How the Internet of Things works

- [Instructor] IoT devices can connect directly to the internet through wireless or wired communication or they can connect using an IoT gateway. The use of a gateway allows us to mainly collect data more efficiently and transport data from devices on a more secure way from remote users and applications. The architecture of IoT is based on a five-layer model: application, middleware, internet, access gateway, and edge technology. The application layer delivers the data to the user and allows them to control and manage the IoT device, like the application you have on your phone to interact with the device. The middleware layer is for device and information management. The essence of IoT is making it possible for just about anything to be connected and to communicate data over a network. This layer makes this possible by providing a connectivity layer that ensure effective communications amongst different software. The internet layer is responsible for endpoint connectivity. It converts and transfers data between layers and through networks such as 3G, LAN, Bluetooth, LoRaWAN and so on with domain needed to serve IoT services such as high-speed transactions, context aware applications, multiple networks with various technologies and access protocols are needed to support compatibility. The access gateway layer is responsible for protocol translation and messaging. It supports the role of the gateway we talked about previously to collect data more efficiently and transport data from multiple devices and applications. The edge technology layer covers the IoT-capable devices. It's the endpoint that you use to connect to your IoT device. It could be your smartphone being used to interact with an IoT device. All right, so how does these all work together? In order for these to make sense as an entire piece, let's use an example. Your phone is the IoT-capable device on the edge technology layer. The device connects to in order to communicate its access gateway. The internet is the network the access gateway uses to connect over. The middleware is a software that the device use to be able to translate information as it transmits data in and out. And lastly, the application that allows you to interact with the device via software interface, an API, or some sort of program that allows you to translate your comments into actions. I want to change the color of the living room lights to blue so I get my phone, I touch the right buttons, and the living room lights' color change to blue.