Very Simple Control Protocol or VSCP is a free and open protocol suitable for automation tasks. Its simplicity, reliability and scalability make it excellent for building powerful and efficient IoT environments.
The Internet of Things (IoT), as we all know, refers to the collection and exchange of data between devices embedded with sensors and connected with a network. These devices can vary from classical home appliances and industry equipment, to smart healthcare monitors and agribots.
According to a recent report, the global IoT market, valued at approximately US$ 595.73 billion in 2023, is estimated to be worth US$ 4,062.34 billion by 2032. In 2023, North America dominated the smart cities market share, thanks to their cutting-edge infrastructure development. However, owing to urbanisation and industrial digitisation, the Asia-Pacific is expected to register the highest growth rate till 2032. Smart cities, healthcare, agriculture, and industrial automation are the key sectors fuelling IoT adoption, driven by favourable government policies and advancements in technology.
Applications of IoT
IoT is used widely in domains in which several appliances communicate with each other (Figure 1).
Smart homes and consumer electronics: IoT is now being integrated within the smart home to make living more comfortable and energy-efficient. Solutions such as smart thermostats adapt household temperatures according to user preferences and integrate dynamic decision-making using machine learning. IoT systems help users control lights through remote control handheld gadgets, optimising the consumption of electricity. Voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant manage connected home devices, answer questions and set reminders.
Medical and healthcare: IoT has revolutionised patient care through remote monitoring, wearable health devices, and predictive analytics techniques. Wearable fitness trackers, for example, monitor parameters such as heart rate, activity levels and sleep analysis, thus encouraging preventive healthcare. Remote health monitoring systems empower those with chronic diseases to share real-time health metrics to medical experts. Predictive analytics leverages this data to discover trends, refine therapies, and reduce hospital readmissions.
Smart agriculture and agribots: New developments in smart farming technologies enabled by IoT have revolutionised agriculture. Precision irrigation systems send water directly to the roots of crops in proper volumes to conserve resources and improve yields. Sensors on fields using agribots track information like the state of the ground, current weather conditions and the stage of crop growth.
Automated manufacturing: IoT enhances efficiency and innovation in manufacturing through rapid data exchange, powered by Industry 4.0. It enables predictive maintenance, which helps to reduce downtime and repair costs. By processing operational data on-the-fly, IoT systems enhance production processes for faster and more effective operations. Besides, it enhances supply chain visibility, enabling manufacturers to monitor inventory and shipments, avoid production delays, and improve logistics.
Drones and transportation: Leveraging machine learning, a smart traffic management system utilises real-time traffic data to adjust signal timings and ease congestion to improve commute times. Fleet tracking solutions are beneficial for logistics companies to know where their vehicles are, how much fuel they consume, and the performance of their drivers. Autonomous vehicles and drones are powered by the Internet of Things (IoT) using data from sensors, cameras, and GPS.
Smart cities: IoT is a key enabler for smart city projects. Smart waste management systems use IoT sensors to track the levels in bins and help with resource optimisation. Energy-efficient streetlighting systems automatically adjust brightness depending on light conditions, reducing energy costs and enhancing public safety. IoT is also used in public transport networks to provide real-time updates to commuters, improve operational efficiency, and minimise delays.
Protocols for IoT programming and interfacing
A number of protocols are available for IoT programming and can be used with multiple programming platforms and hardware kits. Here are the key protocols for different domains:
- Very Simple Control Protocol (VSCP)
- Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT)
- Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)
- Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP)
- Lightweight Machine to Machine (LwM2M)
An optimal IoT ecosystem is based on different communication protocols, which facilitate data transfer between connected devices. These IoT protocols include VSCP, MQTT, CoAP, LwM2M, AMQP, and many others. Of these protocols, the Very Simple Control Protocol (VSCP) offers a lightweight, event-driven framework especially suited for automation, control systems, and IoT applications. The flexibility offered by VSCP in open source platforms makes it an excellent protocol for building powerful, reliable, and competitively priced IoT environments.
Very Simple Control Protocol (VSCP) and IoT applications
VSCP (https://www.vscp.org) is an open and free protocol for IoT and machine to machine (m2m) automation tasks. Its simplicity, reliability and scalability make this protocol perfect for IoT based solutions that range from smart homes to industrial automation. Its key features are:
Event-driven: VSCP is a distributed, event-driven protocol in which nodes react to events that have been defined.
Lightweight design: It demands very low computing power, allowing it to work even on low-power devices.
Open standard: It is a community standard that promotes innovation and integration across all platforms.
Here are some real-world applications of VSCP.
Smart agriculture: A VSCP-based soil moisture and weather station can be built with Raspberry Pi. It can be integrated with a home assistant for automatic irrigation.
Industrial automation: VSCP can be used for predictive maintenance and process control implemented on Node-RED. Its event-based feature can be used to ensure that machines run on time.
Smart cities: Arduino-based sensors can be used to deploy VSCP for streetlight systems. It can integrate open source solutions with municipal dashboards to view changes in real-time.
VSCP can be integrated with multiple programming platforms (Python, NodeJS, and many others) as well as Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and Home Assistant-based kits for many IoT projects. Detailed documentation on this is available at https://docs.vscp.org.
Interfacing VSCP with Node-RED
Node-RED is a flow-based programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services. It runs on the Node.js platform. To build automation workflows for Industrial IoT systems or smart cities, VSCP events can be processed through the drag-and-drop environment of Node-RED.
NodeJS is a scalable and high-performance JavaScript runtime built for web solutions, and has features for VSCP integration in IoT projects. By leveraging NodeJS programming with Node-VSCP, a very high-performance server-side application can be created that communicates with VSCP networks. NodeJS is ideal for real-time applications because of its async, event-driven model.
To integrate VSCP with NodeRED, the package node-red-contrib-vscp is installed so that GUI based scenarios with multiple links can be created. The Node-RED package is available at https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-red-contrib-vscp.
Node-VSCP is complemented by an extensive ecosystem as there are assorted packages for HTTP servers, WebSocket communication and to interact with databases. Developers can work on end-to-end IoT solutions that integrate them with dashboards, APIs and other externally accessible services.
Custom development or community nodes help communicate with VSCP from Node-RED. These nodes can help you connect to the VSCP daemon, subscribe to events, and publish commands. In a Node-RED flow they could listen for specific VSCP events (e.g., temperature threshold exceeded) and respond with actions (e.g., send alerts or adjust connected devices, etc). Likewise, VSCP events can be transmitted from Node-RED triggered by actions defined in Node-RED flows. This can provide a powerful environment for IoT automation.
The extensibility of Node-RED also means that VSCP can integrate with other protocols and services, including MQTT, HTTP APIs, cloud services, and many others. All this makes VSCP an excellent interface for building complex IoT ecosystems.
VSCP with Python
Python provides a high-performance ecosystem to interact with the Very Simple Control Protocol (VSCP), enabling developers connect and communicate with IoT networks. A Python utility helps communicate with a VSCP daemon or something acting like a VSCP daemon (e.g., a VSCP device). Python has the ability to send and receive VSCP events as well as maintain the connection to the VSCP server.
To install VSCP Python, type:
$ pip3 install pyvscp |
To install in a virtual environment, type:
$ mkdir project-name && cd project-name$ python3 -m venv .env$ source .env/bin/activate$ pip3 install pyvscp |
The Python interface for VSCP is implemented around simple client instructions that establish connections, authenticate, and handle events. If we want to send an instruction for a temperature event, we need to create the event object, define its class and type (‘measurement’, ‘temperature’), and fill it with data. To receive events, we must set up handlers that are used to process data streams as they come in.
The flexibility of Python also extends to defining custom filters for VSCP events so that developers can specify which events to handle based on class, type, or priority. This makes Python a great choice for creating and developing scalable, event-driven IoT solutions.
VSCP and Home Assistant
Home Assistant (https://www.home-assistant.io) is an open source home automation platform that boasts a vast array of device support and customisation options. It can pair smart home devices such as temperature sensors, lights, and alarms. VSCP’s low overhead architecture and Home Assistant’s modular design together make event transmission and handling seamless in real-time.
For IoT applications involving low latency and minimal overhead, the lightweight, event-driven architecture of VSCP is ideal. The simplicity of the protocol, together with advanced tools for programming, creates the foundation for a very wide range of applications from low-level, real-time events handling in IoT systems to more advanced mechanisms like integrating machine learning for predictive maintenance. However, challenges remain, such as security risks, inadequate cross-compatibility between different IoT devices, and the potential for scale.
The future
Improved protocol performance: There is scope for improvement in VSCP performance when dealing with large amounts of data and enabling real-time communication over different types of networks. Network optimisation, data compression, and security protocol design can help to address bandwidth and privacy issues.
Interoperability: Research is needed to integrate VSCP with other IoT platforms and communication standards for cross-compatibility (like MQTT or CoAP) as this can enable communication between two disparate systems.
Machine learning and data analytics: When a relatively large amount of data is created by industry sensors, combining machine learning algorithms with VSCP can help with predictive maintenance of machines. Further research can explore mining this data and using predictive analytical algorithms along with a decision-making framework for greater automation.
Integration with next-generation technologies: The integration of VSCP-based IoT systems with next-generation technologies including 5G networks, edge computing, blockchain, and quantum systems is still being researched. These technologies could significantly change the way IoT devices communicate and process data while ensuring privacy.
