The first module “IoT Business & Products” focuses on the influence of IoT and provides an overview of the trends in North America and the world’s IoT market and industry. The differences in IoT products and services are also described followed by an introduction of the types of leading IoT companies and products, which include Atmel, Android Things, Samsara, ZingBox, and Uber. In addition, IoT services types (i.e., M2M, M2P, P2M, P2P) and their economic impact and the advantages of IoT applications as well as the IoT & M2M ecosystem are introduced.

The second module “IoT Architecture & Technologies” focuses on the functionality and characteristics of the IoT architecture layers as well as the characteristics of IoT technologies, which include WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks), IoT cloud computing, IoT R&D (Research & Development), and IoT hardware technologies. Further details are provided in the descriptions of the characteristics of IoT sensors types, actuator types, and RFID types as well as the functionality and characteristics of IoT device platforms, which include the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and BeagleBoard products. Next, a comparison of the representative IoT developer platform products is presented, which include the Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, BeagleBoard, Beaglebone Black, and the Arduino systems Uno R3 (for entry and general purpose), Yun (for IoT), and Lilypad (for wearable).

The third module “IoT Networks” focuses on the functionality and characteristics of IoT wireless networks, the IoT network architecture, and wearable IoT networks. To describe the frequency requirements, the characteristics and requirements of the ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band are introduced. Next, the functionality and characteristics of IoT wireless communication technologies based on WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), WPAN (Wireless Personal Area Network), and LPWAN (Low-Power Wide Area Network) are described. Then further details on WPAN (which include Bluetooth, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, and IEEE 802.15.4 technology) and LPWAN (which include LoRa, UNB, Sigfox, and NB-IoT) are provided. In addition, the advantages of IoT and 5G mobile communication networks and the characteristics of mMTC (massive MTC) is covered.

The fourth module “Wi-Fi & Bluetooth” focuses on the details of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology. First, Wi-Fi technology and the WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) market is introduced, followed by a description of the functionality of Wi-Fi transmission modes (which include the Infrastructure mode and the Ad-Hoc mode) and wireless APs (Access Points) as well as BSS (Basic Service Set) and ESS (Extended Service Set) network formations. The internal process of Wi-Fi operations and role of DCF (Distributed Coordination Function) and CSMA/CA (Carrier-Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance) are described followed by the characteristics of Wi-Fi standards (which include the IEEE 802.11a, 11b, 11e, 11g, 11n, 11p, 11ac, 11ad, 11ah specifications), Wi-Fi PHY (Physical Layer) modulation schemes, as well as the IFS (Inter-Frame Space) types and how IFSs are used in priority access control. In addition, the advantages of Wi-Fi Dual Band and Wi-Fi Direct are introduced. Second, Bluetooth standards and feature evolution are introduced, which include the specifications from 1.1 to 5 including EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), HS (High Speed), BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), and Beacon technology. The description incudes the characteristics of Bluetooth piconets and types of operations (which include Classic Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy)) as well as the channel specifications, advertising, and connection events.