By accessing communication peripherals, such as network controllers and radio interfaces, microcontrollers are able to establish data communication with nearby devices and even with remote servers through the internet.
A set of embedded targets connected together and interacting with each other can be seen as a self-contained distributed system. Homogeneous machine-to-machine communication can be implemented using non-standard, and even proprietary, protocols.
Depending on the set of standard protocols it implements, an embedded system may be able to successfully communicate with heterogeneous, remote systems. Implementing standard protocols that are standardized and/or widely supported introduces the possibility to interact with gateways in the same geographic area, and with remote cloud servers across the internet.
The connectivity range...
