Chapter 2: Basic Architecture of an IoT Prototype

1. We are living in exciting times! There are a lot of development boards available that are suitable for IoT prototyping. These include the Arduino MKR WiFi 1010, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, M5Stack, NodeMCU, and the Particle Argon, Boron, and Xenon.

2. Depending on what you plan on building, picking a development board that runs on 3.3V or 5V might be better. If you want to work with Neopixel LEDs, for example, then picking a 5V development board is easier. But the trend is moving toward 3.3V. With a level shifter/logic level converter, you can use 5V modules together with a 3.3V development board, as well.
3. ZigBee, Thread, CoAP, and MQTT are used for IoT communication.
4. Some development boards support over-the-air updates, which means that their firmware can be updated without a cable connection, using a wireless internet connection instead.