What is IoT?

Internet of Things: the meaning

So Internet of Things has a general meaning: devices or products that can be connected to the Internet and send data online. But why would we want specific objects, devices and other things connected to the Internet? We explain today's trend.

Internet of Things: some examples

Internet of Things has become indispensable in various devices. Many companies are incorporating various Internet-connected displays into their products. They do this to make life easier, more comfortable and safer. For example, you can use your phone to see who is ringing your doorbell. Or get a signal that the washing machine is ready. But also think of service purposes; if an appliance breaks down, the supplier can easily contact the appliance to see what is wrong. In addition, a connection to the Internet also gives a certain status. An appliance with an easy and quick to operate panel, with internet, is part of the more luxurious versions of appliances/products nowadays.

The convenience and safety

Internet of Things was created to make everyday life easier, safer and more comfortable. So-called smart working offers convenience. With sensors, our environment can be used as a huge online data factory for smart applications.

Internet of Things at Confed

At Confed, we also take the trend of smart working and Internet of Things seriously. The various technologies at Confed support Internet of Things and allow our products to function optimally, just the way you want. 

The various supporting IoT systems at Confed:

• LoRa, or Long Range Low Power, is an LP-WAN technology, which can exchange small packets of data between objects and systems. As the name implies, its power consumption is low and its range is long.
• LTE-M is a type of low power wide area network radio technology to enable a wide range of mobile devices and services.
• NB-IoT (NarrowBand-Internet of Things) is a standard low power wide area (LPWA) technology. It too is designed to enable a wide range of new IoT devices and services.
• The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a utility that provides users with timing, navigation and positioning (PNT) services.
• Wi-Fi, this wireless technology connects computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices to the Internet. 
• Bluetooth is a wireless connection between devices over short distances.
• VoLTE (Voice over Long-Term Evolution) is an LTE standard for high-speed wireless communications for cell phones and data terminals, including Internet of Things devices and wearables. 
• MQTT is a lightweight network protocol that transports messages between devices. 
• InfluxDB is an open-source time series database. It is written in the Go programming language for storing and retrieving time series data, such as monitoring operations, application statistics, Internet of Things sensor data and real-time analytics.
• Grafana is a multi-platform open source analytics and interactive visualization Web application. It provides graphs and alerts for the Web when connected to supported data sources.

Would you like to learn more about the possibilities of Internet of Things for your products at Confed? If so, please feel free to contact us without obligation. We will think with you about various issues and solutions.