COURSE CODE: 20EC0453 R20

SIDDHARTH INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY: PUTTUR

(AUTONOMOUS)
Siddharth Nagar, Narayanavanam Road – 517583
QUESTION BANK (DESCRIPTIVE)

Subject with Code: Introduction to IoT (20EC0453)

Course& Branch: B. Tech & AGRI, CSE, CSM
Year & Sem: IV-B.Tech.& I-Sem. Regulation: R20

UNIT III
IOT AND M2M
1) With the help of neat sketch diagrams, explain the M2M system architecture.

M2M:

• Machine to Machine (M2M) refers to networking of machines (or devices) for the purpose of
remote monitoring and control and data exchange.
• It shows the end-to-end architecture for M2M systems comprising of M2M area networks,
communication network and application domain.
• An M2M area network comprises of machines which have embedded hardware modules for
sensing, actuation, and communication.
• Various communication protocols can be used for M2M local area networks such as Zigbee,
Bluetooth, ModBus, M-Bus, Wireless M-Bus, Power Line Communication (PLC), 6LoWPAN,
IEEE 802.15.4, etc.
• These communication protocols provide connectivity between M2M nodes with in M2M area
networks.
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• The communication network provides connectivity to remote M2M area network. The
communication network can use either wired or wireless networks.
• While the M2M area network use either proprietary or non-IP based communication protocols,
the communication network uses IP-based networks.
• Since non-IP based protocols are used within M2M area networks, the M2M nodes within on
network cannot communicate with nodes in an external network.
• To enable the communication between remote M2M area networks, M2M gateways are used.

M2M gateway:

It shows block diagram of an M2M gateway. The communication between the M2M nodes and the
M2M gateway is based on the communication protocols which are native to the M2M area network.
M2M gateway performs protocol translations to enable IP-connectivity for M2M area network. M2M
gateway acts as a proxy performing translations from/to native protocols to/from internet protocol.
The M2M data is gathered into point solutions such as enterprise applications, service management
applications, or remote monitoring applications. M2M has various application domains such as smart
metering, home automation, industrial automation, smart grids, etc. M2M solution designs are specific
to the M2M application domain.

2 a) Mention the communication protocols used for M2M local area networks.
Communication Protocol: M2M uses either proprietary or non-IP based communication protocols for
communication within the M2M area networks. Commonly uses M2M protocols include ZigBee,
Bluetooth, ModBus, M-Bus, Wireless M-Bus, Power Line Communication (PLC), 6LoWPAN, IEEE
802.15.4, Z-Wave, etc. The focus of communication in M2M is usually on the protocols below the
network layer.
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2 b) Explain the differences between Machines in M2M and Things in IOT?

Difference between IoT and M2M:

Though both M2M and IoT involve networking of machines or devices, they differ in the underlying
technologies, systems architectures and types of applications.

Communication Protocols: M2M and IoT can differ in how the communication between the machines
or devices happens. M2M uses either proprietary or non-IP based communication protocols for
communication within the M2M area networks. Various communication protocols can be used for
M2M local area networks such as Zigbee, Bluetooth, ModBus, M-Bus, Wireless M-Bus, Power Line
Communication (PLC), 6LoWPAN, IEEE 802.15.4, etc. The focus of communication in IoT is usually
on the protocols below the network layer. The focus on communication in IoT is usually on the
protocols above the network layer such as HTTP, CoAP, Web Sockets, MQTT, XMPP, DDS, AMQP,
etc.
Machines in M2M vs Things in IoT: The "Things" in IoT refers to physical objects that have unique
identifiers and can sense and communicate with their external environment (and user applications) or
their internal physical states. The unique identifiers for the things in IoT are the IP addresses. Things
have software components for accessing, processing, and storing sensor information or controlling
actuators connected. M2M systems, in contrast to IoT, typically have homogeneous machine types
within an M2M area network.
Hardware vs Software Emphasis: While the emphasis of M2M is more on hardware with embedded
modules, the emphasis of IoT is more on software. IoT devices run specialized software for sensor data
collection, data analysis and interfacing with the cloud through IP-based communication.
Data Collection & Analysis: M2M data is collected in point solutions and often in on-premises storage
infrastructure. In contrast to M2M, the data in IoT is collected in the cloud (can be public, private or
hybrid cloud). The analytics component analyzes the data and stores the results in the cloud database.
The IoT data and analysis results are visualized with the cloud-based applications.
Applications: M2M data is collected in point solutions and can be accessed by on-premises
applications such as diagnosis applications, service management applications, and on- premises
enterprise applications. IoT data is collected in the cloud and can be accessed by cloud applications
such as analytics applications, enterprise applications, remote diagnosis and management applications,
etc.

3 a) Explain the importance of M2M gateway in a Network.

M2M gateway: M2M gateways bridge one or more locally networked devices to a wired or wireless
broadband connection. The local network can be wired or wireless. The M2M gateway will host
various applications and networking stacks, running on virtual machines on one or more CPU cores.
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It shows block diagram of an M2M gateway. The communication between the M2M nodes and the
M2M gateway is based on the communication protocols which are native to the M2M area network.
M2M gateway performs protocol translations to enable IP-connectivity for M2M area network. M2M
gateway acts as a proxy performing translations from/to native protocols to/from internet protocol.
The M2M data is gathered into point solutions such as enterprise applications, service management
applications, or remote monitoring applications. M2M has various application domains such as smart
metering, home automation, industrial automation, smart grids, etc. M2M solution designs are specific
to the M2M application domain.

3 b) Define a data Network & what are the limitations of conventional Network
Data Network: A data network is a system designed to transfer data from one network access point to
one other or more network access points via data switching, transmission lines, and system controls.
Data networks consist of communication systems such as circuit switches, leased lines, and packet
switching networks.

Limitations of conventional network: The limitations of the conventional network architectures are
as follows

Complex Network Devices: Conventional networks are getting increasingly complex with more
protocols being implemented to improve link speeds and reliability. Interoperability is limited due to
lack of standard and open interfaces. Network devices proprietary hardware and software and have
slow product life-cycles limiting innovation.

Management Overhead: Conventional Networks involves significant management overhead. Network

managers find it increasingly difficult to manage multiple network devices and interfaces from multiple
vendors.
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Limited Scalability: The virtualization technologies used in cloud computing environments has
increased the number of virtual hosts requiring network access. IoT applications hosted in the cloud are
distributed across multiple virtual machines that require exchange of traffic. The analytics component
IoT applications run distributed algorithms on a large number of virtual machines that requires huge
amounts of data exchange between virtual machines.

4 a) Draw the structure of Software defined networking for IoT & Explain it.
Software Defined Networking (SDN):
Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a networking architecture that separates the control plane from
the data plane and centralizes the network controller. It shows conventional network architecture built
with specialized hardware (switches, routers, etc). Network devices is conventional network
architectures are getting exceedingly complex with the increasing number of distributed protocols being
implemented and use of proprietary hardware and interfaces. In the conventional network architecture,
the control plane and the data plane are coupled. Control plane is the part of the network that carries
the signaling and routing message traffic while the data plane is the part of network that carries the
payload data traffic.

Software-based SDN controllers maintain a unified view of the network and make configuration,
management and provisioning simpler. The underlying infrastructure in SDN uses simple packet
forwarding hardware as opposed to specialized hardware in conventional networks.
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4 b) Explain the Key elements of Software defined network for IoT.

Key elements of SDN:

• Centralized Network Controller: With decoupled control and data planes and centralized
network controller, the network administrators can rapidly configure the network. SDN
applications can be deployed through programmable open APIs.

• Programmable Open APIs: SDN architecture supports programmable open APIs for interface
between the SDN application and control layers (Northbound interface). With these open APIs
various network services can be implemented such as routing, quality of service (QOS), access
control, etc.

• Standard Communication Interface (OpenFlow): SDN architecture uses a standard

communication interface between the control and infrastructure layers (Southbound interface).
OpenFlow, which is defined by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) is the broadly accepted
SDN protocol for the Southbound interface. OpenFlow uses the concept of flows to identify
network traffic based on pre-defined match rules. Flows can be programmed statically or
dynamically by the SDN control software.

5 a) Describe the structure of Network function Virtualization for IoT.

• Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a technology that leverages virtualization to

consolidate the heterogeneous network devices onto industry standard high-volume servers,
switches and storage.
• NFV is complementary to SDN as NFV can provide the infrastructure on which SDN can run.
• Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is the decoupling of network functions from
proprietary hardware appliances and running them as software in virtual machines (VMs).
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• The different functions — such as firewalls, traffic control, and virtual routing — are called
virtual network functions (VNFs).

• NFV uses virtualized networking components to support an infrastructure totally independent

of hardware. The standard resources of compute, storage, and network functions can all be
virtualized and placed on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware like x86 servers. Having
virtualized resources means that VMs can be given portions of the resources available on the
x86 server. That way, multiple VMs can run on a single server and scale to consume the
remaining free resources. This also means that resources are less often sitting idle and data
centers with virtualized infrastructure can be more effectively used. Within the data center and
the outside networks, the data plane and control plane can also be virtualized with NFV.

5 b) Explain the Key elements of Network function Virtualization for IoT.

Key elements of NFV:
• Virtualized Network Function (VNF): VNF is a software implementation of a network
function which is capable of running over the NFV Infrastructure (NFVI).
• NFV Infrastructure (NFVI): NFVI includes compute, network and storage resources that are
virtualized.
• NFV Management and Orchestration: NFV Management and Orchestration focuses on all
virtualization-specific management tasks and covers the orchestration and life-cycle
management of physical and/or software resources that support the infrastructure virtualization,
and the life-cycle management of VNFs.

6 a) Describe the following steps involved in IoT system design methodology: Purpose
& Requirements Specification.

Purpose & Requirements Specification:

• The first step in IoT system design methodology is to define the purpose and requirements of the
system.
• In this step, the system purpose, behavior and requirements (such as data collection requirements, data
analysis requirements, system management requirements, data privacy and security requirements, user
interface requirements, ...) are captured.
• Applying this to our example of a smart home automation system, the purpose and requirements for
the system may be described as follows:
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• Purpose: A home automation system that allows controlling of the lights in a home remotely using a
web application.
• Behavior: The home automation system should have auto and manual modes. In auto mode, the
system measures the light level in the room and switches on the light when it gets dark. In manual
mode, the system provides the option of manually and remotely switching on/off the light.
• System Management Requirement: The system should provide remote monitoring and control
functions.
• Data Analysis Requirement: The system should perform local analysis of the data.
• Application Deployment Requirement: The application should be deployed locally on the device
but should be accessible remotely.
• Security Requirement: The system should have basic user authentication capability.

6 b) Describe the with neat sketch following steps involved in IoT system design
methodology: Process Specification

Process Specification: The second step in the IoT design methodology is to define the process
specification. In this step, the use cases of the IoT system are formally described based on and derived
from the purpose and requirement specifications. It shows the process diagram for the home
automation. The process diagram shows the two modes of the system- auto and manual. In a process
diagram, the circle denotes the start of a process, diamond denotes a decision box and rectangle box
denotes a state or attribute. When the auto mode is chosen, the system monitors the light level. If the
light level is low, the system changes the state of the light is on where as if the light level is high, the
system changes the state of the light is off. When manual mode is chosen, the system checks the light
state by the user. If the light state set by the user is on, the state changes the state of light to on whereas
If the light state set by the user is off, the state changes the state of light to off.
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7 a) Define domain model specification with neat sketch & draw its structure in IoT
system design.

The third step in the IoT design methodology is to define the Domain Model. The domain model
describes the main concepts, entities and objects in the domain of IoT system to be designed. Domain
model defines the attributes of the objects and relationships between objects. Domain model provides
an abstract representation of the concepts, objects and entities in the IoT domain, independent of any
specific technology or platform. The entities, objects and concepts defined in the domain model include:

Physical Entity: Physical Entity is a discrete and identifiable entity in the physical environment. The
IoT system provides information about the physical entity or performs actuation upon the physical
entity.

Virtual Entity: Virtual Entity is a representation of the physical entity in the digital world. For each
physical entity, there is a virtual entity in the domain model.

Devices: Device provides a medium for interaction between physical entities and virtual entities.
Devices are either attached to physical entities or placed near physical entities. Devices are used to
gather information about physical entities, perform actuation upon physical entities or used to identify
physical entities.

Resource: Resources are software components which can be either on-device or network resources.
On-device resources are hosted on the device and include software components that either provide
information on or enable actuation upon the physical entity to which the device is attached. Network
resources is include the software components that are available in network.

Service: Services provide an interface for interacting with the physical entity. Services access the
resources hosted on the device or the network resources to obtain information about the physical entity
or perform actuation upon the physical entity.

7 b) Describe with neat sketch the Information Model specification in IoT system Design.

Information model Specification:

• Information Model defines the structure of all the information in the IoT system, for example,
attributes of Virtual Entities, relations, etc.
• Information model does not describe the specifics of how the information is represented or
stored.
• To define the information model, we first list the Virtual Entities defined in the Domain Model.
• Information model adds more details to the Virtual Entities by defining their attributes and
relations.
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8a) Describe with neat sketch the following steps involved in IoT system design
methodology: Service Specifications

Service Specifications: The fifth step in the IoT design methodology is to define the service
specifications. Service specifications define the services in the IoT system, services types, service
inputs/output, service endpoints, service schedules, service preconditions, and service effects.

It shows an example of deriving the services from the process specification and information model for
the home automation IoT system. From the process specification and information model, we identify
the states and attributes. The state service sets the light appliance state to on/off or retrieves the current
light state. The controller service monitors the light level in auto level and switches the light on/off and
updates the status in the status database. In manual mode, the controller service, retrieves the current
state from the database and switches the light on/off.
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8 b) Describe with neat sketch the following steps involved in IoT system design
methodology: Functional view specifications.

The seventh step in the IoT design methodology is to define the functional view. The functional view
defines the functions of the IoT systems grouped into various functional groups. Each functional group
either provides functionalities for interacting with instances of concepts defined in the domain model
or provides information related into these concepts. The functional group included in a functional view
include:

Device: The device FG contains devices for monitoring and control. In the home automation example,
the device FG includes a single board mini-computer, a light sensor and a relay switch.

Communication: The communication FG handles the communication for the IoT system. The
communication FG includes the communication protocols that form the backbone of IoT systems and
enable network connectivity. The communication FG also includes the communication APIs that are
used by the services and applications to exchange data over the internet.

Services: The service FG includes various services involved in the IoT system such as services for
device monitoring, device control services, data publishing services and services for device discovery.

Mangement: The management FG includes all functioanalities that are needed to configure and
manage the IoT system.

Security: The security FG includes security mechanisms for the IoT system such as authentication,
authorization, data security, etc.

Application: The application FG includes applications that provide an interface to the users to control
and monitor variuos aspects of the IoT system. Applications also allow users to view the system status
and the processed data.

9 a) Mention advantages and Disadvantages of M2M communication system.

Advantages of M2M Communication:
• M2M communication is supported by cellular networks either directly or through gateway.
• It is easy to roll out and maintain.
• It is available with fixed and mobile networks both indoors and outdoors.
• It offers higher range, minimum latency, higher throughput and consume less energy.
• It enables communication of smart devices without any human intervention.
• The security and privacy issues in IoT networks are resolved by using M2M communication
facility.
• Large protection, data collection and data processing is possible.
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Disadvantages of M2M Communication

• Use of cloud computing in M2M means dependence on others which could limit flexibility
and innovation.
• Security and ownership of data is a big concern.
• Interoperability between cloud/M2M IoT devices is a big concern in such networks.
• It is designed and optimized for small number of network devices.
• M2M communication requires availability of constant internet connection with reasonable
speed.

9 b) What are the characteristics of M2M network?

An M2M communication network can consist of numerous data endpoints and connected devices. The
data endpoints send the desired information to the network, where it is transmitted to the data integration
point. Individual data endpoints also communicate with each other via the network.

Characteristics of M2M: One characteristic of M2M communication is that its low energy use
increases the efficiency of systems during data exchanges. The network operator is responsible for
service packages – often including monitoring functions – so that users can keep track of important
events. Data transfers can be delayed in the network if higher priority data is sent simultaneously.
Alternatively, users can schedule data transfers using a timer, or small amounts of data can be
transferred continuously. In logistics, machines can even be programmed by location so that they
automatically send out notifications or turn on when they are in a certain area.

10 a) Explain the characteristics of Python programming language.

Characteristics of python:
a. Multi-paradigm programming language: Python supports more than one programming paradigms
including object-oriented programming and structured programming
b. Interpreted Language: Python is an interpreted language and does not require an explicit
compilation step. The Python interpreter executes the program source code directly, statement by
statement, as a processor or scripting engine does.
c. Interactive Language: Python provides an interactive mode in which the user can submit commands
at the Python prompt and interact with the interpreter directly.
d. Cross-platform Language: Python can run equally on different platforms such as Windows, Linux,
UNIX, and Macintosh, etc. So, we can say that Python is a portable language. It enables programmers
to develop the software for several competing platforms by writing a program only once.
e. Free and Open Source: Python is freely available for everyone. It is freely available on its official
website www.python.org. It has a large community across the world that is dedicatedly working
towards make new python modules and functions. Anyone can contribute to the Python community.
10 b) Explain Benefits of python programming language.
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The Key benefits of Python are
Easy to learn, read and Maintain: Python is a minimalistic language with relatively few keywords,
uses English keywords and has fewer syntactical constructions as compared to other languages.
Reading Python programs is easy with pseudo-code like constructs. Python is easy to learn yet an
extremely powerful language for a wide range of applications.

Object and Procedure Oriented: Python supports both procedure-oriented programming and object-
oriented programming. Procedure oriented paradigm allows programs to be written around procedures
or functions that allow reuse of code. Procedure oriented paradigm allows programs to be written
around objects that include both data and functionality.

Extendable: Python is an extendable language and allows integration of low-level modules written in
languages such as C/C++. This is useful when you want to speed up a critical portion of a program.

Scalable: Due to the minimalistic nature of Python, it provides a manageable structure for large
programs.

Portable: Since Python is an interpreted language, programmers do not have to worry about
compilation, linking and loading of programs. Python programs can be directly executed from source
code and copied from one machine to other without carrying worrying about portability.

Broad Library Support: Python has a board library support and works on various platforms such as
windows, Linux, Mac, etc. There are large number of Python packages available for various
applications such as machine learning, image processing, network programming, cryptography, etc.