Top 10 Strategies for Testing Hyperconnected World of IoT

By the year 2025, the number of IoT devices is expected to rise to 75 billion devices.

As believed by the industry experts, IoT will be the frontier for the Industrial revolution 4.0. We are already living in a world connected by things and driven by technology. As the Internet of Things (IoT) venturing to transform the technological world, its definition is not confined to creating smart devices. It is an amalgamation of hardware, software and internet that map out the transformation from a physical world of technology to its digital counterpart.

Every device we use generates data. In fact the amount of data that is generated on an everyday basis becomes overwhelming for some organizations. With IoT, the data generation becomes expounding. If we have to observe the impact of IoT in the current pandemic scenario, we will be amazed at how IoT has touched almost every aspect of the healthcare sector. From the sanitation of buildings to minimizing the transmission risk of COVID by integrating IoT sensors in the hospital devices, the technology has played a crucial role to mitigate the spread of COVID 19.

But the contributions of COVID 19 is not limited to healthcare setting, it has been heavily deployed in the automobile sector, banking sector and others. In a broader overview, IoT will be the catalyst for 5G adoption, as well. The report suggests that by the year 2025, the number of IoT devices is expected to rise to 75 billion devices.

But before describing the many nuances that make this technology so much effective, we must analyze the testing strategy of the Internet of Things. But why do we need to analyze the testing strategy of any technology? Because testing strategy helps us to analyze the focus areas. It helps to experiment with various methodologies that make the technology compatible, accurate and efficient.

IoT testing strategy is necessary to diversify the apps, devices and networks/channels on which IoT runs, to ensure that the data generated by IoT is safe and secure and is not susceptible to malware and that the operations are seamless.

Various types of Strategies

IoT operates on the wireless communication network with the help of sensors. That's why the testing strategy of IoT heavily focuses on the integration of good sensors and communication network.

1. Sensor-protocol Compatibility Testing: This testing ensures compatible and efficient communication and interaction across sensors and devices. For example, applications such as Bluetooth, ZigBee, Wi-Fi are stimulated to check the compatibility of IoT devices.

2. Device Security Testing: Since IoT involves collation of data from various sources, along with interconnection between different devices, testing the device's security becomes paramount to mitigate the risk of cyber attacks and malware.

3. Device Functionality Testing-  The device functionality testing is conducted to check whether the infrastructure, both hardware and software complies with the device performance.

4. Device-to-Device Testing- This type of testing is conducted to ensure seamless communication between devices.

5. Device-to-cloud connectivity testing- This type of testing is performed for capturing the seamless data, and ensuring successful data transfer and data storage between the devices and the cloud.

6. Interoperability testing with multiple protocols: This testing ensures that communication between different devices is maintained. It mainly focuses on testing hardware compatibility, security standards, and data encryption.

7. Network Security Testing- This testing is conducted for data security and privacy to maintain quality network and communication. It assists in retaining information through web cameras, emails, navigation systems and wearable data.

8. Network Performance Testing-It is done to evaluate, examine, analyze and track the performance of the network. By monitoring the network devices, time taken for upload and sharing of information will help to identify the loophole that is thwarting seamless communication.

9. Cloud Services Integration Testing-This is done to ensure proper integration of cloud services with the IoT devices.

10. Cloud Security and Migration Testing: This type of testing ensures that the security protocol is maintained. It checks the reliability and authenticity of the stored data. The cloud migration testing evaluates the performance of data between cloud services and IoT.

Conclusion

The testing of IoT devices involves a stepwise approach for isolating the problem and instituting a solution. This involves highly skilled individuals with comprehensive knowledge about the various domains that they are working with. Organizations, which indulge with the IoT testing must have proper skillset and testers, for successful outcomes.