What is, IoT and IIoT and how does it work?

What is IoT?

We can describe the internet of things as a network of physical objects which is accessed through the internet. The object which is connected to the network would have embedded technology, in order to interact with the internal states or the external environment. So all these devices would be embedded with software, electronics, network, and sensors. Due to this the devices which are connected to this network can exchange data with each other.

What is the purpose of an IoT?

How does IoT work?

The major components of IoT are sensors, so it would collect the data from the surroundings. The collected data could be of different forms like it could be the measurement of temperature or it can be a video feed. The collected data from the environment would be sent to the cloud with the help of different levels of communications. The communication medium could be mobile or satellite networks. So after collecting the data it would be transmitted to the cloud and the software would process the data which is gathered, it could be the temperature reading on the heater. Then this information would be transmitted to the user by sending notifications by email or text messages. The IoT would allow two-way communication in case the user needs to make changes to the operation of the household objects he can do it by using his mobile.

What are the benefits of IoT?

The major benefit of the IoT is that it would allow people and things to be connected at any time, any place, by using any path/network and any service.

What are the applications of IoT?

• City management
• Home automation
• Health
• Agriculture
• Logistics
• Retail
• Energy sector

What is IIoT?

The industrial internet of things is the IoT for the industrial sector, while the IoT is for the commercial sector. The industrial IoT can be described as an interaction between people, machines, information technology, and also the industrial process. IIoT has played a major role in the transformation of the routine business. Simply we can define that the IIoT would connect industrial things such as sensors, robots, actuators, etc to computational capabilities residing in internet-based storage and analytics.

How does the IIoT work?

IIoT would connect industrial devices and thus it would provide visibility to our industrial process. It would make it possible that each manufacturing device would provide data about its use and status, then the manufacturing process can be configured or reconfigured by a data-driven software process. So the IIoT would use manufacturing data, cloud computing, and analytics to achieve the communication between the people and the plant. IIoT system would collect, monitor, exchange, and analyze the data.

What is the importance of IIoT?

The IIoT has played a great role in the industrial revolution and thus it helped to achieve manufacturing excellence. It has helped a lot for the digital transformation of the industries. The industrial internet of things utilizes manufacturing data, analytics, and cloud computing to help companies to improve their operations, productivity, and also quality. IIoT would be useful for the connectivity of the smart factories, machines management systems, and also to streamline business operations.

What are the benefits of IIoT?

• Machine utilization can be increased
• Predictive maintenance
• Less human error
• Safety in workplace
• Operational efficiency would be increased
• Increase in flexibility and productivity
• Reduction in production cost
• Maintenance and monitoring of the equipment

What are the challenges of IIoT?

• It needs to identify things within the internet
• Capable to manage massive amounts of data
• It should integrate the existing infrastructure into new IIoT strategies
• Cloud computing
• Enabling short term data storage

What is the difference between IoT and IIoT?

What are the risks involved in IIoT?

The major risk involved in the IIoT is that the industrial network is directly connected to the internet. So there could be cyberattacks or malware infections if the network isn’t properly secured. If the IIoT is not secured properly then it could lead to many losses.

Major risks in IIoT systems

• Unguarded software can be used to attack the system
• It would be a massive problem if the internet-connected devices and systems are publicly searchable
• Hacking and data breaches

What are the applications of IIoT?

• Cloud business
• Big data
• Asset management
• Monitoring and management of devices
• Safety of economic facilities and equipment
• Remote access to production control and management

What are IoT, IIoT, and Industry 4.0?

IoT

The IoT can be described as a system of devices and sensors which is connected to the internet. The devices could be machines, appliances, buildings, vehicles, etc. So because of the IoT, we can determine the current status of our household equipment and vehicles. In order to achieve safe communication between the devices and the people, IoT gateways are used. IoT gateways would abstract the medium of communication and also provide a safe path for data transmission. We can connect home appliances, clocks, cars, robots, etc. with the cloud. We would receive the data by the cloud services like text services or email.

IIoT

The industrial internet of things can be described as the implementation of the IoT in the industrial sector. The IIoT would connect the equipment in the industry and thus the controller could determine the current status of the industrial equipment. The IoT-based industrial automation can be done by this and thus we can do real-time monitoring and control of the process. By using IIoT we could get smart sensors, smart machines, and also smart controllers. So by the industrial internet of things we could achieve safety, security, and also reliability in an industrial process.

Industry 4.0

It can be described as the automated collection and programmed analysis of digitized industrial data and the automated resulting action. This is considered the fourth industrial revolution, the fourth industrial revolution is all about cyber, physical, and artificial intelligence. So basically it is the major change in the industrial sector, it can be defined as the digitization of all the stages of production and service system. So we can describe industry 4.0 as the revolution in the industrial sector, it is the combination of numerous physical and digital technologies such as AI, cloud computing, autonomous robotics, augmented reality, additive manufacturing, and IIoT.

List of IIoT based companies?

• ABB – Ability
• Cisco – IoT system
• Fanuc – Field
• GE digital – Predix
• Honeywell – Connected Performance Services
• Siemens – MindSphere
• Schneider electric – Wonderware
• Kuka – Connyun