Data Link Layer Communication Protocols in IoT

1. Bluetooth:Bluetooth is a PAN (Personal Area Network) or it is a short-range wireless communication

network for exchanging data between the connected devices through that network. It is very cheaper in
price and effective in a performance point of view for short-range distance. It is a 2.4GHz network that
works well for personal wireless network communication. It provides a data transfer rate of 3 Mbps in a
range of 50m to 150m. Nowadays Bluetooth is almost present in all smartphones and it is highly used in
wearable devices connected with the mobile applications.
2. ZigBee: Zigbee is similar to Bluetooth technology with 2.4Ghz frequency. It is a low power personal
communication network. It is cheaper and is widely used for several applications. It is used for specific
commercial and industrial applications. Its range varies from 10-100m. Mesh networking is one of the
important advantages of Zigbee technology. Zigbee supports star or mesh network topology.
3. BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) : Bluetooth Low Energy is also known as Bluetooth smart which is a wireless
PAN(Personal Area Network). The range is similar to that of Bluetooth but it consumes low power than
Bluetooth. In 2011 BLE was introduced as Bluetooth 4.0. BLE goes to sleep mode when there is no
transmission of data. It is a low-cost networking protocol. The smartphones operating systems like
android, ios, etc uses this BLE technology and provide a Bluetooth network.
4. Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) : WiFi is a local area network which is a wireless network there is no wired
connection. It is Proposed by Wi-Fi Alliance. WiFi provides Internet access to devices within a range of 60
feet to 100 feet. It uses high-frequency radio signals for sending and receiving data. It uses the IEEE
802.11 standard. Its data rate varies from 2Mbps to 1.73Gbps. We can set up PAN (Personal Area
Network) or LAN (Local Area Network) or WAN (Wide Area Network) in IoT systems. By Routing, we can
increase the network area.
5. Z-Wave: Z-wave technology is a wireless communication protocol that creates a wireless Mesh network.
It is based on low power RF(Radio Frequency) based technology. It is mainly used for home automation
applications and devices. It operates in 900 Mhz frequency bands. It is a more secure technology. It
offers data transfer rates of 9.6Kbps, 40Kbps, or 100Kbps. Its range varies from 98 to 328 feet. It is low
power and longer range IoT technology.
6. RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) : Radio Frequency Identification technology uses radiofrequency
waves to transfer data between a reader and a movable item to identify and track. It does not require
contact between reader and tagged item. RFID tag, RFID reader, RFID antenna are the key components of
RFID technology. Tags operate depending upon their frequency bands of 13.56 and are mostly used.
7. Cellular: Increased quantities of data can be sent over longer distances or range by using Cellular
communications (GSM/3G/4G/5G etc). But it is very useful in sending a small quantity of data over the
internet. Cellular carriers manage the infrastructure so when we use it we don’t need to worry about
infrastructure costs and support costs.
8. Sigfox: Sigfox is a form of wireless communications that provides low power and long-range wireless
connectivity for devices. The messages are transmitted over the Sigfox global network. Sigfox provides
one of the largest IoT networks. It is like Cellular network type which sets up antennas on towers. It is a
Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN).
9. Ethernet: Ethernet is used to connect the devices in a Local Area Network (LAN) which is based on IEEE
802.3 standard. Ethernet is a LAN technology in which the devices are wired connection which provides
data transfer rates as high as 100 Mbps. Choosing Ethernet for IoT ecosystem is a little bit costly in terms
of setup and management.
10. NFC (Near Field Communication) : NFC is an IoT which helps to connect devices. It provides short-range
wireless connectivity technology but NFC transmission is slower than Bluetooth. It is based on Radio
Frequency Identity (RFID) technology. It can operate in low power. It operates at 13.56 MHz frequency.
11. LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) :LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) is a wireless wide
area network technology whose range varies from 2 km to 1000 km depending on the technology.
Siggfox, LoRa is the examples involve all major LPWAN technology.
12. LoRaWAN:LoRaWAN(Long Range Wide Area Network) is a wide area network protocol. It is a low power
consumption protocol that targets the wide-area network (WAN) applications with better security and
mobility. It supports a large network with millions and millions of low power devices deployed on public
networks. It is along with range bidirectional communication which has a range of more than 15 km.
Wireless Media Access Issues in Internet of Things: When it comes to communication using a wireless
medium there is always a concern about the interference due to other present wireless communication
technologies. The very important issues which are observed are: Half Duplex operation, Time-varying
channel, and Burst channel errors. 1)Half Duplex operation: Half-duplex transmission means when the
sender and receiver both are capable of sharing data but one at a time. In wireless transmission, it is difficult
to receive data when the transmitter is sending the data because during transmission a large amount or a
large fraction of signal energy is leaked while broadcasting. The magnitude of the transferred signal and
received signal differs a lot. Due to which collision detection is even not possible by the sender as the
intensity of the transferred signal is large than the received one. Hence this causes the problem of collision
and the prime focus should be to minimize the collision.2)Time-varying channel:Time-varying channels
include the three mechanisms for radio signal propagations they are Reflection, Diffraction, and Scattering.
 Reflection –This occurs when a propagating wave carrying information intrudes on an object that has
very large dimensions than the wavelength of the wave.
 Diffraction –This occurs when the radio path between the transmitter and the receiver is collided by the
surface with sharp edges. This is a phenomenon which causes the diffraction of the wave from the
targeted position.
 Scattering –This occurs when the medium through from the wave is traveling consists of some objects
which have dimensions smaller than the wavelength of the wave.
While transmitting the signal by the node these are time shifted and this is called multipath propagation.
While when this node signals intensity is dropped below a threshold value, then this is termed as fade. As a
result Handshaking strategy is widely used so as a healthy communication can be set up.
3)Burst channel errors: Burst channel errors are called as a contiguous sequence of symbols, which are
received in a communication channel, in which the first and last symbols has an error and there is no
evidence of contiguous sub-sequence of corrected received symbols. When time-varying channels are used
then signals strengths are introduced due to which errors are observed in transmission. For these channels
in wireline networks, the Bit rate is high as 10 -3.
Sensors are electronic devices composed of sensitive cells that are able to measure physical parameters like
the light fluctuation using a photoresistor, the temperature using a thermistor, to detect flames, sounds,
movements, or any other fluctuation in the environment and converts that measurement reading into a
digital representation.
Actuators, on the others hand, receive some type of control signal (commonly an electric signal or digital
command) that triggers a physical effect, usually some type of motion, force, and so on. Sensors provide the
information, actuators provide the action Actuators also vary greatly in function, size, design, and so on. Some
common ways that they can be classified include the following: Type of motion: Actuators can be classified
based on the type of motion they produce (for example, linear, rotary, one/two/three axes).
Power: Actuators can be classified based on their power output (for example, high power, low power, micro
power)Binary or continuous: Actuators can be classified based on the number of stable-state outputs.
Area of application: Actuators can be classified based on the specific industry or commercial where they are
used.
Smart objects are any physical objects that contain embedded technology to sense and/or interact with their
environment in a meaningful way by being interconnected and enabling communication among themselves or
an external agent.
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an infrastructure-less wireless network that is deployed in a large number
of wireless sensors in an ad-hoc manner that is used to monitor the system, physical or environmental
conditions.  Sensor nodes are used in WSN with the onboard processor that manages and monitors the
environment in a particular area. They are connected to the Base Station which acts as a
processing,unit,in,the,WSN,System. Base Station in a WSN System is connected through the Internet to
share data. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) refer to networks of spatially dispersed and dedicated sensors
that monitor and record the physical conditions of the environment and forward the collected data to a
central location. WSNs can measure environmental conditions such as temperature, sound, pollution levels,
humidity,and,wind.Applications:

 Internet of Things (IOT)  Noise Level of the surrounding

 Surveillance and Monitoring for security,  Medical applications like patient
threat detection monitoring
 Environmental temperature, humidity, and  Agriculture
air pressure  Landslide Detection
COMMUNICATIONS CRITERIA Range- Short range: The classical wired example is a serial cable. Wireless
short-range technologies are often considered as an alternative to a serial cable, supporting tens of meters of
maximum distance between two devices. Examples of short-range wireless technologies are IEEE 802.15.1
Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.7 Visible Light Communications (VLC).
Medium range: This range is the main category of IoT access technologies. In the range of tens to hundreds
of meters, many specifications and implementations are available. The maximum distance is generally less
than 1 mile between two devices Examples of medium-range wireless technologies include IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi,
IEEE 802.15.4, and 802.15.4g WPAN. Wired technologies such as IEEE 802.3 Ethernet and IEEE 1901.2
Narrowband Power Line Communications (PLC).
Long range: Distances greater than 1 mile between two devices require long-range technologies. Wireless
examples are cellular (2G, 3G, 4G) and some applications of outdoor IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi and Low-Power Wide-
Area (LPWA) technologies. LPWA communications have the ability to communicate over a large area without
consuming much power. These technologies are therefore ideal for battery-powered IoT sensors.
Frequency Bands :Radio spectrum is regulated by countries and/or organizations, such as the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). These groups define the
regulations and transmission requirements for various frequency bands For example, portions of the
spectrum are allocated to types of telecommunications such as radio, television, military, and so on. Focusing
on IoT access technologies, the frequency bands leveraged by wireless communications are split between
licensed and unlicensed bands.
Power Consumption:Powered nodes and battery-powered nodes. A powered node has a direct connection to
a power source, and communications are usually not limited by power consumption criteria. However, ease of
deployment of powered nodes is limited by the availability of a power source, which makes mobility more
complex. Battery-powered nodes bring much more flexibility to IoT devices. These nodes are often classified
by the required lifetimes of their batteries.
Topology:Among the access technologies available for connecting IoT devices, three main topology schemes
are dominant: star, mesh, and peer-to-peer. For long-range and short-range technologies, a star topology is
prevalent. Star topologies utilize a single central base station or controller to allow communications with
endpoints. For medium-range technologies, a star, peer-to-peer, or mesh topology is common.
IoT Access Technologies: LPWANS, CELLULAR, RFID, ZIGBEE, BLUETOOTH, WIFI