IoT Data Link Communication Protocol

The IoT Data Link communication protocol provides service to the Network Layer. There are various protocols and standard technologies specified by the different organization for data link protocols.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a short-range wireless communication network over a radio frequency. Bluetooth is mostly integrated into smartphones and mobile devices. The Bluetooth communication network works within 2.4 ISM band frequencies with data rate up to 3Mbps.

There are three categories of Bluetooth technology:

Bluetooth Classic
Bluetooth Low Energy
Bluetooth SmartReady

The features of Bluetooth 5.0 version is introduced as Bluetooth 5 which have been developed entirely for the Internet of Things.

Properties of Bluetooth network

Standard: Bluetooth 4.2
Frequency: 2.4GHz
Range: 50-150m
Data transfer rates: 3Mbps

Advantages of Bluetooth network

It is wireless.
It is cheap.
It is easy to install.
It is free to use if the device is installed with it.

Disadvantages of Bluetooth network

It is a short-range communication network.
It connects only two devices at a time.

Bluetooth Low Energy

Bluetooth low energy (BLE) is a short-range communication network protocol with PHY (physical layer) and MAC (Medium Access Control) layer. It is designed for low-power devices which uses less data. BLE always remain in sleep mode except when the connection between devices is initiated and data transmission occurs, due to this it conserves power of the device. Bluetooth low energy follows the master/slave architecture and offers two types of frames that are adverting and data frames. Slave node sent the advertising frame to discover one or more dedicated advertisement channels. Master nodes sense this advertisement channels to find slaves and connect them.

Z-Wave

Z-Wave is a wireless communication protocol with the frequency of 900MHz. The ranges of Z-Wave lies between 30 meters to 100 meters with the data transfer rate of 100kbps so that it is suitable for small messages in IoT applications for home automation. This communication protocol operates on mesh network architecture with one and several secondary controllers.

Properties of Z-Wave protocol

Standard: Z-Wave Alliance ZAD12837 / ITU-T G.9959
Frequency: 908.42GHz
Range: 30-100m
Data transfer rate: 100kbps

Advantages of Z-Wave protocol

Low power consumption
Remote or local control
Simple installation
Interoperability

Application of Z-Wave protocol

Smart product and IoT based application
Energy saving
Home security

ZigBee Smart Energy

ZigBee is a low power, low data rate wireless personal area network communication protocol. It is mostly used in home automation and industrial settings. Since ZigBee is a low power communication protocol, the IoT power devices used with ZigBee technology. The ZigBee communication protocol is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard operating at the 2.4GHz frequency. The ZigBee protocol supports star, cluster or wireless mesh technology topology.

ZigBee uses the following devices in its network:

Zigbee Coordinator
Zigbee End Device
Zigbee Router

Properties of ZigBee protocol

Standard: ZigBee 3.0 based on IEEE802.15.4
Frequency: 2.4GHz
Range: 10-100m
Data transfer rate: 250kbps

Advantages of ZigBee protocol

Wireless
Mesh networking
Direct communication
Low power consumption

Disadvantages of ZigBee protocol

Costly
Works with low speed within a small distance

Application of ZigBee protocol

Commercial and residential control
Personal and healthcare
Home networking
Industrial control and management
Consumer electronics

LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN refers to Long Rage Wide Area Network which is a wide area network protocol. It is an optimized low-power consumption protocol design to support large-scale public networks with millions of low-power devices. A single operator operates the LoRaWAN. The LoRaWAN network is a bi-directional communication for IoT application with low cost, mobility, and security.