IoT knowledge base · 50 guides
IoT Development Knowledge Base
Engineering guides from FSS Technology, an IoT and embedded systems company from Poland — organised along the path of a real product: hardware, firmware, connectivity, cloud, security, industrial integration and production.
Hardware & electronics design
Electronics & PCB design service →Choosing microcontrollers, designing PCBs, antennas and enclosures, powering devices for years on a battery, and getting reliable data out of sensors.
ESP32 vs STM32: Which MCU for Your IoT Project? Practical comparison of ESP32 and STM32 for IoT hardware — power, connectivity, ecosystem, and when to choose each based on 10+ years dep… How to Design a Custom IoT PCB: From Schematic to Fabrication Step-by-step guide to custom IoT PCB design — schematic capture, component selection, RF antenna layout, power design, DFM rules, and fab… Designing Battery-Powered IoT Devices for 5-Year Runtime How to design IoT hardware that runs for years on a single battery — power profiling, MCU sleep modes, duty cycle optimisation, and real… Energy Efficiency in IoT: How to Extend Battery Life How to achieve energy efficiency in IoT and extend battery life — sleep modes, LPWAN networks, the energy budget, and energy harvesting i…
Firmware & embedded software
IoT & embedded development →RTOS and embedded Linux, OTA updates at fleet scale, CI/CD for firmware, flash storage, watchdogs, edge computing and on-device ML.
FreeRTOS for IoT: Real-Time Operating System on ESP32 and STM32 How to use FreeRTOS in IoT firmware — tasks, queues, semaphores, watchdog patterns, and real-world multi-task architecture. Zephyr RTOS for IoT: A Real-Time Operating System Zephyr RTOS is an open-source real-time operating system for IoT. Explore its kernel, networking stack, comparison with FreeRTOS, and OTA… OTA Firmware Updates at Scale: IoT Fleet Update Architecture How to implement reliable OTA firmware updates for large IoT fleets — staged rollouts, rollback, delta updates, and Azure IoT Hub Device… CI/CD for Embedded Firmware: GitHub Actions + PlatformIO Pipeline for ESP32 Firmware deserves the same CI/CD discipline as cloud code. Here is a battle-tested GitHub Actions pipeline for ESP32 and STM32 with matri… Edge Computing for IoT: When to Process on Device vs in the Cloud Decision framework for IoT edge vs cloud processing — latency requirements, bandwidth costs, offline operation, privacy constraints, and… Edge Computing in IoT: Architecture, Benefits, and Deployment Edge computing in IoT moves processing to the edge of the network, close to the sensors. We explain the layered architecture, benefits, p… TinyML on ESP32-S3: Running TensorFlow Lite Micro for Edge AI Inference Edge ML on ESP32-S3 is no longer a science project. Here is how to deploy TFLite Micro models for keyword spotting and anomaly detection… Building a SwiftUI Companion App for BLE IoT Devices: Patterns and Pitfalls A practical guide to building production SwiftUI companion apps for BLE IoT devices: connection state machines, async/await CoreBluetooth…
Connectivity & protocols
IoT & embedded development →BLE, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, LTE-M, 5G RedCap and satellite; mesh networks; MQTT, CoAP, LwM2M; gateways and positioning.
BLE vs WiFi for IoT Devices: Power, Range, and When to Use Each Practical comparison of BLE and WiFi for IoT — power consumption, range, mesh capabilities, and real battery life data from deployed FSS… Bluetooth Low Energy in IoT: Protocol, GATT, and Range Bluetooth Low Energy in IoT: how BLE works, the GAP and GATT layers, range and power consumption, Bluetooth mesh, beacons, and when to ch… Wi-Fi HaLow (802.11ah) in IoT: Range and Use Cases Wi-Fi HaLow (IEEE 802.11ah) is a sub-1 GHz standard for IoT: up to 1 km range, up to 8,191 devices, and low power draw. Learn its paramet… LoRaWAN vs NB-IoT vs LTE-M: Choosing the Right Network for Asset Tracking LoRaWAN, NB-IoT, and LTE-M each win different asset-tracking scenarios. A side-by-side technical comparison with TCO numbers and referenc… 5G RedCap in IoT: A Guide to NR-Light 5G RedCap (NR-Light) is a lightweight 5G variant for mid-throughput IoT. Learn its parameters, how it compares with NB-IoT and LTE-M, and… MQTT Protocol for IoT: QoS, Retained Messages and Last Will Explained Complete guide to MQTT for IoT — QoS levels, retained messages, Last Will and Testament, topic design, and broker selection for productio… CoAP in IoT: How It Works and When to Use It CoAP is a lightweight communication standard for resource-constrained IoT devices. We explain how it works, how to secure it with DTLS, a… LwM2M in IoT: The Standard for Device Fleet Management The LwM2M protocol (OMA Lightweight M2M) is a standard for managing IoT device fleets: bootstrap, registration, OTA, and DTLS security ov… Zigbee in IoT: Mesh Network, Profiles, and Use Cases The Zigbee protocol in IoT — how the mesh network works, how it differs from Matter, Thread, BLE, and Wi-Fi, and when it is worth choosin… Matter and Thread: The Future of IoT Interoperability The Matter standard and the Thread network are unifying the IoT world. We explain how they work and what they mean for device manufacturers. The IoT Gateway: Architecture and Edge Protocols What an IoT gateway is, which protocols it supports, and how to design its architecture and security. A practical guide from FSS. UWB Positioning in IoT: Precise RTLS Location UWB (Ultra-Wideband) positioning delivers location accuracy of 10–30 cm. We explain how RTLS works, compare the technologies, and cover d…
Cloud, data & AI
Cloud & IoT backends →Azure IoT Hub and AWS IoT Core, device provisioning, data pipelines, time-series databases, real-time dashboards, digital twins and AI agents.
Azure IoT Hub for Device Manufacturers: Complete Integration Guide How device manufacturers use Azure IoT Hub — device provisioning, D2C messaging, Device Twins, direct methods, and production-grade archi… IoT Device Provisioning: Zero-Touch Fleet Onboarding What IoT device provisioning is and how to implement secure, automated zero-touch fleet onboarding — from device identity to cloud regist… Building an IoT Data Pipeline with Azure Event Hubs and Azure Functions Step-by-step guide to scalable IoT data pipelines on Azure — from IoT Hub routing to Event Hubs, Azure Functions processing, and Time Ser… Kubernetes (AKS) for IoT Backends: Multi-Tenant Architecture That Scales to Millions of Devices An engineering guide to running multi-tenant IoT backends on Azure Kubernetes Service: ingest, processing, KEDA autoscaling, GitOps, time… Time-Series Databases in IoT: The Complete Guide A time-series database is the foundation of IoT telemetry. We explain how a TSDB works, which one to choose, and how to design retention,… Real-Time IoT Dashboard with WebSockets and React: Architecture Guide How to build a real-time IoT monitoring dashboard — WebSocket architecture with Azure SignalR, React state management for high-frequency… Digital Twins in IoT: Architecture and Deployment What digital twins in IoT are, what their architecture looks like, and how to deploy them in industry step by step. AI Agents in Industrial IoT: From Predictive Maintenance to Autonomous Operations AI agents move IoT beyond dashboards into systems that perceive, reason, and act. Here is how to architect them safely across factories,…
IoT security
Secure IoT development →Secure boot, signed and encrypted firmware, X.509 and Secure Elements, post-quantum readiness, SBOMs and the regulations that make them mandatory (CRA, IEC 62443).
IoT Security Best Practices: Protecting Connected Devices from Attack Practical IoT security checklist — device authentication, encrypted firmware, secure boot, TLS 1.3, hardware security modules, network se… Protecting IoT Firmware: Signing, Encryption and Secure Boot How to protect IoT firmware from reverse engineering and tampering — firmware signing, flash encryption, secure boot chains, and OTA secu… Secure Boot in IoT: Trusted Startup and Encrypted Flash Secure boot protects IoT devices against firmware tampering. Learn about the Root of Trust, encrypted flash, anti-rollback, and deploymen… X.509 Certificates for IoT: Zero-Trust Device Authentication How to implement X.509 certificate-based device authentication for IoT — CA hierarchy, device provisioning, mutual TLS, certificate rotat… Smart Access Control: Beyond the RFID Card with Perrugi How next-generation smart access control combines WiFi 6, NFC, biometrics, and mobile apps — the Nuvlock system from FSS Technology for l…
Industrial & building IoT
Integrations service →Retrofitting PLCs with Modbus and OPC UA, Sparkplug B, fieldbuses and industrial Ethernet, predictive maintenance, metering, cold chain, EV charging and building automation.
Modbus RTU and TCP for Retrofit Industrial IoT: Bridging Legacy PLCs to Azure A field-tested guide to bridging decades-old Modbus PLCs into Azure IoT Hub: protocol fundamentals, RS-485 wiring, ESP32 gateway code, po… OPC UA in Industrial IoT: Architecture and Security OPC UA is an open communication standard for industrial IoT. Learn its architecture, information model, client-server and PubSub modes, a… MQTT Sparkplug B: Interoperability in Industrial IoT MQTT Sparkplug B adds a standardized namespace, Protobuf encoding, and state management to MQTT, delivering device interoperability in in… Predictive Maintenance in IIoT: The Complete Guide Predictive maintenance in IIoT lets you anticipate machine failures using sensors and data analysis. Learn the architecture, ROI, and ste… Smart Metering: An IoT Guide What smart metering is and how to build a reliable smart metering system in IoT — AMI architecture, protocols, networks, and security. Cold-Chain IoT: LoRa-Based Temperature Monitoring for Pharma and Food How to design LoRaWAN cold-chain monitoring for pharmaceuticals and food: sensor selection, enclosure design, gateway placement, complian…
Product development, manufacturing & certification
PCB assembly service →Taking a device from idea to series production: testing strategy, scaling from prototype to thousands of units, PCB assembly, EMC and CE/FCC certification.
From Idea to Shipped IoT Product: The Complete Development Guide End-to-end guide to IoT product development — from concept through PCB design, firmware, cloud, mobile app, manufacturing, and post-launc… IoT Prototype to Production: Scaling from 10 to 10,000 Units The practical challenges of scaling IoT hardware from prototype to mass production — DFM, component sourcing, manufacturing partner selec… Testing IoT Devices: From Unit Tests to Field Validation Comprehensive testing strategy for IoT hardware and firmware — unit tests, hardware-in-loop testing, network simulation, field validation… PCB Assembly: SMT and THT Technologies in Electronics What PCB assembly involves, how SMT differs from THT, and what the process and quality control look like. PCB Assembly: Solder Paste, Stencil, and Pick-and-Place How PCB assembly works: solder paste, the stencil, pick-and-place machines, plus the most common defects and how to avoid them. CE and FCC Certification for IoT Devices: What Manufacturers Need to Know Practical guide to CE and FCC certification for IoT hardware — RED directive, FCC Part 15, pre-compliance testing, test houses, timelines… CE and FCC Certification for IoT Devices: The Complete Guide IoT device certification step by step: the CE mark and RED directive, FCC Part 15, EMC and radio standards, EN 18031 cybersecurity, plus…