How to Get the Most Out of IIoT Solutions By Maximizing the Potential of Embedded Systems

In the recent ten years, the Internet of Things has shown itself as a breakthrough solution for delivering more informed business strategies, improving customers’ experience, managing assets, automating processes, performing predictive maintenance, and so on. A large role here was played by embedded solutions – hardware and software systems which contribute to the high performance of the whole IoT ecosystem. However, there is no universal method of organizing and deploying the embedded IoT system to guarantee its complete success. On a case-by-case basis, embedded IIoT solutions providers, manufacturers, developers, and business owners have to decide which “things” to equip, how to customize solutions, and how to save without causing harm. However, the future seems to belong to the IoT embedded. 

As McKinsey reports, by 2030, total revenue for 5G IoT embedded modules will increase more than 50 times! This is partly due to deep learning processors and neural processors contributing to exponential growth in performance and energy efficiency of embedded computing systems. However, to make it real, manufacturers of the ready-made solutions have to study deeply the demand to produce off-the-shelf modules for customers’ specific needs. Despite there being an abundance of ready-made embedded systems on the market today, they are not always in strict adherence to customers' business goals. At some point, the question might arise of reducing the cost of a solution in mass production and of a unique form factor or minimizing the dimensions of the devices. All these factors reinforce the need for custom embedded hardware and software development. This article focuses on the main points to consider while designing an embedded system within IIoT solutions to make it capable of improving business.

Embedded Systems for IIoT Solutions: Features and Examples

When it comes to IoT development, we technically talk about embedded systems connected to the Internet. Examples of embedded solutions are sensors, actuators, edge devices, application-specific hardware, smart devices, routers, and switches for embedded networking – and certain other equipment can collect data from the environment or produce intelligent reactions of target objects. In theory, any object, from car and cargo to technical staff in the enterprise, can be equipped with sensors. In view of the IoT ecosystem, the main goal here is to ensure the “collaboration” of all the things within, providing non-stop data circulation. A layer of information and communication technology must be added to connect an embedded system to the IoT ecosystem. 

Like any solution beneficial for business, the IoT ecosystem is created to maximize its performance, which should lead to increased income or decreasing costs for the company. This is what developers should consider from the very beginning. In general, the highly effective nature of embedded systems largely contributed to the global drive of IoT ecosystem deployment on an enterprise scale.

Embedded systems can satisfy a business request with the following features: 

• Real-time computing
• Low power consumption 
• Small size
• High availability
• Affordability of development

Thus, achieving maximum performance while producing is possible, and exploitation costs are minimal. This allows the building of large and multifunctional embedded systems capable of enhancing the whole IoT ecosystem. However, even such significant benefits can be brought down if the specific system is built according to some template without considering specific needs and trends. Below we describe how these benefits can be maximized.

How to Build Embedded Systems Within IIoT Solutions

The issue of how to maximize benefits from the embedded systems often comes down to how to properly design the whole IoT ecosystem since all its components are interdependent. Therefore, the development of the embedded systems within the Enterprise Internet of Things (EIoT) has to be strictly coordinated on a high level and aimed to find the optimal design solutions to solve a specific business issue, optimize or automate processes in the enterprise, and improve security. 

Connect Strategic Design Thinking 

Think out the architecture carefully. One factor is to prove the system’s workability at the PoC stage. Still another – is to show that a specific system’s configuration and chosen IIoT solutions are the optimal way to increase the effectiveness of the target processes in the enterprise. Since embedded systems are created to interact with the environment, here we have to identify the most effective and cost-effective way of interaction considering all available sensor, network, and processor solutions. Think about the information you need to make decisions, how to collect this information, and with what sensors and tools. For instance, monitoring warehouses can be used with both drones and sensors, which can provide temperature measurements. Consider the decisions to be made on edge and cloud layers and how the devices interact in the system. 

Consider Possible Expansion of the IoT Ecosystem

It frequently happens that after launching the embedded device, it begins to slow down due to insufficient computing power. It forces developers to change the working system by redesigning the architecture or replacing the processor with the more powerful one. It takes additional human and time resources. To achieve higher performance and have more options in connectivity, graphic display, and cloud computing, the best solution is to implement a more powerful controller from the very beginning. Calculate how much memory you need, what calculations you need, and the speed of these calculations. Also, new embedded devices connected can compromise connectivity which creates a gap in real-time data analytics. To prevent this, the company, for instance, can consider mesh networks, which become stronger by adding new devices. 

Invest in Custom Embedded Software

Although the emphasis within embedded systems design is on software development, even complex embedded solutions designed, for instance, for avionics, often have software gaps because of the specifics of embedded programming and testing. Embedded software is not as flexible as the application software is since every code line directly influences hardware. Therefore, if embedded hardware development can be low in cost producing even a single unit, we recommend not to save on custom software and pay special attention to it at the development stage. Although you can find off-the-shelf embedded systems on the market, which include software specialized for particular microcontrollers, ready-made embedded solutions significantly narrow their application area. 

Consider the Machine Learning Method With Embedded IIoT Solutions 

By connecting neural network solutions within embedded systems, a company can not only accelerate operations but also save on other system components. For instance, by utilizing machine learning algorithms for visual QA processes in the enterprise, it can save on high-resolution cameras. The greater data that comes, the smarter the system becomes, allowing responsible parties to devote the devices to more responsible tasks. In addition, applying machine learning algorithms within the embedded device eliminates the need to transmit data into the cloud and increases the security level thereby. 

Follow the Trends in Embedded IoT Development

Although the systems themselves are highly efficient, steps are being taken to further reduce power consumption while increasing battery capacity dozens of times. For instance, NB-IoT – is a low-power and wide area network that provides reliable communication between embedded devices. For embedded systems providing vision sensing, there are also some cutting-edge solutions like Etacamera, which is the most energy-effective image capturing system for now. Even embedded computers are becoming more efficient and powerful: the new version of Raspberry Pi significantly exceeds the previous one.

Let Your Device Communicate Without the Internet 

In the multi-layer IoT ecosystem, devices can generally exchange the data locally and transfer it to the cloud. Embedded devices can support various protocols allowing them to communicate without central unit commands. For providing intelligent reactions within edge computing, it would be better to implement internet-free protocols, such as Zigbee or Thread. This makes the system more autonomous and invulnerable to the internet shutdown.  

Trends of Embedded Systems for IIoT Solutions

While the manufacturers are searching for ways to improve the embedded system components, the IoT ecosystem designers and developers are forced to predict possible issues the area might face in the near future. For now, the future looks like this:

• AI widespread introduction. Today, systems with machine learning implemented are becoming more general. Soon there will be enough experience in using Artificial Intelligence in IoT systems to analyze it on a global scale and outline further development ways. Since today it continues to prove its value in various areas, from factories to medicine; whereas the solutions for AI implementation are becoming more affordable, we can expect the AI-based embedded system for every IoT solution.
• Growth of wireless connections. Since we expect the internet everywhere in the future, wireless connections should significantly increase in embedded systems. Therefore, despite a large number of wired connections, embedded systems should adapt to the new connectivity era.
• Increase embedded security solutions. With the exponential growth of IoT devices, there appear to be more points for hacker attacks thereby. Therefore, we can expect the corresponding growth of security solutions within embedded devices. For instance, built-in security silicon from Infineon, Microchip, STMicroelectronics, Micron, Winbond, and others is becoming more frequent in embedded hardware design.
• Extra speed computing. Most likely, it will take a bit more time for quantum computing to become widespread. But when it happens, the computing power will significantly increase, which will lead to a significant increase in the speed of processors, and the whole system as well.

The idea behind IoT ecosystem implementation belongs to investments in the future, and companies don’t expect to see a return on investment immediately. The majority of solutions have the main goal of deep data analysis to make accurate predictions. Therefore, it makes sense to consider these trends embedded to be prepared for the near future. 

Conclusions 

Since the goal of embedded systems is to interact with the environment, they need to be designed to perform a particular function, considering low power consumption factors, secure architecture, reliable processors, and so on. To deliver a highly effective embedded IoT ecosystem, a company should consider the following:

• There are plenty of embedded solutions for IoT on the market. However, to match it with business needs, the company has to invest in customization.
• Despite embedded systems being low-powered and cost-effective in general, companies should consider them within the whole IoT ecosystem to create optimal architecture solutions.
• If you suppose that you found the most cost-effective IIoT solutions with the highest performance potential, check out the trends again.
• Follow the IoT market. New components, devices, and connectivity solutions constantly appear in the market. At any moment, a solution could appear and be considered an ideal match within your IoT ecosystem.