IoT – The Internet of Testing
In today’s ever-changing world, IoT is a growing buzzword becoming more of a norm than an exception. For those that do not know, IoT stands for the “Internet of Things”, which in a nutshell describes the continuously growing number of interconnected devices to the Internet and shared node points. This interconnectivity brings many benefits such as shared data, multiple applications for one device, and overall greater ease of use, but there are also challenges that emerge, such as cybersecurity.
Figure 1. 5 Challenges of IoT
Addressing the multi-faceted challenges of IoT devices and systems, such as 5G smart poles requires a comprehensive approach throughout the entire product lifecycle. Figure 1 summarizes the technical challenges of IoT into five categories also referred to as the 5Cs of IoT: Connectivity, Continuity, Compliance, Coexistence, and Cybersecurity. Connectivity is needed to ensure IoT devices connect to other IoT devices, the cloud, and the world around them. Continuity requires that IoT devices have extended battery life to do their jobs properly. Compliance demands IoT devices adhere to global regulations. Coexistence means that IoT devices must work harmoniously with other systems, even in dense IoT environments. Finally, cybersecurity safeguards the data gathered from IoT devices from cyberattacks.
Figure 2: IoT Areas of Focus
Connectivity
Connectivity is a simple concept, encompassing all devices connecting in the world on various ranges of bandwidth. As you can see from Figure 2 above, there are various technologies a device can use to connect to the Internet – near field communications (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), Bluetooth, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and more - depending on its location and the connections required by other devices.
To achieve consistent, reliable, and robust connectivity, engineers designing IoT devices need to consider several factors including signaling and throughput testing and RF design validation. With the right tools, you can simplify over-the-air testing and conduct signaling tests of complete devices. Software and hardware can be combined to maximize throughput for manufacturing tests of WLAN devices and to validate functional and RF designs of the latest chipsets and user equipment designs.
Continuity
Continuity is about ensuring and extending the battery life of an IoT device. Battery life is one of the most important parameters that can make or break an IoT device. These days, consumers do not want to frequently recharge their wearables or smart home devices, so they expect long battery life. Smart meters or industrial wireless sensors must work for long periods of time between charges – often 10 years or more. For medical devices such as pacemakers, device life can mean the difference between life and death. Battery failure is just not an option.
Design engineers try to answer the following questions when it comes to continuity:
- How do I define or measure the battery life of my IoT device?
- What are the critical events that contribute to power consumption and how frequently do those events happen?
- What design changes should I make to optimize the battery life of my device?
Addressing these questions requires capable measurement tools that allow engineers to make measurements with widely varying current levels during the development process.
Compliance
Compliance is the next challenge. It is about making sure that your IoT device adheres to the standards and regulatory requirements in place for each country where it will enter the market. There are two main categories of compliance tests:
1. Radio standards conformance and carrier acceptance tests
2. Regulatory compliance tests such as radio frequency (RF), electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), and safety and regulatory tests
Design engineers often scramble to meet tight product introduction timelines while complying with the latest regulations. Frequent updates to the regulations further add to the complexity of this task. Specialized laboratories carry out conformance testing and this testing is mandatory for all products. Companies must confirm that their products comply with supported wireless standards and often do so in-house, prior to sending the product to the lab. Without conformance testing performed by a specialized lab, they cannot launch their products into specific countries. Another perspective to consider is that a failed compliance test can lead to lost revenue caused by a costly redesign and delayed product launch.
Coexistence
Wireless connectivity brings convenience to many applications. However, radio channels become congested as the number of IoT devices in use increases. This is where coexistence comes into play. IoT devices need to work harmoniously in a crowded RF environment.
To address wireless congestion, standard bodies have developed test methodologies to evaluate device operation in the presence of other signals. The WIFI Alliance has test suites aimed primarily at ensuring cooperative operation among devices using the same WLAN protocols. In Bluetooth, Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) lets a Bluetooth device drop channels that experience a high data drop – helping to minimize interference. Other collision avoidance techniques like Listen Before Talk (LBT) are good methods to mitigate interference between devices, but their effectiveness in a mixed-signal environment is unknown.
Performing coexistence testing for your IoT device is important to measure and predict how it will operate in a mixed-signal wireless environment.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity means safeguarding data from cyber threats. Cyberattacks can happen in any layer – device, communication network, cloud, or applications. Most of the traditional security protection tools have been focused on securing the network and cloud, but according to IDC, 70% of security breaches originate from endpoints. Safeguarding IoT devices requires extra care. You should identify over-the-air vulnerabilities and potential points of entry into your IoT device. We recommend testing the device using a database of known over-the-air threats/attacks to check its response and to ensure its resilience against the latest threats.
Conclusion
The Internet of Things is a fascinating ecosystem that engineers are working to traverse and properly navigate. At the end of the day, if we can understand all the perspectives of the technology applications and potential, we can work together to maximize the use of our electronics. With electronic use, however, power consumption is a critical aspect to take into consideration as it is highly variable. Fast-changing currents usually last from microseconds to seconds, and wide current range from picoamperes to amperes within a single IoT system.
Learn more about how you can do your own testing over IoT systems here!