Internet of Things [BCS701]-2024-25 MODULE III

Module III
IoT Platforms Design Methodology: Introduction, IoT Design Methodology, Case Study on IoT
System for Weather Monitoring, loT Systems - Logical Design using Python: Introduction, Installing
Python, Python Data Types and Data structures, Control flow, Functions, Modules, Packages, File
Handling, Operations, Classes, Python Packages of Interest for IoT.

IoT Platforms Design Methodology

3.1 Introduction

IoT systems are made up of many components and levels, which makes designing them complex.
Designers often choose specific products or services, which can lead to vendor lock-in. This makes
it difficult to update or change parts of the system [Link] solve this problem, the chapter
introduces a general design method that does not depend on any specific product, service, or
programming language. This method helps reduce design time, maintenance, and improves system
flexibility and compatibility. It is based on the IoT-A reference model but can be used for various
industry needs.

3.2 IoT Design Methodology

Figure 5.1 shows the steps involved in the IoT system design methodology. Each of these steps
is explained in the sections that follow. To explain these steps, we use the example of a smart
IoT-based home automation system.

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3.2.1 Step 1: Purpose & Requirements Specification

The first step in IoT system design methodology is to define the purpose and requirements of the
system. In this step, the system purpose, behavior and requirements (such as data collection
requirements, data analysis requirements, system management requirements, data privacy and
security requirements, user interface requirements, ...) are captured.
Applying this to our example of a smart home automation system, the purpose and requirements
for the system may be described as follows:

Purpose: A home automation system that allows controlling of the lights in a home remotely using
a web application.
Behaviour: The home automation system should have auto and manual modes. In auto mode, the
system measures the light level in the room and switches on the light when it gets dark. In manual
mode, the system provides the option of manually and remotely switching on/off the light.
System Management Requirement: The system should provide remote monitoring and control
functions.
Data Analysis Requirement: The system should perform local analysis of the data.
Application Deployment Requirement: The application should be deployed locally on the
device, but should be accessible remotely.
Security Requirement: The system should have basic user authentication capability.

3.2.2 Step 2: Process Specification

The second step in the IoT design methodology is to define the process specification. In this step,
the use cases of the IoT system are formally described based on and derived from the purpose and
requirement specifications. Figure 5.2 shows the process diagram for the home automation
system. The process diagram shows the two modes of the system – auto and manual. In a process
diagram, the circle denotes the start of a process, diamond denotes a decision box and rectangle
denotes a state or attribute. When the auto mode is chosen, the system monitors the light level. If
the light level is low, the system changes the state of the light to “on”. Whereas, if the light level
is high, the system changes the state of the light to “off”. When the manual mode is chosen, the
system checks the light state set by the user. If the light state set by the user is “on”, the system
changes the state of light to “on”. Whereas, if the light state set by the user is “off”, the system
changes the state of light to “off”.

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3.2.3 Step 3: Domain Model Specification

The third step in the IoT design methodology is to define the Domain Model. The domain model
describes the main concepts, entities and objects in the domain of IoT system to be designed.
Domain model defines the attributes of the objects and relationships between objects. Domain
model provides an abstract representation of the concepts, objects and entities in the IoT domain,
independent of any specific technology or platform. With the domain model, the IoT system
designers can get an understanding of the IoT domain for which the system is to be designed.
Figure 5.3 shows the domain model for the home automation system example. The entities, objects
and concepts defined in the domain model include:
• Physical Entity:
Physical Entity is a discrete and identifiable entity in the physical environment (e.g., a room,
a light, an appliance, a car, etc.). The IoT system provides information about the Physical
Entity (using sensors) or performs actuation upon the Physical Entity (e.g., switching on a
light). In the home automation example, there are two Physical Entities involved – one is the
room in the home (of which the lighting conditions are to be monitored) and the other is the
light appliance to be controlled.
• Virtual Entity:
Virtual Entity is a representation of the Physical Entity in the digital world. For each Physical
Entity, there is a Virtual Entity in the domain model. In the home automation example, there
is one Virtual Entity for the room to be monitored, another for the appliance to be controlled.
• Device:
Device provides a medium for interactions between Physical Entities and Virtual Entities.
Devices are either attached to Physical Entities or placed near Physical Entities. Devices are
used to gather information about Physical Entities (e.g., from sensors), perform actuation upon
Physical Entities (e.g., using actuators) or used to process information (e.g., using tags). In the
home automation example, the device is a single-board mini computer which has light sensor
and actuator (relay switch) attached to it.
• Resource:
Resources are software components which can be either "on-device" or "network-resources".
On-device resources are hosted on the device and include software components that either
provide information or enable actuation upon the Physical Entity to which the device is
attached. Network resources include software components that are available in network (such
as a database). In the home automation example, the on-device resource is the operating system
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that runs on the single-board minicomputer.

• Service:
Services provide an interface for interacting with the Physical Entity. Services access the
resources hosted on the device or the network resources to obtain information about the
Physical Entity or perform actuation upon the Physical Entity.

In the home automation example, there are three services:

(1) a service that sets mode to auto or manual, or retrieves the current mode;(2) a service that
sets the light appliance state to on/off, or retrieves the current light state; (3) a controller
service that runs as a native service on the device.

• When in auto mode, the controller service monitors the light level and switches the light
on/off and updates the status in the status database.
When in manual mode, the controller service retrieves the current state from the database and
switches the light on/off.
• The process of deriving the services from the process specification and information model is
described in the later sections.

Figure 5.3: Domain model of the home automation IoT system

3.2.4 Step 4: Information Model Specification

The fourth step in the IoT design methodology is to define the Information Model. Information
Model defines the structure of all the information in the IoT system, for example, attributes of
Virtual Entities, relations, etc. Information model does not describe the specifics of how the
information is represented or stored. To define the information model, we first list the Virtual
Entities defined in the Domain Model. Information model adds more details to the Virtual
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Entities by defining their attributes and relations. In the home automation example, there are
two Virtual Entities – a Virtual Entity for the light appliance (with attribute – light state) and a
Virtual Entity for the room (with attribute – light level). Figure 5.4 shows the Information
Model for the home automation system example.

3.2.5 Step 5: Service Specifications

The fifth step in the IoT design methodology is to define the service specifications. Service
specifications define the services in the IoT system, service types, service inputs/output,
service endpoints, service schedules, service preconditions and service effects.
You learned about the Process Specification and Information Model in the previous sections.
Figure 5.5 shows an example of deriving the services from the process specification and
information model for the home automation IoT system. From the process specification and
information model, we identify the states and attributes. For each state and attribute, we
define a service. These services either change the state or attribute values or retrieve the
current values. For example, the Mode service sets mode to auto or manual or retrieves the
current mode. The State service sets the light appliance state to on/off or retrieves the current
light state. The Controller service monitors the light level in auto mode and switches the light
on/off and updates the status in the status database. In manual mode, the controller service,
retrieves the current state from the database and switches the light on/off.

Figures 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8 show specifications of the controller, mode and state services of the
home automation system. The Mode service is a RESTful web service that sets mode to auto
or manual (PUT request), or retrieves the current mode (GET request). The mode is updated
to/retrieved from the database. The State service is a RESTful web service that sets the light
appliance state to on/off (PUT request), or retrieves the current light state (GET request). The
state is updated to/retrieved from the status database. The Controller service runs as a native
service on the device. When in auto mode, the controller service monitors the light level and
switches the light on/off and updates the status in the status database. When in manual mode,
the controller service retrieves the current state from the database and switches the light
on/off.

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3.2.6 Step 6: IoT Level Specification

The sixth step in the IoT design methodology is to define the IoT level for the system. In
Chapter-1, we defined five IoT deployment levels. Figure 5.9 shows the deployment level of the
home automation IoT system, which is level-1.

3.2.7 Step 7: Functional View Specification

The seventh step in the IoT design methodology is to define the Functional View. The Functional
View (FV) defines the functions of the IoT systems grouped into various Functional Groups
(FGs). Each Functional Group either provides functionalities for interacting with instances of

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concepts defined in the Domain Model or provides information related to these concepts.
The Functional Groups (FG) included in a Functional View include:
• Device: The device FG contains devices for monitoring and control. In the home automation
example, the device FG includes a single board mini-computer, a light.

Communication: The communication FG handles the communication for the IoT system. The
communication FG includes the communication protocols that form the backbone of IoT
systems and enable network connectivity. You learned about various link, network, transport
and application layer protocols in Chapter-1. The communication FG also includes the
communication APIs (such as REST and WebSocket) that are used by the services and
applications to exchange data over the network. In the home automation example the
communication protocols include – 802.11 (link layer), IPv4/IPv6 (network layer), TCP
(transport layer), and HTTP (application layer). The communication API used in the home
automation examples is a REST-based API.
Services: The service FG includes various services involved in the IoT system such as services
for device monitoring, device control services, data publishing services and services for device
[Link] home automation example, there are two REST service (mode and state service)
and one native service (controller service).
Management: The management FG includes all functionalities that are needed to configure
and manage the IoT system.
Security: The security FG includes security mechanisms for the IoT system such as
authentication, authorization, data security, etc.
Application: The application FG includes applications that provide an interface to the users
to control and monitor various aspects of the IoT system. Applications also allow users to
view the system status and the processed data.

Figure 5.10 shows an example of mapping deployment level to functional groups for home
automation IoT system device maps to the Device FG (sensors, actuators devices, computing
devices) and the Management FG (device management). Resources map to the Device FG (on-
device resource) and Communication FG (communication APIs and protocols). Controller service
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maps to the Services FG (native service). Web Services map to Services FG. Database maps to the
Management FG (database management) and Security FG (database security). Application maps
to the Application FG (web application, application and database servers), Management FG (app
management) and Security FG (app security).

3.2.8 Step 8: Operational View Specification

The eighth step in the IoT design methodology is to define the Operational View
Specifications.
In this step, various options pertaining to the IoT system deployment and operation are
defined, such as service hosting options, storage options, device options, application hosting
options, etc.
Figure 5.11 shows an example of mapping functional groups to operational view
specifications for home automation IoT system.

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Operational View specifications for the home automation example are as follows:
Devices: Computing device (Raspberry Pi), light dependent resistor (sensor), relay switch
(actuator).
Communication APIs: REST APIs
Communication Protocols:
o Link Layer – 802.11
o Network Layer – IPv4/IPv6
o Transport – TCP
o Application – HTTP
Services:
1. Controller Service – Hosted on device, implemented in Python and run as a native
service.
2. Mode service – REST-ful web service, hosted on device, implemented in Python.
3. State service – REST-ful web service, hosted on device, implemented with Django-
REST Framework.
Application:
• Web Application – Django Web Application,
• Application Server – Django App Server,
• Database Server – MySQL
Security:
• Authentication: Web App, Database
• Authorization: Web App, Database
Management:
• Application Management – Django App Management
• Database Management – MySQL DB Management
• Device Management – Raspberry Pi device Management

3.2.9 Step 9: Device & Component Integration

The ninth step in the IoT design methodology is the integration of the devices and
components. Figure 5.12 shows a schematic diagram of the home automation IoT
system. The devices and components used in this example are Raspberry Pi
minicomputer, LDR sensor and relay switch actuator. A detailed description of
Raspberry Pi board and how to interface sensors and actuators with the board is provided
in later chapters.

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3.2.10 Step 10: Application Development

The final step in the IoT design methodology is to develop the IoT application. Figure
5.13 shows a screenshot of the home automation web application. The application has
controls for the mode (auto on or auto off) and the light (on or off). In the auto mode, the
IoT system controls the light appliance automatically based on the lighting conditions in
the room. When auto mode is enabled the light control in the application is disabled and
it reflects the current state of the light. When the auto mode is disabled, the light control
is enabled and it is used for manually controlling the light.

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3.3 Case Study on IoT System for Weather Monitoring

In this section we present a case study on design of an IoT system for weather
monitoring using the IoT design methodology. The purpose of the weather monitoring system
is to collect data on environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure, humidity and
[Link] an area using multiple end nodes. The end nodes send the data to the cloud where the
data is aggregated and analysed.
Figure 5.14 shows the process specification for the weather monitoring system. The
process specification shows that the sensors are read after fixed intervals and the sensor
measurements are stored.

Figure 5.15 shows the domain model for the weather monitoring system. In this
domain model the physical entity is the environment which is being monitored. There
is a virtual entity for the environment. Devices include temperature sensor, pressure
sensor, humidity sensor, light sensor and single-board minicomputer. Resources are
software components which can be either on-device or network-resources. Services
include the controller service that monitors the temperature, pressure, humidity and
light and sends the readings to the cloud.
Figure 5.16 shows the information model for the weather monitoring system. In this
example, there is one virtual entity for the environment being sensed. The virtual entity
has attributes – temperature, pressure, humidity and light.
Figure 5.17 shows an example of deriving the services from the process specification
and information model for the weather monitoring system.

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Figure 5.18 shows the specification of the controller service for the weather monitoring
system. The controller service runs as a native service on the device and monitors
temperature, pressure, humidity and light once every 15 seconds. The controller service
calls the REST service to store these measurements in the cloud. In Chapter-8 we
describe a Platform-as-a-Service called Xively that can be used for creating solutions
for Internet of Things.

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Figure 5.19 shows the deployment design for the system. The system consists of
multiple nodes placed in different locations for monitoring temperature, humidity and
pressure in an area. The end nodes are equipped with various sensors (such as
temperature, pressure, humidity and light). The end nodes send the data to the cloud
and the data is stored in a cloud database. The analysis of data is done in the cloud to
aggregate the data and make predictions. A cloud-based application is used for
visualizing the data. The centralized controller can send control commands to the end
nodes, for example, to configure the monitoring interval on the end nodes.

Figure 5.20 shows an example of mapping deployment level to functional groups for

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the weather monitoring system.

Figure 5.21 shows an example of mapping functional groups to operational view

specifications for the weather monitoring system.

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Figure 5.22 shows a schematic diagram of the weather monitoring system. The devices and
components used in this example are Raspberry Pi minicomputer, temperature sensor,
humidity sensor, pressure sensor and LDR sensor.

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loT Systems - Logical Design using Python

3.4: Introduction

Python is a general-purpose high-level programming language. Python 2.0 was released in

the year 2000 and Python 3.0 was released in the year 2008. The 3.0 version is not backward
compatible with earlier releases. The most recent release of Python is version 3.3. Currently,
there is limited library support for the 3.x versions with operating systems such as Linux and
Mac still using Python 2.x as default language. The exercises and examples in this book have
been developed with Python version 2.7.

The main characteristics of Python are:

Multi-paradigm programming language

Python supports more than one programming paradigm including object-oriented
programming and structured programming.

Interpreted Language
Python is an interpreted language and does not require an explicit compilation step. The
Python interpreter executes the program source code directly, statement by statement, as a
processor or scripting engine does.

Interactive Language
Python provides an interactive mode in which the user can submit commands at the Python
prompt and interact with the interpreter directly.

The key benefits of Python are:

Easy-to-learn, read and maintain

Python is a minimalistic language with relatively few keywords, uses English keywords and
has fewer syntactical constructions as compared to other languages. Reading Python
programs is easy with pseudo-code like constructs. Python is easy to learn yet an extremely
powerful language for a wide range of applications. Due to its simplicity, programs written
in Python are generally easy to maintain.

Object and Procedure Oriented

Python supports both procedure-oriented programming and object-oriented programming.
Procedure oriented paradigm allows programs to be written around procedures or functions
that allow reuse of code. Procedure oriented paradigm allows programs to be written around
objects that include both data and functionality.

Extendable
Python is an extendable language and allows integration of low-level modules written in
languages such as C/C++. This is useful when you want to speed up a critical portion of a
program.

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Scalable
Due to the minimalistic nature of Python, it provides a manageable structure for large
programs.

Portable
Since Python is an interpreted language, programmers do not have to worry about
compilation, linking and loading of programs. Python programs can be directly executed from
source code and copied from one machine to another without worrying about portability. The
Python interpreter converts the source code to an intermediate form called byte codes and
then translates this into the native language of your specific system and then runs it.

Broad Library Support

Python has a broad library support and works on various platforms such as Windows, Linux,
Mac, etc. There are a large number of Python packages available for various applications
such as machine learning, image processing, network programming, cryptography, etc.

3.5 Installing Python

Python is a highly portable language that works on various platforms such as Windows,
Linux, Mac, etc. This section describes the Python installation steps for Windows and Linux:

Windows
Python binaries for Windows can be downloaded from [Link]
For the examples and exercises in this book, you would require Python 2.7 which can be
directly downloaded from:
[Link]

Once the Python binary is installed you can run the Python shell at the command prompt using:

> python
Linux
Box 6.1 provides the commands for installing Python on Ubuntu.

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3.6 Python Data Types & Data Structures

3.6.1 Numbers
Number data type is used to store numeric values. Numbers are immutable data types,
therefore changing the value of a number data type results in a newly allocated object. Box
6.2 shows some examples of working with numbers.

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3.5.2 Strings
A string is simply a list of characters in order. There are no limits to the number of characters
you can have in a string. A string which has zero characters is called an empty string. Box
6.3 shows some examples of working with strings.

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3.5.3 Lists
A list is a compound data type used to group together other values.
• List items need not all be of the same type.
• A list contains items separated by commas and enclosed within square brackets [].

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3.5.4 Tuples

A tuple is a sequence data type that is similar to the list. A tuple consists of a number of values
separated by commas and enclosed within parentheses. Unlike lists, the elements of tuples
cannot be changed, so tuples can be thought of as read-only lists. Box 6.5 shows examples of
working with tuples.

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3.5.5 Dictionaries

A dictionary is a mapping data type or a kind of hash table that maps keys to values. Keys
in a dictionary can be of any data type, though numbers and strings are commonly used for
keys. Values in a dictionary can be any data type or object.
Box 6.6 shows examples on working with dictionaries.

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Nested Dictionaries

Checking for Key Existence

3.5.6 Type Conversions

Box 6.7 shows examples of type conversions.

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3.6 Control Flow

3.6.1 if Statement

The if statement in Python is similar to the if statement in other languages.

Box 6.8 shows examples.

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3.6.2 for
The for statement in Python iterates over items of any sequence (list, string, etc.) in the order
in which they appear in the sequence. This behaviour differs from the for statement in
languages such as C, where initialization, incrementing, and stopping criteria are provided.

Box 6.9: for statement examples

Looping over characters in a string:

Looping over items in a list:

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3.6.3 while
The while statement in Python executes the statements within the while loop as long as the
condition is true.
Box 6.10 shows a while statement example.

3.6.4 range
The range statement in Python generates a list of numbers in arithmetic progression.
Examples are shown in Box 6.11.

3.6.5 break/continue
The break and continue statements in Python are similar to statements in C.
• break exits the for/while loop.
• continue skips the rest of the code inside the loop for the current iteration and jumps to
the next iteration.
Box 6.12 shows examples.

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Continue statement example

Output

3.6.6 pass

The pass statement in Python is a null operation.

It is used when a statement is syntactically required but no command/code should run.
Box 6.13 shows an example.

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Output

3.7 Functions
A function is a block of code that:
• Takes information in (parameters),
• Performs some computation,
• Returns new information.

A function in Python begins with the def keyword, followed by:

• Function name,
• Parameters (inside parentheses),
• A colon: to start the code block,
• An optional string or docstring.
Box 6.14: Example of a function in Python

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Default Arguments

Functions in Python can have default parameter values. If such a function is called with
missing parameters, the default values are used.

Box 6.15: Example of function with default arguments

Passing by Reference in Functions

In Python, all parameters are passed by reference. This means:

• If you modify a mutable object (like a list) inside a function,
• The change is reflected in the caller's scope.

Box 6.16: Example of Passing by Reference

Note: The function displayFruits modifies the original fruits list by adding 'mango', and this change
persists after the function call—demonstrating Python’s pass-by-reference behavior for
mutable data types like lists.

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Functions can also be called using keyword arguments that identify the arguments by the
parameter name when the function is called.

Box 6.17 shows examples of keyword arguments.

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Python functions can have variable length arguments. These variable length arguments
are passed as a tuple to the function with an argument prefixed with asterix (*) as shown in

Box 6.18: Example of variable length arguments

3.8 Modules

Python allows organizing of the program code into different modules which improves the
code readability and management. A module is a Python file that defines some functionality
in the form of functions or classes. Modules can be imported using the import keyword.
Modules to be imported must be present in the search path. Box 6.19 shows the example of a
student module that contains two functions and Box 6.20 shows an example of importing the
student module and using it.

Box 6.19: Module student

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Box 6.20: Using module student python CopyEdit

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The import keyword followed by the module name imports all the functions in the
module. If you want to use only a specific function it is recommended to import only that
function using the keyword from as shown in the example in Box 6.21.

Box 6.21: Importing a specific function from a module

Python comes with a number of standard modules such as system related modules
(sys), OS related module (os), mathematical modules (math, fractions, etc.), Internet related
modules (email, json. etc), etc. The complete list of standard modules is available in the
Python documentation [87]. Box 6.22 shows an example of listing all names defined in a
module using the built-in dir function.

Box 6.22: Listing all names defined in a module

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3.9 Packages
Python package is hierarchical file structure that consists of modules and subpackages.
Packages allow better organization of modules related to a single application environment.
For example, Box 6.23 shows the listing of the skimage package that provides image
processing algorithms. The package is organized into a root directory (skimage) with sub-
directories (color, draw, etc) which are sub-packages within the skimage package. Each
directory contains a special file named __init__.py which tells Python to treat directories as
packages. This file can either be an empty file or contain some initialization code for the
package.

Box 6.23: skimage package listing

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3.10 File Handling

Python allows reading and writing to files using the file object. The open(filename, mode)
function is used to get a file object. The mode can be read (r), write (w), append (a), read and
write (r+ or w+), read-binary (rb), write-binary (wb), etc. Box 6.24 shows an example of
reading an entire file with read function. After the file contents have been read the close
function is called which closes the file object.

Box 6.24: Example of reading an entire file

Box 6.25: Example of reading line by line

Box 6.26: Example of reading lines in a loop

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Box 6.27: Example of reading a certain number of bytes

Box 6.28: Example of getting the current position of read

Box 6.29: Example of seeking to a certain position python CopyEdit

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Box 6.30: Example of writing to a file

3.11 Date/Time Operations

Python provides several functions for date and time access and conversions. The datetime
module allows manipulating date and time in several ways. Box 6.31 shows examples of
manipulating with date.

Box 6.31: Examples of manipulating with date

The time module in Python provides various time-related functions. Box 6.32 shows
examples of manipulating with time.

Box 6.32: Examples of manipulating with time

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3.12 Classes

Python is an Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) language. Python provides all the

standard features of Object-Oriented Programming such as:

1. Classes
2. Class variables
3. Class methods
4. Inheritance
5. Function overloading
6. Operator overloading

Let us briefly look at these OOP concepts:

Class
A class is simply a representation of a type of object and user-defined prototype for
an object composed of three things:

➢ A name
➢ Attributes
➢ Operations/methods
Instance/Object
An object is an instance of the data structure defined by a class.
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Inheritance
Inheritance is the process of forming a new class from an existing class or base class.
Function Overloading
Function overloading is a form of polymorphism that allows a function to have different
meanings, depending on its context.
Operator Overloading
Operator overloading is a form of polymorphism that allows assignment of more than one
function to a particular operator.
Function Overriding
Function overriding allows a child class to provide a specific implementation of a function
already provided by the base [Link] child class implementation of the overridden function
has the same name, parameters, and return type as the function in the base class.
example (Box 6.33) which shows: studentCount as a class variable shared across all instances
name, id, and grades as instance variables unique to each object The use of __init__() as the
constructor method in Python.
The class constructor initialize a new instance when it is created. The function_del_() is the
class destructor.

Example

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Box 6.34: Examples of class inheritance, in the example

Shape is the base class.

Circle is the derived (child) class, inheriting from Shape.
super().__init__() is used to call the base class constructor.
_label is a hidden attribute due to the double underscore (__), which triggers name
mangling.
• Internally, __label in Circle becomes _Circle__label.

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3.13 Python Packages of Interest for IoT

3.13.1 JSON
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is an easy to read and write data-interchange
format. JSON is used as an alternative to XML and is easy for machines to parse and
generate. JSON is built on two structures – a collection of name-value pairs (e.g. a
Python dictionary) and ordered lists of values (e.g., a Python list).
JSON format is often used for serializing and transmitting structured
data over a network connection, for example, transmitting data between a server and
web application. Box 6.35 shows an example of a Twitter tweet object encoded as
JSON.

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Exchange of information encoded as JSON involves encoding and decoding steps. The
Python JSON package provides functions for encoding and decoding JSON. Box 6.36 shows
an example of JSON encoding and decoding.

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3.13.2 XML
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a data format for structured document interchange.
Box 6.37 shows an example of an XML file. In this section you will learn how to parse, read
and write XML with Python. The Python minidom library provides a minimal implementation
of the Document Object Model interface and has an API similar to that in other languages.
Box 6.38 shows a Python program for parsing an XML file. Box 6.39 shows a Python
program for creating an XML file.

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Box 6.38: Parsing an XML file in Python

Box 6.39: Creating an XML File with Python

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3.13.3 HTTPLib & URLLib

HTTPLib2 and URLLib2 are Python libraries used in network/internet programming.
HTTPLib2 is an HTTP client library and URLLib2 is a library for fetching URLs.
Box 6.40 shows an example of an HTTP GET request using the HTTPLib. The variable

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resp contains the response headers and content contains the content retrieved from the URL.

Box 6.41 shows an HTTP request example using URLLib2. A request object is created by
calling [Link] with the URL to fetch as input parameter. Then [Link] is
called with the request object which returns the response object for the requested URL. The
response object is read by calling read function.

Box 6.42 shows an example of an HTTP POST request. The data in the POST body is
encoded using the urlencode function from urllib.

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Box 6.43 shows an example of sending data to a URL using URLLib2 (e.g., an HTML
form submission). This example is similar to the HTTP POST example in Box 6.42 and uses
the URLLib2 request object instead of HTTPLib2.

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3.13.4 SMTPLib

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a protocol which handles sending email and routing
e-mail between mail servers. The Python smtplib module provides an SMTP client session
object that can be used to send email.
Box 6.44 shows a Python example of sending email from a Gmail account. The string
message contains the email message to be sent. To send email from a Gmail account the
Gmail SMTP server is specified in the server string.
To send an email, first a connection is established with the SMTP server by calling smtplib.
SMTP with the SMTP server name and port. The user name and password provided are then
used to login into the server. The email is then sent by calling server. send mail function with
the from address, to address list and message as input parameters.

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Module 3 Question Bank

1. What is the difference between a physical and virtual entity?

2. What is an IoT device?
3. What is the purpose of information model?
4. What are the various service types?
5. What is the need for a controller service?
6. What is the difference between procedure-oriented programming and object-oriented
programming?
7. What is an interpreted language?
8. Describe a use case of Python dictionary?
9. What is a keyword argument in Python?
10. What are variable length arguments?
11. What is the difference between a Python module and a package?
12. How is function overriding implemented in Python?

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