Hello!

I’d like to welcome you to the first episode of our new series of videos and guides, designed to help you learn about and make your very own connected objects

This is Adafruit and Digi-Key’s ALL THE INTERNET OF THINGS - a six-part series, covering everything you need to know about the Internet of Things (which we will shorten to IoT).

For our first guide, we’ll go over the most popular transports used in the IoT industry, as well as the upsides and downsides of each type of transport to help you decide what you’ll use to connect your devices to the internet.

Connecting to the IoT

The Internet of Things is all about connections - connecting your electronics design, product, or project to the wider world. We start with the idea that you have a "Thing" that you want to connect to the "Internet of.”

How do you do that?

As a maker, engineer, or designer there are a lot of choices to make. And those choices have a big impact on the cost, size, runtime, and usability of your Thing. Thinking and knowing about your options early on, perhaps even before you open up your IDE or CAD tool, will help you save money, time, and make your product the best it can be.

Transports

Whether you plan on using Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, Cellular. RFID/NFC, satellites, sub-GHz, LoRa or mesh networks, there are advantages and disadvantages to each. The choices are abundant and whichever you choose will have very interesting features, constraints, and considerations.

It's all about trade-offs - do you need lots of power and range? Are you pushing lots of bits? Or will be it small packets, low-power, and short-hop distances?

That’s why this guide is all about  transports. Our methods of categorization will be POWER, DISTANCE, AND BITS.

Tune in, turn on, and let's connect these "things." :)

This guide was first published on Nov 01, 2017. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Introduction) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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