Exploring BeagleBone, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 11The Internet of Things

This chapter describes how the Beagle boards can be used as a core building block of the Internet of Things (IoT). In this chapter, you are introduced to the concepts of network programming, the IoT, and the connection of sensors to the internet. Several different communications architectures are described: The first architecture configures the Beagle board to be a web server that uses various server-side scripting techniques to display sensor data. Next, custom C/C++ code is described that can push sensor data to the internet and to platform as a service (PaaS) offerings, such as ThingSpeak and the Adafruit IO service using MQTT. Finally, a client/server pair for high-speed Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) socket communication is described. The latter part of the chapter introduces some techniques for managing distributed Beagle board sensors, and physical networking topics: setting the Beagle board to have a static IP address and using Power over Ethernet (PoE) with the Beagle board. By the end of this chapter you should be able to build your own connected embedded IoT devices.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED FOR THIS CHAPTER:

• Beagle board (any model with a valid internet connection)
• TMP36 temperature sensor and an LED circuit

Further details on this chapter are available at http://exploringbeaglebone.com/chapter11/.

The Internet of Things

The terms Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS) are broadly used to describe the extension ...