Role of ESP8266 and NodeMCU in IOT

As mentioned earlier, when you use ESP8266, it reduces cost factor in IOT application but where does ESP8266 fit in IOT? What ESP8266’s role in IOT?

The answer is simple - since ESP8266 is a Wi-Fi based module it fits in communication part of an IOT application.

ESP8266 has many communication protocols hence it is easy for the programmer to interface any microcontroller based device with ESP8266.

Advantage: ESP8266 gives internet connectivity to devices at very low cost. ESP8266’s pricing starts from just $2.

The above block diagram shows the basic implementation for IOT using ESP8266.

ESP8266 is also provided with GPIO and ADC which gives standalone implementation for the purpose of monitoring and controlling.

In the above diagram ESP can transmit temperature reading over Internet through Wi-Fi modem and users can also control devices on GPIO based control using simple transistor circuits.