In any scalable IoT system it is important to use an embedded protocol that can handle the workload while doing it efficiently. In this week’s breakdown of the Embedded IoT Protocols white paper, written by Patrick Barrett, we will be looking at the benefits and implications of XMPP.

In the last Embedded IoT Protocols Guide Part I blog, we briefly discussed the old standards of application protocols as explained by Exosite’s Application Engineer, Patrick Barrett. This blog segment will continue the discussion of embedded IoT protocols by summarizing the benefits and drawbacks of using HTTP.

March 3, 2016, Exosite released the new Data Analytics for IoT: Business Transformation Through Connected Products white paper.  This week’s blog post introduces the second segment of the white paper, Closing the Gap to Decision. More and more companies are implementing connected product deployments but the data is not necessarily being used effectively to make business driven decisions.

The era of big data is upon us. With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), companies have access to more information than ever before. Employees sit in Internet-connected chairs in rooms with remotely monitored HVAC systems. Industrial buildings, built by cranes with pumps whose IoT performance monitoring can be seen on an iPad, feature Internet-connected pest-control traps that send text messages to sanitation workers when rodents have been caught. Employees go home to Internet-connected garage doors, lights, and thermostats that can all be controlled from a smartphone.

While there are many application protocols that can be used to send arbitrary data between a client and a server over the Internet (e.g., SMTP for email), some protocols are more suitable than others when it comes to IoT product deployments.  This blog covers the section of our Embedded IoT Protocols white paper that divides these protocols into two categories, older web protocols and newer protocols designed specifically for IoT, and discusses examples of each.  Specifically, this blog segment will give a brief description of the old standards.

The Internet is made up of many different protocols, each with their own purpose. The standard model of the Internet breaks these protocols into layers based on the functions that they provide. Understanding how different protocols work and choosing the correct protocol is an important step when deploying IoT systems in any industry. In this series of blogs we will identify several of the IoT protocols featured in our newest white paper that make up the Internet as a whole, including relevant protocols from the Internet layer, transport layer, and application layer. We will also discuss the tradeoffs of various application-layer protocols that are well suited for use in IoT to better enable you develop a strong connected product strategy.

Choosing the right protocol for IoT can mean the difference between success and failure. The proper protocol enables companies to use more efficient, inexpensive devices while providing a secure, reliable solution that performs at a high level. Are you using the right embedded IoT protocol for your IoT solution?

At a high level, a good protocol for IoT connected products enables the use of inexpensive, low-power devices and provides high performance in a variety of end-use applications while maintaining a high level of security and reliability while maintaining a high level of security and reliability. This is a good starting point to describe the needs of all IoT applications; however, the way these are achieved varies greatly depending on the needs of specific use cases. Below is an examination of a couple features that will provide a good baseline for most general use cases.

What is the Internet of Things (IoT)? It is a global network of physical devices communicating with each other, usually through powerful cloud applications that add data processing, aggregation, and analysis to provide business insights and benefits that would not otherwise be feasible.

Building fleets of IoT connected products to fulfill real-world needs is exciting and powerful, not just for the value it brings today, but also for the value it promises in the future. Making an investment in a connected product offering is just that: an investment for the future. In order to make an initial connected product strategy successful, it is important to intertwine individual product performance with a long-term objective to revolutionize the company and the industry based on data analytics.

The following IoT strategies can be used to ensure an organization is focusing on value capture as opposed to merely going through a simple pricing exercise in which margin is added to a base cost:

For companies launching their first connected product fleet, there is significant infrastructure and organizational alignment that must be achieved in order to design, development, launch, and support a successful IoT strategy. Much of this organization alignment can be leveraged for future connected product offerings and so represents more of a foundational shift for an organization to invest in. If not addressed properly, the business case for a connected product fleet can accidentally conflate business-wide concerns and product-specific concerns, which ideally would be modeled independently.

As if creating value with a connected product offering is not difficult enough, capturing value is yet another science to conquer. IoT business models, bundling options, and partnership strategies are all part of the effort to capture value. An in-depth discussion of pricing strategy is outside the scope of this blog, but it is useful to understand a few reasons why it can be a difficult exercise:

Now that you have been able to properly identify your IoT business model, it’s time to optimize for value.

Step one is making sure you have a clear understanding of how your connected product offering adds value in the IoT marketplace. Second, which is arguably even more important, is understanding the value you are providing to your end users, as ultimately you are going to need them to adopt your product as they hold the keys to your success. Once this has been fully understood, a model should be built for quantifying what that value represents. If these are in place, an OEM can then organizationally align to optimize for value.