IoT Device and Data Orchestration Cloud Service
The IoTGtw cloud service is designed for the IoT eco-system to support a wide range of IoT use cases and verticals. The service is accessible globally and also provides regional/local instances to support use cases that are required to be localized and or to ensure minimum latency.
The service provides amongst others: Device and Data Management, IoT Messaging including Instant Delivery, Message Acknowledgement, Message Queuing for offline devices, Device Security, Authentication, Bootstrap, Meta-data and or Payload Cloud Storage (if desired) for historical queries and Analytics, Upstream data delivery to your API-, RabitMQ-, MQTT- AWS SQS-endpoints and more.
Quick Start:
Create an account (if you do not have one already) then follow these steps to quickly get started.
Login to your account then:
1. Add a Service Template
2. Add one or more Devices
3. Add a Messaging Endpoint Profile (optional)
4. Determine which Service Access Points your Device will use
5. Configure physical IoT device with the preferred SAP(s)
6. Start using the service
7. If additional functionality required, Upgrade Subscription Package and subscribe to Add-on features (Optional)
Note:Step 1 to 3 can be performed on the Portal or automated using the Provisioning APIs. Step 4 and 5 can be automated on the device by using the device bootstrapping service to control and assign device IDs and SAPs to your fleet of IoT devices. The bootstrap service uses the IoTGtw SimplyTiny framework and can be used over RAW socket, CoAP or MQTT-SN. SimplyTiny is designed for IoT, it is very easy to use and best of all SimplyTiny requires no additional libraries or software to the IoT device. It provides high efficiency messaging capabilities, messaging acknowledgement, bootstrapping mode allowing each device to retrieve their auth token, unique device id and optionally the SAPs to connect to. See the SimplyTiny Documentation for more details or contact the support team any questions or bespoke requirements.
#1 Add Service Template
Create a service template to define the services and settings to be applied to any device associated to the service template. To add a service template, logon to the Portal. Click on Service Templates > Add Service Template, input a service template name and description, press Create and Customize. On the service Customize Service Template Page, modify the default settings of the template to suit and then press Update Service Template. Alternatively a service template can be created using the Provisioning API service. One or more upstream application endpoint can be specified by way of customer endpoint profiles for upstream data delivery and split routing functionality
#2 Add Device
One or more devices can be added using the Add Device form from the Portal or by using the Provisioning APIs. Devices can be added in bulk using the bulk Device upload file tool on the Portal or using the Provisioning API service. To add a device using the Portal go to Devices > Add Device, if relevant specify a custom device id type to use to identify the device in the device_id field, provide device name, model, etc as required. If device is a cellular device, then specify the IMSI of the device SIM in the IMSI field. All fields are optional except the Service Template ID field. A service template must be assigned to every device that is added. When the device object is created a unique device ID (UDID) is assigned.
The same rules apply when adding devices using the bulk upload tool or when using the provisioning API service for device create.
#3 Customer Endpoint Profile (optional)
If required specify your upstream application endpoint. One or more Customer Endpoint Profiles can be added from the Portal by clicking: Customer Endpoint Profiles > Add Messaging Endpoints. Insert a profile name, select Target Application type, provide your upstream application details as required then press Create Messaging Endpoint. Alternatively the endpoint profile can be created using the Provisioning API service.
Next, go to the service template and select the newly created Endpoint Profile. The defined endpoint profiles hold the endpoint details as well as credentials required to successfully deliver upstream data to your customer application. The endpoint profiles can also be used to specify the authentication details for receiving downlink messages (i.e. message submit) from your upstream application.
#4 Select SAP to use
Go to the Service Access Points page to review the list of SAP available to your account. Your IoT devices may use any of those SAP. The SAP available to devices can be further restricted in the service template settings. General notes:
- The available Service Access Points are available on the Service Access Point Page list
- If SAP restriction is enabled on the Service Template then the device must use one of the SAP whitelisted in its service template
- The device must connect to a SAP that matches its supported protocol/framework (i.e. raw, SimplyTiny, CoAP, MQTTSN, etc).
#5 Configure your physical IoT Device
- The appropriate SAP can be manually configured on the device or the device can use SimplyTiny SAP retrieve / Bootstrapping service to retrieve the SAP list and select the one to use.
- When selecting SAP to use the current/nearest device region, application data framework and the transport type (UDP or TCP) of the device should be taken into account.
For large scale device roll out it is recommended to use SimplyTiny based bootstrapping service to automate and dynamically distribute the device udid and authentication tokens, SimplyTiny also allows device to retrieve SAP list and periodically refresh auth token if enabled in the device service template .
#6 Upgrade Subscription Package and Subscribe to Add-on features (Optional)
Free Subscription
The free subscription package comes with a great load of IoT service essentials such as Master dashboards, Device dashboards, numerous shared SAPs, ability to create and manage Devices, Service Templates, Messaging Endpoint Profiles, Sending and Receiving messages to /from devices, forwarding message received from device to the customer upstream application over RESTful API, Access to the Provisioning APIs and Messaging APIs, Meta-data storage services (if required), Message Queuing Services, Protocol conversion, ability to control meta-data retainment limits, allowable message payload of up to 500 bytes, free IoT device allowance and more. All the above can be used free of charge with no need to provide any payment / credit card details.
Paid Subscription
To support the global infrastructure and maintain high quality services we ask for a small fee to use the advanced services and features. The advanced services and features are amongst others: Dedicated Private SAP, Bootstrapping Service, Messaging Acknowledgement, customer upstream RESTful API and upstream socket services (i.e. MQTT, AWS SQS, TCP, UDP), Managed TLS services, Increase IoT device , Priority Messaging, Payload storage, max payload of up to 1500 bytes, ability to control meta-data and payload storage time limits, message broadcasting service, etc.
The subscription packages and add-ons are structured in such a way that you subscribe and only pay for the services you need. The services, features and settings can be further controlled per device service template.
To upgrade to a paid subscription package and add one or more add-on, logon to the Portal and add a valid payment card under: Manage Billing > Add Card, then follow the steps on the screen.
Once a payment method is successfully added, navigate to: All Services > Select a Subscription Package > Select one or more Add-on > Scroll down and press Next then confirm.
Please note:
- Subscription package are renewed and billed at the end of your billing cycle. The billing cycle date is by default the day of the month the paid subscription service started.
- Subscription package auto renewal can be cancelled at any time. When cancelled the subscription package and all add-ons will no longer be renewed at the end of the billing cycle and only the free-subscription tier services will continue to be available.
- When an add-on is cancelled, the cancellation takes effect immediately
- To cancel a subscription package or an Add-on, logon to the Portal and navigate to: My Service Subscriptions > Find the item to cancel and click cancel.