monitoring of
subscribers’ power usage and eased the process of billing and power
allocation from grids.
• Digital Locks: Digital locks can be considered as one of the earlier attempts
at connected home-automation systems. Present-day digital locks are so
robust that smartphones can be used to control them.
• Connected Healthcare: healthcare devices connect to hospitals, doctors, and
relatives to alert them of medical emergencies and take preventive measures.
The devices may be simple wearable appliances, monitoring just the heart rate
and pulse of the wearer, as well as regular medical devices and monitors in
hospitals. The connected nature of these systems makes the availability of
medical records and test results much faster, cheaper.
• Connected Vehicles: Connected vehicles may communicate to the Internet
or with other vehicles, or even with sensors and actuators contained within it.
These vehicles self-diagnose themselves and alert owners about system
failures.
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• Smart Cities: This is a city-wide implementation of smart sensing,

monitoring, and actuation systems. Some other benefit are parking,
transportation, and others.
• Smart Dust: They are microscopic computers. Smaller than a grain of sand
each, they can be used in numerous beneficial ways, where regular computers
cannot operate. Example: smart dust can be sprayed to measure chemicals in
the soil or even to diagnose problems in the human body.
• Smart Factories: They can monitor plant processes, assembly lines,
distribution lines, and manage factory floors all on their own. The reduction
in mishaps due to human errors in judgment or unoptimized processes is
drastically reduced.
• UAVs: UAVs or unmanned aerial vehicles have emerged as robust
publicdomain solutions tasked with applications ranging from agriculture,
surveys, surveillance, deliveries, stock maintenance, asset management, and
other tasks.
b Differentiate IoT versus M2M vs CPS vs WOT. L1 6

c 8
Explain IoT Networking Components.
L1
An IoT implementation is composed of several components, which may vary
with their application domains. Broadly classify IoT network into six types:
1) IoT node, 2) IoT router, 3) IoT LAN, 4) IoT WAN, 5) IoT gateway, and 6)
IoT proxy.

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(i)IoT Node: These are the networking devices within an IoT LAN. Each of
these devices is typically made up of a sensor, a processor, and a radio, which
communicates with the network infrastructure (either within the LAN or
outside it). The nodes may be connected to other nodes inside a LAN directly or
by means of a common gateway for that LAN. Connections outside the LAN
are through gateways and proxies.
(ii) IoT Router: An I oT router is a piece of networking equipment that is
primarily tasked with the routing of packets between various entities in the IoT
network; it keeps the traffic flowing correctly within the network. A router can
be repurposed as a gateway by enhancing its functionalities.
(iii) IoT LAN: The local area network (LAN) enables local connectivity within
the purview of a single gateway. Typically, they consist of short-range
connectivity technologies. IoT LANs may or may not be connected to the
Internet. Generally, they are localized within a building or an organization.
(iv) IoT WAN: The wide area network (WAN) connects various network
segments such as LANs. They are typically organizationally and geographically
wide, with their operational range lying between a few kilometers to hundreds
of kilometers. IoT WANs connect to the Internet and enable Internet access to
the segments they are connecting.
(v) IoT Gateway: An IoT gateway is simply a router connecting the IoT LAN to
a WAN or the Internet. Gateways can implement several LANs and WANs.
Their primary task is to forward packets between LANs and WANs, and the IP
layer using only layer 3.
(vi) IoT Proxy: Proxies actively lie on the application layer and performs
application layer functions between IoT nodes and other entities. Typically,
application layer proxies are a means of providing security to the network
entities under it ; it helps to extend the addressing range of its network.
OR
Q.02 a What is IoT? Write the characteristics of IoT System. L1 5
IoT is an anytime, anywhere, and anything network of Internet-connected
physical devices or systems capable of sensing an environment and affecting
the sensed environment intelligently. IoT may be considered to be made up of
connecting devices, machines, and tools; these things are made up of
sensors/actuators and processors, which connect to the Internet through
wireless technologies.
IoT systems can be characterized by the following features :
• Associated architectures, which are also efficient and scalable.
• No ambiguity in naming and addressing.
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• Massive number of constrained devices, sleeping nodes, mobile devices, and
non-IP devices.
• Intermittent and often unstable connectivity.
b With a neat diagram explain the interdependency technology for IoT Planes. L2 10
We can divide the IoT paradigm into four planes: services, local connectivity,
global connectivity, and processing.

Services Plane:
• The service plane is composed of two parts: 1) things or devices and 2) low-
power connectivity.
• The services offered in this layer are a combination of things and low-power
connectivity. Example, any IoT application requires the basic setup of sensing,
followed by rudimentary processing , and a low-power, low-range network,
which is mainly built upon the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol.
• The things may be wearables, computers, smartphones, household appliances,
smart glasses, factory machinery, vending machines, vehicles, UAVs, robots,
and others.
• The immediate low-power connectivity, which is responsible for connecting
the things in local implementation, may be legacy protocols such as WiFi,
Ethernet, or cellular. In contrast, modern-day technologies are mainly wireless
and often programmable such as Zigbee, RFID, Bluetooth, 6LoWPAN, LoRA,
DASH, Insteon, and others. The range of these connectivity technologies is
severely restricted; they are responsible for the connectivity between the things
of the IoT and the nearest hub or gateway to access the Internet.
Local connectivity plane:
• The local connectivity is responsible for distributing Internet access to
multiple local IoT deployments.
• Provides services such as address management, device management, security,
sleep scheduling, and others. Example, in a smart home environment, the first
floor and the ground floor may have local IoT implementations, which have

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various things connected to the network via low-power, low-range connectivity
technologies. The traffic from these two floors merges into a single router or a
gateway. The total traffic intended for the Internet from a smart home leaves
through a single gateway or router, which may be assigned a single global IP
address This helps in the significant conservation of already limited global IP
addresses.
• The local connectivity plane falls under the purview of IoT management as it
directly deals with strategies to use/reuse addresses based on things and
applications. The modern-day “edge computing” paradigm is deployed in
conjunction with these first two planes: services and local connectivity.
Global connectivity plane:
• The plane of global connectivity plays a significant role in enabling IoT in the
real sense by allowing for worldwide implementations and connectivity
between things, users, controllers, and applications.
• This plane also falls under the purview of IoT management as it decides how
and when to store data, when to process it, when to forward it, and in which
form to forward it.
• The Web, datacenters, remote servers, Cloud, and others make up this plane.
The paradigm of “fog computing” lies between the planes of local connectivity
and global connectivity. It often serves to manage the load of global
connectivity infrastructure by offloading the computation nearer to the source
of the data itself, which reduces the traffic load on the global Internet.
Processing plane: The final plane of processing can be considered as a top-up
of the basic IoT networking framework. The continuous rise in the usefulness
and penetration of IoT in various application areas such as industries,
transportation, healthcare, and others are the result of this plane.
• The members in this plane may be termed as IoT tools, simply because they
wring-out useful and human-readable information from all the raw data that
flows from various IoT devices and deployments.
• The various sub-domains of this plane include intelligence, conversion
learning cognition algorithms, visualization and analysis .
• Various computing paradigms such as “big data”, “machine learning”, and
others, fall within the scope of this domain.
c Explain Addressing Strategies in IoT. L1 5

The first three blocks are designated as the global prefix, which is globally
unique. The next block is designated as the subnet prefix, which identifies the
subnet of an interface/gateway through which LANs may be connected to the

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Internet. Finally, the last four blocks (64 bits) of hexadecimal addresses are
collectively known as the interface identifier (IID). IIDs may be generated
based on MAC (media access control) identifiers of devices/nodes or using
pseudo-random number generator algorithms. The IPv6 addresses can be
divided into seven separate address types,
(i)Global Unicast (GUA): These addresses are assigned to single IoT
entities/ interfaces; they enable the entities to transmit traffic to and from the
Internet In regular IoT deployments, these addresses are assigned to
gateways, proxies, or WANs.
(ii) Multicast: These addresses enable transmission of messages from a
single networked entity to multiple destination entities simultaneously.
(iii) Link Local (LL): The operational domain of these addresses are valid
only within a network segment such as LAN. These addresses may be
repeated in other network segments/LANs, but are unique within that single
network segment.
(iv) Unique Local (ULA): Similar to LL addresses, ULA cannot be routed
over the Internet. These addresses may be repeated in other network
segments/LANS but are unique within that single network segment.
(v) Loopback: It is also known as the localhost address. Typically, these
addresses are used by developers and network testers for diagnostics and
system checks.
(vi) Unspecified: Here, all the bits in the IPv6 address are set to zero and the
destination address is not specified.
(vii) Solicited-node Multicast: It is a multicast address based on the IPv6
address of an IoT node or entity.
Module-2
Q.03 a With a neat diagram explain the working mechanism of actuator. L1 6
An actuator can be considered as a machine or system’s component that can
affect the movement or control the said mechanism or the system. Control
systems affect changes to the environment or property they are controlling
through actuators. The system activates the actuator through a control signal,
which may be digital or analog. It elicits a response from the actuator, which
is in the form of some form of mechanical motion. The control system of an
actuator can be a mechanical or electronic system, a software-based system
(e.g., an autonomous car control system), a human, or any other input. A
remote user sends commands to a processor. The processor instructs a motor
controlled robotic arm to perform the commanded tasks accordingly. The
processor is primarily responsible for converting the human commands into
sequential machine-language command sequences, which enables the robot to
move. The robotic arm finally moves the designated boxes, which was its
assigned task.

b Explain the types of actuators. L1 8

Actuators can be divided into seven classes: 1) Hydraulic, 2) pneumatic, 3)
electrical, 4) thermal/magnetic, 5) mechanical, 6) soft, and 7) shape memory
polymers.
1)Hydraulic actuators :
• It works on the principle of compression and decompression of fluids.
• These actuators facilitate mechanical tasks such as lifting loads through the
use of hydraulic power derived from fluids in cylinders or fluid motors.
• The mechanical motion applied to a hydraulic actuator is converted to either
linear, rotary, or oscillatory motion.
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• The almost incompressible property of liquids is used in hydraulic actuators
for exerting significant force.
• These hydraulic actuators are also considered as stiff systems.
2)Pneumatic actuators :
• It works on the principle of compression and decompression of gases.
• These actuators use a vacuum or compressed air at high pressure and convert
it into either linear or rotary motion.
• Pneumatic rack and pinion actuators are commonly used for valve controls of
water pipes. Pneumatic actuators are considered as compliant systems.
• The actuators using pneumatic energy for their operation are typically
characterized by the quick response to starting and stopping signals.
• Small pressure changes can be used for generating large forces through these
actuators. Pneumatic brakes are an example of this type of actuator which is so
responsive that they can convert small pressure changes applied by drives to
generate the massive force required to stop or slow down a moving vehicle.
Pneumatic actuators are responsible for converting pressure into force.
• The power source in the pneumatic actuator does not need to be stored in
reserve for its operation.
3)Electric actuators:
• The electric motors are used to power an electric actuator by generating
mechanical torque. This generated torque is translated into the motion of a
motor’s shaft or for switching (as in relays).
• For example, actuating equipment’s such as solenoid valves control the flow
of water in pipes in response to electrical signals.
• This class of actuators is considered one of the cheapest, cleanest and speedy
actuator types available.
4)Thermal or magnetic actuators:
• The use of thermal or magnetic energy is used for powering this class of
actuators.
• These actuators have a very high-power density and are typically compact,
lightweight, and economical.
• One classic example of thermal actuators is shape memory materials (SMMs)
such as shape memory alloys (SMAs). • These actuators do not require
electricity for actuation. They are not affected by vibration and can work with
liquid or gases. • Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) are a type of
magnetic actuators.
5)Mechanical actuators:
• In this, the rotary motion of the actuator is converted into linear motion to
execute some movement.
• The use of gears, rails, pulleys, chains, and other devices are necessary for
these actuators to operate.
• These actuators can be easily used in conjunction with pneumatic, hydraulic,
or electrical actuators.
• They can also work in a standalone mode.
• The best example of a mechanical actuator is a rack and pinion mechanism.
6)Soft actuators:
• This (e.g., polymer-based) consists of elastomeric polymers that are used as
embedded fixtures in flexible materials such as cloth, paper, fiber, particles, and
others.
• The conversion of molecular level microscopic changes into tangible
macroscopic deformations is the primary working principle of this class of
actuators.
• These actuators have a high stake in modern-day robotics.
• They are designed to handle fragile objects such as agricultural fruit
harvesting or performing precise operations like manipulating the internal
organs during robotassisted surgeries.
7) Shape Memory Polymers:
• These are considered as smart materials that respond to some external
stimulus by changing their shape, and then revert to their original shape once
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the affecting stimulus is removed.
• Features such as high strain recovery, biocompatibility, low density, and
biodegradability characterize these materials.
• Modern-day SMPs have been designed to respond to a wide range of stimuli
such as pH changes, heat differentials, light intensity, and frequency changes,
magnetic changes, and others.
• Photopolymer/light-activated polymers (LAP) are a particular type of SMP,
which require light as a stimulus to operate. LAP-based actuators are
characterized by their rapid response times. Using only the variation of light
frequency or its intensity, LAPs can be controlled remotely without any
physical contact.
c Define sensor and explain the characteristics of sensor. L2 6
Sensors are devices that can measure, or quantify, or respond to the ambient
changes in their environment or within the intended zone of their deployment.
They generate responses to external stimuli or physical phenomenon through
characterization of the input functions and their conversion into typically
electrical signals.
Key characteristics of a sensor include:
● Accuracy: How close the measured value is to the true value.
● Precision: The repeatability of measurements.
● Sensitivity: The change in output for a given change in input.
● Resolution: The smallest change in input that can be detected.
● Range: The minimum and maximum values of the input that the sensor can
measure.
● Linearity: How linear the relationship is between the input and output.
● Response Time: How quickly the sensor responds to a change in input.
● Stability: The ability of the sensor to maintain its performance over time.
● Operating Temperature: The temperature range within which the sensor
can operate reliably.
Properties are:
• Sensor Resolution: The smallest change in the measurable quantity that a
sensor can detect is referred to as the resolution of a sensor. For digital
sensors, the smallest change in the digital output that the sensor is capable of
quantifying is its sensor resolution. The more the resolution of a sensor, the
more accurate is the precision. A sensor’s accuracy does not depend upon its
resolution. For example, a temperature sensor A can detect up to 0.50 C
changes in temperature, whereas another sensor B can detect up to 0.250 C
changes in temperature. Therefore, the resolution of sensor B is higher than
the resolution of sensor A.
• Sensor Accuracy: The accuracy of a sensor is the ability of that sensor to
measure the environment of a system as close to its true measure as possible.
For example, a weight sensor detects the weight of a 100 kg mass as 99.98 kg.
• Sensor Precision: The principle of repeatability governs the precision of a
sensor. Only if, upon multiple repetitions, the sensor is found to have the
same error rate, can it be deemed as highly precise. For example, consider if
the same weight sensor described earlier reports measurements of 98.28 kg,
100.34 kg, and 101.11 kg upon three repeat measurements for a mass of
actual weight of 100 kg. Here, the sensor precision is not deemed high
because of significant variations in the temporal measurements for the same
object under the same conditions.
OR
Q.04 a List and explain the characteristics of Actuators. L2 8
A set of four characteristics can define all actuators:
1. Weight:
• The physical weight of actuators limits its application scope.
• For example, the use of heavier actuators is generally preferred for industrial
applications and applications requiring no mobility of the IoT deployment.
• In contrast, lightweight actuators typically find common usage in portable
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systems in vehicles, drones, and home IoT applications.
• It is to be noted that this is not always true. Heavier actuators also have
selective usage in mobile systems, for example, landing gears and engine
motors in aircraft.
2. Power Rating:
• This helps in deciding the nature of the application with which an actuator can
be associated.
• The power rating defines the minimum and maximum operating power an
actuator can safely withstand without damage to itself. Generally, it is indicated
as the power-toweight ratio for actuators.
• For example, smaller servo motors used in hobby projects typically have a
maximum rating of 5 VDC, 500 mA, which is suitable for an operations-driven
battery-based power source. Exceeding this limit might be detrimental to the
performance of the actuator and may cause burnout of the motor.
• In contrast to this, servo motors in larger applications have a rating of 460
VAC, 2:5 A, which requires standalone power supply systems for operations. It
is to be noted that actuators with still higher ratings are available and vary
according to application requirements.
3. Torque to Weight Ratio:
• The ratio of torque to the weight of the moving part of an instrument/device
is referred to as its torque/weight ratio.
• This indicates the sensitivity of the actuator. Higher is the weight of the
moving part; lower will be its torque to weight ratio for a given power.
4. Stiffness and Compliance :
• The resistance of a material against deformation is known as its stiffness,
whereas compliance of a material is the opposite of stiffness.
• Stiffness can be directly related to the modulus of elasticity of that material.
Stiff systems are considered more accurate than compliant systems as they have
a faster response to the change in load applied to it.
• For example, hydraulic systems are considered as stiff and non-compliant,
whereas pneumatic systems are considered as compliant.

b Explain the major factors influence the choice of sensors in IoT-based L1 8

Sensing solutions.
(i) Sensing Range:
• The sensing range of a sensor node defines the detection fidelity of that
node.
• Typical approaches to optimize the sensing range in deployments include
fixed kcoverage and dynamic k-coverage.
• A lifelong fixed k-coverage tends to usher in redundancy as it requires a
large number of sensor nodes, the sensing range of some of which may also
overlap. In contrast, dynamic coverage incorporates mobile sensor nodes post
detection of an event, which, however, is a costly solution and may not be
deployable in all operational areas and terrains.
• The sensing range of a sensor may also be used to signify the upper and
lower bounds of a sensor’s measurement range.
• For example, a proximity sensor has a typical sensing range of a couple of
meters. In contrast, a camera has a sensing range varying between tens of
meters to hundreds of meters.
• As the complexity of the sensor and its sensing range goes up, its cost
significantly increases.
(ii) Accuracy and Precision:
• The accuracy and precision of measurements provided by a sensor are
critical in deciding the operations of specific functional processes.
• Typically, off-the-shelf consumer sensors are low on requirements and often
very cheap. However, their performance is limited to regular application
domains.
• For example, a standard temperature sensor can be easily integrated with

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conventional components for hobby projects and day-to-day applications, but
it is not suitable for industrial processes. Regular temperature sensors have a
very low-temperature sensing range, as well as relatively low accuracy and
precision. The use of these sensors in industrial applications, where a
precision of up to 3–4 decimal places is required, cannot be facilitated by
these sensors.
• Industrial sensors are typically very sophisticated, and as a result, very
costly. However, these industrial sensors have very high accuracy and
precision score, even under harsh operating conditions.
(iii)Energy :
• The energy consumed by a sensing solution is crucial to determine the
lifetime of that solution and the estimated cost of its deployment.
• If the sensor or the sensor node is so energy inefficient that it requires
replenishment of its energy sources quite frequently, the effort in maintaining
the solution and its cost goes up; whereas its deployment feasibility goes
down.
• Consider a scenario where sensor nodes are deployed on the top of glaciers.
Once deployed, access to these nodes is not possible. If the energy
requirements of the sensor nodes are too high, such a deployment will not last
long, and the solution will be highly infeasible as charging or changing of the
energy sources of these sensor nodes is not an option.
(iv)Device Size :
• Modern-day IoT applications have a wide penetration in all domains of life.
Most of the applications of IoT require sensing solutions which are so small
that they do not hinder any of the regular activities that were possible before
the sensor node deployment was carried out.
• Larger the size of a sensor node, larger is the obstruction caused by it,
higher is the cost and energy requirements, and lesser is its demand for the
bulk of the IoT applications.
• Consider a simple human activity detector. If the detection unit is too large
to be carried or too bulky to cause hindrance to regular normal movements,
the demand for this solution would be low. It is because of this that the onset
of wearables took off so strongly. The wearable sensors are highly energy-
efficient, small in size, and almost part of the wearer’s regular wardrobe.
c With a neat diagram explain scalar and Multimedia sensing techniques. L1 4

1)Scalar sensing:
• Scalar sensing encompasses the sensing of features that can be quantified
simply by measuring changes in the amplitude of the measured values with
respect to time.
• Quantities such as ambient temperature, current, atmospheric pressure,
rainfall, light, humidity, flux, and others are considered as scalar values as
they normally do not have a directional or spatial property assigned with
them.
• The sensors used for measuring these scalar quantities are referred to as
scalar sensors, and the act is known as scalar sensing.
2) Multimedia sensing :
• Multimedia sensing encompasses the sensing of features that have a spatial
variance property associated with the property of temporal variance.
• Unlike scalar sensors, multimedia sensors are used for capturing the changes

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in amplitude of a quantifiable property concerning space (spatial) as well as
time (temporal).
• Quantities such as images, direction, flow, speed, acceleration, sound, force,
mass, energy, and momentum have both directions as well as a magnitude.
Additionally, these quantities follow the vector law of addition and hence are
designated as vector quantities. They might have different values in different
directions for the same working condition at the same time.
• The sensors used for measuring these quantities are known as vector
sensors.
Module-3
Q.05 a List and explain common data types in IoT applications. L1 5
1)Structured data :
• These are typically text data that have a pre-defined structure. These are
primarily created by using length-limited data fields such as phone numbers,
social security numbers, and other such information.
• Structured data are associated with relational database management systems
(RDBMS).
• Even if the data is human or machine generated, these data are easily
searchable by querying algorithms as well as human generated queries.
• Common usage of this type of data is associated with flight or train
reservation systems, banking systems, inventory controls, and other similar
systems.
• Established languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL) are used for
accessing these data in RDBMS.
• However, in the context of IoT, structured data holds a minor share of the total
generated data over the Internet.
2) Unstructured data:
• In simple words, all the data on the Internet, which is not structured, is
categorized as unstructured.
• These data types have no pre-defined structure and can vary according to
applications and data-generating sources.
• Some of the common examples of human-generated unstructured data
include text, emails, videos, images, phone recordings, chats, and others.
• Some common examples of machine-generated unstructured data include
sensor data from traffic, buildings, industries, satellite imagery, surveillance
videos, and others.
• As already evident from its examples, this data type does not have fixed
formats associated with it, which makes it very difficult for querying algorithms
to perform a look-up.
• Querying languages such as NoSQL are generally used for this data type.
b With a neat diagram explain offsite processing topology. L1 10

• The off-site processing paradigm, as opposed to the on-site processing

paradigms, allows for latencies (due to processing or network latencies); it is
significantly cheaper than on-site processing topologies.
• This difference in cost is mainly due to the low demands and requirements of
processing at the source itself.
• Often, the sensor nodes are not required to process data on an urgent basis, so
having a dedicated and expensive on-site processing infrastructure is not
sustainable for largescale deployments typical of IoT deployments.
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• In the off-site processing topology, the sensor node is responsible for the
collection and framing of data that is eventually to be transmitted to another
location for processing.
• Unlike the on-site processing topology, the off-site topology has a few
dedicated high processing enabled devices, which can be borrowed by multiple
simpler sensor nodes to accomplish their tasks. At the same time, this
arrangement keeps the costs of largescale deployments extremely manageable.
• In the off-site topology, the data from these sensor nodes (data generating
sources) is transmitted either to a remote location (which can either be a server
or a cloud) or to multiple processing nodes. Multiple nodes can come together
to share their processing power in order to collaboratively process the data
(which is important in case a feasible communication pathway or connection to
a remote location cannot be established by a single node).
c Write a short note on offloading considerations. L1 5
There are a few offloading parameters which need to be considered while
deciding upon the offloading type to choose. Some of these parameters are as
follows.
• Bandwidth: The maximum amount of data that can be simultaneously
transmitted over the network between two points is the bandwidth of that
network. The bandwidth of a wired or wireless network is also considered to be
its data-carrying capacity and often used to describe the data rate of that
network.
• Latency: It is the time delay incurred between the start and completion of an
operation. In the present context, latency can be due to the network (network
latency) or the processor (processing latency). In either case, latency arises due
to the physical limitations of the infrastructure, which is associated with an
operation. The operation can be data transfer over a network or processing of a
data at a processor.
• Criticality: It defines the importance of a task being pursued by an IoT
application. The more critical a task is, the lesser latency is expected from the
IoT solution. For example, detection of fires using an IoT solution has higher
criticality than detection of agricultural field parameters. The former requires a
response time in the tune of milliseconds, whereas the latter can be addressed
within hours or even days.
• Resources: It signifies the actual capabilities of an offload location. These
capabilities may be the processing power, the suite of analytical algorithms, and
others. For example, it is futile and wasteful to allocate processing resources
reserved for realtime multimedia processing (which are highly energy-intensive
and can process and analyze huge volumes of data in a short duration) to scalar
data (which can be addressed using nominal resources without wasting much
energy).
• Data volume: The amount of data generated by a source or sources that can
be simultaneously handled by the offload location is referred to as its data
volume handling capacity. Typically, for large and dense IoT deployments, the
offload location should be robust enough to address the processing issues
related to massive data volumes.

OR
Q.06 a With a neat diagram explain onsite processing topology. L1 5
• The on-site processing topology signifies that the data is processed at the
source itself.
• This is crucial in applications that have a very low tolerance for latencies.
These latencies may result from the processing hardware or the network (during
transmission of the data for processing away from the processor).
• Applications such as those associated with healthcare and flight control
systems (realtime systems) have a breakneck data generation rate. These
additionally show rapid temporal changes that can be missed (leading to
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catastrophic damages) unless the processing infrastructure is fast and robust
enough to handle such data.

b Explain IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations. L2 8

The main consideration of minutely defining an IoT solution is the selection of
the processor for developing the sensing solution . This selection is governed by
many parameters that affect the usability, design, and affordability of the
designed IoT sensing and processing solution. The main factor governing the
IoT device design and selection for various applicationsis the processor.
The other important considerations are as follows,
• Size: This is one of the crucial factors for deciding the form factor and the
energy consumption of a sensor node. It has been observed that larger the form
factor, larger is the energy consumption of the hardware. Additionally, large
form factors are not suitable for a significant bulk of IoT applications, which
rely on minimal form factor solutions (e.g., wearables).
• Energy: The energy requirements of a processor is the most important
deciding factor in designing IoT-based sensing solutions. Higher the energy
requirements, higher is the energy source (battery) replacement frequency. This
principle automatically lowers the long-term sustainability of sensing hardware,
especially for IoT-based applications.
• Cost: The cost of a processor, besides the cost of sensors, is the driving force
in deciding the density of deployment of sensor nodes for IoT-based solutions.
Cheaper cost of the hardware enables a much higher density of hardware
deployment by users of an IoT solution. For example, cheaper gas and fire
detection solutions would enable users to include much more sensing hardware
for a lesser cost.
• Memory: The memory requirements (both volatile and non-volatile memory)
of IoT devices determines the capabilities the device can be armed with.
Features such as local data processing, data storage, data filtering, data
formatting, and a host of other features rely heavily on the memory capabilities
of devices. The devices with higher memory tend to be costlier for obvious
reasons.
• Processing power: As covered in earlier sections, processing power is vital in
deciding what type of sensors can be accommodated with the IoT device/node,
and what processing features can integrate on-site with the IoT device. The
processing power also decides the type of applications the device can be
associated with. The applications that handle video and image data require IoT
devices with higher processing power as compared to applications requiring
simple sensing of the environment.
• I/O rating: The input–output (I/O) rating of IoT device, primarily the
processor, is the deciding factor in determining the circuit complexity, energy
usage, and requirements for support of various sensing solutions and sensor
types. Newer processors have a meager I/O voltage rating of 3.3 V, as
compared to 5 V for the somewhat older processors. This translates to requiring
additional voltage and logic conversion circuitry to interface legacy
technologies and sensors with the newer processors. Despite low power
consumption due to reduced I/O voltage levels, this additional voltage and
circuitry not only affects the complexity of the circuits but also affects the costs.
• Add-ons: The support of various add-ons a processor or for that matter, an IoT
device provides, such as analog to digital conversion (ADC) units, in-built

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clock circuits, connections to USB and ethernet, inbuilt wireless access
capabilities, and others helps in defining the robustness and usability of a
processor or IoT device in various application scenarios.
c Write a short note on offload location and offload decision making. L1 7
Offload location:
The choice of offload location decides the applicability, cost, and
sustainability of the IoT application and deployment. The offload location
divided into four types:
• Edge: Offloading processing to the edge implies that the data processing is
facilitated to a location at or near the source of data generation itself.
Offloading to the edge is done to achieve aggregation, manipulation,
bandwidth reduction, and other data operations directly on an IoT device.
• Fog: Fog computing is a decentralized computing infrastructure that is
utilized to conserve network bandwidth, reduce latencies, restrict the amount
of data unnecessarily flowing through the Internet, and enable rapid mobility
support for IoT devices. The data, computing, storage and applications are
shifted to a place between the data source and the cloud resulting in
significantly reduced latencies and network bandwidth usage.
• Remote Server: A simple remote server with good processing power may
be used with IoT based applications to offload the processing from resource
constrained IoT devices. Rapid scalability may be an issue with remote
servers, and they may be costlier and hard to maintain in comparison to
solutions such as the cloud.
• Cloud: Cloud computing is a configurable computer system, which can get
access to configurable resources, platforms, and high-level services through a
shared pool hosted remotely. Cloud enables massive scalability of solutions as
they can enable resource enhancement allocated to a user or solution in an on-
demand manner, without the user having to go through the pains of acquiring
and configuring new and costly hardware.
Offload decision making :
The choice of where to offload and how much to offload is one of the major
deciding factors in the deployment of an offsite-processing topology-based
IoT deployment architecture. Some of these approaches are as follows.
• Naive Approach: This approach is typically a hard approach, without too
much decision making. It can be considered as a rule-based approach in
which the data from IoT devices are offloaded to the nearest location based on
the achievement of certain offload criteria. Although easy to implement, this
approach is never recommended, especially for dense deployments, or
deployments where the data generation rate is high, or the data being
offloaded in complex to handle (multimedia or hybrid data types). Generally,
statistical measures are consulted for generating the rules for offload decision
making.
• Bargaining based approach: This approach, although a bit processing-
intensive during the decision-making stages, enables the alleviation of
network traffic congestion, enhances service QoS (quality of service)
parameters such as bandwidth, latencies, and others. At times, while trying to
maximize multiple parameters for the whole IoT implementation, in order to
provide the most optimal solution or QoS, not all parameters can be treated
with equal importance. Bargaining based solutions try to maximize the QoS
by trying to reach a point where the qualities of certain parameters are
reduced, while the others are enhanced. Example: Game theory .
• Learning based approach: The learningbased approaches generally rely on
past behavior and trends of data flow through the IoT architecture. The
optimization of QoS parameters is pursued by learning from historical trends
and trying to optimize previous solutions further and enhance the collective
behavior of the IoT implementation. The memory requirements and
processing requirements are high during the decision-making stages. The
most common example of a learning-based approach is machine learning.
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Module-4
Q.07 a Explain the IEEE 802.15.4. L1 8

• The IEEE 802.15.4 standard represents the most popular standard for low data
rate wireless personal area networks (WPAN).
• This standard was developed to enable monitoring and control applications
with lower data rate and extend the operational life for uses with low-power
consumption.
• This standard uses only the first two layers—physical and data link—for
operation along with two new layers above it: 1) logical link control (LLC) and
2) servicespecific convergence sublayer (SSCS). The additional layers help in
the communication of the lower layers with the upper layers.
• The IEEE 802.15.4 standard was curated to operate in the ISM (industrial,
scientific, and medical) band.
• The direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulation technique is used for
communication purposes, enabling a wider bandwidth of operation with
enhanced security by the modulating pseudo-random noise signal. This
standard exhibit high tolerance to noise and interference and offers better
measures for improving link reliability.
• Typically, the low-speed versions of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard use binary
phase shift keying (BPSK), whereas the versions with high data rate implement
offset quadrature phase shift keying (O-QPSK) for encoding the message to be
communicated.
• Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA-CA) is the
channel access method used for maintaining the sequence of transmitted signals
and preventing deadlocks due to multiple sources trying to access the same
channel.
• The transmission, for most cases, is line of sight (LOS), with the standard
transmission range varying between 10 m to 75 m. The best-case transmission
range achieved outdoors can be up to 1000 m.
• This standard typically defines two networking topologies: 1) Star and 2)
mesh.
• There are seven variants identified with in IEEE 802.15.4—A, B. C, D, E, F,
and G. Variants A/B are the base versions, C is assigned for China, and D for
Japan. Variants E, F, and G are assigned respectively for industrial applications,
active RFID (radio frequency identification) uses, and smart utility systems.
• The IEEE 802.15.4 standard supports two types of devices: 1) reduced
function device (RFD) and 2) full function devices (FFD). FFDs can talk to all
types of devices and support full protocol stacks. However, these devices are
costly and energy consuming due to increased requirements for support of full
stacks.
b Explain the protocol stack of Zigbee and Describe the Zigbee Network layer. L2 5

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Physical Layer: This layer is tasked with transmitting and receiving signals,
and Performing modulation and demodulation operations on them,
respectively. The Zigbee physical layer consists of 3 bands made up of 27
channels: the 2.4 GHz band has 16 channels at 250 kbps the 868.3 MHz has
one channel at 20 kbps; and the 902-928 MHz has ten channels at 40 kbps.
MAC Layer: This layer ensures channel access and reliability of data
transmission. CSMACA is used for channel access and intra-channel
interference avoidance. This layer handles communication synchronization
using beacon frames.
Network Layer: This layer handles operations such as setting up the network,
connecting and disconnecting the devices, configuring the devices, and
routing.
Application Support Sub-Layer: This layer handles the interfacing services,
control services, bridge between network and other layers, and enables the
necessary services to interface with the lower layers. This layer is primarily
tasked with data management services and is responsible for service-based
device matching.
Application Framework: Two types of data services are provided by the
application framework: provision of a key-value pair and generation of
generic messages. A key-value pair is used for getting attributes within the
application objects, whereas a generic message is a developer-defined
structure.
c What is RFID? Explain its working. L1 7
• RFID stands for radio frequency identification.
• This technology uses tags and readers for communication. RFID tags have
data encoded onto them digitally. The RFID readers can read the values
encoded in these tags without physically touching them.
• RFIDs are functionally similar to barcodes as the data read from tags are
stored in a database. However, RFID does not have to rely on, line of sight
operation, unlike barcodes.
• The automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technology can be
considered as the precursor of RFID. Similar to AIDC techniques, RFID
systems are capable of automatically categorizing objects. Categorization
tasks such as identifying tags, reading data, and feeding the read data directly
into computer systems through radio waves outline the operation of RFID
systems.
• RFID systems are made Up of three components: 1) RFID tag or smart
label, 2) RFID reader, and 3) an antenna.
• In RFID, the tags consist of an integrated circuit and an antenna, enclosed in
a protective casing to protect from wear and tear and environmental effects.
These tags can be either active or passive. Passive tags find common usage in
a variety of applications due to its low cost; however, it has to be powered
using an RFID reader before data transmission. Active tags have their own
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power sources and do not need external activation by readers.
• Tags are used for transmitting the data to an RFID interrogator or an RFID
reader. The radio waves are then converted to a more usable form of data by
this reader.
• A host computer system accesses the collected data on the reader by a
communication technology such as Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
• The data on the host system is finally updated onto a database. RFID
applications span across domains such as inventory management, asset
tracking, personnel tracking, and supply chain management.

OR
Q.08 a With a neat diagram explain deployment and communication architecture of L1 8
LoRa.
• LoRa or long range is a patented wireless technology for communication
developed by Cycleo of Grenoble, France for cellular-type communications
aimed at providing connectivity to M2M and IoT solutions.
• It is a sub-GHz wireless technology that operationally uses the 169 MHz, 433
MHz, 868 MHz, and 915 MHz frequency bands for communication.
• LoRa uses bi-directional communication links symmetrically and a spread
spectrum with a 125 kHz wideband for operating.
• Applications such as electric grid monitoring are typically suited for utilizing
LoRa for communications.
• Typical communication of LoRa devices ranges from 15 to 20 km, with support
for millions of devices.

• LoRa achieves high receiver sensitivity by utilizing frequency-modulated chirp

coding gain.
• LoRa devices provide excellent support for mobility, which makes them very
useful for applications such as asset tracking and asset management.
b Explain the IEEE 802.11Wi-Fi stack and Wi-Fi deployment architecture. L1 5
• Wi-Fi or WiFi is technically referred to by its standard, IEEE 802.11, and is
a wireless technology for wireless local area networking of nodes and devices
built upon similar standards (Figure 4.25).
• Wi-Fi utilizes the 2.4 GHz ultra-high frequency (UHF) band or the 5.8 GHz
super high frequency (SHF) ISM radio bands for communication. For
operation, these bands in Wi-Fi are subdivided into multiple channels. The
communication over each of these channels is achieved by multiple devices
simultaneously using time-sharing based TDMA multiplexing. It uses
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CSMA/CA for channel access.
• Various versions of IEEE 802.11 have been popularly adapted, such as
a/b/g/n. The IEEE 802.11a achieves a data rate of 54 Mbps and works on the
5 GHz band using OFDM for communication. IEEE802.11bachieves a data
rate of 11 Mbps and operates on the 2.4 GHz band.

c L1 7
Explain Bluetooth protocol stack.

The Bluetooth protocol stack. Link Manager Protocol (LMP), Logical Link
Control and Adaptation Protocol (L2CAP), Host Controller Interface (HCI),
Radio Frequency Communications (RFCOMM), and Service Discovery Protocol
(SDP) are some of the wellknown protocols associated with Bluetooth. These
protocols can be enumerated as follows:
(i) Link Manager Protocol: It manages the establishment, authentication, and
links configuration. LMPs consist of some protocol data units (PDU), between
which transmission occurs for availing services such as name requests, link
address requests, connection establishment, connection authentication, mode
negotiation, and data transfer.
(ii) Host Controller Interface: It enables access to hardware status and control
registers and connects the controller with the link manager. The automatic
discovery of Bluetooth devices in its proximity is one of the essential tasks of
HCI.
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(iii) L2CAP: It multiplexes logical connections between two devices. It is also

tasked with data segmentation, flow control, and data integrity checks.
(iv) Service Discovery Protocol: It is tasked with the discovery of services
provided by other Bluetooth devices.
(v) Radio Frequency Communications: It is a cable replacement protocol, which
generates a virtual stream of serial data. This protocol supports many telephony
related profiles as AT commands and Object Exchange Protocol (OBEX) over
Bluetooth.
(vi) Telephony Control Protocol– Binary (TCS BIN): It is a bit-oriented protocol
to control call signaling prior to initiation of voice or data communications
between devices.
Module-5
Q.09 a Explain the 6LoWPAN packet structure. L1 7

The 6LoWPAN stack rests on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 PHY and MAC layers,
which are generally associated with low-rate wireless personal area networks
(LR-WPAN). The network layer in 6LoWPAN enabled devices (layer 3) serves
as an adaptation layer for extending IPv6 capabilities to IEEE 802.15.4 based
devices.
PHY and MAC layers: The PHY layer consists of 27 wireless channels, each
having their separate frequency band and varying data rates. The MAC layer
defines the means and methods of accessing the defined channels and use them
for communication. The 6LoWPAN MAC layer is characterized by the
following:
(i) Ipv6 Beaconing tasks for device identification. These tasks include both
beacon generation and beacon synchronization.
(ii) Channel access control is provided by CSMA/CA.
(iii) PAN membership control functions. Membership functions include
association and dissociation tasks.
Adaptation layer: As mentioned previously, 6LoWPAN accommodates and
retro-fits the IPv6 packet to the IEEE 802.15.4 packet format.
Address Format: The 6LoWPAN address format is made up of two parts: 1) the
short (16-bit) address and 2) the extended (64-bit) address. The short address is
PAN specific and is used for identifying devices within a PAN only, which
makes its operational scope highly restricted and valid within a local network
only.

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b Describe the LOADing routing. L1 6

• When a data packet from a local data source is received for transmission to a
destination whose routing entry is not present with it, a LOADng router sends
an RREQ over all of its LOADng interfaces. The various forward interfaces
are numbered to identify the destination from the source LOADng node.
• The destination address obtained from the local source is encoded by the
RREQ in the packet.
• Upon receiving an RREQ, the routing set that manages the routing entries at
each LOADng router updates or inserts an entry. This also makes it possible
to keep track of the reverse journey between the source and the destination.
• If the packets are intended for a local interface of a LOADng router, the
received RREQ initiates a check of the destination address, and an RREP is
sent back using the reverse route if the packets are intended for a local
interface of a LOADng router.
• If the target address is not local, it is sent in a hop-by-hop unicast manner to
other LOADng interfaces through flooding.
• When an RREP is received, the forward path toward the RREP’s origin is
noted in the routing entry, along with the LOADng router that transmitted the
message. RREQ and RREP messages are also used to update the route
metrics.
c Explain the working of MQTT. L1 7
• Message queue telemetry transport is a simple, lightweight publish subscribe
protocol, designed mainly for messaging in constrained devices and networks.
• It provides a one-to-many distribution of messages.
• MQTT works reliably and flawlessly over high latency and limited bandwidth
of unreliable networks without the need for significant device resources and
device power.

The MQTT paradigm consists of numerous clients connecting to a server; this

server is referred to as a broker. The clients can have the roles of information
publishers (sending messages to the broker) or information subscribers (retrieving

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messages from the broker).
MQTT is built upon the principles of hierarchical topics and works on TCP for
communication over the network. Brokers receive new messages in the form of
topics from publishers. A publisher first sends a control message along with the
data message. Once updated in the broker, the broker distributes this topic’s
content to all the subscribers of that topic for which the new message has arrived.
OR
Q.10 a What is CoAP? Describe the working of CoAP. L1 7
Constrained Application Protocol is a lightweight protocol designed for IoT,
particularly for devices with limited resources such as low processing power,
low memory, and low bandwidth. CoAP is used to enable communication
between devices in constrained environments, typically in scenarios where
traditional protocols like HTTP are too heavy.

Key Features of CoAP:

• Lightweight: CoAP is designed to work with resource-constrained devices
and networks. It has a minimal header size and reduces the overhead typically
seen in more general-purpose protocols like HTTP.
• UDP-Based: Unlike HTTP, which runs over TCP, CoAP uses UDP. UDP is
faster and more lightweight than TCP because it doesn't establish a
connection before data transfer. However, it also does not guarantee
reliability, but CoAP compensates for this by implementing its own
mechanisms for message acknowledgment and retransmission.
• Request-Response Model: CoAP uses a simple request-response model
similar to HTTP. Devices can send requests (like GET, POST, PUT,
DELETE) and receive responses from other devices or servers.
• Asynchronous Communication: CoAP supports asynchronous
communication, which means that devices can send requests and continue
working while waiting for a response, making it efficient for real-time IoT
applications.
• Reliable Messaging: CoAP provides reliability using a mechanism called
Confirmable (CON) and Non-Confirmable (NON) messages. Confirmable
messages (CON): These messages require an acknowledgment. If the
acknowledgment is not received, the message is retransmitted.
•Non-Confirmable messages (NON): These messages do not require an
acknowledgment and are used when reliability isn't critical (e.g., sensor data).
• Low Overhead: CoAP uses a compact binary encoding for messages, which
reduces the size of the data transmitted between devices, making it well-
suited for low-bandwidth networks.
• Multicast Support: CoAP supports multicast communication, which is useful
for sending messages to multiple devices in a network simultaneously, which
can reduce power consumption and improve efficiency.
• Security: CoAP provides built-in support for security using DTLS
(Datagram Transport Layer Security), which is a version of TLS (Transport
Layer Security) for UDP. This allows for end-to-end encryption and
authentication between devices.
b What are the various types of interoperability encountered in IoT L1 6
environment.

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(i) Device: The existence of a vast plethora of devices and device types in an
IoT ecosystem necessitates device interoperability. Devices can be
categorized as low-end, mid-end, and highend devices based on their
processing power, energy, and communication requirements. Lowend devices
are supposed to be deployed in bulk, with little or no chance of getting their
energy supplies replenished, depending on the application scenario. These
devices rely on low-power communication schemes and radios, typically
accompanied by low-data rates. The interface of such devices with high-end
devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) requires device-level interoperability.
(ii) Platform: The variations in the platform may be due to variations in
operating systems (Contiki, RIOT, TinyOS, OpenWSN), data structures,
programming languages (Python, Java, Android, C++), or/and application
development environment. For example, the Android platform is quite
different from the iOS one, and devices running these are not compatible with
one another.
(iii) Semantic: Semantic conflicts arise during IoT operations, mainly due to
the presence of various data models (XML, CSV, JSON), information models
(C, F, K, or different representations of the same physical quantity), and
ontologies. There is a need for semantic interoperability, especially in a WoT
environment, which can enable various agents, applications, and services to
share data or knowledge in a meaningful manner.
(iv) Syntactic: Syntactic interoperability is a necessity due to the presence of
conflicts between data formats, interfaces, and schemas. The variation in the
syntactical grammar between a sender and a receiver of information results in
massive stability issues, redundancies, and unnecessary data handling efforts.
(v) Network: The large range of connectivity solutions, both wired and
wireless, at the disposal of developers and manufacturers of IoT devices and
components, further necessitates network interoperability. Starting from the
networks and sub-networks on the ground, to the uplink connectivity
solutions, there is a need for uniformity or means of integrating to devices
enable seamless and interoperable operations.
c Describe the following standards: (i) EnOcean (ii) DLNA. L1 7
(i) EnOcean:

• EnOcean is a wireless technology designed for building automation systems,

primarily based on the principle of energy harvesting.
• Due to the robustness and popularity of EnOcean, it is being used in domains
such as industries, transportation, logistics, and homes.
• As of 2012, EnOcean was adopted as a wireless standard under ISO/IEC
14543-3-10, providing detailed coverage of the physical, data link, and
networking layers. EnOceanbased devices are batteryless.
• They use ultra-low power consuming electronics along with micro energy
converters to enable wireless communication among themselves; the devices
include networking components such as wireless sensors, switches, controllers,
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and gateways.
• The energy harvesting modules in EnOcean use micro-level variations and
differences in electric, electromagnetic, solar, or other forms of energy to
transform the energy into usable energy through highly efficient energy
converters.
• The wireless signals from the battery less EnOcean sensors and switches,
which are designed to be maintenance-free, can operate up to 30 meters in
buildings and homes and up to 300 meters in the open.
(ii) DLNA:

• The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), previously known as the

Digital Home Working Group (DHWG), was proposed by a consortium of
consumer electronics companies in 2003 to incorporate interoperability
guidelines for digital media sharing among multimedia devices such as
smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, multimedia servers, and storage servers.
• Primarily designed for home networking, this standard relies majorly on
WLAN for communicating with other devices in its domain and can easily
incorporate cable, satellite, and telecom service providers to ensure data transfer
link protection at either end.
• The inclusion of a digital rights management layer allows for multimedia data
sharing among users while avoiding piracy of data.
• The consumers in DLNA, which may consist of a variety of devices such as
TVs, phones, tablets, media players, PCs, and others, can view subscribable
content without any Request additional add-ons or devices through VidiPath.

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