TCP/IP Protocol Stack for IoT

The main IoT Protocols -

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Physical/Data Link Layer

1. 6LoWPAN (IEEE 802.15.4):
a. IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks.
b. A communication protocol designed to enable small, low-power devices
to connect over wireless networks.
c. 6LoWPAN can interact with IEEE 802.15.4 devices on an IP Network.
d. IEEE 802.15.4 provides link authentication and encryption.
e. Frequency range: 2.4 GHz band.
f. Outdoor range: ~200 m (maximum)
g. Data rate: 200kbps (maximum)
h. Maximum number of nodes: ~100
i. Used for home-automation,smart agricultural and industrial monitoring.
2. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE):
a. Bluetooth is a short-range wireless LAN technology for connecting small
devices and gadgets together, for data transfer among themselves for
personal use.
b. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is similar to Bluetooth classic,
i. It is a short-range wireless LAN communication technology
standardized by IEEE 802.15.
c. BLE is used for applications that
i. do not need to exchange large amounts of data
ii. can run on battery power for years at a cheaper cost.
 d. BLE uses low power while maintaining the same communication range as
in Bluetooth classic.
e. Typical uses are in healthcare, fitness, security and home automation
appliances that save power.
3. RFID/NFC: Radio frequency identification/Near Field Communication
a. Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and Near Field Communication
(NFC) are both Radio Communication technologies that are used in many
IoT applications.
b. RFID
i. Can transmit radio waves over distances of up to 100 meters.
ii. Uses multiple frequency bands.
iii. RFID systems are capable of one-way communication only ,
1. Tag-to-Reader data transfer, but not vice versa.
iv. RFID tags can contain simple ID data only,
v. RFID devices are passive, they can't access information.
vi. Typical RFID applications include access control, supply chain
management, asset tracking, animal tracking, etc. (Fastag)
c. NFC
i. Limited to a range of up to 20 centimeters only.
ii. Uses a high frequency of 13.56 MHz.
iii. NFC systems are capable of two-way communication, where two
devices can take turns acting as a reader and a tag.
iv. NFC tags can store more information than RFID tags, and support
different data types.
v. NFC-enabled devices have typical applications, such as
1. identity verification
2. contactless payments (POS Payments, Metro Smart Card)
3. powering implantable devices. (pacemaker activation)
4. WiFi: Wireless Fidelity
a. Wi-Fi works by transmitting data packets through an unlicensed wireless
spectrum, usually at 2.4GHz or 5GHz (ISM bands).
b. An IoT device connects to a Wi-Fi router or gateway, to
1. connect directly to the internet or
2. send data to another router.
c. Standardized by IEEE 802.11 (a/b/g/n)
 d. Other alternatives
i. WiFi Low Power - The low power alternative to WiFi
ii. Light Fidelity (LiFi) - Visible light Communication (VLC)
iii. Cellular Networks - Long Range Radio Communication
iv. Z-Wave - Lower alternative to WiFi for home automation
v. X-10 - classical Home automation alternative
vi. SigFox - cellular like, ultra narrow power communication

Network Layer

5. RPL - Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks

a. RPL stands for Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks for
heterogeneous traffic networks, that are prone to packet losses. Define the
Internet of Things (IoT) and explain its key characteristics. It is a Distance
Vector Routing Protocol that creates a tree-like routing topology called the
Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG), rooted towards
one or more nodes called the root node or sink node.
b. All the traffic in this DODAG is routed through the root.
c. RPL is optimized for multi-hop and many-to-one communication.
d. It supports networks with limitations, potential losses, or limited resources.
6. MPL - Multicast Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks
a. Multicast Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (MPL),
i. provides IPv6 multicast forwarding in constrained networks.
ii. MPL avoids any multicast forwarding topology - like trees.
iii. disseminates messages to all MPL Forwarders in an MPL Domain.
7. AODV - Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector
a. Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) is a routing protocol for
mobile and wireless ad hoc networks (MANETs), serving IoT.
b. It is a loop-free adaptive routing protocol for ad-hoc networks.
c. It is designed to be self-starting in an environment of mobile nodes
i. Adapting to a variety of network behaviors such as node mobility, link
failures and packet losses.
8. DSR - Dynamic Source Routing
a. Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) is a routing protocol for computer networks
that can be used in multi-hop wireless ad hoc networks of mobile nodes.
b. DSR can also be used in wireless mesh networks, supporting extensive IoT
device networking.
c. It is a reactive/on-demand routing protocol.
d. On-demand routing -
i. the route is discovered only when it is required/needed.
 DSR Route Discovery
9. OLSR - Optimized Link-State Routing
a. The Optimized Link-State Routing (OLSR) protocol is an IP routing
protocol that's designed for mobile ad hoc networks.
b. OLSR uses the Multipoint Relay (MPR) technique to reduce network traffic
overhead.
i. By choosing a set of its neighbor nodes to be MPRs.
c. OLSR has been used to study the performance of VoIP applications in
Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs), which are important for real-time
applications like
i. voice communication
ii. Driver less vehicles
iii. emergency applications
iv. wireless sensor networks
10. IPSec - Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)
a. IPSec is a set of communication rules or protocols for setting up secure
connections over a network.
b. Internet Protocol (IP) is the common standard that determines how data
travels over the internet.
c. IPSec adds encryption and authentication to make the protocol more
secure.
d. It's often used in virtual private networks (VPNs) to create encrypted tunnels
between devices and transmit data securely over unsecured networks.
e. IPSec is also helpful in IoT connectivity, helping devices securely
communicate with each other and with servers.

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IPv6

IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP), designed to
replace IPv4. It provides a much larger addressing space and solves the problem of IPv4 address
exhaustion.
• IPv4 limitation: IPv4 uses a 32-bit address → ~4.3 billion unique addresses.
• With billions of devices (IoT, smartphones, laptops, etc.), IPv4 is not enough.
• IPv6 uses a 128-bit address → ~3.4 × 10³⁸ unique addresses (virtually unlimited).
Written in hexadecimal, separated by colons (:).
[Link]
Challenges with IPv6-

• Slow adoption (many networks still on IPv4).

• Compatibility issues with old devices/software.
• Requires dual-stack systems (IPv4 + IPv6) during transition.

Transport Layer
11. TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
a. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a standard communication
protocol that allows devices and applications to exchange messages over
a network.
b. It's instrumental in ensuring reliable data delivery between applications
over the IoT network.
c. TCP is designed to send packets across the unreliable internet and ensure
that data and messages are delivered successfully, with reliable
communication.
d. This is a Connection Oriented Protocol.
 TCP: Connection establishment before communication.
12. UDP - User Datagram Protocol
a. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a lightweight protocol based on a
principle of connectionless communication.
b. UDP is based on the Internet Protocol (IP).
c. UDP/IP is a protocol stack allowing an optimization of power consumption
i. E.g. cases requiring longer device battery duration.
ii. Implements LPWAN in IoT networks.

13. ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol

a. ICMP is mostly utilized on network equipment like routers and computing
devices for error handling at the network level.
b. ICMP is utilized to report and troubleshoot network errors.
i. Applications - Network path and device discovery.
 c. Use case: Traceroute utility is used to know the route between two
devices connected over the internet.
d. Use case: Ping is a simple echo-request and echo-reply messaging
application, used to measure the time taken by data to reach a particular
destination and return back to the source.
Application Layer
14. HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol
a. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a protocol that can be used for
data communication in the Internet of Things (IoT) network.
b. Information is exchanged between clients and servers in the form of
hypertext documents. Hypertext is structured text that uses logical links, or
hyperlinks, between nodes containing the text.
c. It is a client-server protocol allowing clients to request data from a server.
d. A client can request a web page from a server in the cloud, which then
responds with the requested page.
e. HTTP also allows clients to post data to a server, which other clients can
also request.
f. HTTP can be used for IoT device communication and control,
i. e.g. ESP 8266 protocol that uses NodeMCU over HTTP network for
IoT communication.

15. MQTT - Message Queuing Telemetry Transport

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a. MQTT is a simple, lightweight messaging protocol used to establish
communication between multiple IoT devices.
b. It is a TCP-based protocol relying on the publish-subscribe model.
c. This communication protocol is suitable for transmitting data between
resource-constrained devices having low bandwidth and low power
requirements.
d. Publish-Subscribe Model
i. This model involves multiple clients interacting with each other,
without having any direct connection established between them.
ii. All clients communicate with other clients only via a third party
known as a Broker.
e. MQTT Client and Broker
i. Clients publish messages on different topics to the Broker.
ii. The Broker is the central server that receives these messages and
filters them based on their topics.
iii. It then sends these messages to respective clients that have
subscribed to those different topics.

16. AMQP - Advanced Message Queuing Protocol

a. This open-source published standard enables interoperable, encrypted
messaging between applications and organizations.
 b. It serves as a protocol for client/server messaging and IoT device
management.
c. AMQP is portable, secure, multichannel, and efficient.
d. Main features: message orientation, queuing, routing, reliability, and
security.
e. AMQP is mostly used in business messaging.

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17. XMPP - Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol

a. XMPP is the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol

b. This is a protocol for streaming XML format data over a network in order
to exchange messages and present information in near real-time.
c. This is a set of open technologies for
i. instant messaging
 ii. presence
iii. multi-party chat
iv. voice and video calls
v. collaboration
vi. lightweight middleware
vii. content syndication, and
viii. generalized routing of XML data.
d. The basic requirements of any Instant Messenger which are fulfilled by
XMPP (e.g. WhatsApp like messengers):
i. Send and receive messages with other users.
ii. Check and share presence status
iii. Manage subscriptions to and from other users.
iv. Manage contact list
v. Block communications to specific users.

18. CoAP - Constrained Application Protocol

a. The CoAP Protocol, short for Constrained Application Protocol, is a
dedicated internet application protocol for constrained devices.
b. It is designed to allow small, low-power devices to join the Internet of Things
(IoT).
c. The protocol allows these devices to communicate with the wider Internet
using minimal resources.

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19. DDS - Data Distribution Service
a. It is a publish-subscribe based IoT protocol enabling network
interoperability for
i. mobile devices
 ii. connected machines
iii. enterprise systems, etc.
b. It is a protocol for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) allowing for peer-
to-peer communication between devices and networks.
c. It is a middleware standard that is ideal for production quality data
communication.
d. It is currently widely used in the fields of aerospace and defense,
autonomous vehicles, as well as industrial robotics, medical devices, and
power generation.

20. NTP - Network Time Protocol

a. The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is an internet protocol that is used to
synchronize the device clocks across the global world.
b. It is widely used to synchronize devices in the Industrial Internet of Things
(IIoT).
c. One of the oldest protocols in the TCP/IP suite, operational since 1985.
d. It's inexpensive , scalable and fault-tolerant.

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21. Zigbee - Network Time Protocol

a. ZigBee is an open, global, packet-based protocol designed to provide an easy-to-use

architecture for secure, reliable, low power wireless networks. Flow or process control
equipment can be placed anywhere and still communicate with the rest of the system. It
can also be moved, since the network doesn’t care about the physical location of a sensor,
pump or valve.
22. LoRaWAN - Low Range Wide Area Network
a. LoRaWAN is a newly developed Long-Range Wide-Area Network Wireless technology
designed for applications with
i. power saving, low cost, mobility, security, and bi-directional communication
requirements.
ii. LoRaWAN defines the communication protocol and system architecture for the
network in the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer protocol.
iii. It is ideal for smart cities and industrial applications.
b. Advantages of LoRaWAN include
i. Low-cost, mobile, and secure bi-directional communication.
ii. Low power consumption and supports large networks with millions of nodes.
iii. Battery life for the attached node is normally very long.
iv. It is easy to deploy due to its simple architec- ture
c. Disadvantages of LoRaWAN include
i. Not ideal for using in real time applications
ii. Low data rate network,
1. high speed data transmission not supported.
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