IoT Book

Book about IoT for Embedded Systems — Embedded Software for the IoT. US English book published by De Gruyter. See the Chinese book at the bottom of this page.

See the Table of Contents with selected figures at the bottom of this page. You can also go to one of the many Amazon sites, via the links below, and try "Look Inside". "Embedded Software for the IoT "is also available in Chinese - cover is found below.

See In the Media for references in magazines.

The Author page describes the main embedded systems that I have worked with, during my 30+ years in the business.

The Downloads page contains links to downloadable source-files from the book.

Finally, you can read about my second book here: SQL Server with C# Applications and about the third book here: Microcontrollers with C

See links to Amazon for "Embedded Software for the IoT" at the bottom of this page.

Download a sample chapter

Download a PDF of Chapter 7 on networks Elk_SampleChapter.pdf. This chapter is about wired networks but also prepares you for wireless networks.

Why "Embedded Software for the IoT"?

Even though you know a lot about programming, embedded systems has extra challenges. When focusing on IoT devices, network knowledge is key - no matter whether you go for Ethernet, WiFi, LORA, BLE or some of the other choices. Some developers will need some basic knowledge on Digital Signal Processing, as many IoT-devices act on digitized signals. And there's the large area of CPUs and Real-Time Operating Systems. These dictate resource-constraints that you don't find in PCs, as well as some important architectural considerations.

The last years has shown us that we need to think differently on security. If we are creating a life-critical device for e.g. hospitals, it should be pretty clear that we need to think security. However, less critical devices, like e.g. toys and home appliances may be used in "botnets". This gives us an ethical responsibility. The economic argument: it can hurt our brand, even if it doesn't inhibit our application.

Finally, "Industry 4.0" is happening. Instead of starting from scratch, we can learn a lot from the existing Statistical Process Control. Much of this happens as post-processing on PCs today, but it will move closer to the assembly-line.

"Embedded Software for the IoT" provides an overview of the above domains. It also introduces some of the major tools and how to use them. With this overview you are armed to go searching for details on the internet.

Ordering on Amazon

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Chinese version

Contents of "Embedded Software for the IoT"

Table of contents (third edition) for the IoT-book is shown with a few selected figures.

1 Introduction

1.1 The Tale of the Internet
1.2 The Cloud
1.3 Internet of Things
1.4 IoT Related Terms

Embedded System OS with tasks, FSM and interrupts

I The Basic System

2 How to select an OS?

2.1 No OS and Strictly Polling
2.2 Co-routines
2.3 Interrupts
2.4 A Small Real-time Kernel
2.5 A non-preemptive Operating System
2.6 Full OS
2.7 Open Source, GNU licensing and Linux
2.8 OS constructs
2.9 Further Reading

Embedded System with Texas Instruments ARM and Linux board

3 Which CPU to use?

3.1 Overview
3.2 CPU Core
3.3 CPU Architecture
3.4 Word-Size
3.5 MMU – Memory Managed Unit
3.6 RAM
3.7 Cache
3.8 EEPROM and Flash
3.9 FPU – Floating Point Unit
3.10 DSP
3.11 Crypto-Engine
3.12 Upgrade Path
3.13 Second Sources
3.14 Price
3.15 Export Control
3.16 RoHS-Compliance
3.17 Evaluation Boards
3.18 Tool-chain
3.19 Benchmarking
3.20 Power Consumption
3.21 JTAG Debugger
3.22 Peripherals
3.23 Make or Buy
3.24 Further Reading

Beaglebone and Raspberry Pi can be used to train in Embedded Systems

4 Software Architecture

4.1 Design for Performance
4.2 The fear of the white paper
4.3 Layers
4.4 Not just API’s - More Files
4.5 Object Model (Containment Hierarchy)
4.6 Case: CANOpen
4.7 Message Passing
4.8 Middleware
4.9 Case: Architectural Reuse in LAN-XI
4.10 Understanding C
4.11 Further Reading

Eclipse IDE used with Beaglebone Embedded System

5 Debug Tools

5.1 Simulator
5.2 ICE - In-Circuit-Emulator
5.3 Background or JTAG debugger
5.4 Target Stand-In
5.5 Debugger
5.6 strace
5.7 Debugging Without Special Tools
5.8 Monitoring Messages
5.9 Test Traffic

6 Code Maintenance

6.1 Poor Mans Backup
6.2 Version Control - and git
6.2.1 Github and other Cloud Solutions
6.3 Build and Virtualization
6.4 Static Code Analysis
6.5 Inspections
6.6 Tracking Defects & Features
6.7 Whiteboard
6.8 Documentation
6.9 Yocto
6.10 OpenWRT
6.11 Further Reading

III IoT Technologies

7 Networks

7.1 Introduction to the Internet Protocols
7.2 Cerf & Kahn - Internet as Net of Nets
7.3 Life of a Packet
7.4 Life Before the Packet
7.5 Getting an IP address
7.6 DHCP
7.7 Network Masks, CIDR and Special Ranges
7.8 Reserved IP Ranges
7.9 DNS
7.10 Introducing HTTP
7.11 REST
7.12 TCP sockets on IPv4 under Windows
7.13 IP Fragmentation
7.14 Introducing IPv6 addresses
7.15 TCP sockets on IPv6 under Linux
7.16 Data Transmission
7.17 UDP Sockets
7.18 Case: UDP on IPv6
7.19 Application Layer Protocols
7.20 Alternatives to the socket API
7.21 Ethernet Cabling
7.22 Physical Layer Problems
7.23 Further Reading

Managed Switch statistics can be used when debugging Embedded Systems

9 Wireless Networks

9.1 Introduction
9.2 WiFi Basics
9.3 The Access Point as a Repeater
9.4 How is speed calculated?
9.5 Case: WiFi Data-transmission
9.6 Case: Beacons
9.7 Case: A strange lagging
9.8 Aggregated Frames
9.9 Channel Assessment
9.10 Bluetooth Low Energy
9.11 Certification
9.12 Further Reading

Heartbleed Logo reminding us on the need for security in IoT"

10 Security

10.1 Introduction
10.2 The goals of a Hacker
10.3 Network Security Concepts
10.4 Hash-function
10.5 Symmetric Key Encryption
10.6 Case: Enigma
10.7 Asymmetric Key Encryption
10.8 Digital Signature
10.9 Certificates
10.10 Message Authentication Code
10.11 Nonce
10.12 Secure Socket Communication
10.13 OpenSSL
10.14 Case: Heartbleed
10.15 Case: WiFi Security
10.16 Software Crypto Libraries
10.17 Trusted Platform Module
10.18 Embedded Systems
10.19 Vulnerabilities in Embedded Systems
10.20 Export Control
10.21 Further Reading

Square waves and their spectra — Two squares in time and their spectra"

11 Digital Filters

11.1 Why Digital?
11.2 Why Filters?
11.3 About the Sampling Frequency
11.4 Time and Frequency Domains
11.5 Analog and Digital Definitions
11.6 More Duality
11.7 A Well-behaving System
11.8 IIR filter Basics
11.9 Implementing IIR
11.10 FIR Filter basics
11.11 Implementing FIR
11.8 Integers
11.12 Dynamic Range versus Precision
11.13 Integers
11.14 Fixed Point Arithmetic
11.10 Q-Notation and Multiplication
11.11 Division
11.12 BCD
11.13 Further Reading

Control Chart Concept - we can use this in IoT as well

12 Statistical Process Control

12.1 Introduction
12.2 Important terms
12.3 Control Charts
12.4 Finding the Control Limits
12.5 Subgroups
12.6 Case: Insulation Plates
12.7 EWMA Control Charts
12.8 Process Capability Index
12.9 Further Reading
Epilogue

Klaus Elk Books

Embedded Software for the IoT