bringing legacy devices online

Bringing Legacy Devices Online14 June 2016, Berlin – IoT Tech Expo

Bernd Behler, CTO tresmo

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Bringing Legacy Devices Online

“As a manufacturer, I want to connect my legacy devices to the internet so that I can offer new services and enable my customers to control their devices remotely.”

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?? ? Cloud

Option A

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+Option B

Internal IoT Gateway

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External Gateway

Option C

?External IoT Gateway

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Service Ports

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Gateway Service Port Connection

Option C

Service port

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IoT Gateways

Gateways can make a legacy device IoT capable:

- talks device specific protocols on one side

- talks IoT protocols on the other side

- one or more devices can be connected to a gateway (wireless or wired)

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Gateway Usage Example

Cloud

Gateway

Device

Example: Connecting a Heating Appliance to the Cloud

App

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IoT Gateways

Typical Gateway Functionality

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Gateway - Typical Functionality

Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

connecting

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

read / write

connecting

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

read / writesend / receive

connecting

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

data preprocessing

read / write

connecting

send / receive

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

data preprocessing

local buffering

read / write

connecting

send / receive

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

data preprocessing

local buffering

read / write

connecting

send / receive trigger rules

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

data preprocessing

local buffering

read / write

connecting


local applications

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

data preprocessing

local buffering

read / write

connecting


local applications

local connection endpoint

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Cloud

Gateway

Device

App

firmware updates

data preprocessing

local buffering

read / write

connecting


local applications

device id

local connection endpoint

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Device Identification

At the time the gateway is produced, you usually do not know what device is going to be connected to it.

There must be a device identification mechanism to detect which device (with which firmware version) is connected.

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Device Identification

“Who are you?”

“I am a heating appliance of type XYZ with firmware version 1.2.3 “

Device

Gateway

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Datapoint Definitions

The gateway itself has no knowledge about what “datapoints” to read from the device

The IoT cloud has to tell the gateway which datapoints to read.

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“Who are you?”

“I am a heating appliance of type XYZ with firmware version 1.2.3 “

Device

Gateway

Cloud

I have a heating appliance XYZ with firmware 1.2.3. Please tell me what datapoints to read.

List with datapoint definitions for the device.

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Example:

- address 0x1234- datatype byte- length 1- scaling factor 1- unit celsius- min 10- max 35- stepping 1- description temperature setting- ...

datapoint definitions for all devices

Datapoint DefinitionDatabase

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Datapoint Value Propagation

Cloud

Gateway

DeviceApp

gateway reads from address 0x1234

1

2cloud forwards datapoint address value to app:0x1234 = 00011000

24°3

app shows temperature

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Cloud

Gateway

Device A

App

cloud forwards datapoint values to app:0x1234 = = 00011000

Device B

address 0x1234 24°

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Cloud

Gateway

Device A

App

cloud forwards datapoint values to app:Device A: 0x1234 = = 00011000Device B: 0x5678 = 1011110000

Device B

address 0x1234

address 0x5678

Problem: different devices store values under different addresses.

How does the app know what those addresses mean?

24°

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Datapoint Mapping

Device A

Device B

address 0x1234

address 0x5678

Semantic Metamodel

/heating/temperature = 24 ° App

24°

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Datapoint Mapping

1

Semantic Metamodel

Define a semantic metamodel across your

devices

2

Mapping Rules

Define mapping rules to convert:

- raw device datapoint values to metamodel

values

- metamodel values to raw device datapoint

values

3

Conversion Engine

Use a conversion engine to perform

conversions between datapoint values and

metamodel based on a given set of mapping

rules

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Cloud

Gateway

Device A

App

cloud forwards datapoint values to app:Device A: /heating/temperature = 24°Device B: /heating/temperature = 24°

Device B

address 0x1234

address 0x5678

DatapointStandardization

24°

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Summary

Internal or external gateways can be used to connect legacy devices to the Internet.

A device identification mechanism has to be in place, when different devices are to be connected.

Datapoint definitions can be loaded from the cloud on demand.

Metamodel mapping is important if datapoints differ from device to device.

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We are a 360° digital agency with passion for the IoT

Digital Transformation Consulting

Software Development

Digital Analytics /Big Data

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How can we help you with your IoT project?

Bernd Behler

Bernd Behler

[email protected] Tech Expo booth #14

www.tresmo.de

#tresmo360

bringing legacy devices online

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