Layering COAP based protocols with IMPACT IoT, provides ubiquitous connectivity beyond Hyperscalers
The Cloud Hyperscalers such as Azure IoT Services and AWS provide useful infrastructure for Application development which is widely available and cost effective. Of particular benefit are the HyperScaler IoT pre-integration offerings to a wide range of infrastructure services like storage, real time analytics, serverless computing services and a range of on-demand hosting infrastructure.
Cellular Licensed Low Power IoT has been steadily expanding with a range of solutions connecting an abundance of end points, that are often constrained. In many cases, the constraint is due to power limitations.
Many of the devices are not mains connected and rely on a long-life battery. The long-life is achieved by limiting the use of the radio and employing a hardware design right-sized for the battery capabilities –which by nature is constrained. Low Power IoT technologies require optimized communication protocols that match the limitations of their devices and radio technologies.
Employing well defined protocols have many advantages, allowing interoperability, security, reliability, and extensibility. An example, the Constrained Application Protocol (COAP), is optimized for Low Power IoT and can be used alone or with higher layer protocols such as Lightweight M2M.
In many cases though, protocols are not implemented instead relying on the access methods themselves where payloads are simply sent and received in a simple unstructured messages.
Combining Hyperscalers and Low Power IoT simultaneously encourages connectivity to Low Power IoT devices all the while capitalizing on AWS and Azure services with a simple and readily available hosting capability.
AWS have published their own recommendations of how to accomplish with regards to Cellular technologies NB-IOT and LTE-M and list multiple different ways to integrate the COAP protocol:
- The use of a Telco hosted COAP server to integrate into AWS IoT Core
- The use of a Partners hosted COAP server to integrate into AWS IoT Core
- The use of a VPN secured COAP server hosted in AWS on behalf of the service owner
- The use of a COAP server hosted in AWS on behalf of the service owner using DTLS for security
Azure takes a similar approach, where partner solutions are required to achieve secure COAP protocol connectivity.
The Motive IMPACT IoT Platform takes this one step further, not only as a COAP partner with a proven scalable solution, but by employing Lightweight M2M. To further improve the interoperability and relevance within the IoT space, Open Mobile Alliance Lightweight M2M protocol sits on top of COAP and provides a data model and set of bindings. It not only provides a protocol, but one with an extensible data model enabling features like Firmware Upgrade and Operator Profile Management.
Using the Motive IMPACT IoT Platform in conjunction with AWS or Azure is a powerful synergy, providing ubiquitous hosting and "as a service" availability in the cloud. The duo delivers connectivity towards constrained devices as well as integration towards the cloud for the full range of storage, data and control services.
The use of COAP is fully supported and is further extended with a best-in-class Lightweight M2M solution covering wide interoperability, rich use cases for both Device Management and Data Collection.