The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is a upcoming field which aims to provided any time, any place, anywhere connectivity by seamlessly integrating devices with solutions. In this presentation we have shared some of the real time product design challenges with IoT. The presentation was done in the Electronics Rocks conference held at NIMHANS convention center, Bengaluru, India

1. Design challenges in IoT
Electronics Rocks –2014
October 10-11, NIMHANS, Bengaluru

2. Topics
 Brief introduction
 IoT layering
 Use cases of IoT
 Design challenges
 Conclusion

3. Brief Introduction

4. About us
 Emertxe (http://www.emertxe.com) is India’s one of the top IT finishing
schools & self learning kits provider. Our primary focus is on Embedded
with diversification focus on IT applications.
 Our product division works on IoT based solutions with major focus in
Embedded aspect by focusing on the following areas:
• Hardware design
• Product engineering, integration and solutions
• Linux porting and turning
• Embedded application development
 As an organization we have two fold vision:
• Contribute to education by minimizing industry-academia gap
• Build meaningful solutions to solve common problems
• That’s what we say “Make life easier”

5. Its big and real
IoT: Any TIME, Any THING, Any PLACE connection

6. Its your things
Your Things = Embedded Technologies, Your Data = Data Science
*Source: Microsoft IoT whitepaper

7. IoT layering

8. IoT layering
Application layer
(How data gives meaning?)
Cloud data
(How the data is stored?)
Network-Service edge
(How the device is connected to the
Network?)
Embedded: Devices & sensors
(where and what to sense?)

9. Value proposition:
Agriculture
Farmer
Mobile
network
IoT
device
& App
Agriculture
ecosystem (Ex:
Pump control,
PH, smart
irrigation etc..)
Key Values:
 Security (Ex: Snake bytes)
 Ease of use (Ex: Localization)
 Efficiency (Ex: Travel time)
 Cost effective (Ex: One time
investment)
 Decision making (Ex: Smart
irrigation)

10. Value proposition:
Mass manufacturing
Plant management
Network
(Mobile / PC)
MIS
Device
manageability
IoT device
Manufacturing
ecosystem
Key Values:
 Productivity
 Overall Equipment Efficiency
 Management decision making
 Predictability
 Capacity planning & expansion
 Labor management
Case: Automated Embroidery

11. Design challenges

12. C1: Stability of network
Challenge:
• Deploying IoT products in
network unstable (ex:
Poor GSM / GPRS signals)
environment creates
issues
Factors:
• Link speed
• Link stability
• SW state machine
• Asynchronous conditions
Resolution:
• Boundary value tuning
• Algorithm enhancement
• Dynamic detection

13. C2: Power management
Challenge:
• Overall power
consumption by sensory
nodes in IoT should be
minimal, should consider
fluctuations as well
Factors:
• Minimalistic power need
• Higher power backup
• Power fluctuations
• Power failure recovery
Resolution:
• Component selection
• SW turning

14. C3: Network failover &
Memory management
Challenge:
• During network failover,
internal non-volatile
memory should store
critical data
Factors:
• Network outage
• Fleet management
• Optimization
• Cost implications
Resolution:
• Decision making in NVM
• Choosing right memory
and data structure
• NOR instead of NAND
• Creating secondary
partition for failover
handling

15. C4: OS optimization &
Tuning
Challenge:
• In case of IoT devices
running OS (Ex: Embedded
Linux) optimizing and
tuning provides challenges
Factors:
• Open source usage
• Unsupported peripherals
• Size requirements
• Performance requirements
(ex: Boot time)
Resolution:
• Custom device drivers
• Open source size
reduction techniques
• Tuning Kernel subsystems

16. C5: Non-functional
requirements
Challenge:
• Non functional
requirements puts up a lot
of challenges during
design phase
Factors:
• Product casing
• Form factor
• EMI
• Regulatory requirements
Resolution:
• Industrial Standards
• Good Shielding
• Component Selection,
Standards and Security
Protocols

17. Conclusion
 The design phase of IoT is a very fast field with umpteen number
of challenges
 Many of the common design challenges faced in Embedded field
apply to IoT as well, with some specifics
 This sharing is based on our hands-on product building experience
 Might vastly vary between different types of IoT devices
 By having an engineering approach, many of the issues can be
resolved

18. Stay connected
 Jayakumar Balasubramanian: b.jayakumar@emertxe.com
 Syed Adil: adil_sk@emertxe.com
Emertxe Information Technologies,
No-1, 9th Cross, 5th Main,
Jayamahal Extension,
Bangalore, Karnataka 560046
T: +91 80 6562 9666
https://www.facebook.com/Emertxe https://twitter.com/EmertxeTweet https://www.slideshare.net/EmertxeSlides

19. THANK YOU