How Node.js Development Supercharges IoT Applications?
Did you know? In 2020, the IoT market revenue reached $ 212 billion.
Every second urban dweller will have an IoT device in the next five years, generating a massive infrastructure of more than 75 billion IoT devices. For an intelligent technology entrepreneur, there is an ocean of opportunities waiting to be explored.
There are around 26.66 billion connected IoT devices worldwide, and a simple mathematical operation tells us that the average person will own 3–4 IoT devices. Even you have one right now! Maybe a smartwatch, a smart TV, or a smart car.
IoT’s success relies primarily on Edge Computing, which is the brain behind every sensor and actuator. Also, by now, IoT has advanced from the concept of “simple Internet-connected devices” to “smart devices that make decisions.”
Anyone familiar with artificial intelligence and machine learning knows its essential computing requirements. When this requirement scales to billions of devices, you need an equally capable middleware, where Node.js and its natural compatibility for IoT come into the picture.
Do you see where I’m taking you? Want to join this thriving niche market and make your IoT device famous?
In this blog I will explain why you should choose Node.js for IoT development.
Why is Node.js a smart development choice?
The hardware itself represents the client-side of an IoT device. It is programmed with C, C ++, or Lua, low-level and challenging programming languages. However, there is not much you can do about it due to hardware limitations. Along with high performance, IoT device users prioritize low cost and energy efficiency. So, for now, at least, you should keep working with low-level languages.
In turn, the server-side of IoT applications gives you more freedom of choice. Here, you are not limited by hardware, so you can choose whatever coding language and framework you prefer. And we think the correct one is Node.js.
In 2020, a development survey described how more than half of web Indian programmers preferred Node.js for web development. It is also a hugely popular project on Github with over 71,500 stars.
Why do IoT businesses and developers love Node.js development?
- A low learning curve and a simpler code base make Node.js easier for developers to use in contrast to other web backend technologies like Java or Ruby.
- The Node.js development methodology matches the Javascript-based front-end frameworks, allowing developers to build the backend with the same knowledge of Javascript.
- It increases development speed with its ease of use and enables developers to accomplish more in less time.
Reasons why Node.js development is preferred for IoT devices.
- Node.js development is fast and efficient
First, any IoT device is constantly dealing with dynamically changing data. It means you need a framework that handles real-time applications and heavy data streams. Node.js is based on Google’s JS V8 engine, which is highly efficient and perfectly scalable.
Thanks to this feature, Node.js is the number one framework used with real-time applications and platforms. The constant data change is not a challenge either if you choose the right node.js development company.
2. Node.js development facilitates real-time data transfer
Most IoT devices have to act in real-time to perform tasks. For example, an intelligent air conditioner needs real-time data to adjust the cooling requirements in a building.
Node.js comes with fast data sync capabilities, reducing the time it takes to send and receive data from the server. The transfer takes place in near real-time, making IoT devices highly efficient and fast.
This capability is further expanded with Node.js event-based processing, which means that millions of IoT devices can connect to the same server without losing data or speed.
3. Node.js development is easy to integrate with IoT protocols
IoT applications actively use a publish-subscribe-based MQTT messaging protocol. In turn, for transport and encapsulation, this protocol uses WebSockets. Both MQTT and WebSockets are well supported and easily integrate with Node.js development.
4. Node.js development enables easy integration with IoT protocols
Integration is one of the factors on which IoT is based. Suppose you are developing a product that easily integrates with your existing data services, your chances of adoption increase significantly. The integration runs at the backend level.
Node.js supports the MQTT protocol, which is ideally used by IoT applications to communicate with each other. Using Node.js lays a firm foundation for your application to easily connect to standalone and third-party services and open it up for integration across environments.
It’s like the ability to connect to the Uber app, home thermostat, and Smart TV seamlessly, creating market opportunities for your project.
5. Node.js development modules facilitate IoT development.
Node.js is extended with npm — Node Package Manager, which features many functional IoT modules. There are around 80 packages for Intel IoT Edison, Arduino, or Raspberry Pi. In addition, it has more than 30 packages for different sensors, beacons, and other tools. That’s why developing the Internet of Things is more straightforward and faster with Node.js IoT modules.
6. Node.js development saves resources and is scalable.
In general, when you hire Indian developers, they prefer to work with Node.js because it does not require a lot of resources. The CPU and RAM are not overloaded. Also, Node.js is perfectly scalable, which is absolutely necessary for most modern businesses.
7. Node.js development ensures resource efficiency.
IoT devices come in large numbers. In 2020 alone, the estimated number of IoT devices reaches 20 billion. Managing such a vast network of devices requires enormous computing powers that can become a bottleneck for the project as costs increase exponentially.
Node.js has a lower execution time, which means that it consumes fewer resources to run the same application built on other popular technologies such as Java or Ruby on Rails.
Quick example: an 8GB RAM machine can handle 4000 simultaneous connections at a time, since each thread occupies 2MB of memory, using traditional web development techniques. With Node.js, the same machine can handle 1 million simultaneous connections.
8. Node.js development provides technical support.
The Node.js and NPM (Node Package Manager) libraries support a wide range of IoT hardware, making it the preferred choice for engineers. It is already compatible with micro-hardware such as Intel IoT Edison, Raspberry Pi, and Arduino.
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel and get started quickly with your project. Additionally, the microservices architecture that Node.js is based on provides a reliable way to connect millions of IoT devices to your project.
How to minimize security risks?
Entering the IoT application development niche is a path to success. No wonder many challenges and traps are waiting for your way; a win is never easy to achieve. And the first and foremost challenge you need to consider is security.
Security is one of the most significant issues in the IoT realm and one of the first stumbling blocks you will encounter. So what should you do and how?
- Secure authentication
Let’s start with authentication. There are many tools for authentication in Node.js like tokens and jwt. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. However, you have to look at them from an IoT perspective.
For one thing, tokens are adequate but not 100% safe. The hardware must store this token or login/password data in the firmware. Respectively, attackers can steal the token if they have physical access to the hardware. The same goes for jwt or auth0.
- Secure HTTP requests
Next, watch out for HTTP requests from your IoT devices. You need to check if you receive a request for a suitable IoT device. First of all, you must implement HTTPS with your IoT devices. The hardware is not a browser, and you must manually implement HTTPS on it. For the server-side, you can do it manually or use hosting with HTTPS settings and certificates.
To summarize this part:
- First, you need to verify the trusted URL of your certificate.
- Then you sign a request body using your certificate’s public key.
- Finally, it compares the signed body with the signature of the headers.
It is extremely important to know that we are receiving requests from the appropriate devices, and it is not an intermediate attack.
Famous Examples of IoT Powered by Node.js
- Asama
Asama is an employee tracking system that uses real-time data from a smartwatch connected to its cloud platform. It tracks employees’ location in a large workspace, allowing managers to schedule meetings and tasks for them quickly.
Asama uses Node.js to power the entire system, making it easy to connect to a mobile app, a web app, and wearable IoT devices.
2. PREE
PREE is a micro-tag attached to personal belongings, which allows monitoring via Bluetooth. Alerts the user if items go out of range, so they don’t lose them.
PREE uses Node.js and MongoDB to create this intelligent solution that is scalable and mobile-ready.
3. Intel Edison
Intel Edison is a System on a Chip (SoC) computer used in IoT devices for processing capabilities. It works like the processor of any small IoT device, being the size of a stamp.
Edison is fully capable of using Node.js to create applications. Developers can write their C ++ or C programs, which will continue to be compatible with Node.js for communication with the server.
That’s All Folks!
The Internet of Things market is breathing innovation as we slowly move into an interconnected world. Smart cities, smart mobility, and personal healthcare, everything will ride the wave of IoT in less than five years from now.
Node.js apps help you stay ahead of the competition with their features specially designed for IoT projects. Laying the foundation for your web with Node.js will be among the most thoughtful decisions you will make as you start your IoT endeavor.
The next step left for you is to get in touch with the best IoT application development company in India and give your business the gift of success.
