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to the connected state, for example. The enormous scale of IoT interconnectivity

would be at least an order of magnitude exceeding the devices connected to the cur­

rent Internet (Zennaro, 2016). Cisco predicted that by 2020, more than 25 billion

things will be interconnected on the IoT network globally (Bansal and Rana, 2017).

This magnitude far exceeds what the current TCP/IP networks can handle without

compromising security and quality of service (QoS) standards. The IoT promises to

be an open architecture.

16.4  INNOVATIVE FEATURES OF IOTA FOR

THE INTERNET OF THINGS

IoT is a data-sharing network whereby interconnected devices can exchange data

among themselves. Specifically, IOTA provides a platform that enables IoT devices

to build applications that could run on the Tangle. Some IoT devices have sufficient

inherent power to compute the IOTA Tangle’s PoW requirement, while others do not.

IOTA provides optional middleware to aid power-deficient IoT devices to calculate

PoW. Besides, IOTA has various hardware that could support a variety of applica­

tions. Typically, CryptoCore can support applications that require fast, dedicated

PoW and secure memory (Foundation-IOTA, 2021). Others that could support WiFi

and low Bluetooth energy are also available. Further, single-board computers for

building highly power-consuming applications are publicly available. Examples of

boards supported by IOTA are nRF52 and ESP32 single-board computers, among

others IoT DCE, as shown in Figure 16.8 (Foundation-IOTA, 2021).

FIGURE 16.8  Overview of IoT DCE. (From Zhao, H. and Johnson, M., Global Information

Infrastructure, Internet Protocol Aspects, Next-generation Networks, Internet of Things, and

Smart Cities, International Telecommunication Union, 2015.)