Discover a new article in this Hub about IoT Gateways !
Following up the blog I did on the IoT stack and associate layers (I did a blog on the first layer: Devices and Things), I wanted to continue the series to quickly go through the gateways layer.
Gateways will bridge things and platforms.
A high level of interoperability, redundancy, connectivity, pre-processing of data, aggregation of data, remote control and management leads to the requirement for gateways. These IoT gateways enable the connection of things, especially on the consumer front. They collect, elaborate, communicate and so forth. These will need to be affordable and at the same time fulfill the necessary requirements.
IoT Gateways need to be designed to handle devices and applications which use different protocols, standards and data formats. As time goes on, there will be a variety of different versions of each protocol, application, device, and anything else imaginable operating in the same environment at the same time.
Additionally, legacy machines, legacy protocols/buses sometimes decades old, will need to communicate with newer, more modern equipment and applications. The equipment, to unleash the data source, they represent will need to be connected in a cost and efficient way.
There is much effort put forth by multiple organizations to enable seamless connection of low power IoT endpoints, typically enabling an IoT Thing like a thermostat to run for a year on a button battery. However, regardless of the standard, IoT Things that make the jump from main power to running for months on batteries will need a gateway to provide:
- communication to the cloud and the IoT platforms
- specific applications / functions not delivered by the IoT Things endpoints
- protocol conversion
- local decision making
- local management and accessibility for users
- local pre-processed filtering and aggregation of data
- local additional processing power and storage
- local security
IoT gateways are going to play a huge role in the evolution of the IoT space.
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