Awesome IoT

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A curated list of awesome Internet of Things projects and resources.

Inspired by the awesome list thing.

Table of Contents

Hardware

Software

Operating systems

Programming languages

This sections regroups every awesome programming language, whether it is compiled, interpreted or a DSL, related to embedded development.

Frameworks

Middlewares

Libraries and Tools

Miscellaneous

Physical layer

- 802.15.4 (IEEE)

IEEE 802.15.4 is a standard which specifies the physical layer and media access control for low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPANs). It is maintained by the IEEE 802.15 working group, which has defined it in 2003. It is the basis for the ZigBee, ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, and MiWi specifications, each of which further extends the standard by developing the upper layers which are not defined in IEEE 802.15.4. Alternatively, it can be used with 6LoWPAN and standard Internet protocols to build a wireless embedded Internet. - Wikipedia

IEEE standard 802.15.4 intends to offer the fundamental lower network layers of a type of wireless personal area network (WPAN) which focuses on low-cost, low-speed ubiquitous communication between devices. It can be contrasted with other approaches, such as Wi-Fi, which offer more bandwidth and require more power. The emphasis is on very low cost communication of nearby devices with little to no underlying infrastructure, intending to exploit this to lower power consumption even more.

- Bluetooth (Bluetooth Special Interest Group)

Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the ISM band from 2.4 to 2.485 GHz) from fixed and mobile devices, and building personal area networks (PANs). Invented by telecom vendor Ericsson in 1994, it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization. - Wikipedia

Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which has more than 25,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, and consumer electronics.

- Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth Special Interest Group)

Bluetooth low energy (Bluetooth LE, BLE, marketed as Bluetooth Smart) is a wireless personal area network technology designed and marketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group aimed at novel applications in the healthcare, fitness, beacons, security, and home entertainment industries. - Wikipedia

Compared to Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Smart is intended to provide considerably reduced power consumption and cost while maintaining a similar communication range. The Bluetooth SIG predicts that by 2018 more than 90 percent of Bluetooth-enabled smartphones will support Bluetooth Smart.

EC-GSM-IoT (EC-GSM-IoT Group)

Extended coverage GSM IoT (EC-GSM-IoT) is a standard-based Low Power Wide Area technology. It is based on eGPRS and designed as a high capacity, long range, low energy and low complexity cellular system for IoT communications.

The EC-GSM-IOT network trials have begun, with the first commercial launches planned for 2017. Supported by all major mobile equipment, chip set and module manufacturers, EC-GSM-IoT networks will co-exist with 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile networks. It will also benefit from all the security and privacy mobile network features, such as support for user identity confidentiality, entity authentication, confidentiality, data integrity, and mobile equipment identification.

- LoRaWAN (LoRa Alliance)

A LoRaWAN wide area network allows low bit rate communication from and to connected objects, thus participating to Internet of Things, machine-to-machine M2M, and smart city. - Wikipedia

This technology is standardized by the LoRa Alliance. It was initially developed by Cycleo, which was acquired by Semtech in 2012. LoRaWAN is an acronym for Long Range Wide-area network.

NB-IoT (3GPP)

NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) radio technology standard that has been developed to enable a wide range of devices and services to be connected using cellular telecommunications bands. - Wikipedia

NB-IoT is a narrowband radio technology designed for the Internet of Things (IoT), and is one of a range of Mobile IoT (MIoT) technologies standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

- Sigfox (Sigfox)

Sigfox is a French firm that builds wireless networks to connect low-energy objects such as electricity meters, smart watches, and washing machines, which need to be continuously on and emitting small amounts of data. Its infrastructure is intended to be a contribution to what is known as the Internet of Things (IoT). - Wikipedia

SIGFOX describes itself as “the first and only company providing global cellular connectivity for the Internet of Things.” Its infrastructure is “completely independent of existing networks, such as telecommunications networks.” SIGFOX seeks to provide the means for the “deployment of billions of objects and thousands of new uses” with the long-term goal of “having petabytes of data produced by everyday objects”.

- Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi Alliance)

Wi-Fi (or WiFi) is a local area wireless computer networking technology that allows electronic devices to network, mainly using the 2.4 gigahertz (12 cm) UHF and 5 gigahertz (6 cm) SHF ISM radio bands. - Wikipedia

The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any “wireless local area network” (WLAN) product based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) 802.11 standards.[1] However, the term “Wi-Fi” is used in general English as a synonym for “WLAN” since most modern WLANs are based on these standards. “Wi-Fi” is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. The “Wi-Fi Certified” trademark can only be used by Wi-Fi products that successfully complete Wi-Fi Alliance interoperability certification testing.

Network / Transport layer

- 6LowPan (IETF)

6LoWPAN is an acronym of IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks. 6LoWPAN is the name of a concluded working group in the Internet area of the IETF. - Wikipedia

The 6LoWPAN concept originated from the idea that “the Internet Protocol could and should be applied even to the smallest devices,”and that low-power devices with limited processing capabilities should be able to participate in the Internet of Things. The 6LoWPAN group has defined encapsulation and header compression mechanisms that allow IPv6 packets to be sent and received over IEEE 802.15.4 based networks. IPv4 and IPv6 are the work horses for data delivery for local-area networks, metropolitan area networks, and wide-area networks such as the Internet. Likewise, IEEE 802.15.4 devices provide sensing communication-ability in the wireless domain. The inherent natures of the two networks though, are different.

- Thread (Thread Group)

Thread is an IPv6 based protocol for “smart” household devices to communicate on a network.

In July 2014 Google Inc’s Nest Labs announced a working group with the companies Samsung, ARM Holdings, Freescale, Silicon Labs, Big Ass Fans and the lock company Yale in an attempt to have Thread become the industry standard by providing Thread certification for products. Other protocols currently in use include ZigBee and Bluetooth Smart. Thread uses 6LoWPAN, which in turn uses the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless protocol with mesh communication, as does ZigBee and other systems. Thread however is IP-addressable, with cloud access and AES encryption. It supports over 250 devices on a network.

- ZigBee (ZigBee Alliance)

ZigBee is a IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios. - Wikipedia

The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other wireless personal area networks (WPANs), such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Applications include wireless light switches, electrical meters with in-home-displays, traffic management systems, and other consumer and industrial equipment that requires short-range low-rate wireless data transfer.

- Z-Wave (Z-Wave Alliance)

Z-Wave is a wireless communications specification designed to allow devices in the home (lighting, access controls, entertainment systems and household appliances, for example) to communicate with one another for the purposes of home automation. - Wikipedia

Z-Wave technology minimizes power consumption so that it is suitable for battery-operated devices. Z-Wave is designed to provide, reliable, low-latency transmission of small data packets at data rates up to 100kbit/s, unlike Wi-Fi and other IEEE 802.11-based wireless LAN systems that are designed primarily for high data rates. Z-Wave operates in the sub-gigahertz frequency range, around 900 MHz.

Application layer

CoAP (IETF)

Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is a software protocol intended to be used in very simple electronics devices that allows them to communicate interactively over the Internet. - Wikipedia

CoAP is particularly targeted for small low power sensors, switches, valves and similar components that need to be controlled or supervised remotely, through standard Internet networks. CoAP is an application layer protocol that is intended for use in resource-constrained internet devices, such as WSN nodes.

DTLS (IETF)

The Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) communications protocol provides communications security for datagram protocols. - Wikipedia

DTLS allows datagram-based applications to communicate in a way that is designed[by whom?] to prevent eavesdropping, tampering, or message forgery. The DTLS protocol is based on the stream-oriented Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol and is intended to provide similar security guarantees.

- Eddystone (Google)

Eddystone is a beacon technology profile released by Google in July 2015. The open source, cross-platform software gives users location and proximity data via Bluetooth low-energy beacon format. - Wikipedia

Though similar to the iBeacon released by Apple in 2013, Eddystone works on both Android and iOS, whereas iBeacon is limited to iOS platforms. A practical application of both softwares is that business owners can target potential customers based on the location of their smartphones in real time.

- HTTP (IETF)

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. - Wikipedia

The standards development of HTTP was coordinated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs). The first definition of HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use, occurred in RFC 2068 in 1997, although this was obsoleted by RFC 2616 in 1999.

- iBeacon (Apple)

iBeacon is a protocol standardized by Apple and introduced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in 2013. - Wikipedia

iBeacon uses Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing to transmit a universally unique identifier picked up by a compatible app or operating system. The identifier can be used to determine the device’s physical location, track customers, or trigger a location-based action on the device such as a check-in on social media or a push notification.

- MQTT (IBM)

MQTT (formerly MQ Telemetry Transport) is a publish-subscribe based “light weight” messaging protocol for use on top of the TCP/IP protocol. It is designed for connections with remote locations where a “small code footprint” is required or the network bandwidth is limited. - Wikipedia

The publish-subscribe messaging pattern requires a message broker. The broker is responsible for distributing messages to interested clients based on the topic of a message. Andy Stanford-Clark and Arlen Nipper of Cirrus Link Solutions authored the first version of the protocol in 1999.

- PJON

PJON® (Padded Jittering Operative Network) is an Arduino compatible, multi-master, multi-media network protocol. It proposes a Standard, it is designed as a framework and implements a totally software emulated network protocol stack that can be easily cross-compiled on many architectures like ATtiny, ATmega, ESP8266, ESP32, STM32, Teensy, Raspberry Pi, Linux, Windows x86 and Apple machines. It is a valid tool to quickly and comprehensibly build a network of devices. Visit wiki and documentation to know more about the PJON Standard.

PJON is used in thousands of devices and its community has spread worldwide because of the following 6 key factors: New technology, Multi-media support, Increased security, Increased reliability, High flexibility and Low cost.

- STOMP

Simple (or Streaming) Text Oriented Message Protocol (STOMP), formerly known as TTMP, is a simple text-based protocol, designed for working with message-oriented middleware (MOM). - Wikipedia

STOMP provides an interoperable wire format that allows STOMP clients to talk with any message broker supporting the protocol. It is thus language-agnostic, meaning a broker developed for one programming language or platform can receive communications from client software developed in another language.

- Websocket

WebSocket is a protocol providing full-duplex communication channels over a single TCP connection. - Wikipedia

WebSocket is designed to be implemented in web browsers and web servers, but it can be used by any client or server application. The WebSocket Protocol is an independent TCP-based protocol. The WebSocket protocol makes more interaction between a browser and a website possible, facilitating live content and the creation of real-time games. This is made possible by providing a standardized way for the server to send content to the browser without being solicited by the client, and allowing for messages to be passed back and forth while keeping the connection open.

- XMPP (IETF)

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is a communications protocol for message-oriented middleware based on XML (Extensible Markup Language). - Wikipedia

It enables the near-real-time exchange of structured yet extensible data between any two or more network entities. Designed to be extensible, the protocol has also been used for publish-subscribe systems, signalling for VoIP, video, file transfer, gaming, Internet of Things (IoT) applications such as the smart grid, and social networking services.

Technologies

This sections regroups a curated list of awesome technologies that are closely related to the IoT world.

- NFC

Near field communication (NFC) is the set of protocols that enable electronic devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching the devices together, or bringing them into proximity to a distance of typically 10cm or less. - Wikipedia

- OPCUA

OPC-UA is a not only a protocol for industrial automation but also a technology that allows semantic description and object modelling of industrial environment. Wikipedia

Standards and Alliances

Standards

Alliances

Resources

Books

Building the Web of Things: with examples in Node.js and Raspberry Pi (2016) by Dominique Guinard and Vlad Trifa [5.0]

A hands-on guide that will teach how to design and implement scalable, flexible, and open IoT solutions using web technologies. This book focuses on providing the right balance of theory, code samples, and practical examples to enable you to successfully connect all sorts of devices to the web and to expose their services and data over REST APIs. The book covers a number of web technologies for your IoT toolbox: GPIO, Raspberry Pi, Embedded Systems, REST and HTTP, WS, MQTT, CoAP, JSON-LD, Social Networks, Node-RED, IFTTT, etc.

Abusing the Internet of Things: Blackouts, Freakouts, and Stakeouts (2015) by Nitesh Dhanjani [5.0]

future with billions of connected “things” includes monumental security concerns. This practical book explores how malicious attackers can abuse popular IoT-based devices, including wireless LED lightbulbs, electronic door locks, baby monitors, smart TVs, and connected cars.

Using the Web to Build the IoT (2016) *by Dominique Guinard and Vlad Trifa > Using the Web to Build the IoT is a free book built as a collection of six hand-picked chapters that introduce the key technologies and concepts for building the application layer of the IoT. Dom Guinard and Vlad Trifa, selected these specific topics to give you an overview of the Web of Things architecture, along with techniques for data ingestion, searching, security, and visualization.

Building Wireless Sensor Networks: with ZigBee, XBee, Arduino, and Processing (2011) by Robert Faludi [4.5]

Get ready to create distributed sensor systems and intelligent interactive devices using the ZigBee wireless networking protocol and Series 2 XBee radios. By the time you’re halfway through this fast-paced, hands-on guide, you’ll have built a series of useful projects, including a complete ZigBee wireless network that delivers remotely sensed data.

Designing the Internet of Things (2013) by Adrian McEwen and Hakim Cassimally [4.0]

Whether it’s called physical computing, ubiquitous computing, or the Internet of Things, it’s a hot topic in technology: how to channel your inner Steve Jobs and successfully combine hardware, embedded software, web services, electronics, and cool design to create cutting-edge devices that are fun, interactive, and practical. If you’d like to create the next must-have product, this unique book is the perfect place to start.

Getting Started with Bluetooth Low Energy: Tools and Techniques for Low-Power Networking (2014) by Kevin Townsend, Carles Cufí, Akiba and Robert Davidson [4.5]

This book provides a solid, high-level overview of how devices use Ble to communicate with each other. You’ll learn useful low-cost tools for developing and testing Ble-enabled mobile apps and embedded firmware and get examples using various development platforms including iOs and Android for app developers and embedded platforms for product designers and hardware engineers.

Smart Things: Ubiquitous Computing User Experience Design (2010) by Mike Kuniavsky [4.5]

Smart Things presents a problem-solving approach to addressing designers’ needs and concentrates on process, rather than technological detail, to keep from being quickly outdated. It pays close attention to the capabilities and limitations of the medium in question and discusses the tradeoffs and challenges of design in a commercial environment.

JavaScript on Things: Hardware for Web Developers (2018 - est.) by Lyza Danger Gardner [early access book]

JavaScript on Things is your first step into the exciting and downright entertaining world of programming for small electronics. If you know enough JavaScript to hack a website together, you’ll be making things bleep, blink and spin faster than you can say “nodebot”. This fully-illustrated, hands-on book shows you how to get going with platforms like Arduino, Tessel, and Raspberry Pi.

Articles

Papers

License

CC0

To the extent possible under law, Halim Qarroum has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.