Comparing the Use of Custom-built and Commercial Off-the-shelf Data Gathering Devices in IoT Systems

IoT refers to a wide range of devices that have Internet access, and collect and transmit information. Data have to be gathered from the most diverse environments. Custom data gathering devices are often necessary in situa- tions where the data being collected are unique or need to be collected in a certain way. This is because commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products may not have the necessary capabilities or features to meet the specific requirements of the data collection. This study focuses on COTS and self- built data gathering devices by comparing two data gathering prototype systems: The first designed and implemented from scratch and the second built with COTS components. Both systems are compared in terms of various features such as cost-effectiveness, time saving, and the usefulness of the output. The end goal of the study is to provide a proposal for when it is appropriate to use COTS components and when it is necessary to design and build devices yourself.