This was my first Linux Day in Turin, and I was late, like very late (as always 😂 ).

I decided to attend the IoT talk 'cause I'm interested about this topic.

The speaker, @cesco_78, talked about how the tech companies are deploying a lot of devices, rapidly and they haven't so much worries about security and stuffs like that.

You can find the notes here:

IoT

• It's a network of talking devices
• IoT devices are:
  • Sensors
  • Home Appliances
  • Vehicles
  • Thermostats
  • Complex Systems
• It's gaining a big momentum
• They aren't secure

There're a lot of IoT devices

Problems

• IPv4 addresses aren't infinite.
• A lot of them are in mobility so 4G cells are full
• The range is a big problem

Solution

• SigFox
• LoRa

They're a Low Power Wide Area Network. They use free frequencies. The range is great.

LPWAN aren't Internet backed.

So a cluster of sensors is connected to a gateway. The gateway is then connected to internet.

SigFox

Less data and slow.

• Packets (Upstream) are of 12 bytes.
• Packets (Downstream) are of 8 bytes.

12 bytes/3 seconds

SigFox uses resellers and it's a commercial network. The price is big and it's billed "per-device".

Western Europe is fully covered.

The advantages are:

• Low energy required;
• Free Roaming;
• Easy to use.

Compatible devices:

• MkrFox1200;
• Nettrotter BIB.

LoRa

• It's like SigFox for the tech specifications.
• It has unlimited data rates.
• It's an open standard.
• There are a lot of providers.

Choosing a low power, data service is difficult. The decision has to be taken "per-project".

Alternatives

If you have a network (WiFi/3G/4G) and if you want to transfer data without using a lot of bandwidth you can use:

MQTT

Message Queue Telemetry Transport

• It has a little overhead;
• It uses the IP protocol;
• A lot of big players use it (Facebook, WhatsApp, ...).

It uses a broker, subscriber and publisher infrastructure.

• A broker lists topics.
• A subscriber can "subscribe" a topic.
• A publisher can "publish" on a topic.

Configuring a MQTT connection to/from a broker is dead simple.

As you can see, IoT is a great thing.
If we're able to avoid big manufactures we can get back our data.