Endpoints - Attached Devices

EdgeIQ Edge, like other IoT platforms, allows for ingestion of data from a variety of devices, communicating over a variety of data and network protocols. Other platforms provide SDKs for certain programming languages, so custom software is nearly always needed to integrate device types into the ecosystem.

EdgeIQ's overriding design goal has been to turn data ingest into a configuration (not coding) task. To that end, we support common data protocols (e.g., csv) and network protocols (http/s, tcp, udp), allowing for rapid integration without exhaustive coding. If a protocol is not supported out of the box, in most cases it can be supported with minimal coding effort using an embedded scripting language (examples are provided).

A device is any "thing" in the Internet-of-Things that emits data ("reports") of interest that we want to gather, or to which we want to send commands. Here are a few examples:

• GPS tracking device
• Water quality sensor
• Thermometer
• Security camera
• Bluetooth mesh light bulb

They're called attached devices because they send reports to and receive commands from a particular Edge gateway.

Device types

Each attached device must have a parent device type. A device type is a classification of a device. Whereas a device is anything that can exchange data with EdgeIQ Edge, the device type describes what kind of device it may be. To draw an analogy, a device type is similar to the model of a car (e.g., "Subaru Outback"). The model indicates a lot of characteristics that are universal to all Outbacks. A device is analogous to your Outback that you can actually drive around.

Device identification

Since there can be many such devices, each must have a name that is unique amongst a user's devices (even those attached to other gateways), and a globally unique identifier (e.g., MAC address, serial number, etc.). Either the name or the globally unique identifier must be included in inbound reports from the device in order to validate the incoming report and associate it with the device.

Creating attached devices

Most users will use the EdgeIQ management portal to create device types and attached devices. Developers should consult the Devices and Device Types API documentation.

Receiving reports from attached devices

In order to receive reports from attached devices, an Ingestors and Translators must be created for each device type.

Sending commands to attached devices

To send commands to devices, a Commands must be defined.