Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

Chapter 6 IoT Processing Topologies and Types

6.1 Data Format: In an IoT system, a massive volume of data generated by this huge number of
users is further enhanced by the multiple devices utilized by most users. In addition to these data-
generating sources, non-human data generation sources such as sensor nodes and automated monitoring
systems further add to the data load on the Internet. This huge data volume is composed of a variety of
data such as e-mails, text documents (Word docs, PDFs, and others), social media posts, videos, audio
files, and images. These data can be broadly grouped into TWO types based on how they can
be accessed and stored:
1. Structured data
2. Unstructured data

Structured data is highly specific, typically text data, and is stored in a predefined format.
Typical examples are product databases, contact lists, etc. These are primarily created by
using length-limited data fields such as phone numbers, social security numbers, and other
such information. Common usage of this type of data is associated with flight or train
reservation systems, banking systems, inventory controls, and other similar systems.
Languages such as Structured Query Language (SQL) are used for accessing these data in
database management systems.

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 Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

Unstructured data: These data types have no pre-defined structure and can vary according
to applications and data-generating sources. Examples are documents, videos, audio files,
posts on social media, and emails. In simple words, all the data on the internet is categorized
as unstructured. Querying languages such as NoSQL are generally used for this data type.

6.2 Importance of Processing in IoT: Data processing is more crucial with the rapid
advancements in IoT. Intelligent and resourceful processing techniques ar e
required to process vast amounts and types of data flowing through the Internet. it is also
important to decide when to process and what to process. We first divide the data to be
processed into THREE types based on the urgency of processing:
1. Very time-critical data

2. Time critical data

3. Normal data

 Very time-critical data: These data have a very low processing latency, typically in
the range of a few milliseconds. Data from sources such as flight control systems,
healthcare, etc need immediate decision support. Processing requirements are
exceptionally high. Processing the data in place or nearer to the source is crucial.
 Time-critical data: Data from sources that can tolerate normal processing latency are
deemed as time-critical data. These data, generally associated with sources such as
vehicles, traffic, smart home systems, surveillance systems, and others, can tolerate a
latency of a few seconds. These data are to be processed in remote locations
processors such as clouds.
 Normal data: These data, can tolerate a processing latency of a few minutes to a
few hours and are typically associated with less data-sensitive domains such as
agriculture, environmental monitoring, and others. Typically have no particular time
requirements for processing urgently.

6.3 Processing Topologies: The various processing solutions are divided into two large
topologies:

1. On-site processing topologies

2. Off-site processing topologies: It further divides into

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 Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

 Remote processing topologies

 Collaborative processing topologies

1. On-site processing topologies: In this topology, the data is processed at the source
itself. It is used in applications that have a very low tolerance for latencies. These
latencies may result from the processing hardware or the network. Applications such
as healthcare and flight control systems (real-time systems). The processing
infrastructure is fast and robust enough to handle such data. See figure 6.2 shows the
on-site processing topology, where an event (here, fire) is detected utilizing a
temperature sensor connected to a sensor node. The sensor node processes the
information from the sensed event and generates an alert. The node additionally has
the option of forwarding the data to a remote infrastructure for further analysis and
storage.

2. Off-site processing: Here processing is not done at the source point. It allows for
latencies and is significantly cheaper than on-site processing topologies. In this
topology, the sensor node is responsible for the collection and framing of data to be

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 Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

transmitted to another location for processing. Simpler sensor node borrows

processing from high processing enabled device to accomplish their task. Multiple
nodes can come together to share their processing power to collaboratively process
the data. It is divided into TWO types.

 Remote processing: It is the most common processing topology used in present-day

IoT solutions. It encompasses sensing data by various sensor nodes; the data is then
forwarded to a remote server or a cloud-based infrastructure for further processing
and analytics. Figure 6.3 shows the outline of one such paradigm, where the sensing
of an event is performed locally, and the decision-making is outsourced to a remote
processor

 Advantages: Massive cost and energy savings by enabling the reuse and reallocation
of the same processing resource. It ensures the massive scalability of solutions,
without significantly affecting the cost of the deployment.
Drawback: It requires a lot of network bandwidth. Need good network connectivity between
the sensor nodes and the remote processing infrastructure.

Collaborative processing: Here Sensors cooperatively process data from multiple sources
to serve a high-level task. It typically finds use in scenarios with limited or no network
connectivity. Figure 6.4 shows the collaborative processing topology for collaboratively
processing data locally.
Advantages: This topology can be quite economical for large-scale deployments spread
over vast areas where remote infrastructure is not viable. This approach also reduces
latencies due to the transfer of data over the network. It conserves the bandwidth of the
network, especially those connecting to the Internet. This topology can be quite beneficial

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 Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

for applications such as agriculture.

Drawback: This topology needs costlier mesh networks for implementation.

6.3 IoT Device Design and Selection Considerations: The processor is the main factor
for IoT device design and selection for various applications. Other important considerations
to design an IoT device are:
1. Size
2. Energy
3. Cost
4. Memory
5. Processing power
6. I/O Rating
7. Add-ons

Size: size and energy consumption are crucial factors of a sensor node. The larger the size
factor consumes more energy. Additionally, large-size factors are not suitable for many IoT
applications.
Energy: Energy efficient processor is the most important factor in designing IoT- based
sensing solutions. The higher the energy requirements, the higher the battery replacement
frequency. This principle is not a good option for IoT-based applications.
Cost: Cheaper cost of the hardware enables a much higher density of hardware deployment.
For example, cheaper gas and fire detection solutions would enable users to include much
more sensing hardware for a lesser cost.

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 Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

Memory: devices with higher memory tend to be costlier. But 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.
Processing power: In deciding what type of sensors can be accommodated with the IoT
device/node, and what processing features can integrate on-site. The processing power also
decides the type of applications the device can be associated with. For example, if the
application involves video or audio needs more processing power than other simple sensing
IoT applications.
Input /output (I/O) rating: 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. Some processors have a meager I/O voltage rating of 3.3 V, as
compared to 5 V for somewhat older processors. This
needs additional voltage and logic conversion circuitry and increases the cost and complexity
of the node.
Add-ons: IoT device provides, such analog to digital conversion (ADC) units, connections
to USB and Ethernet, and inbuilt wireless access capabilities for various IoT applications.
These add-ons also decide how fast a solution can be developed others helps in defining the
robustness and usability of a processor or IoT device in various application Scenarios.

6.4 Processing Offloading: This t e c h n i q u e i n th e I o T co nte xt i s th e trans fe r o f

resource-intensive computational tasks to a separate external device in the network. It is
important for the development of densely deployable, energy-conserving,
miniaturized, and cheap IoT-based solutions for sensing tasks. Figure 6.5 shows the
typical outline of an IoT deployment with the various layers of processing that are
encountered spanning vastly different application domains from as near as sensing the
environment to as far as cloud-based infrastructure. For the majority of IoT applications,
the bulk of the processing is carried out remotely to keep the on-site devices simple, small,
and economical.
The processing procedure is as follows:
 For off-site processing, data from the sensing layer can be forwarded to the fog or
cloud or contained within the edge layer.
 The edge layer makes use of devices within the local network to process data that is
similar to the collaborative processing topology as shown in fig 6.4

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 Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

 Fog nodes are localized within a geographic area and serve the IoT node within a
small coverage area.
 Forwarding data to a cloud or a remote server requires the device to be connected to
the internet.

Data offloading is divided into THREE parts:

1. Offload Location:(where all the processing can be offloaded in the IoT architecture)
2. Offload Decision:(How to choose where to offload the processing to and by how
much)
3. Offloading Considerations: (Deciding when to offload)

Offload location: The choice of offload location decides the applicability, cost, and
sustainability of the IoT application and deployment. The offload location into FOUR types:

1. 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.
2. Fog: Fog computing is a decentralized computing infrastructure. The data,

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 Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

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.
3. 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.
4. Cloud: A cloud is provisioned for processing offloading so that processing resources
can be rapidly provisioned with minimal effort over the Internet, which can be
accessed globally. Cloud enables massive scalability of solutions.
Offload Decision Making: The choice of where to offload and how much to offload is
addressed considering data generation rate, network bandwidth, the criticality of
applications, processing resource available at the offload site, and other factors. Main three
approaches are as follows.

 Naive Approach

 Bargaining-based approach

 Learning-based approach

1. Naive Approach: This rule-based approach, in which the data from IoT devices are
offloaded to the nearest location based on the achievement of certain offload criteria.
Statistical measures are consulted for generating the rules.

2. Bargaining-based approach: To maximize the quality of service (bandwidth,

latencies) by reaching a point where the qualities of certain parameters are reduced,
while the others are enhanced. QoS is achieved collaboratively for better full
implementation.

3. Learning-based approach: It relies on past behavior and trends of data flow through
the IoT architecture. The optimization of QoS parameters is done by learning from
historical trends and trying to optimize previous solutions further and enhance the
collective behavior of the IoT implementation.

Offloading Considerations: offloading parameters need to be considered while deciding

upon the offloading type to choose arising from the nature of the IoT application and the
hardware being used to interact with the application. These parameters are as follows

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 Introduction to IoT (22ETC15H) - Module 3: IoT Processing Topologies &Types

 Bandwidth
 Latency
 Criticality
 Resources
Bandwidth: The maximum amount of data that can be simultaneously transmitted over the
network between two points. 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 between the start and completion of an operation, which is due
to physical limitations of the infrastructure in the network or the processor which is
associated with an operation.
Criticality: It defines importance of a task being pursued by an IoT application. The more
critical a task is the lesser latency is expected. For example, detection of fires using an IoT
solution has higher criticality than detection of agricultural field parameters.
Resources: It signifies the actual capabilities (like processing power, the analytical
algorithm, etc.) of an offload location.
Data Volume: The amount of data generated by a source or sources that can be
simultaneously handled by the offload location. Typically, for large and dense IoT
deployments, the offload location should be robust enough to address the processing
issues related to massive data volumes.

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