The Internet of Things (IoT) will completely permeate our living and working environments over the next few years and bring about major upheavals through disruptive innovations. The objects, devices and machines around us will become permanently communicating intelligent data objects as a result of IoT-related networking. The "smartification" resulting from the permanent exchange of data is changing our entire lives. The "Industrial Internet of Things" or "Industry 4.0" will even revolutionize value creation and business processes and give rise to completely new providers, products and services. The resulting flood of data from countless networked objects will be converted into information with the help of big data processes yet to be developed, from which events and behaviors can be predicted with the greatest possible precision.

Before this can happen, however, all those involved must work together to master the many tasks and challenges involved in the end-to-end networking of all objects that can be networked in the Internet of Things. First of all, this raises many questions, such as: What technical requirements must the "things" in the Internet of Things fulfill? How can IoT networking be achieved and which functions or components are required for this? What does the interaction of all components look like? The intensive seminar "Internet of Things" provides answers and examples to the following eight questions:

1. What do typical IoT architectures and reference solutions look like? In the future, every physical object will have a virtual representation. This creates a multi-layered architecture that can be transferred to a wide range of applications.

2. Which protocols, data formats and logical interfaces (APIs) are required? This complex of issues is extremely important in practice. Wrong decisions can be costly after a while.

3. Which physical interfaces and sensors do you need to deal with? IoT applications without sensors are practically unthinkable. However, there are numerous details to consider here too.

4. Which wireless technologies are relevant for the IoT? There are not only UMTS, LTE and WLAN to network an IoT application. New Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks such as LoRa and NB-IoT will also play a role in the future.

5. What do example applications look like and what are their practical benefits? Not everything that is technically feasible is also of value to the user. The so-called value proposition of an IoT application should always be carefully examined.

6. How does "big data" work and what potential uses are conceivable? "Data is the oil of the 21st century". This hypothesis is suitable as a value-creating leitmotif for IoT-based products and business models. However, it is not easy to extract meaningful information from data.

7. How can the necessary security be created? IoT information security is a particular challenge because, on the one hand, very large networked systems are created with many opportunities for attack and, on the other hand, resource-poor systems are used that are difficult to protect.

8. Are there actually any internationally recognized standards for the IoT? There are now more standards than possible applications. The challenge is to use the "right standards" for your own projects.

The practical aspect

In very simplified terms, an industrial IoT application consists of three special function blocks, which are discussed in detail in the seminar.

© SSV Software Systems

An essential component of the seminar is the practical aspect: each seminar participant is provided with an IoT developer kit with LAN-based and LoRaWAN internet connection, which is put into operation on site in order to carry out their own initial experiments under supervision. The three function blocks shown in the box above can be simulated with a high degree of practical relevance using the construction kit.

In practice, the field data front end on the left-hand side of the illustration is connected to at least one sensor. In many applications, there is also an actuator connection. Data backend, sensors and actuators together form a physical object - the so-called "Thing" in the Internet of Things. In the seminar, the "Thing" is simulated by an Arduino Uno Maker module with an IP interface to the Internet. Sensors are connected to the Arduino, for which simple code examples are created and examined via PC under expert guidance.

The IoT backend can be found at the functional center of each application. This functional unit is typically formed by an IoT or cloud service platform on the internet. A virtual representation (digital object or digital twin) is created here for the data points of the field data front end or thing, into which, for example, design and production data of the represented physical object are also integrated. If a data value of the thing changes, the field data front end must immediately send a message with the new value to the virtual representation and vice versa. The seminar participants use access to a real IoT service platform on the internet as a backend. Data projects with data points are created and managed on this platform, which serve as a virtual data image for the Arduino-based Thing.

In most Internet of Things applications, there is also an HMI front end, for example a smartphone app, to visualize the data of the virtual representation or to transmit setpoint specifications to the IoT backend. These in turn can lead to status changes in the actuators connected to the field data backend. In practice, an IoT backend also maintains various connections to other IT systems and cloud service platforms. For an IoT fitness application, these can be connections to the servers of social networks (Twitter, Facebook). ERP and MES connections are conceivable and useful in the Industry 4.0 environment. As an HMI front end, the IoT developer kit offers seminar participants the prerequisites for access via a PC web browser on the one hand and an Android app on the other, which can be installed on their own smartphone on site, but can also be run on the PC via a simulator.

Different application programming interfaces (APIs) are used between the backend and frontend in every IoT application. Using the IoT developer kit, seminar participants will learn about the REST and MQTT APIs of an SSV RTDC server as well as the use of a LoRa LPWA wireless interface. The coupling of two IoT or cloud service platforms is presented in the seminar using the Plot.ly API. This allows the data from the sensors connected to the Arduino module to be recorded over a longer period of time and visualized in sophisticated diagrams.

The speaker

Klaus-Dieter Walter has published four specialist books on the topics of 'Embedded Linux', 'Embedded Internet' and 'ARM-based microcontrollers'.

© Uwe Niklas

The speaker, Klaus-Dieter Walter, is CEO of SSV Software Systems in Hanover and is known for his numerous presentations at international events, seminars, workshops and articles in specialist journals. Walter actively contributed to the founding of the M2M Alliance e.V. in Aachen at the beginning of 2007 and was a member of the board for many years. In addition to his role as CEO, Walter heads a working group of the VHPready industry forum to create a standard for communication in virtual power plants and has been actively involved in the M2M Initiative Deutschland of the German government's National IT Summit since 2012.

Prerequisites for the seminar

• Basic understanding of TCP/IP-based networking, e.g. in Ethernet LANs
• Basic knowledge of simple wireless networks, e.g. WLANs
• Basic understanding of the building blocks and contexts when using web technology, e.g. HTML, HTTP, JavaScript, PHP scripts, etc.
• Basic security knowledge of encryption and authentication

... after the seminar

The intensive seminar "Internet of Things (IoT)" is geared towards the challenge that, despite the considerable IoT hype, there is simply a lack of reliable orientation aids for developing your own innovative applications. In the industrial environment - keyword Industry 4.0 - the situation is not much different: There are no tried-and-tested application examples here either. The seminar not only provides developers from the field of embedded systems and I&C and automation technology with a technological overview. The developer kit also enables an early proof of concept for the front-end/back-end interaction in your own IoT projects after the end of the seminar. Seminar registrations are now possible via the seminar website.