IoT Reference Design Framework

The IoT industry seems deeply preoccupied over ideas for IoT reference architectures, cloud-based platforms and edge computing technologies. However, before solution designers leap to the latest flavor of technology, it is worth stepping back to reflect on the characteristics of an IoT application or, more realistically, a group of interoperable applications and then to translate these into a set of logical requirements.

The next step is to map these logical requirements into a physical architecture, which entails a process of design, performance and cost trade-offs, to select suitable technical solutions. This approach avoids the pitfalls of working back from any given technology and positing it as the solution to all IoT problems.