The Internet of Things (IoT) has proven to be an invaluable tool for businesses looking to optimize procedures, boost efficiency, cut down costs, and make data-driven decisions.
While you can start by implementing the technology across the most important processes, further down the line, you will need to scale your infrastructure. This requires seven core network requirements.
Together, they allow you to execute a smooth scaling process. In this article, I’ll explain why each requirement matters and how you can implement it.
Set Up an IoT Gateway
An IoT gateway ensures that data from multiple IoT devices and sensors reaches the most appropriate destination by bridging their domains to the cloud or network domain for quicker processing. This centralization also helps overcome the security vulnerabilities of an IoT network.
Most modern IoT gateways, such as Red Lion FlexEdge DA50D and Advantech ADAM-6717, are compatible with the wireless protocols of multiple new IoT devices.
The implementation process starts with choosing one that supports your device protocols, such as Zigbee or Z-Wave, and cloud protocols such as MQTT or HTTPS.
Once you’ve chosen, you need to follow the steps below:
- Power the gateway
- Connect the gateway to your local network
- Configure the software and edge runtime
- Pair your IoT devices
Increase Network Capacity and Bandwidth
As the number of IoT devices increases, so will bandwidth and network capacity requirements. Your network should be able to manage this increased traffic. There are two ways to ensure it does.
To start, explore fiber internet providers since fiber connections provide the fast speed and low latency to support a wide range of IoT devices.
Beyond that, you can further optimize using Software-Defined Networking (SDN). SDN dynamically analyzes your policies and priorities and automatically allocates network resources such as bandwidth to relevant IoT devices.
Ensure Big-Data Readiness
Company-wide IoT devices collect significant real-time data. Your network must be highly efficient to analyze this information in the shortest time span. Sending the data back to the network for processing increases this time.
To overcome this scenario, you can implement edge servers. Analyze the business requirements and choose edge servers with the capacity and processing power to quickly analyze all collected data.
Additionally, make sure to evaluate which servers seamlessly support and integrate with your IoT network’s environment, since this can prevent hiccups and processing issues later.
Ensure Big Data Storage
All the data collected by your IoT devices needs to be securely and efficiently stored to prevent high costs while eliminating the risks of wrong business decisions.
As your operations and IoT network grow, so do your storage needs. You can work around this by storing data in both your IoT devices and on a cloud network.
According to industry experts such as the Cloud Council, cloud storage is the recommended storage type. However, if you plan to store data in the IoT devices as well, you can use methods such as MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random-Access Memory).
MRAM stores data using magnetic fields and is ideal for industries where fast-paced data storage and retrieval are needed, such as telecom or aerospace.
Upgrade to IPv6
IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) was the previous standard used to identify devices on a network. As you scale, you’ll need to support a wider range of IoT devices.
To enable this expansion, you’ll need to upgrade to IPv6, the latest standard that uses a 128-bit address format to cater to 340 undecillion addresses. Just make sure your IoT devices are compatible with IPv6.
Ensure Network Security
Because of security weak points such as patching challenges and default credentials, IoT devices are vulnerable to cyberthreats. To prevent a breach, start by thoroughly evaluating and vetting IoT device vendors based on your security concerns.
On your end, you’ll need to conduct a thorough risk analysis and device and protocol audit. This will allow you to create suitable IoT policies to enforce across each business function.
Set Up Network Monitoring
As with any new technological implementation, monitoring each part of the process is vital. A growing number of IoT devices and the numerous events they support need to be tracked and optimized.
To ensure that, you need to evaluate each of these variables and plan an adaptable and scalable monitoring policy.
You can achieve this using a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) or centralized dashboards such as ThingsBoard to identify anomalies, track device health, and prevent business downtime.
IoT – Growth Accelerant for Diverse Businesses
With the right gateway, connectivity, infrastructural upgrades, and most importantly, monitoring, you can unlock the real value of IoT data to guide your decisions, reduce risk, and accelerate business growth.
No matter which category your business falls into, the steps above allow you to scale your IoT network with convenience and efficiency, putting you on track for your next growth phase.
