Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
Design Challenges
2.1.
Power and Battery Life
2.2.
Security and Compliances
2.3.
Tests and Certifications
2.4.
Emerging Standards
2.5.
Designing for Everyone
3.
Frequently Asked Questions
3.1.
Classify the broadness in functioning areas of IoT.
3.2.
Name the various design challenges in IoT.
3.3.
Write the basis of the functioning of IoT.
4.
Conclusion
Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024
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Design Challenges in IoT

Author Dhruv Sharma
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Introduction

The spread of technology has turned the world into an incredible one. The Internet of Things (IoT) has proved itself to be one of the greatest gifts of advanced technology, which is one of the most demanding in the current scenario. Now Businesses can gather essential information to streamline their operations, predict significant changes and challenges, and ensure they can meet the customers' expectations in real-time. Consumers in general benefit from being able to live intelligently rather than continuously focusing on mundane tasks. It has transformed the world to new heights.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has its hands spread to make everything connected and automatic. Connection, Communication and Automation have changed human life by making it more comfortable. The various application areas of IoT cover most parts from personal life to professional life, business up to defence sector, education up to medical industry, agriculture up to airline, etc. But nowadays, IoT is also facing many challenges; it may be categorized as technical, management and security, etc. Among them, connectivity challenges are significant challenges in the Internet of things.

Design Challenges in IoT

Source

In IoT, several automated devices that are connected; communicate with each other through the Internet, and in a small network and a couple of devices, connectivity is seamless. But when IoT is deployed globally, and the number of devices and sensors connect and communicate, connectivity issues arise. And also, the Internet is not just a network; it includes a heterogeneous network having cell towers, slow connectivity, fast connectivity, proxy servers, firewalls, and different companies with different standards and technologies, all things that can disrupt connectivity. So, here the design of the entire IoT system holds utmost importance and is treated as an essential component of IoT as the overall success of the procedure depends on great design. So, here, we will analyze factors which challenge the design of IoT technology.

Design Challenges

Some of the design challenges faced in IoT can be described as follows.

Power and Battery Life

Source

At the trim level of IoT setup may be energy efficient. Still, when in a high level of IoT setup, things become more complex in high-performance devices where processor, displays, and communication interfaces require varying amounts of power there, power usage management becomes difficult. So minimal battery drain and long battery life are needed, and it must achieve low power consumption and energy efficiency.

Security and Compliances

It is essential in the IoT Connectivity—monitoring and Maintaining security across connectivity change. Many IoT/M2M devices also come with several internet connectivity options. Many security pitfalls allow hackers to access or take control of the device and create connectivity issues.

Tests and Certifications

Testing and certification are significant parts of designing any product related to IoT. Boards with wireless components—or any radiating component—must undergo strict certification processes before they can be permitted to be sold in different parts of the world. At the same time, these certification rules may vary from continent to continent or even from country to country. Aside from being a tedious process, this requires high costs, which the system designer should include when planning budgets for their circuit designs. For any Bluetooth module or chip present onboard, several certifications are required—from the FCC (for the US), CE (for European countries), IC (for Canada) and the list goes on.

Emerging Standards

Despite IoT being depicted as a connected ecosystem where devices work in harmony, the reality is different. As with any untested frontier, plenty of companies are racing to become the dominant players in the emerging space; even when some product lines are completely walled off and are often designed to work exclusively with trusted providers, while, other systems are completely open where the biggest challenges for developers are usually coping with the potential interference between various equipment.

To help overcome these types of challenges, the "Open Connectivity Foundation" is currently developing an open standard to overcome previously mentioned issues of devices being produced independently of one another.

The biggest takeaway from the draft specs is that the full operability of the system needs to be engineered at all layers of the development stack i.e. vertical services, platform, and connectivity – to ensure a seamless user experience. The bulk of the OCF set of standards leverages abstraction to streamline development workflows while guaranteeing that the data protocols are all dynamic and have layer agnostic capabilities. Therefore, here the five methods of the above-discussed standards include:

  1. creating,
  2. retrieving,
  3. updating,
  4. deleting, and 
  5. notifying.

There's also the IEEE standard which has an extensive and exclusive line of standards for the Internet of things.

Designing for Everyone

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for any IoT system development or requirement is accommodating all the users' needs and being genuinely successful; it can't only target connected devices to a tech-savvy audience. Smart homes, involve leveraging an entire ecosystem of devices. Locks, thermostats, lighting, alarms, and more – are the foundations of living at home with more comfort.

There is also a lot of machine-to-machine (M2M) projects and systems such as intelligent power grids, general building automation, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and wearable communication devices. It seems overwhelming, right? It doesn't have to be.

In the past, visuals were mostly the cornerstone of good successful user experience platforms; however, the future is now all about conversational UIs (UI that interact, know and serve the needs of the user). This opens an entirely brand new can of worms as user experience professionals now need to handle both linguistics and general visual design.

Just take a look at an example of iPhone or the Amazon Echo – both notable examples of UX designs engineered to accommodate a variety of use-cases for its users. Kids, grandmothers and tech-Luddites can generally use these devices without any hindrances or major challenges

Check out this article - Components Of IOT

Frequently Asked Questions

Classify the broadness in functioning areas of IoT.

The various application areas of IoT cover most parts from personal life to professional life, business up to defence sector, education up to medical industry, agriculture up to airline, etc.

Name the various design challenges in IoT.

The various design challenges in IoT are as follows.

  1. Power and Battery Life
  2. Security and Compliances
  3. Tests and Certifications
  4. Emerging Standards
  5. Designing for Everyone

Write the basis of the functioning of IoT.

Connection, Communication, and Automation

Conclusion

Congratulations on finishing the blog!! After reading this blog, you will grasp the concept of the Design Challenges like security and compliances, tests and certifications etc., in IoT.

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