The Internet of Things (IoT) is a revolutionary technology shaping the landscape of industries from healthcare to logistics. But the sheer amount of jargon can often be overwhelming. This article aims to dispel the confusion, presenting 100 common IoT-related terms and acronyms.
- IoT: Internet of Things refers to a network of interconnected devices and objects capable of collecting and exchanging data without human intervention.
- IIoT: Industrial Internet of Things refers to IoT applications specifically in an industrial context, like manufacturing and energy management.
- AI: Artificial Intelligence is the development of computer systems able to perform tasks requiring human intelligence, such as speech recognition, decision-making, and more.
- API: Application Programming Interface is a set of rules allowing different software applications to communicate with each other.
- BLE: Bluetooth Low Energy is a wireless communication standard designed for short-range communication between devices, with low power consumption.
- CoAP: Constrained Application Protocol is a web transfer protocol used with constrained nodes and networks in the IoT.
- CSP: Cloud Service Provider offers services related to cloud computing, usually categorized into Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).
- DDoS: Distributed Denial of Service is a cyber-attack where multiple systems flood the bandwidth of a targeted system, causing it to become inaccessible.
- Edge Computing: It’s the concept of processing and analyzing data near its source, reducing latency and bandwidth use.
- Firmware: Firmware is a type of software that provides control, monitoring and data manipulation of engineered products and systems.
- Gateway: In IoT, a gateway is a device that bridges the communication between IoT devices and the cloud, processing and analyzing data before sending it.
- Home Automation: A subset of IoT, enabling automatic control of household features, activity, and appliances.
- IPv6: Internet Protocol Version 6 is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol, the set of rules that dictate how data is sent and received over the internet.
- LPWAN: Low Power Wide Area Network refers to a type of wireless telecommunication network designed to allow long-range communications using less power.
- MQTT: Message Queuing Telemetry Transport is a lightweight messaging protocol for small sensors and mobile devices, optimized for high-latency or unreliable networks.
- NFC: Near Field Communication is a set of protocols enabling two electronic devices to communicate within a distance of 4 cm or less.
- OTA: Over The Air refers to the wireless delivery of new software or data updates to IoT devices.
- RFID: Radio-Frequency Identification uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags attached to objects.
- Smart Grid: It’s an electrical grid which uses IoT and other information technology to gather and act on information.
- Telemetry: It is the automatic recording and transmission of data from remote or inaccessible sources to an IT system in a central location for monitoring and analysis.
- Zigbee: It is a standard for wireless communication ensuring low-power digital radio communication, used primarily in short-range, low-rate wireless personal area networks (WPANs).
- Z-Wave: It’s a wireless communications protocol used primarily for home automation and security systems.
- 5G: Fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks, known for its high speed and low latency.
- Blockchain: A system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, cheat, or hack the system.
- Botnet: A network of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owners’ knowledge.
- Broadband: High-speed internet service that gives fast, uninterrupted access to the web.
- Cloud Computing: Storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive.
- Cryptocurrency: A type of digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security.
- Cybersecurity: The practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks.
- Data Breach: An incident where information is stolen or taken from a system without the knowledge or authorization of the system’s owner.
- Encryption: The process of converting data to an unrecognizable or encrypted form, to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access.
- Endpoint Security: An approach to network protection that requires every device on a network to comply with certain standards before network access is granted.
- Firewall: A network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules.
- Geofencing: A location-based service in which an app or other software uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device or RFID tag enters or exits a virtual boundary set up around a geographical location.
- LAN: Local Area Network is a computer network that interconnects computers within a limited area such as a residence, school, laboratory, university campus or office building.
- M2M: Machine to Machine refers to direct communication between devices using any communications channel, including wired and wireless.
- MAC Address: Media Access Control Address is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment.
- Machine Learning (ML): An application of AI that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.
- Malware: Any software intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network.
- Microcontroller: A compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded system.
- Node: In the IoT context, a node is an endpoint or a redistribution point within a network, like a connection point, either a redistribution point or an end point for data transmissions.
- OSI Model: Open Systems Interconnection model is a conceptual model that characterises and standardises the communication functions of a telecommunication or computing system without regard to its underlying internal structure and technology.
- Phishing: A cybercrime in which a target is contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data.
- Quantum Computing: A type of computation that harnesses the collective properties of quantum states, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement, to perform calculations.
- Ransomware: A type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid.
- Real-time Processing: A type of computer processing that enables a system to immediately respond to input.
- Sensor: A device that detects or measures a physical property and records, indicates, or otherwise responds to it.
- Smart City: A city that uses IoT sensors and technology to connect components across a city to derive data and improve the lives of its citizens and visitors.
- VPN: Virtual Private Network extends a private network across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.
- WAN: Wide Area Network is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area for the primary purpose of computer networking.
- Wi-Fi: A technology that uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet and network connections.
- Big Data: A field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software.
- Data Analytics: The science of analyzing raw data in order to make conclusions about that information.
- Data Mining: The process of discovering patterns in large data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems.
- Digital Twin: A digital replica of a physical asset, process or system that can be used for various purposes.
- Ecosystem: In the context of IoT, an ecosystem refers to a complex network or interconnected system of devices, entities, and people that interact digitally.
- Embedded System: A combination of computer hardware and software, either fixed in capability or programmable, designed for a specific function within a larger system.
- Fog Computing: An architectural design which concentrates resources and services of computing, storage and networking close to a user or end device.
- HMI: Human-Machine Interface is a component or software that allows for interaction between a human and a machine, system, or device.
- IoE: Internet of Everything is a broader term that includes the machine to machine communications, processes, data, and human interaction with the machines in the IoT.
- LoRaWAN: Long Range Wide Area Network is a protocol for wireless communication at a long range with low power consumption, making it ideal for IoT applications.
- Microservices: A software development technique where an application is structured as a collection of loosely coupled services.
- OPC UA: OPC Unified Architecture is a machine to machine communication protocol for industrial automation.
- PLC: Programmable Logic Controller is a specialized computer used for industrial automation to automate different electro-mechanical processes.
- Provisioning: The process of setting up or configuring the necessary hardware and software to activate a device’s network or Internet service.
- Roaming: The ability for a cellular customer to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services, including home data services, when travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network.
- SCADA: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition is a control system architecture comprising computers, networked data communications and graphical user interfaces for high-level process supervisory management.
- Thread: An IPv6-based, low-power, secure and self-healing wireless communication protocol for IoT products.
- Time Series Database (TSDB): A software system that is designed to handle time series data, arrays of numbers indexed by time.
- UX: User Experience refers to a person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service.
- VDI: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure is the practice of hosting a desktop operating system within a virtual machine running on a centralized server.
- Virtualization: The process of creating a virtual version of something, including but not limited to a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system, storage device, or network resources.
- Wearable Technology: Devices designed to be worn by a consumer that include tracking information related to health and fitness, are able to sync with mobile devices, and can run mobile apps.
- WebRTC: Web Real-Time Communication is a free, open-source project providing browsers and mobile applications with Real-Time Communications via simple APIs.
- WSN: Wireless Sensor Network is a group of specialized transducers with a communications infrastructure for monitoring and recording conditions at diverse locations.
- Zero-Day: A vulnerability in software that’s unknown to those who should be interested in its mitigation, including the vendor of the software.
- 6LoWPAN: An acronym of IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks is a networking technology or adaptation layer that allows IPv6 packets to be carried efficiently within small link layer frames, such as those used by Zigbee and other low-power RF standards.
- 802.11ah (Wi-Fi HaLow): A wireless networking protocol—part of the Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 specifications—that brings long-range, low-power connectivity to the Internet of Things (IoT).
- Data Packet: A unit of data made into a single package that travels along a given network path. Data packets are used in Internet Protocol (IP) transmissions for data that navigates the Web.
- Ingress Filtering: A method used by enterprises and internet service providers (ISPs) to prevent suspicious traffic from entering a network.
- Interoperability: The ability of different information systems, devices and applications to access, exchange, integrate and cooperatively use data in a coordinated manner, within and across organizational, regional and national boundaries.
- Jitter: In the context of networking, jitter is the variation in latency in packet flows in a network.
- Multicast: A type of communication where information is addressed from one point to many points at the same time.
- Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS): A technique for routing network packets.
- Network Function Virtualization (NFV): An initiative to virtualize network services traditionally run on proprietary, dedicated hardware.
- Quality of Service (QoS): Refers to any technology that manages data traffic to reduce packet loss, latency and jitter on the network.
- Rate Limiting: A method for controlling network traffic, where a network administrator configures a limit on acceptance of data packets.
- Software-Defined Networking (SDN): An approach to networking that separates the network control plane from the forwarding plane to enable a more programmable network environment.
- SSL/TLS: Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Layer Security are cryptographic protocols designed to provide secure communications over a network.
- Throttling: The deliberate regulation of the data transfer rate in a communications system.
- Time Division Multiplexing (TDM): A method of transmitting and receiving independent signals over a common signal path by means of synchronized switches at each end of the transmission line.
- Unicast: A type of communication where data is sent from one computer to another computer. In unicast type of communication, there is only one sender, and one receiver.
- VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol is a category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls.
- Cognitive Computing: Systems that learn at scale, reason with purpose and interact with humans naturally.
- Data Lake: A storage repository that holds a vast amount of raw data in its native format until it is needed.
- Edge Device: Any piece of hardware that controls data flow at the boundary between two networks.
- Geolocation: The identification or estimation of the real-world geographic location of an object, such as a radar source, mobile phone, or Internet-connected computer terminal.
- Mesh Network: A network topology in which each node relays data for the network.
- Semantic Analysis: A method used in machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to extract meaning from human language.
- Ubiquitous Computing: A concept where computing is made to appear anytime and everywhere, also known as pervasive computing.
As IoT continues to evolve and permeate various aspects of our lives, understanding the terminology is the first step towards effectively leveraging this transformative technology. This comprehensive glossary serves as a starting point for both beginners and those looking to broaden their IoT vocabulary.