IoT Tools

The IoT has great potential to transform our lives, but it is currently hampered by uncertainty, caused by a lack of interoperability and security. When looking to build an IoT application you are faced with a confusing mix of technologies that may or may not be compatible. To ensure these components work together you must source them from a single provider, with no guarantee that they will work with different systems in the future.

Nominet’s vision is that the IoT should be easy, interoperable and predictable, so that it should be as easy to build an application as it is to create a website. To help make this a reality Nominet has created the IoT Tools.

The Nominet IoT Tools are designed to make it easy to build and manage secure, future-proof IoT applications. They address specific pain-points in the process of creating and running an IoT application.

The IoT Tools can be used independently or as a set, depending on your requirements. They use existing Internet standards to communicate so they can easily work with other IoT software tools, both now and in the future.

PUTTING THE INTERNET IN THE INTERNET OF THINGS

DEVICES IOT REGISTRY

IOTBRIDGE

DATA-STORE GEO-VIS END

APP

TURING NETWORK ANALYTICS

APPANALYTICS

CASE STUDY 1SMART CAR PARKING:The smart car parking system provides a real-time pictureof car park utilisation. It uses magnetic sensors placed in carpark spaces to collect data, which can also be used to analysehistorical occupation data for optimising car parking. The systemuses Nwave’s car parking sensors to monitor for occupancy, and theNominet IoT Tools to collect, store and analyse the data and display it ona map. It uses a combination of the low-power Weightless-N wireless protocol,Ethernet and fibre to connect the sensors to the Internet.

The IoT Registry uses the DNS open internet standard to connect IoT devices and services, regardless of whom they are made by.

NOMINET’S IOT TOOLS IOT REGISTRY

WHY DO YOU NEED THE IOT REGISTRY?

• Proven technology - unlike the many IoT platforms on offer, DNS is universally available, scalable and proven as a core service of today’s internet

• Future-proof - decouples devices from specific cloud services, protecting your investment in your IoT network

• Reduce costs - with the freedom to select components from different vendors

• Secure - uses DNSSEC to authenticate and secure devices

WHAT CAN THE IOT REGISTRY DO?

• Easily reroute data without needing to re-configure devices or install new software• Enables both cloud to device and device to cloud connections• Provides each device and data stream with a globally-unique identifier• Storage for device meta-data• Uses established, scalable and proven internet protocols • Root of trust established via DNSSEC, simplifying security process

MANAGEMENT UIThe Management UI sits across the various tools, providing a straightforward and intuitive interface to your IoT application.

WHY DO YOU NEED THE MANAGEMENT UI?

• Simplifies device management - quickly identify issues with devices, such as connectivity or battery level• Easy to use - The same interface can be used in the field or back in the office

WHAT CAN THE MANAGEMENT UI DO?

• Provides a single view of all devices and data streams on a single page• First line data quality indicators• Responsive design automatically adjusts so it can be viewed on any device, such as smartphone, tablet or PC• Allows new devices to be easily added or modified

The Data Analytics tool is a cloud service that can perform deep user analysis on disparate sets of data.

DATA ANALYTICS

WHY DO YOU NEED DATA ANALYICS?

• Improve data quality - by easily identifying and filtering errant data• Understand your data - with the ability to quickly drill down on individual data points and see trends between streams

WHAT CAN THE DATA ANALYTICS TOOL DO?

• Fast data visualisation of time-series and trends • Data annotation capabilities• Data quality markers can be attached to data • Data filtering functionality• Apache Spark architecture for fast, proven scalability and testing framework• Can be used in conjunction with the Nominet Turing network analytics tool

The IoT Bridge is a cloud service for processing, transforming, and distributing data from IoT devices.

IOT BRIDGE

WHY DO YOU NEED THE IOT BRIDGE?

• Interoperable - accept a range of protocols and data formats, providing interoperability with many other systems • Flexible - in-line transformations via JavaScript for easy to achieve data conversions and calculations• Open - data can be accessed at any point of the process and pushed to any other application or service

WHAT CAN THE IOT BRIDGE DO?

• Supports MQTT(S) and HTTP(S) protocols along with JSON data and standard image formats• Create your own functions or use pre-defined recipes to process data• Enables data to be pushed, pulled and queued to other services• Data streams can be combined, split or rerouted

DATASTOREThe Datastore is for long-term storage of multiple data types.

WHY DO YOU NEED THE DATASTORE?

• Save time - the Datastore simplifies the deployment and management of data storage• Flexible - can handle multiple data types

WHAT CAN THE DATASTORE DO?

• InfluxDB solution for in-memory fast time-series data manipulation• MongoDB solution allowing data payloads to be stored in generalised document format• Dedicated image store for fast processing of larger files• Can provide open or closed access as required• Data filtering functionality

CASE STUDY 2

TV WHITE SPACE:TV white space (TVWS) is a new wireless communicationstechnology that provides broadband-speed data links overseveral kilometers in license-free spectrum. Devices contact anOfcom qualified geo-location database which provides channeland power transmission parameters at 15 minute intervals. Nominetbuilt the first TVWS database to pass Ofcom qualification and has beenrunning a pilot in Oxford for the last 18 months. The technology has beenused to provide connectivity for an IoT network at a community-run eco-parksouth of the city where conventional technologies could not reach. As a bonus TVWSalso had the capacity to provide the eco-park with Wi-Fi for its community café.

Turing uses patent pending technology to provide a unique real-time picture of the traffic on your IoT network.

TURING FOR IOT

WHY DO YOU NEED TURING FOR IOT?

• Proven technology - monitors the 4 billion DNS queries seen every day on the .uk zone and is also deployed on some of the world’s largest commercial networks• Peace of mind - that your IoT network is

behaving as expected • Improved visibility - protect yourself against network threats, such as security issues and malicious actions• Better data - improve operations by identifying misconfigurations early

WHAT CAN TURING FOR IOT DO?

• Can scale from a few to millions of devices• Intuitive interface which provides ability to quickly focus on unexpected network behaviour• Unique real-time picture of traffic on IoT networks

CASE STUDY 3OXFORD FLOOD NETWORK:The Flood Network is a system for monitoring and visualisingthe risk of flooding through the measurement of river-levels inreal-time. It uses a network of low-cost internet-connected sensorsto generate high resolution spatial data, enabling citizens and localauthorities to mitigate the impact of flooding.

The Oxford Flood Network uses the IoT Tools for device management,processing and publishing data. The sensors are connected to the internet usinga wide range of network technologies including 868Mhz ISM band, WiFi, ADSL, fibreand even an experimental TV white space wireless link.

The Geo-Visualisation tool lets you easily publish different types of sensor data on a user-friendly web based map interface.

GEO-VISUALISATION

WHY DO YOU NEED GEO-VISUALISATION?

• Makes data accessible - turns data into accessible information that can be explored by anyone• Explore your data - a very intuitive interface

for wide area IoT data, allowing you to quickly see historical and real-time data in one view

• Customisable - change the look and feel of the map to make it your own

WHAT CAN GEO-VISUALISATION DO?

• Plot your data on web maps alongside geographic features• Plot the paths of moving objects along with their sensor readings• Integrate images into your map• The look of the map can be easily tailored depending on the application • Can use map tiles from a number of sources, such as Mapbox or Ordnance Survey

CONNECTIVITYThe IoT Tools have been tested and used with a wide range of connectivity solutions, including:

• Bluetooth Low Energy• Wi-Fi• Proprietary 868Mhz short range/wide bandwidth radios• LPWAN - Nwave and LoRA, long range/low bandwidth radios• 3GPP Mobile technologies• TV white space

ABOUT NOMINETNominet is responsible for a vital part of today’s UK internet

infrastructure, running the .UK namespace and handling billions of DNS queries every day to connect millions of users with

content and services.

We have built on this expertise to develop systems and tools that use existing standards to integrate the Internet of Things into the

existing Internet infrastructure. Already tested in a number of exciting projects, we are seeking partners to deploy these tools at

scale to gather, access and process information froma large network of devices.

If you think Nominet’s IoT Tools could be of use in yourIoT project, and you are keen to partner with an innovative

team in this area, then please contact us.

Contact our R&D team:t: +44 (0) 1865 332233

e: RandD@nominet.uk