IoT Complexity Made Simple with the Versatility of Erlang and Elixir

The world is on the brink of a transformative industrial revolution known as Industry 4.0. This fourth industrial revolution is revolutionising our lives, work, and interactions on an unprecedented scale. The convergence of technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) has enabled highly sophisticated and interconnected systems. These systems and devices can communicate with each other, automate complex tasks, and even reshape our future.

Automation and systematisation are particularly influential within this revolution, profoundly impacting our society’s future. From factories to smart cities, and autonomous vehicles to health monitoring devices, automation has taken a prominent role in business, industry, and education.

For instance, AI automates tasks in factories, such as quality control and predictive maintenance. IoT powers smart cities that leverage data and technology to enhance residents’ lives. Big data improves healthcare by predicting diseases and developing new treatments.

Despite the potential for new job creation and improved lives, Industry 4.0 also presents challenges. Automation will replace certain jobs, necessitating worker reskilling and retraining. Additionally, this paradigm shift demands new infrastructure like high-speed internet and data centres.

Overall, Industry 4.0 is a transformative force with profound societal implications. It is crucial to understand its benefits and challenges in order to adequately prepare for the future.

The most significant challenges to large-scale IoT adoption

Interoperability and integration

IoT devices and systems from various manufacturers often utilise different protocols, leading to connectivity and communication issues. This lack of interoperability presents challenges and fragmented solutions within the IoT landscape, restricting seamless device compatibility. Consequently, the absence of interoperability can impede the development and deployment of IoT applications, diminish the value of IoT data, and heighten the risk of security breaches.

Erlang/Elixir provides all the tools to easily tackle new and existing protocols.

Thanks to the BEAM being able to handle binary data without the issues currently found in traditional languages used for IoT such as C, .NET and Rust. This significantly speeds up development cycles and integration efforts.

For example, the BEAM can be used to easily decode and encode binary data from different protocols, such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth Low Energy. The BEAM can also be used to easily create and manage distributed systems, which is often required for IoT applications.

The BEAM’s ability to handle binary data and create and manage distributed systems makes it a powerful tool for IoT development. By using Erlang/Elixir, developers can significantly speed up development cycles and integration efforts, and they can create more reliable and scalable IoT applications.

In addition to this, it is worth highlighting that Erlang also plays a crucial role in the message broker ecosystem, due to its unique characteristics. Erlang’s inherent traits, such as low latency, fault tolerance, and massive concurrency, make it well-suited for deploying IoT solutions at an industrial scale. Low latency ensures that messages are delivered swiftly, enabling real-time responsiveness in IoT applications. Fault tolerance ensures that the system can continue operating even in the presence of failures or errors, crucial for maintaining uninterrupted connectivity in IoT environments. Furthermore, Erlang’s ability to handle massive concurrency allows it to efficiently manage the high volume of messages exchanged in IoT systems, ensuring seamless communication across a vast network of connected devices. These desired traits collectively emphasise the vital role a robust message broker backbone, built on Erlang’s foundations, holds in powering the IoT landscape.

Security and privacy

As the number of interconnected devices increases, so does the risk of cyberattacks. Even if the objective of such devices is to provide security. Such devices are often vulnerable to numerous types of security threats due to poor security practices, unpatched software or immature components being deployed in unsecured environments. 

For example, IoT devices can be used to launch denial-of-service attacks, steal sensitive data, or even control physical devices. The security risks associated with IoT devices are often exacerbated by the fact that IoT devices are often deployed in unsecured environments, such as home networks.

Some of the most common security threats associated with IoT devices include:

• Denial-of-service attacks: IoT devices can be used to launch denial-of-service attacks by flooding a network with traffic. This can make it difficult or impossible for legitimate users to access the network.

• Data theft: IoT devices can be used to steal sensitive data, such as passwords, credit card numbers, or personal information. This data can then be used for identity theft, fraud, or other crimes.

• Physical control: IoT devices can be used to control physical devices, such as thermostats, lights, or even cars. This could be used to cause damage, steal property, or even harm people.

Erlang/Elixir provides programming facilities that render whole classes of errors and security threads obsolete and with the possibility of being able to run an Erlang virtual machine using different security models such as an unhackable/ultras-secure Operating System running on seL4, custom Linux-based firmware via Nerves or constrained re-implementations of the BEAM, such as AtomVM.

Robust security and privacy policies are essential for safeguarding sensitive data collected and transmitted by IoT devices, which may include personal and confidential information and/or metadata.

Some of the security features of the BEAM that can benefit IoT development include:

• Fault tolerance: The BEAM is a fault-tolerant language, which means that it can continue to run even if some of its processes fail. This can help to prevent denial-of-service attacks.

• Hot code reloading: The BEAM can reload code without restarting the process. This can help to protect against security vulnerabilities that are discovered in code.

• Distributed systems: The BEAM is a distributed language, which means that it can be used to create applications that run on multiple machines. This can help to protect sensitive data from unauthorised access.

Erlang/Elixir innovations allow developers to build systems and applications using mathematically verified kernels, rather than relying on traditional Linux solutions. This makes Erlang/Elixir ideal for high-security and mission-critical environments, including manufacturing, military, aerospace, and medical devices. In such industries, a failure or security breach could have devastating consequences.

Developers can leverage Erlang/Elixir to build highly secure and reliable systems, enhancing mission safety and reducing susceptibility to attacks and failures.

Scalability

IoT networks need to handle numerous interconnected devices and facilitate the exchange of vast data volumes. The number of interconnected devices is steadily increasing, enabling specialised tasks and coordinated outcomes among devices. With the growing device connections, the network infrastructure must accommodate higher traffic, ensuring sufficient bandwidth and processing power. These situations demand near-real-time responses and low latency to gain a competitive edge.

Erlang/Elixir have been designed to excel in such scenarios, where OTP provides all the necessary functionality to handle such loads in a predictable and scalable manner.

Some of the benefits of using Erlang/Elixir for IoT development include:

• Fault tolerance: This can help to prevent network outages.

• Scalability: Erlang/Elixir is a scalable language, meaning it can be used to create applications that can handle a large number of devices. This can help to handle the increased traffic and processing power requirements of IoT networks.

• (soft) Real-time performance: Erlang/Elixir is a soft real-time language, which means that it can be used to create applications that can respond to events in a timely manner. This can help to meet the low latency requirements of IoT networks.

Data management

With the huge volumes of data generated by IoT devices, it is essential to have effective data management systems to store, process and analyse the data. Identifying the most valuable data sets and using them effectively to create insights that support decision-making and performable actions is crucial. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances, and other objects that are embedded with sensors, software, and network connectivity to collect and exchange data. IoT devices are generating an unprecedented amount of data, which is being used to create new insights and applications.

Erlang/Elixir provides not only the facilities to handle such volumes of data with ease but also the opportunity to identify meaningful data using machine-learning solutions such as Nx, Axon and Bumblebee in production-ready environments.

Some of the benefits of using Erlang/Elixir for data management include:

• Scalability: Erlang/Elixir is a scalable language, which means that it can be used to create applications that can handle large volumes of data.

• Fault tolerance: Erlang/Elixir is a fault-tolerant language, which means that it can continue to run even if some of its processes fail. This can help to prevent data loss.

• Machine learning: Erlang/Elixir has a number of machine learning libraries, such as Nx, Axon, and Bumblebee. These libraries can be used to identify meaningful data sets and create insights that support decision-making.

By processing data, IoT devices and backbones can be made more intelligent and capable of autonomous decision-making. This can lead to improved efficiency, productivity, and safety.

Energy consumption

IoT requires energy to operate devices. With the increasing number of devices, consumption can become a significant challenge. Finding ways to optimise energy usage without sacrificing performance is crucial for large-scale IoT architectures. Work in this area has led the industry to create smaller and smaller chipsets and boards. Many IoT devices are battery-powered or otherwise constrained in terms of their energy supply limiting their operating time, therefore making them less practical in some scenarios. This is one of the reasons why hardware manufacturers are developing more efficient components that consume less energy. On the software side, specialised development frameworks and methodologies are being developed to enable more efficient and optimised code for IoT devices. Optimising energy consumption is a critical challenge for IoT adoption. Both hardware and software solutions are being developed to address these issues. Erlang/Elixir addresses such scenarios by using alternative BEAM implementations such as AtomVM. AtomVM was specifically created for such constrained devices and maintains the high-level development facilities that Erlang/Elixir offers, including fault tolerance, without increasing energy consumption.

Some of the benefits of using Erlang/Elixir and AtomVM for energy-efficient IoT development include:

• Fault tolerance: This can help to prevent devices from crashing, which can lead to energy savings.

• Energy efficiency: AtomVM is an energy-efficient BEAM implementation, which means that it uses less power than other BEAM implementations. This can help to extend the battery life of IoT devices.

• High-level development: Erlang/Elixir is a high-level language, meaning that it is easy to learn and use. This can help to reduce the development time and cost of IoT applications.

Deployment

Deploying IoT devices at scale requires careful planning and coordination. This is a complex process, especially when deploying a large number of devices across multiple locations. It requires expertise in networking, security and device management. In addition, once devices are deployed they need to be maintained and updated on a regular basis. To address these challenges, organisations need to invest in the right tools and processes for managing their IoT deployments. This can include device management platforms that provide centralised management and monitoring of devices, security frameworks that ensure the devices are secure and protected, and data analysis tools that help to make sense of the vast amount of data generated by the devices.

Erlang/Elixir are platforms that have been designed from the ground up to be able to handle massive amounts of concurrent processes and excel at handling vast amounts of data in a predictable fashion. Having your centralized solutions written in Erlang/Elixir will help you tackle the increasing complexity of managing millions of deployed devices at scale.

By using these, developers can create more reliable, scalable, and real-time IoT applications that can meet the challenges of the IoT ecosystem. In addition to the benefits mentioned above, Erlang/Elixir also offers a number of other advantages for IoT development, including:

• Strong community: A strong community of developers who are actively working on new features and libraries. This can be a valuable resource for developers who are new to the language.

• Open-source: As an open-source language, it is free to use and modify. This can save developers money on licensing costs.

Erlang/Elixir harnesses the power of these languages to create innovative, efficient, and resilient IoT applications.

Use cases

Smart Sensors

Smart sensors are crucial components within large-scale IoT systems, serving a wide range of industries such as manufacturing, food processing, smart farming, retail, storage, healthcare, and Smart City applications. These sensors play a vital role in collecting and transmitting valuable data. To meet the diverse needs of these industries, smart sensors must be developed to support specific requirements and ensure reliable real-time operation. The design and implementation of these sensors are critical in enabling seamless data collection and facilitating efficient decision-making processes within IoT ecosystems.

Security

Implementing security upgrades and updates is crucial for ensuring the security of IoT devices and systems. Typically, these enhancements involve incorporating additional security patches into the operating system. It is imperative that IoT devices and systems are designed to support future upgrades and updates. Insufficient security measures can lead to severe security failures, especially in the face of intense competition within the industry. Due to the lack of standardisation in the IoT technology landscape, numerous SMEs and startups enter the IoT market without proper security measures, thereby heightening the risk of potential security vulnerabilities.

Privacy

Preserving personal privacy is a critical consideration in any system that involves the collection of user information. In the realm of IoT, devices gather personal data, which is then transmitted through wired or wireless networks. This information is often stored in a centralised database for future use.

To safeguard the personal information of users, it is essential to prevent unauthorised access and hacking attempts. Sensitive details concerning a user’s habits, lifestyle, health, and more could be exploited if unauthorised access to data is possible. Therefore, it is imperative for IoT systems to adhere to privacy regulations and prioritise the protection of user privacy.

By implementing robust security measures, such as encryption, access controls, and data anonymisation, IoT systems can ensure compliance with regulatory privacy requirements. These measures help mitigate the risks associated with unauthorised access and provide users with the confidence that their personal information is being handled securely.

Connectivity

The majority of IoT devices are connected to wireless networks, offering specific requirements and convenience for seamless connectivity. IoT systems employ various wireless transmission technologies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa WAN, SigFox, Zigbee, and more. Each of these systems possesses its own advantages and specifications, catering to different use cases.

However, the implementation of multiple technology platforms poses challenges for developers, -particularly in the context of information sharing between devices and applications. Interoperability and data exchange become crucial considerations when integrating diverse wireless technologies within an IoT ecosystem.

Developers must navigate the complexities of integrating and harmonising data flows between devices, utilising different wireless transmission technologies. This involves designing robust communication protocols and ensuring compatibility across the network infrastructure. By addressing these challenges, developers can optimise data exchange and foster seamless interoperability, enabling efficient communication and collaboration among IoT devices and applications.

Furthermore, careful consideration should be given to factors such as network coverage, data transmission range, power consumption, and security requirements when selecting the appropriate wireless technology for specific IoT use cases. By leveraging the advantages and specifications of each wireless transmission technology, developers can tailor their IoT systems to meet the unique demands of their applications.

Efficiently managing the diversity of wireless transmission technologies in IoT systems is a complex but necessary task. Through effective integration and collaboration, developers can harness the benefits of multiple wireless technologies and create interconnected IoT ecosystems that drive innovation and deliver valuable experiences to users.

Compatibility

As with any emerging technology, IoT is rapidly expanding across various domains to support a wide array of applications. With the rapid growth of the IoT landscape, competition among companies striving to establish their technologies as industry standards also increases. Introducing additional hardware requirements for compatibility can result in increased investments for both service providers and consumers.

Ensuring the compatibility of IoT devices and networks with conventional transmission technologies becomes a crucial and challenging task. The sheer diversity of devices, applications, transmission technologies, and gateways presents a complex landscape to navigate. Achieving compatibility and seamless interoperability becomes essential for establishing an efficient IoT infrastructure.

To create an effective and scalable IoT ecosystem, it becomes imperative to standardise the underlying technologies. This includes defining and monitoring network protocols, transmission bands, data rates, and processing requirements. Standardisation enables consistent and harmonious communication between IoT devices, facilitating seamless integration, and enhancing the overall interoperability of the system.

Other challenges

Complexity

The complexity of IoT necessitates careful design, testing, and implementation to meet specific requirements. Erlang and Elixir offer powerful solutions that significantly reduce development efforts while effectively managing complexity.

These languages offer developers high-level abstractions to streamline IoT development, making it more efficient to address challenges. They provide features such as concurrency models, fault-tolerant systems, and distributed computing, empowering developers to create robust and scalable solutions.

Erlang and Elixir excel in handling low-level binary data through declarative approaches like pattern matching. This simplifies device and protocol interoperability, reducing complexity and facilitating smoother communication within the IoT ecosystem.

By utilising Erlang and Elixir, developers gain access to a powerful toolset that eases complexity in IoT systems. High-level abstractions and declarative programming allow developers to focus on problem-solving rather than low-level implementation details, leading to more efficient development processes and increased productivity.

The language ecosystem of Erlang and Elixir is specifically designed to tackle complexity in IoT applications. Developers can effortlessly navigate the complexities of IoT and deliver reliable, scalable solutions by utilising its advanced features and abstractions.

Erlang and Elixir are invaluable assets in the IoT landscape, providing the necessary tools and frameworks to simplify development, enhance interoperability, and unlock the potential of complex IoT systems.

Power

IoT, like other smart systems, relies on power for its sensors, wireless devices, and gadgets. Efficiency in power consumption is essential. The community is developing embedded Erlang systems to address these concerns and expand the platform into new domains.

Cloud access

Most IoT will be using a centralised cloud-based process control system. In order to reduce latency and maintain real-time connectivity in a cloud base system are challenging.

Part B: Conclusion

Erlang and Elixir have emerged as robust and scalable alternatives for IoT, automation, and Artificial Intelligence solutions, showcasing their adaptability to evolving paradigms. These programming languages excel in constructing highly scalable and fault-tolerant systems. Erlang developed for the telecommunications industry, supports 24/7 concurrent operations and error recovery.

Its powerful, robust message brokers serve as the backbone for IoT integration. With low latency, fault tolerance, and massive concurrency, Erlang is an ideal choice for building message brokers that meet IoT demands. This emphasises Erlang’s and the BEAM’s relevance for use with IoT systems.

These can be hosted in different BEAM implementations to meet specific needs like power consumption and formal verification. They are versatile in low-power, aerospace, military, and healthcare applications. Specialised BEAM implementations are available for resource-limited environments, and formal verification ensures system accuracy.

Erlang and Elixir are well-suited for building fault-tolerant systems in IoT and automation. They enable continuous operation under high demand or hardware failures. Elixir’s developer-friendly nature facilitates rapid software development without compromising quality.

We look forward to taking you on this exciting journey as we explore even more of the powerful capabilities of Erlang and Elixir in revolutionising IoT and automation systems. 

The exploration doesn’t stop here. In our upcoming series, we’ll delve deeper into use cases that demonstrate how Erlang and Elixir effectively tackle the challenges posed by IoT. 

So stay tuned for more thought-provoking posts as we unlock the immense potential of these languages. Let’s continue the conversation!