Obsessed with Internet of Things? Ok. The things are connected. So now what...?

"Total Number of internet connected devices reached 8.7 billion in 2012" - X source

"The growing network of connected objects referred to as the “Internet of Things” is estimated to be in the billions by 2020." - Y Source

"The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the fastest growing areas of tech – covering everything from consumer wearable devices to high-tech industrial systems." - Z Source

"IoT is completely a disruptive technology according to analysis."  - Z' Source

There are multiple opinions on from different sources which make the world so obsessed with the IoT. But really, Internet of things is far bigger than anyone realizes. Some people tell that it's the term given to the connected things and it's just about providing IPv6 to any "thing" that is available in the vicinity. 

Be it the massive infrastructures, be it your pillow, be it your home, or be it your clothes, it's not about connecting the sensor to the multiple Arduinos and RaspberryPis and connecting it to the internet, It's about building the ecosystem. It's not about connecting relay to the Internet to control the appliances, but It's about the intelligent architecture that very well suits the need of the users, may it be using artificial neural networks or may it be using the multiple algorithms for enhancing the user experience. Honchos are building the Skytran and that is the kind of solutions the world really wants. "Air" is built with the same vision and philosophy. We are here to deliver the extra mile!

When developers are talking about delivering an extra mile to enhance the human living experience, they’re still not thinking big enough to justify the needs of the world. It’s not a lack of creativity; it’s a lack of scrutiny. Future is always within our vision, and you don’t need to visualize or build what’s already there.

"A solitary fantasy can transform a million realities" - Maya Angelou

3 essential rules for IoT Businesses

Here is my take! There may be many rules for the successful IoT business, but I would like to encompass these three as the essentials to build the successful IoT product. It's about M2M and IoT (It took me long to understand difference between M2M and IoT, and if you don't know, Here is a good article) therefore it's all on us, to understand where it's leading to.

 Rule 1: Data

It's just not about delivering the product, It's about leveraging the data which is created from millions of end nodes. Obviously, we would require powerful data storage capability and tremendous remote processing power to understand the sheer amount of collected data and to build the intelligence in the system for better predictions and controls.

Rule 2: Security and Robustness

Who likes it when connectivity becomes unstable? Nobody enjoys the interrupted signals and improper codecs. Thus the connection protocol aspect of IoT is incredibly critical to give users that seamless, “always on and interacting” feel -- what’s the point of always having technology with you if it isn’t going to be always connected? Consumer devices in particular – from fitness trackers to home appliances – are generating more granular information. And when that information is about people or their health, it’s more sensitive.

Rule 3: User Interface/Experience

Similar to the previous point, nobody enjoys the broken user experience. Be it developers or the product end users, they need a flawless system to hack and play around with minimal hassles.

"IoT is not the 'Thing' that gains the Internet, It's that the Internet gains from the Thing." - Patrick Isacson

Accessories

There is an idea of many developers who are working for IoT, to build an ecosystem(SDKs) for the developers to build on their own platform. It may take many skills with many skill resources to design and deliver a successful IoT platform that is both scalable and extensible to be versatile. According to the Reuters "The IoT Platform Companies Database 2015", there are 250+ platforms available to start development on IoT so there are 180+ startups, 45+ SMEs, and 25+ MNCs which offers such platforms. This is really alarming! Who will connect these all platform to make the "ONE internet of things"? This is really needed to leverage the data mining and to provide better analytics. "ONE Internet of things" not only can make businesses more efficient but makes the businesses ready for future!

Why do I call it an accessory? Because, this is currently "announced" as an add-on to almost every internet of things product sold! It is treated as an accessory! As the Internet of things is said so abstract and developers and designers are busy creating their own hardware and software platforms with different open/proprietary protocols, and shouting that their platform having cool X-Y-Z features is too much obsession for the people. This will ignite developers to start talking about the Web of Things! Similarly to what the Web (Application Layer) is to the Internet (Network Layer), the Web of Things provides an Application Layer that simplifies the creation of Internet of Things applications. Web of Things reuses existing and popular Web standards. But I am still concerned at the common/cross-platforms solutions on which multiple devices can communicate. It is an open discussion, though!

Security

Are we ready enough? 

As everyone started turning to Internet of things and as everybody is talking about the IoT, the term "Security in Internet of Things" has become too popular to discuss on every IoT tech geek's breakfast table. Some devices fall short of enough stack in the tiny microcontrollers used as an actuator end-point, or some devices are just about being low power without any security engines running. As users become more reliant on smart devices and wearables, an increasing amount of sensitive data is being accessed through these devices and transferred among them. The developers must strengthen the defenses by taking clues from the smartphone developers and industry.  But it is not easy as to just talking about the security. There's much more work needed for low power and low memory embedded devices.

Product development—at least for products that anyone expects to be successful—has always been iterative, incremental, and collaborative.

Now, it's upon us being the builders, the innovators, the creators or the end user to bring the IoT to a stage where all work on a unified platform. It's a big task to create "ONE internet of things" but filled with too many opportunities for everyone around us to change the world we see today!

Thanks in advance for your Likes and Shares. It would be great to have your added thoughts on this. 

Electromagnetic Radiation on PCB edges: 20H Rule and Via Stitching

Since past few days I was going through the study on Electromagnetic radiation occurring on PCB edge; here is the brief on what the paper suggests to follow.

One of the primary modes of radiation from printed circuit boards (PCBs) are because of emissions along the edges of PCBs. One of the primary printed circuit board mechanisms [1] that produce radiated emissions from PCB edges are via currents that excite radially propagating electromagnetic waves between power and/or ground plane structures.

When these waves propagates to the edge of the PCB, a portion of the energy radiates into space (usually the cavity of the electronic enclosure housing the PCBs), and a portion is reflected back into the PCB, where it induces currents into the same vias that were the original source of the initial radially propagating wave.

One of the primary modes of radiation from printed circuit boards are because of emissions along the edges.

These induced currents then conductively flow into the components mounted on the surface of the PCB (conductive emission), producing secondary radiation. The waves inside the PCB excite resonant modes whose frequencies are dependent on the width and length of the PCB.

20-H Rule

The 20-H rule [3] states that the power planes are pulled back by edges from the ground planes by about 20 times the distance between the planes. Consider the simple structure consisting of one ground plane and one power plane shown in Figure (a). The 20-H rule structure is represented in Figure (b).

Pulling back one of the power plane forms a smoother impedance transition region. While this increases edge emissions, it reduces PCB resonance effects. Power plane pulling back should be on all the four sides of the PCB.

Via Edge Stitching on the PCB edge

The most common technique of reducing edge radiation is fencing, where a series of shorting vias are used to connect top/bottom ground planes into a Faraday shield. But, this increases internal reflections. 

This is as similar as the ground Via stitching around the critical net track.

For the two-plane structure[4], 20-H rule yields much more radiation than the normal structure. For the multiple plane case, no significant change in radiation is found if the 20-H rule is applied to the internal planes. Also the numerical result shows that the 20H Rule and ground Stitching Vias would cut down the radiation effectively.

References:

[1]: Franz Gisin, Zorica Pantic-Tanner "Minimizing EMI Caused by Radially Propagating Waves Inside High Speed Digital Logic PCBs"

[2]: Gisin, Franz, Pantic-Tanner, Z., “Radiation From Printed Circuit Board Edge Structures”, 2001 IEEE EMC

[3]  Mark I. Montrose, "Printed Circuit Board Design Techniques for EMC Compliance", 1996 IEEE EMC

[4] Huabo Chen et. al. "Effects of 20-H Rule and Shielding Vias on Electromagnetic Radiation From Printed Circuit Boards" 

No content copyright intended. Content belongs to the respective authors. Papers are briefed in to one article for understanding.