Internet of Things (Part I)

The basic idea is to interconnect everyday objects equipped with sensors and actuators between them. It will be able to interact with physical world and provide new services (like interconnect meters with smart grids). The systems will be moved around from the desktops and immersed in a interaction with humans. That's what we know as Ubiquitous Computing and with the modern smartphones the interconnection is possible.

To interconnect them IP Small Objects Alliance (IPSO) was created to develop the technology. It works in a long range of physical MAC layers with header compression to avoid the redundant bits.

IETF has three working groups standardizing IP protocols for smart objects and they rely in IPv6:

-6LoWPAN (IPv6 over 802.15.4)

-ROLL (Routing Over Low power and Lossy networks) specifies a new routing protocol designed for IP smart objects networks

-RPL(Radio Link Protocol) and CoRE devoted to defining a framework for resourceoriented

applications intended to run on constrained IP networks

The generic therms of Loss-Power and Lossy networks (LLNs) have been chosen because of the unstable ans low-speed links. Routing at the network layer (IP) is an obligation and the best option with low-power link layers like PLC, Wifi or IEEE 802.15.4.

TCP MSS is an useful option to compress headers and avoid

We have three connectivity models for smart objects: Autonomous Smart Object Networks Model without connection to the public internet (Industrial automation), The Internet of things where any internet user have access to the information and The extended Internet where we can have the appropriate protection.

The main hardware consist on a Communication interface, a microcontroller, sensors/actuators and the power supply. The radiocomunication interface is the most "power hungry" and have to be considered to save power.