Design and Simulation of IoT Systems Using the Cisco Packet Tracer

Design and implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) systems require platforms with smart things and components. Two dominant architectural approaches for developing IoT systems are mashup-based and model-based approaches. Mashup approaches use existing services and are mainly suitable for less critical, personalized applications. Web development tools are widely used in mashup approaches. Model-based techniques describe a system on a higher level of abstraction, resulting in very expressive modelling of systems. The article uses Cisco packet tracer 7.2 version, which consists of four subcategories of smart things—home, smart city, industrial and power grid, to design an IoT based control system for a fertilizer manufacturing plant. The packet tracer also consists of boards—microcontrollers (MCU-PT), and single boarded computers (SBC-PT), as well as actuators and sensors. The model facilitates flexible communication opportunities among things—machines, databases, and Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs). Implementation of the IoT system brings finer process control as the operating conditions are monitored online and are broadcasted to all stakeholders in real-time for quicker action on deviations. The model developed focuses on three process plants; steam raising, nitric acid, and ammonium nitrate plants. Key process parameters are saturated steam temperature, fuel flowrates, CO and SOx emissions, converter head temperature, NOx emissions, neutralisation temperature, solution temperature, and evaporator steam pressure. The parameters need to be monitored in order to ensure quality, safety, and efficiency. Through the Cisco packet tracer platform, a use case, physical layout, network layout, IoT layout, configuration, and simulation interface were developed.