IoT product development brings together the heterogeneous stack of hardware, software, communication/connectivity, analytics, and other relevant technologies that make up IoT solutions.
The purpose of developing this stack is to create a smart, customer-oriented solution containing devices that communicate and exchange data in real time.
Before we get into these product development steps in detail, let’s look at the hardware and software components that make up the IoT ecosystem to understand what we need to develop.
IoT Products or Components That Need Development
Hardware
The hardware components primarily consist of end nodes and IoT gateways. We can classify these hardware components into the following categories.
- Things: The objects you want to monitor and control.
- Data Acquisition Module: Sensors that acquire data from the environment.
- Data Processing Module: Microprocessors, SoCs, or microcontrollers, which process data locally (edge computing).
- Output Devices: Some IoT components have displays and speakers to provide output and an interaction interface with the user.
- Communication Module: These include wireless modules for protocols like ZigBee, Wi-Fi, and BLE, or communication ports like USB, CAN, and Modbus.
Software
We can split the software into two parts, which are OS and applications.
OS
The complexity of your IoT product or system will determine the OS it needs. Additionally, some gateways run on microcontrollers to handle simple network tasks and cannot run operating systems. Therefore, this software component won’t be necessary.
But for complex edge computing devices, operating systems like Debian, Ubuntu, and Android are necessary.
Applications
IoT applications help in data acquisition, analytics, local automated control (from the edge device), and data streaming to the cloud. Bare metal gateways can only run limited functionality on their apps due to factors like limited processing power and memory. Therefore, the application’s complexity in the IoT solution will determine the required hardware.
Connectivity
Connectivity refers to how IoT devices exchange data, and it is connected to the hardware and software components because it includes:
- Infrastructure: IPV4/IPV6, 6LowPAN, RPL, etc.
- Communication Protocols: LoRaWAN, BLE, ZigBee, Wi-Fi, etc.
- Identification: uCode, URI, EPC, etc.
- Discovery: DNS-SD, mDNS, physical web, etc.
- Data/Messaging Protocols: MQTT, Websocket, CoAP, Node, etc.
- Device Management: OMA-DM, TR-069, etc.
- Semantics: Web Thing Model and JSON for linking data
- Multi-Layer Frameworks: Weave and Homekit
Data Analytics
The data collected by the IoT system is massive and needs analytics to make it meaningful to the user. In technical terms, analytics refers to finding patterns in data, doing forecasts, and obtaining insights.
Traditionally, the cloud handled analytics, but newer edge computing gateways share some of this load, and some even run AI to help in forecasting. Recent advancements in AI have made it a critical data analytics component in IoT.
Hardware Requirements During IoT Product Development
IoT hardware forms the base upon which all the other components sit, so all devices in the stack must comply with these requirements to be competitive in the market.
- Security: It is vital to develop hardware using a security-by-design approach to protect the system from cyber attacks, vulnerabilities, and data theft on the network.
- Data Processing and Storage: The processing and storage requirements of the IoT network should match the number of data acquisition modules, their resolution, and sampling rate. This will reduce latency and downtime.
- Power: Big data analytics and AI processing are important, but not necessary for all applications because they increase power consumption on the edge, which can affect the user experience.
- Connectivity: IoT end nodes, IoT hubs, and cloud servers need reliable networks to communicate and handle their required functions.
- Physical Design: Pay attention to factors like the device size, sealing for protection from environmental conditions, and appearance when designing IoT devices and their casings.
- Cost: Cost is critical. So as a developer, focus on cost effectiveness without compromising quality.
IoT Product Development Process Steps
This process consists of these 10 steps.
Business Requirement Analysis
The first step is to analyze your customer’s business operations to determine the most suitable features to include in the IoT product. This analysis helps to define the functional requirements of the product, such as the data-based processes (acquisition and processing), power management, connectivity, and security.
Key areas in this analysis include:
- Understanding the logic or operations of the customer’s business
- Confirming the required functions (door/barrier sensors, electric locks, automated temperature control, etc.)
- Identifying critical components
- Finding the potential bottlenecks
- Planning the interaction between peripheral devices
Remember, the IoT product or solution should adapt to meet the customer’s needs, so this analysis is vital in the development process.
Do Competitive Product Research
After analyzing the functional requirements of the IoT product, it is important to conduct market research to identify similar competitive solutions in existence in the market.
The goal is to find the latest market trends that will suit the defined requirements to deliver the best performance and remain relevant for as long as possible. However, the product should also be competitive cost-wise, Ensure you follow the hardware requirements listed above.
Consulting a Reputable IoT Hardware Manufacturer
Instead of stretching your internal resources to solely handle this development process, we recommend outsourcing some functions, such as hardware manufacturing. And bringing on board a reputable IoT hardware manufacturer early on in this development process is critical to ensuring the project’s success.
This partner should have a proven track record in quality and professionalism when manufacturing IoT hardware.
Once you’ve found one, bring this manufacturer up to speed on the project’s requirements and adopt a clear communication channel to help avoid confusion or costly mistakes during development.
Pick the Suitable Tech Stack and Features
With the help of your partner, identify the suitable tech stack and product features while considering the latest products in the market. Look at factors like:
- Real-time notifications/alerts
- Security and privacy
- Integration and interoperability
- Predictive maintenance
- Remote control and monitoring
Customize the features list as much as possible to suit the defined business requirements.
Product Design and Prototyping
Hardware design involves several phases, such as creating a block diagram, developing the prototype on a breadboard, prototyping on a universal board (without a controller), and design/prototype modification. These initial steps are important to create a proof of concept.
With the hardware concept proven, design the schematic followed by the PCB layout. Ensure you involve the hardware manufacturer in this process to refine the layout based on DFM, DFA, and DFT principles. Also, prepare the bill of materials and other documents needed for PCB fabrication and assembly.
Our ODM hardware development process
Firmware Development
Firmware development can go hand-in-hand with hardware manufacturing after identifying the suitable microcontroller or SoC for the product. Consider things like over-the-air updates, device security, logs confidentiality, offline admin panels, and unique identifiers for flashing the mass-produced hardware when developing the firmware.
Refine and Adjust the Manufactured Prototype
Request a few samples of the manufactured and assembled PCB before mass production to test and verify the hardware’s functionality, especially the signal quality.
Run the firmware on the mounted chip before doing these tests. If everything looks healthy, proceed to mass production. Otherwise, you have to rework some of the parts or adjust the product’s design to make it function as required.
Mass Production
Give the instructions to the manufacturer to mass produce the hardware with the firmware installed once all prototypes pass the tests.
Certification and Regulatory Compliance
Certifications and regulatory compliance tests are necessary to ensure your products meet the required safety and security standards. These certifications vary depending on the specific product and the region you want to sell it to, with the most popular ones being FCC, RoHS, CE, and IC.
Support
Product support is an after-sales service that includes functions like:
- OTA updates
- Installation and configuration
- Returns
- Factory resets
Challenges of IoT Product Development
- Complex product integration
- High manufacturing and testing costs
- Limited scalability
- Insufficient certifications for specific markets
How Dusun Can Address These IoT Product Development Challenges
Product Integration
Product integration is challenging if you use hardware from different manufacturers. But we fabricate devices in both the edge computing and end node layers, producing vertically integrated products for all IoT projects.
High Production Costs
Our production costs are reasonable because we have long-term partnerships with major chip manufacturers, which are the primary components in these IoT products. These partnerships help sort out supply management issues that can increase production costs.
On top of that, we have mature production lines that ensure fast and stable delivery of high-quality PCBs in a short lead time.
Also, we provide ready-made, competitively-priced IoT hardware products for customers with different hardware and software development capabilities to cut costs and reduce the time to market.
Scalability
IoT hardware should meet emerging customer needs and remain relevant in the long term. We produce modular hardware consisting of parts like SoMs, which you can plug into application-specific carrier boards. These designs are easy to upgrade on gateways to meet changing requirements.
Certifications
Dusun has invested a lot of time and effort to ensure all the produced hardware products meet various certification standards, such as CE, FCC, RoHS, IC
Get Started With Your IoT Product Development Project Today
With the IoT product development steps listed above, you can now plan your project and partner with us in this process. We have over 20 years of experience in ODM services and a strong R&D team comprising 100+ professionals who will help you research, design, and develop various IoT products for your customers. Get in touch with us today to begin the process of bringing your product concept to market successfully.
