What is IoT, IoT Testing & What are Its Challenges?

Earlier, people thought that the term IoT (Internet of Things) was the concept of science fiction films. Thanks to data analytics and communication technologies, both have helped IoT gain vast popularity in the digital market. And, today, the IoT has become the biggest enabler in our life.  

Nearly 749 billion US dollars were already spent on the IoT worldwide. Due to the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, global IoT Spending is estimated to reach about 1.1 trillion dollars by 2023. Accordingly, security will be a major concern for businesses. Therefore, whether you are in the manufacturing line and associated with the healthcare business while leveraging this technology within your organization, you must consider IoT Testing Services because these services can help you eliminate performance glitches of IoT devices that can adversely hamper the performance of overall networks. 

Besides, with robust IoT testing, one can make an assumption about the system errors and even identify the weak loopholes of the network in advance. Aside from this, you can also take the necessary steps to make your IoT applications reliable and help your end-users get a flawless user experience.   

So, are you ready to invest in IoT Testing? You have made a great decision. However, if you are a newbie and planning to hire the IoT Testing Service Provider for improving the functionality and performance of your IoT systems/applications/devices, you should first have detailed information about IoT and IoT Testing. After that, you should know about the Best Practices for IoT Software Testing, IoT Testing Tools, frameworks, and much more information to ensure that your application will be tested in the right way.   

Let’s Start   

What is IoT?  

IoT is the network of physical objects called things that are submerged with software, sensors, and other technologies are called IoT. This technology enables individuals to control their devices and help them install at remote sites via networks.  

Additionally, with IoT, it is possible to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet. Besides, one can easy to connect devices other than a computer such as vehicles, home applications that contain software, electronics, actuators, and have interlinked to other devices using processors, sensors, and communication hardware.  

Overall, you can understand that Internet of Things Sofware means connecting a wide array of physical devices with the network.   

Why is IoT Testing?   

IoT (Internet of Things) Testing is a type of software testing that helps test IoT devices. Due to the growing demand of acquiring faster and quality-made services, it becomes necessary to consider IoT Testing Services because it helps us get greater insight and control of several interconnected IoT devices and make it possible for us to launch a reliable product and ensure faster time to the market. While IoT (Internet of Things) Testing, one should ensure that the application will work as expected. If you are the person who is going to implement IoT testing, you must focus on the following factors:   

• Ensure that IoT devices can build a reliable connection with sensors, the cloud, and many other devices and elements to help people get a unified experience.  

• Ensure that it can deliver continuous performance.  

•  Make sure it should be fully compliant with international standards or regulations.   

• Data produced from the IoT should be protected against security vulnerabilities or malware.  

Are you interested in partnership with Software & QA Testing Company to test your IoT application by following above factors in mind? We are the one that you are looking for.  Let's have a quick call or Explore our Mobile & IoT Device Lab 

Best Practices for IoT Testing   

 Before starting testing of IoT devices, you should follow some best practices for IoT Testing that are mentioned below:  

Understand the Importance of Gray Box Testing   

Gray Box Testing is the blend of White-box & Black-box testing, and this type of testing is essential to perform in order to find defects in IoT applications. During IoT Testing, you must design effective test cases and have a detailed understanding of operating systems, third-party hardware, architecture, new connectivity, and hardware devices so that it becomes easy to eliminate problems. Also, it will help you know the improper usage or structure of your application.   

Have Access to Real-Time Operating Systems   

Testing should be done with real-time operating systems. Otherwise, it would be difficult for you to deliver the IoT application with modularity, scalability, security, and connectivity. Make sure the purpose of the operating system is to manage system resources and assure that both hardware and software can communicate with each other. Therefore, if it is a matter of efficient communication of your IoT devices, you should perform IoT testing on real operating systems and eliminate functionality issues.  

Know the Role of Automation in IoT Testing   

Another step that you need to focus on IoT Testing is Automation because it is crucial for the IoT Testing Future and helps you test your IoT applications with proper planning. Even it lets you promote a standard industry framework for agile-based software delivery. Apart from it, it promises to give you the following benefits:  

• By accelerating Automated Testing, one can minimize resource constraints and issues from devices virtually.   

• Automation testing helps perform continuous testing and provides assurance for the speed and agility of apps.  

• It enables parallel test execution on multiple devices.   

• It helps improve test coverage and supports cost-effectiveness for many mobile devices, app versions, and operating systems.   

• It helps you get access to scalable virtual labs to support wider test flows.   

• It eliminates UAT defects and production defects and provides assurance for higher ROI  

• One can easy to prevent defects at the early stages of the project life cycle.   

• With automation testing, getting quick feedback on code changes is much simple.   

• It is suitable for repeatable automated testing and easy debugging.   

• Moreover, it can easy to resolve complex conditions through end-to-end testing.   

• Overall, it ensures better quality, faster delivery, and increases testing productivity.   

• Besides, it helps remove hardware resource bottlenecks and assure the realistic performance of the application and connected devices.  

What is IoT Framework & How Does it Work?  

The IoT (Internet of Things) framework can be an ecosystem that has a connection of several devices, and all of them communicate with each other through the internet. In addition, under IoT, one can connect multiple devices with the network and share the information through the IoT cloud in order to complete valuable tasks. When it comes to transferring and sensing data over the internet, these connected devices require the least human intervention to transmit information using Internet transfer protocols.   

However, to fulfill the needs of IoT technology, it becomes necessary to consider IoT based frameworks like KAA IoT, ZETTA IoT, Cisco IoT Cloud Connect, IBM Watson, SAP IoT, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and so on because all these IoT frameworks have cloud-based capabilities and make it easy for device management and help IoT manage communication between hardware and software, and even ensures to improve the information flow to improve the application’s functionality.   

What are the Various Types of Testing Necessary to Consider for IoT?  

As discussed above, there is an urge for delivering faster and improved services, and if we want to access, create, utilize, and share data from any device without any performance errors, we should never skip IoT (Internet of Things) Testing because it is the key to all IoT problems and ensures to give you better insight and control of numerous interconnected IoT devices.    

But before testing, you have to make a selection of robust IoT Testing Tools like Shodan or Thingful because they are specially designed for Internet of Things Automation and make it easy for you to scale test cases, improve test coverage, reduce hardware resources and perform testing with various connectivity scenarios. On the flip side, in order to make your IoT application fully functional and defect-free, you should pay attention to the following types of testing for your IoT because these testing types can help you address issues that occur while testing IoT applications.   

1. Usability Testing:  

Today, devices come in various shapes and forms for users, and the nature of devices can vary according to the version. Accordingly, you must check the usability of your application while getting IoT testing and ensure that data will be better displayed in IoT testing, and people will get satisfaction from the product.   

2. Compatibility Testing:  

Under IoT, there can be two or more architectures. Some of them are simple, and some of them can be complex. Therefore, while IoT testing, you must perform the compatibility test to ensure that your IoT application will work across numerous operating systems, browser types, devices, and networks.  

3. Reliability and Scalability Testing:  

 Reliability and Scalability are critical for building an IoT test environment and simulate sensors by using virtualization technologies and tools. If the technology that you have made is neither scalable nor reliable, then it will indeed not be used by your audience. That's why, at BugRaptors, we use a simulation of sensors to build a test environment and ensure the reliability and scalability of your IoT development.  

4. Security Testing:  

Security is one of the crucial aspects that enterprises should concern about while implementing IoT. If you are using IoT applications, you should keep these applications' data away from cyber-attacks. Otherwise, hackers will control your connected devices and could affect the overall functioning and leak sensitive data of your system. To avoid this situation, you must take IoT security seriously.  

 The following points should be considered while checking for the security of the IoT:  

• Password and Credentials  

• Data Interferences  

• Constant Updates  

• To Record, every Endpoint added  

• Secure Booting (i.e., User authentication)  

• Device authentication  

• Firewalls  

5. Performance Testing:  

During performance testing, testers should consider a few aspects like Network latency and Its Bandwidth, a huge number of simultaneous users, packet loss, etc. These factors can hamper the performance of your system and help your users get a poor product experience if you miss them while testing. Similarly, QA members should examine the network activity carefully and check how data moves from one network layer to another.   

What are Some Challenges that Occur while Testing IoT?  

 Below are some challenges that you can face as a tester while testing the IoT architecture.   

1. Test Data -Obtaining test data among different systems is challenging because it requires multiple teams and substantial efforts from the organization.   

2. Test Environment- Replication of the environment is hard, especially if it is a matter of IoT testing, as it also requires too much effort and budget.  

 3. The dependency of components- Different groups and third-party entities are working on the subsystems, sub-components, and services. At this point, If the user is not able to access a single dependent sub-component, it could influence the testing of the whole system.  

 4. Unavailability of Hardware- Hardware should be available at the time of device testing. Otherwise, your application can experience severe damage.   

5. Sensor quality and accuracy- The quality of gadgets or devices under test may not be up to the mark. In order to help them correct accuracy, one should perform testing from expertise because they have the latest IoT Testing Tools and comprehensive knowledge of automation to meet your needs.  

6. Compatibility Issues- Different Cloud platforms are available and used for IoT, and it can be challenging to determine device compatibility.  

7. Complexity- IoT Architecture is very complex, and it can become challenging to understand and fix its complexity issues.  

 8. Connectivity Problems- IoT is a network, and it is connected with multiple devices. Due to this, you can experience various issues during connectivity.  

 9. Privacy/Security issues- Security and privacy is the main concern for the enterprises & it can be difficult to attain while testing the complex architecture.  

How Should You Overcome IoT Testing Challenges?  

There are some best practices for effective IoT software testing that we have mentioned above to help you overcome major IoT Testing challenges, so you can follow them to meet your IoT application requirements and get the test done with 100% accuracy.  

If you don’t want to test itself, you can hire our team at BugRaptors because we are an Independent Software Testing Service Provider and have competence in IoT Testing Services to make your IoT software glitch-free.  

For more information, let’s connect today.