Making an IoT System? Here are 5 Protocols to Consider

Trouble with the IoT connectivity alphabet soup? Here are 5 protocols to consider. (Image courtesy of TE Connectivity.)

Designing an IoT application isn’t an easy task. You have to make the dang product, determine features that will be enhanced by an online experience and, of course, deal with that mountain of data.

But few aspects of IoT design are as murky as determining the optimal protocol to connect that smart device to the internet in the first place.

Let’s face it, the IoT’s list of connection protocols reads like a bowl of alphabet soup. Finding the one that is right for your application, while ensuring the connection will be timeless and compatible with partnereddevices can feel like playing darts with a blindfold.

Thankfully, TE Connectivity has created an infographic which gives the summary of 5 IoT communication protocols including: WIFI, Bluetooth Low Energy, ZIGBEE, LORAWAN and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). The infographic explains the typical application for each protocol, data rates, power consumption, cost, security and range.

Naturally, this is all very high level. An infographic won’t dig deep into the protocols to the point where you can identify the one that is best for your application. However, this infographic can help to quickly eliminate some protocols that do not fit your application.

Needless to say, you will still need to do some research into IoT connectivity protocols. As a result, here are some articles on engineering.com that might assist in this research: