The internet of things (IoT) is a huge market, with a forecast of 23.6 billion connections by 2026, according to ABI Research. This growth entails a wide range of devices and applications, opening up opportunities for different wireless connectivity technologies, improved security, and enhanced features with artificial intelligence.
This month’s issue covers all of it: wireless technologies, security, and AI in IoT. The Eclipse Foundation’s 2021 IoT & Edge Developer survey revealed that the top three concerns of IoT developers are security, connectivity, and deployment. The significant increase in both security and connectivity concerns highlights the challenges that developers face in determining the right technologies for their applications, according to the report.
IoT devices span applications and industries, and there is a host of stakeholders, including OEM device manufacturers, service providers, platform operators, security vendors, and distributors. With many companies involved in the IoT, each with different capabilities, security concerns, and attitudes to risk, there is no common approach to provisioning devices to join IoT ecosystems, said Charlie Grover, cryptography researcher at Crypto Quantique.
Grover takes a look at how to authenticate IoT device identity. He said that some companies will handle the provisioning process themselves, while others will pay a third party to provision their devices. No matter the approach, “effective authentication is vital to the successful implementation of IoT ecosystems,” Grover said.
Wireless technologies for IoT range widely, including wide-area networks such as LoRaWAN, Sigfox, NB-IoT, and LTE-M, as well as medium- and short-range technologies including Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi HaLow, WiSUN, Bluetooth LE, Thread, and Zigbee. One of the biggest challenges is sorting out the advantages and drawbacks. In this issue, ABI Research takes a deep dive into the LPWAN market.
The number of connectivity technologies available for the IoT has created a quagmire as technology providers and enterprises look to understand the benefits and drawbacks of LPWANs, as well as to assess their claimed attributes in relation to real-life performance, said Tancred Taylor, research analyst at ABI Research. Taylor discusses the LPWAN market as it stands today: the technologies, the applications, and the ecosystem dynamics. The key drivers for LPWAN are low power, small device size, and small data packets.
In the consumer space, Wi-Fi, now widely acknowledged as a foundation technology for IoT applications, is reinforcing its position with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, which employ orthogonal frequency-division multiple access to improve performance in dense environments, said Majeed Ahmad, editor-in-chief of EDN. And there is target-wake-time technology, which reduces battery consumption and makes Wi-Fi a suitable choice for sensor-based devices, he said. Ahmad reveals the four biggest trends in Wi-Fi this year.
The growing amount of data being captured by billions of IoT devices can gain big benefits from AI. Mark Lippett, CEO of XMOS, believes that once manufacturers have addressed barriers to widespread adoption, AIoT will be “one of the biggest technological breakthroughs in modern history.” AI is capable of processing huge amounts of information using complex algorithms with varying degrees of autonomy, and one of the most successful potential synergies for AI is IoT, he said. The synergy is a device that captures better, larger sets of data, matched with an AI to take full advantage of it, and it triggers actions in new use cases that enhance our lives, Lippett said. He covers the what, why, and how of AIoT.
To help designers and developers, we also take a look at new product development kits and top SBCs. Development kits are a key tool used by component manufacturers when launching new parts, especially for microprocessor and microcontroller makers. Many of them also collaborate with partners to deliver everything needed to help designers develop their prototypes. Dev kits typically bundle all of the hardware, software, and connectivity to evaluate the features and functionality of the new devices. We also see more chipmakers adding machine-learning and AI functionality.
“The best SBCs are the ones that are suitable for any given application, including IoT projects,” said Cabe Atwell, contributing writer. “This means a powerful board outfitted with the fastest tech may not be ideal for remote monitoring, whereas a low-power platform with efficient sensors is more than enough to handle the load.” However, Atwell also noted that overkill performance never hindered project development. He reviews the top SBCs and development boards for IoT applications for engineers and makers.
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