Store
Unless you have been living on a desert island somewhere, like Robinson Crusoe, you would have heard the term ‘Internet of Things’ or IoT more or less. Nowadays, IoT devices and adoption have quietly made their way to healthcare, education, industry, and pretty much sectors. As the IoT expands, integrating a variety of new and traditional IoT devices into the complex IoT ecosystem becomes a top challenge, thus increasing the demand for IoT gateway devices that play an essential role in maintaining IoT device connectivity.
What is an IoT Gateway?
An IoT gateway, serving as a mediator or bridge, is a physical device that connects end devices like beacons and sensors to the cloud. The term “gateway” is pretty self-explanatory, and it functions as a security checkpoint to handle the inbound and outbound data traffic, thereby ensuring reliable and efficient communication between end IoT devices and the cloud.
All data and information streaming between end devices and the cloud passes through the IoT gateway devices, with data flowing primarily towards the cloud, but can also be back and forth in cases where actuation is required. That is, all data from IoT devices is aggregated, processed, and filtered through gateways before being sent to the cloud. Similarly, when the IoT gateway receives information or instructions from the cloud, they are then transferred to the end device.
How does an IoT gateway device work
IoT gateways are intended to simplify the communications and management of IoT devices. Traditional IoT gateways perform several critical functions, including device connectivity, data filtering, protocol translation, data management, security, and updates. Advanced IoT gateways are capable of performing complex edge computing, which can have a big impact on reducing response time and network transmission costs.
If you imagine an IoT ecosystem, a gateway sits right between different types of IoT devices, facilitating their communication with the cloud or even a central data system.
IoT gateways translate protocols to establish communications
Communication bridges are established between distributed end devices, IoT gateways, and the cloud. For the first two, media of communication include the short-range wireless technologies like Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, and WiFi, as well as long-range technologies like LoRa, LTE, and NB-IoT. The IoT gateway then transmits the data and information to the cloud using WiFi or Cellular.
IoT gateway devices may pre-process the raw data from numerous touchpoints
An IoT gateway receives a large amount of data from different types of connected devices and sensors per second. As massive amounts of IoT data may cause overload to the cloud, the IoT gateway processes and filters the collected raw data to reduce data volume before passing it along to the cloud platforms. The processed data can be translated into single standard protocols such as AMQP, DDS, CoAP, MQTT, and WebSocket for more efficient computing.
What are the advantages of using IoT Gateway devices
As more and more vendors flood the market, IoT gateways are configured with higher specifications to achieve better performance, and so do the benefits they create. Following are some of the major advantages.
- Inter-device and device-to-device communication. As a centralized hub, an IoT gateway not only provides access for multiple IoT devices to communicate with one another but also enables data flow between devices and cloud platforms. Without your IoT gateways, it’s more of a hassle that these smart devices and sensors work individually and cannot communicate with each other.
- Edge computing. This could be a significant benefit of the IoT gateway. By pre-processing the collected raw data before sending them to the cloud, advanced IoT gateways are enabled to perform complex computing, thus reducing the network response time.
- High energy and cost efficiency. IoT gateways are enabled to manage data transfers, reduce bandwidth consumption, and reduce latency for IoT devices, making them ideal for deployment in any IoT ecosystem. In addition, the cost savings from one IoT gateway are negligible, but you’ll notice a considerable reduction when deploying a large number of gateways.
- Security risk mitigation. With the explosion of IoT devices, the security risks against them crop up here and there, making the communication bridge – IoT gateways attach more importance than ever. As expected, IoT gateways are equipped with multiple security options to ensure an extra security layer between the Internet and the devices.
- Durable and Reliable. While a commercial IoT gateway has all the advantages above, it is not exactly the same as an Industrial IoT gateway. They differ in that IIoT gateways can withstand extremely hostile industrial conditions. IIoT gateways are usually built with robust industrial materials that are more durable and reliable, allowing them to endure wide-ranging temperatures, humidity, radiation, dust, vibration, and even explosions.
Real-world examples of IoT gateway applications
IoT gateways can be as varied as the conditions they are deployed in, with each gateway requiring different protocols, connection methods, and energy requirements to bring myriad distributed IoT devices and sensors together. Over the past few years, IoT gateways have provided substantial support for a wide range of industries, achieving a variety of business purposes. The following are some real-life examples of how IoT gateway devices could be used.
Smart Warehouse Applications
There are many variables that need to be monitored or controlled in a warehouse, including inventory levels, temperature, humidity, equipment location, worker movement, and more. To observe the warehouse operations and the environment in real-time and make alterations in time, facilities mounted lots of beacons, sensors, and gateways within the warehouse site to collect precious data and information.
Smart Transportation and Logistics
In-vehicle IoT gateway applications could be seen everywhere. Some commercial transport vehicles such as trucks, buses, or delivery vans could benefit a lot from the vehicle area networks. IoT devices such as GPS trackers, fuel sensors, door sensors, temperature loggers or cargo monitoring system can aggregate information including vehicle location, route information, cargo status, and more, and then the gateway will receive these data and transmit them to the cloud for analysis. In this way, those commercial transport vehicles could accomplish their delivery tasks more easily. One of our Poland customers is using the MKGW4 Cellular Gateway for in-vehicle monitoring.
Smart Healthcare Solutions
Smart plug gateways could find their great role in the healthcare sector. These Bluetooth to WiFi gateways can be used for monitoring the location of patients and staff, as well as significant medical equipment. It not only helps in patient management, but it can also be utilized to manage attendance. MOKO’s MK110 plus Plug Gateway is used for a healthcare duress badge solution.
Difference between a router and a gateway
The term router often gets mixed up with IoT gateway. There are many similarities between the functionality of IoT gateways and Routers, but IoT gateways do much more. Both of them work autonomously as a bridge that enables communication between different types of devices and communication technologies. However, the major differences are that IoT gateways can integrate data from different devices and process the data before sending it to the external cloud. Simply put, an IoT gateway can perform complex tasks during offline and online situations whereas a router can only work when it’s online to bridge devices to the internet.
Best cloud services for IoT gateway connection
IoT cloud platforms bring together the capabilities of IoT devices and cloud computing, delivered as an end-to-end service. At present, there are several IoT Cloud Platforms on the market provided by different service providers, which carry a wide range of applications. Here, we have selected some of the best cloud services for your reference.
-
- Amazon Web Services IoT Platform
- Microsoft Azure IoT Hub
- IBM Watson IoT Cloud Platform
- Google IoT Cloud Platform
- Oracle Integrated Cloud for IoT
- The Things Industries
As for which cloud service is best for you to go with, it ultimately depends on your specific needs. When choosing the right platform, you are supposed to take these factors into consideration, including real-time data capture capability, data analytics performance, device configuration, API protocols, cloud model type, etc. Of course, usage cost is another significant factor that cannot be ignored.
How secure are the IoT Gateway devices
In terms of security, IoT devices are highly vulnerable to cyber-attacks. In particular, as the number of IoT devices and sensors grows, so do the communications between the devices and cloud platforms, thus increasing the vulnerabilities of the IoT ecosystem. To some extent, IoT gateways can be regarded as the first line of defense against hackers, so they are supposed to be designed with solid cybersecurity to prevent any data tampering or unrestricted access.
Sitting between the IoT-connected devices and the cloud, IoT gateways actually provide an additional protection layer within the IoT system. To reduce the overall risk of hacking, IoT device reduces the number of total internet connections. In addition to data protection, IoT gateways also provide physical resistance to devices to deny external unauthorized access and harsh environmental conditions. All of these ensure the security of entire data-to-cloud encryption from online and offline threats.
Where to choose suitable IoT Gateways
The more IoT devices you want to apply to your business, the more complicated the IoT ecosystem you will have to build. It is a daunting task to connect your devices securely to the cloud and gather IoT-generated data, but IoT device manufacturers like MOKOSmart will make it easy. Our deep hardware experience will help connect your IoT devices to the cloud platforms intelligently and securely.
Offering a wide range of Bluetooth gateways and LoRaWAN gateways, MOKOSmart will deliver you secure wired and wireless connectivity for pretty much devices. If you are looking for a suitable IoT gateway solution for your applications, just contact us immediately. Meanwhile, our engineering experts are always here to support your IoT projects.
CONTINUE READING ABOUT GATEWAYS
