Happy News, IoT Enthusiasts!

The Internet of Things (IoT) industry has been on the rise since the 2010’s, and so is the demand for IoT developers of a wide range of technological specialties. Products of IoT are gradually invading all of our daily-life aspects, from home automation systems, to smart gadgets, to industrial automation, and more. The fact that IoT is becoming a major category of sub specializations is inevitable, and quickly becoming popular among both engineering and IT disciplines.

Despite the economical setbacks in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IoT industry still stands in the five major evolving technologies of the next era, claimed by many to be the second Information Technology Revolution, after the first one of the late 90’s. Even though the worldwide outbreak of coronavirus pandemic slowed down the IoT industry expansion in 2020, IoT will return in pace and reach an extension rate of 11.3% from 2020 to 2024, according to the International Data Corporation forecast.

The IoT field stands just in par with technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, augumented reality, and blockchain. The IoT technology is becoming almost obligatory in applications of healthcare, retail, automotive, and entertainment.

Many people are interested in involving themselves in the IoT industry, ranging from hobbyists to professional; however, a common mistake is that many of those think that IoT is a one narrow specialization by itself, which is wrong. In fact, high-end professional IoT products are made by multidisciplinary teams combing different sets of related, yet separate specializations to get these project done.

If you are an IoT enthusiast, engineer, or even a manager in any relevant technological industry, it’s a great idea to understand where you stand in these specializations, as it will help climb up your technical and professional ladders much more efficiently!

So, What are the Specializations?

There are so many technologies powering the IoT, this includes everything from different microcontroller models, development kits, programming languages, network protocols, web services, and more. However, we believe all of these technologies and tools will fall under either one of these standard technical specializations:

Embedded Systems (Hardware)

Embedded Systems have been a chief technology in industries like aerospace & defense, automotive, medical devices, communication, and industrial mechanization during the past decades. With more and more advancement in the processor architecture and enhanced computational capacity in the embedded devices, the brains and competencies of the devices rose rapidly. We have wrote an article earlier about the concept of embedded systems from a literature point of view.

The advancement in the microcontrollers (MCU) industry, thanks to the advancement of the semiconductors industry, have allowed embedded systems developers to have smaller, cheaper, yet more capable MCUs. The use of high-performing, high-density MCUs involving more complex, multi-processing, and even integrated wireless cores and architectures, such as Arm Cortex M and A series, has been on the rise steadily.

Even though 32-bit MCUs are getting more and more popular, 8-bit counterparts are still being used and favored in many designs. It’s a good idea to explore different options from Microchip / Atmel, Texas Instruments, NXP, Espressif, and STMicroelectronics. In NMT Electronics, we have been developing our own embedded systems educational kits around these products for learners and intermediates alike!

Additionally, there has been a surge usage and supply of embedded development modules and kits from so many brands; notable examples are Arduino, Espressif-based development boards, Teensy 4.0, Particle Boron, Raspberry Pi, and many more.

If you are someone into IoT, but come from an electrical, electronics, or computer engineering background, then embedded systems should be your first choice to hustle and play with! Embedded systems engineering skills are a powerful asset in your career, not only in IoT, but also in other fields such as medical, automotive, industrial, even aerospace automation.

Embedded Systems (Software)

A hardware product without software is like a body without a soul: it’s dead, it will not function. Software skills for embedded systems are just as important as the hardware of it, no wonder many embedded engineers and enthusiasts can do both, even if they are specialized in one part more than the other.

Many dedicated programming languages, Integrated Development Environments (IDE), and operating systems are powering the development hardware we have mentioned. Although the official and classic way of programming microcontrollers is using C/C++ or assembly, many other way can be used, especially when kit manufacturers develop their own programming platforms. For example, Arduino IDE is used to program all Arduino boards and many more. As well, there are many hardware that can be programmed using two or more methods as needed. As well, there are many dedicated languages that have evolved just for embedded use, such Lua, uPython (micro Python), and some others.

FreeRTOS, Yocto, MBED, Contiki, Embedded Linux, TinyOS, and Windows 10 IoT are examples of operating systems (OS)  for both embedded and IoT devices usage. While programming an MCU from scratch (using C/C++ or assembly) offers more control of everything, using an OS, or a dedicated language with its third party libraries is much more common and saves a lot of headache, money and time for beginners.

Programming of IoT and embedded devices has special constraints, and is very different from desktop or mobile programming. Most IoT and embedded projects have strict power, storage, and performance constraints, where optimization is a must, not an option.

There are also many great opportunities in the embedded software specialization, which is often a side-to-side work with embedded hardware engineers and specialists.

Electronics Engineering

We can’t skip this part, can we? Electronics engineering combines side to side with computer engineering to make up the embedded systems specialization; you can’t understand embedded hardware to a professional level, without understanding how electrons run there. Additionally, you can’t just come up with a functional embedded system without knowing how to power it, interface it with other components, and monitor its performance. Even embedded software specialists have to have an idea of how electronics work, and be aware of the most basic components and technologies.

Electrical, electronics, and computer engineering are in strict bond, of course, until the day computer engineers figure out how to implement something more efficient than electrons. As these three disciplines combine in embedded systems, they also combine in the technology of Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). PCB is a handy technology that has evolved since the 70’s; it allowed mankind to make printable copper traces, rather than wires. Since then, PCBs keep getting smaller, more sophisticated, and more efficient. The latest technologies of PCB are essential to understand, in order to make portable, power-efficient, and flexible IoT products.

The good news about the PCB industry is that it is still evolving, with so many technologies becoming more popular and more available to enthusiasts, such as the implementation of muli-layer PCBs, rigid-flex PCBs, and fully flexible PCBs. According to many reliable resources, the pool of qualified PCB engineer is running short, as various designers are nearing retirement. The industry necessitates more skilled PCB designers. 

In the many topics of electronics engineering, power electronics is also a must-mention sub specialization. The technologies of power electronics have been on the rise with more electric devices being developed to replace other “less-clean” sources of energy. On the other hand, power electronics have also evolved as computers (including mobiles) kept evolving smaller, denser, and more advanced. Two notable achievements of power electronics for embedded systems and IoT are wireless charging, and switching convertors.

Mixed-signal systems design and implementation is also crucial, as almost all embedded and IoT systems have both types of signals (digital and analog). We have an article just for mixed-signal systems! Also, keep an eye on our social media channels, where we post a LOT of useful informational posts about electronics!

There are many other relevant sub specializations in electronics (and even electrical) hardware, such as telecommunications, antennas, electromagnetism and more. However, we have featured the most important things for beginners, are other specializations are often left to the more senior, academically advanced people. Never forget: after all, an IoT systems is all electrons before going wireless!

Telecommunications & Networks

The internet is, after all, a large network of many computers and embedded (IoT) devices connected to it. In this internet-driven technology, life has become much more relaxed and is suspected to progress shortly. Whether an IoT system is connected to the internet using a standard computer network technology, such as Ethernet or WiFi, using cellular technologies, or using dedicated lower-level connectivity’s (see the infographic below), it will eventually connect to a computer network, and implement its standard protocols. 

Technological know-how of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, TCP/IP, UDP, cloud computing, WiFi, Bluetooth is a something that powers the development of IoT. Some network engineers (which is a dedicated discipline) can specialize in IoT technologies, mastering other technologies mentioned in the infographic above. As well, the demand of cybersecurity specialization for IoT devices is a thing, and is evolving with it.

Additionally, understanding how telecommunications work is a must; just like embedded devices, there are so many technologies and modules for so many uses. It is a good idea to understand the theory of communication, the modulation, the bandwidth, the transfer rate, and more. For example, it is very inefficient to use a WiFi device just to monitor the room’s temperature; you will have to select your communication means wisely.

The search for proficient communication experts, and industry-certified networking specialists is anticipated to expand in the future. The advancement of new technologies has boosted the requirement for specialists at relevant departments.

Software Development

Not to be confused with low-level embedded software that is often dedicated to a family of hardware devices, we are talking about desktop- and mobile-based development. Where there is an IoT device, there is internet, and where there is internet, there is client device (desktop or mobile) somewhere, even a thousand kilometers away.

Most IoT systems, especially in the consumer applications field, will include a user-friendly interface for monitoring and controlling. The widespread usage of personal computers and mobile devices has eliminated the need of making dedicated user interfaces; instead of making a controller to your client, you can just make them a software interface that can work across their entire daily-use devices.

Software user interfaces may be visual web services, or desktop or mobile services and applications. Web developers and mobile app developers are frequently in search. Though software development is considered to be an extra in an IoT business, software developing parties may still be involved, even as business partners and technology allies.

Worth mentioning the cloud computing technologies that allowed us to only acquire the data from IoT devices, and process them later in more-capable servers, sometimes implementing machine learning algorithms. Such technologies, besides distributed computing, have enables us to have highly-modular, highly-flexible systems that can be easily implemented over a large geographical area, ensuring an unprecedented level of efficiency and connectivity.

We will not talk any further about the vast world of software development, as it is a very common specialization at the meantime, and there are way better specialized societies for it, but remember: that IoT system you are aspiring will look much more appealing with a mobile application or web interface; if you can’t do it, partner with someone to do it for you!

Wrapping It Up!

The IoT industry is swiftly expanding as a technological domain. With the inevitable possibility for this industry to expand and prosper, specializing in any of the domains we have mentioned is an exciting opportunity for those who are passionate about this field. If you specialize in one of these categories, we can guarantee you a close encounter of the IoT technologies, whether you are asking for it or not. Again: IoT is not a specilization by itself, rather a technology implementing different specializations!

We hope you have enjoyed this article, as we will be discussing some of the stated technologies above separately in later articles. Tell us about your current or intended specialization in the comments until then!