Practical Internet of Things Security - Second Edition

Defining cyber-physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSes) are a huge, overlapping subset of the IoT. They fuse a broad range of engineering disciplines, each with a historically well-defined scope that includes the essential theory, lore, application, and relevant subject matter needed by their respective practitioners. These topics include engineering dynamics, fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, control theory, digital design, and many others. So, what is the difference between IoT and CPS? Borrowing from the IEEE, the principal difference is that a CPS—comprising connected sensors, actuators, monitoring and control systems—does not necessarily have to be connected to the internet. A CPS can be isolated from the internet and still achieve ...