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Driving innovation in IoT with seamless data interoperability

IoT is growing fast. Consider that State of IoT Summer 2024 projected 40 billion IoT devices are projected to be in use by 2030.

McKinsey also projects the total global value driven by IoT will reach between $5.5 trillion and $12.6 trillion by 2030.

At Transcenda, we’ve worked with many companies that have developed or scaled IoT projects. Through our experience with IoT we’ve learned that data interoperability — the ability to exchange and process data between devices — is one of the key factors behind successful IoT projects. 

In this piece, we’ll share some of the lessons we’ve learned supporting organizations in building and enhancing IoT-driven operations and offerings. 

To do so, we’ll walk through three areas of technical consideration that will help an IoT project perform well and meet its KPIs: 

  1. Data Format and Semantics
  2. Resourcing, Latency, and Bandwidth
  3. Balancing Data Interoperability and Security

Finally, we will touch on an area of “soft” consideration when developing and scaling IoT projects — designing the right user experience so the IoT project also feels like a smooth, intuitive, connected system in real world scenarios. 

Area 1: Data format and semantics

Every device in an IoT network needs to generate its own data, and be able to consume data from other connected devices. To do so, connected devices need to produce and consume data that they can all understand. 

Part of this relates to data format —how data is technically structured, written, and encoded. Data format can refer to many things, such as whether it is text or numeric, how date and time are displayed, and if it uses commas or periods in currency. 

Part of this relates to semantics — how data is understood by devices. Data can be technically structured the same way, but still be interpreted as meaning different things by different devices. The data that moves through an IoT network needs to share both a format and an unambiguous meaning between devices.

For example, consider a temperature sensor and a heating/cooling system in a smart home. Both need to have data formatted the same way, so that when the sensor says it’s “20 degrees celsius” the heating/cooling system can receive and process the number and text at a basic level.

Yet the heating/cooling system also needs to understand that the data value “20 degree celsius” means a certain room temperature has been reached, and it may need to raise or lower that temperature based on its programming.

A few ways to ensure shared data format and semantics include:
  • Following open industry standards like Matter, Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Thread when developing or selecting hardware and software components.

  • Using an IoT interoperability platform that collects and standardizes data from devices, like Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, or AWS IoT Core.

  • Creating your own data translation layer that will act like an IoT interoperability platform that’s customized to your unique devices and network.

Area 2: Resourcing, latency, and bandwidth

IoT devices must be able to understand each other’s data. They also must be able to maintain the connectivity needed to send and receive each other’s data in the first place. To do so, there are a few questions to ask:

  • Are the devices powerful enough to maintain good connectivity? IoT devices sometimes have limited computing resources and can struggle to support the complex protocols and constant connectivity required for seamless integration with each other across the network.

  • Can the devices process data on their own? If a device cannot process the data they receive from other devices within their own hardware, they might need to first send that data to a cloud for processing, and then receive it back from the cloud before they can act on it. This can introduce latency into the system.

  • Is there enough bandwidth in the system? IoT devices and the  IoT network design as a whole need a substantial amount of bandwidth to support their massive and ongoing data exchange. This needs to be built into the system design, or compensated for through other means.

These questions make one point clear — it’s important to build IoT systems that have the computing resources and connectivity required to maintain ongoing large-scale data exchange and processing at sufficient volumes.

 One of the best ways to do this is through developing an edge computing environment. Edge computing moves data processing closer to where that data is consumed, or moves the processing onto the device itself. This reduces latency and bandwidth consumption, while allowing much greater connection density. To learn more about edge computing, and how it supports an IoT project, read our article. 

Solutions like AWS Snowball, Azure IoT Edge, and Google Edge TPU make it relatively easy to bring edge computing to IoT networks.

Area 3: Balancing data interoperability and security

Data security is essential within IoT projects, as they often operate within private environments.

For personal use, IoT devices are often in the user’s home. Sometimes they are on the user’s body, and collect personally identifying information and health data. 

For business’, IoT devices are often in environments like factories or healthcare facilities. These facilities contain valuable information, and may be subject to restrictive data privacy regulations. 

Data privacy and security need to be top-of-mind when designing an IoT device, application, or network. It’s critical to follow security best practices consistently across these systems, including but not limited to encryption, authentication, and following a Zero Trust/least privilege network model.

These best practices must also be balanced against the need for the free movement and usage of data across IoT devices within the network.

Maintaining this balance looks like:

  • Allowing open connections between all devices without creating interconnected vulnerabilities.

  • Encrypting data as it moves between IoT devices without adding latency and resource requirements to the system as a whole.
  • Requiring strong passwords and authentication for all devices while avoiding unnecessary user logins or lock outs.

 Every IoT project is different, and has different requirements for security and usability. For this reason, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to meeting both needs — they must be continuously balanced based on the unique context of the system, its operating environment, its industry, and its users.

Keeping sight of the user experience

Addressing the above technical areas of interoperability will help create an IoT project with positive measurable levels of latency, downtime, understanding between devices, and other key objectives. 

However, the success of an IoT project does not only live within a spreadsheet or KPIs. It ultimately lives within the felt experience of the user. For them, it does not matter if the technical performance of the project meets certain thresholds. What matters to users are feelings like:

  • Does it feel like the system is moving too slow?

  • Does it feel like the devices are not cooperating with each other?

  • Does it feel like they have to go through too many security logins?

  • Overall, does it feel like they are operating within a truly connected and cohesive system of devices that makes their life and work better?

These are questions of sentiment, not metrics, and they can only be addressed through a continued focus on designing a great, seamless user experience with intuitive device controls, responses that feel like they are smooth and fast, and a cohesive interface throughout all devices and applications. 

To achieve this,  it’s often best to put user experience design front and center when creating an IoT system.

 Begin by thinking through how people will use this system in their daily lives, what would make it feel seamless and joyful for them, and why they even want a “smart” interconnected system in the first place.

Once you have designed a beautiful user experience, then work backwards to make it as technically flawless as possible. And once you have done so, conduct rigorous user experience testing in real environments and simulated real world scenarios to ensure the system works as planned from both a technical and experiential perspective. 

The easiest way to start is by working within one or more design systems - comprehensive sets of guidelines, standards, and principles, paired with tool kits of UI patterns, code snippets and components to scalably guide product creation.A design system brings together user experience designers with engineers — as well as many other team members — to create a unified, seamless system that both works great in the back and feels great to the front-end user.

To dig deeper into design systems, check out our recent article on the subject, or download our comprehensive eBook.

Developing seamless IoT systems

Building successful IoT systems requires careful consideration of technical and user-focused aspects. From ensuring data format compatibility and semantics to balancing interoperability with security, these elements lay the foundation for robust, connected systems. Moreover, prioritizing user experience transforms IoT projects from functional networks into intuitive, cohesive ecosystems that users can seamlessly navigate and rely on.

At Transcenda, we understand the challenges and opportunities that come with scaling IoT projects. Our experience spans diverse industries, enabling us to support teams at every stage of the product development lifecycle. Whether it’s addressing latency and bandwidth concerns, optimizing device interoperability, or crafting user-centered designs, we’re here to help you achieve measurable results.

To learn more about how we’ve helped organizations with their IoT projects, please review these resources:

Or, if you’d simply like to receive a personal consultation on developing or expanding your IoT projects — contact us today.

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