Connecting Networked Devices

Chapter 1. Where Does Your Product Sit?

The dot-com revolution happened in part because, for a few thousand or even just a few hundred dollars, anyone could have an idea and build a software startup. Today, for the same amount of money, you can build a business selling goods or software, and both your product and the process by which you develop it are augmented because devices and people can communicate and connect across the globe.

Project Requirements

Everything begins with how users will interact with your device, and how it will interact with both them and the network. In other words, where will your product sit in the hierarchy of connected devices?

Local, Edge, or Cloud?

In general, connected devices can be roughly split into three broad categories: local devices, edge devices, and cloud-connected devices.

Local devices don’t have the capability to reach the Internet, but they are still connected in a network. This network usually isn’t TCP/IP based. For instance, both ZigBee and Bluetooth LE devices are good examples of network-connected things that operate locally rather than directly connected to the Internet, and illustrate the two types of local networking. In the case of ZigBee, the device operates in either mesh or peer-to-peer mode, with packets hopping between devices until they reach a gateway on the edge of the local network. In the case of Bluetooth LE, the device operates in either paired or broadcast mode, with messages being picked up directly by a device ...