How to identify a scalable IoT network topology

Editors note: this article is part of a series exploring the role of networking in the Internet of Things.

Three types of networking topologies are utilized in the Internet-of-Things: point-to-point, star, and mesh networking. To provide a way to explore the attributes and capabilities of each of these topologies, we defined a hypothetical (but realistic) application in the building monitoring and energy management space and methodically defined its networking requirements.

Lets pull it all together to make a network selection for our building monitoring application. As described previously, the application will monitor, analyze, and optimize energy usage throughout the users properties. To accomplish this, monitoring and control points need to be deployed throughout each building, including occupancy and temperature sensors. Sensor data will be aggregated back to a central building automation panel located in each building. A continuous collection of data will provide a higher resolution of temperature and occupancy information, thus rendering better insight into HVAC performance and building utilization patterns. Comparison of energy utilization throughout the portfolio of properties allows lower performing buildings to be flagged.

The networking requirements for this application are summarized in Table 1.

The attributes and capabilities of each of our three network topologies are summarized in Table 2.

We now have the information we need to assess which topology best fits our application requirements. From our review we can see that all three topologies have adequate reliability, interoperability, component availability, and cost. However, the first four attributes in each table range, power consumption, scalability, and bandwidth address the core requirements of the application. These four attributes are quite different for each topology. Within this series, the following points were made regarding these networking options:

Our best networking topology choice is therefore a Zigbee mesh networking architecture. The Zigbee standard, as mentioned earlier, has been designed for low power, low data rate networks and has been widely used in residential, building, and industrial automation/control applications.

The Internet of Things is in its early stages of development. Networking architectures, protocols, and standards are continuing to evolve on both broad (horizontal) and industry-specific (vertical) fronts.

6LoWPAN is one noteworthy emerging standard that has been designed to allow Internet Protocol data, specifically IPv6 packets, to be sent and received over low-power, low data rate 802.15.4-based mesh networks the same networks on which the ZigBee protocol operates. A gateway device converts the IPv6 packets into the 6LoWPAN message structure and then back again to IPv6 so that a Wi-Fi device can receive them. Even with the required packet conversion, the 6LoWPAN protocol promises to provide a much tighter integration between 802.11 IP-based Wi-Fi networks and mesh networks designed for small form factor device (thing) networking.

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How to identify a scalable IoT network topology