{"id":1166,"date":"2019-02-15T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T10:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kusuaks7\/?p=771"},"modified":"2023-07-20T13:31:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T13:31:31","slug":"a-cyber-physical-systems-approach-to-iot-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/iot\/a-cyber-physical-systems-approach-to-iot-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cyber-Physical Systems Approach to IoT Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A look at the evolving world of IoT standards across IT and OT.<\/p>\n

I am often asked what the standards for IoT are. Is it MQTT or AMQP? What about\u00a0ZigBee or Z-Wave<\/a>? Is it 6LoWPAN or\u00a0LoRa and the LPWAN variations<\/a>? Do we start with an OSI 7-layer framework? What about the long-standing OT (operational technologies) protocols of the industrial world, like OPC, CIP, or FieldBus?<\/p>\n

Let us take a look at the evolving world of IoT standards using a\u00a0cyber-physical systems<\/strong>\u00a0approach in three steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. See sample interactions in a complex cyber-physical system (CPS)<\/li>\n
  2. Look at how to choreograph the interactions for outcomes<\/li>\n
  3. See a sampling of protocols needed for the interactions across IT and OT<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    IoT makes cyber-physical systems (CPS) possible. CPS includes autonomous vehicles, medical systems, process control, robotics and so on \u2014 wherever physical systems (\u201cthings\u201d) and cyber systems (IT-based systems) are combined. If we have to choreograph the interactions for outcomes, we need to take an IT + OT approach to protocols.<\/p>\n

    The intent here is not to list every protocol, but show the broad categories and their evolution. For details on specific IT protocols, this page has a\u00a0good list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    IoT Is All About Interactions<\/strong><\/p>\n

    At the core of IoT are interactions where information is exchanged between physical or virtual end points. Below is an example of a cyber-physical system and the interactions between the various actors in the system:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    In this case of connected cars, we have to orchestrate interactions across different entities; interactions between the people and business entities (B2B\/B2C\/P2P) and interactions between the physical and virtual entities (M2X\/V2X\/App2App). It is a veritable\u00a0X2X world<\/a>\u00a0out there!<\/p>\n

    Control and Automation \u2014 The Ultimate\u00a0Goal<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The goal of fostering interactions and integrating physical things with cyber infrastructure is to monitor and control things. Once we have control, we can automate workflows, big and small, across humans and things.<\/p>\n

    How we do that using various technologies at our disposal looks like this:<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    From left to right, this is a progression of connecting our assets (physical or people), to processing data, to automating simple tasks, to coordinating complex workflows.<\/p>\n

    Two aspects of such a system stand out in this assets-to-automation progression.<\/p>\n

    Control and Communication<\/strong><\/p>\n

    To build complex cyber-physical systems that interact, we need to\u00a0control<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0the systems and enable workflows. We do this by\u00a0communicating<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0securely\u00a0<\/em>with the things we want to control. [I\u2019ll skip security discussion except to note that some level of security is often embedded in communication and control protocols themselves.]<\/p>\n

    The Protocols and Evolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Now that we\u2019ve covered the why of protocols, here is a bird\u2019s-eye view of IT \/ ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and OT protocols categorized broadly into control vs. communication and roughly mapped to our favourite OSI 7-layer model:<\/p>\n

    As I said, this is not a comprehensive list, but a simplified categorization to show the world of IoT protocols and its evolution.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Notes and key takeaways from this:<\/p>\n