What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?

The most simple definition is a network of devices that have an IP address and can communicate with each other over the internet.

It's just the internet with "things" on it

Okay, let's break it down

• What is a network?
• What is an IP Address?
• What is the internet?
• How do machines communicate over a network?

To understand the Internet of Things (IoT), we need to understand 4 things:

What Is A Network?

A network is a group of computers or other devices connected via cables, telephone lines, radio waves,  or satellites and generally involves all devices to "speak" to each other using a standard, defined protocol.

What is an IP Address?

An IP address is a unique string of numbers separated by periods that identifies each computer using the Internet Protocol to communicate over a network.

This gives computers on a network a "name" or identity that will not be duplicated by any other computer.

What is the internet?

The internet is a global network of public IP addresses that allows computers all over the world to have unique identities and names.

k - got it?

... so what is a "thing"?

Okay, so Now we need to connect the hardware to the internet

but what protocol should we use?

There is no one best protocol or API for client/server communication

We're going to use WebSockets

WebSocket is the only transport that allows bidirectional communication over the same connection. As a result, WebSocket provides low latency delivery of text and binary application data in both directions.