What is the relationship between terminals, gateways, protocols, PaaS, and SaaS that are often mentioned in IoT products?

In Internet products, what is the relationship between terminals, gateways, protocols, PaaS, and SaaS that are often mentioned? The author of this article has shared some words that appear frequently on the Internet and compiled some pitfalls for students who are new to the Internet of Things industry. I hope it can be helpful to you.

This article mainly shares vocabulary that appears frequently in the Internet of Things, such as "terminal", "gateway", "protocol", etc., and sorts out the pitfalls that the author has experienced in the past for students who are new to the Internet of Things industry, as well as the later How to avoid lightning/troubleshoot problems.

1. Basic concepts

In the information collected from Baidu/other places, there are different explanations for terminals, gateways, protocols, PaaS, and SaaS, which are summarized as follows:

• Terminal: The terminal in IoT products refers to the device that communicates with the IoT cloud, usually including smartphones, tablets, smart wearable devices, etc. End users connect to the cloud through terminal devices to realize data collection, transmission and processing of the Internet of Things.

• Gateway: Gateway is an important part of IoT products, mainly used for data exchange and conversion between different devices and systems. Gateways can convert different protocols, data formats, and communication methods so that end devices can communicate with the cloud.
• Protocol: Protocol is an important technology for data transmission and exchange in IoT products. The protocols used by different devices and systems may be different, so protocol conversion is required to achieve data interoperability. Common protocols include WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc.
• PaaS: PaaS refers to development services based on cloud platforms, providing the development environment and tools needed by developers to help developers quickly build and deploy IoT applications. PaaS platforms usually include coding, testing, deployment and monitoring functions.

• SaaS: SaaS refers to a service based on a cloud platform. Users do not need to install any software or hardware and can use IoT applications simply through the Internet. SaaS services typically include application deployment, management, and updates.

Use a picture to explain the relevant definition information:

Give a small example:

Little A’s mother installed a locator device on his electric car to track his journey to school. One day, Little A had a car accident on the road. During the accident, Little A and his car were knocked down, so the "device" sent an "alarm message" to Little A's mother's mobile phone, saying that Little A had an accident on the road. Yes, go and save him!

Who should report the above information to? The location reported at this time is the "gateway", but the device will not say in language like us humans: "Hey, at what time and where did your son/daughter seem to be hit by a car, and then fell down, triggering "I received this alarm." They will negotiate with the "gateway" to use a certain language to represent this information. This language is the "protocol." So what role does the "gateway" play in this? The gateway is the "translator" who translates the content reported to him by the device into another language to communicate with the "PaaS".

After the gateway transmits the information to "PaaS", "PaaS" calculates and detects that this information is very important. I want to push it to his mother quickly to let his mother know that Little A has been in a car accident and go to rescue him quickly. He, so "PaaS" quickly pushed this information to the device-bound software on Little A's mother's mobile phone, which is "SaaS". So everyone has a basic understanding of the device, protocol, gateway, PaaS, and SaaS. Bar. Why don't we need to use the same programming language from the terminal to the gateway, and then from the gateway to PaaS?

2. Reasons for using different “languages” between different “roles”

There are several reasons why the gateway must perform protocol conversion processing on the information between the terminal and PaaS, because we all know that a protocol is used between the terminal and the gateway, and the gateway needs to parse the information before using another language. Communicating with PaaS

• Scalability: Direct interoperability is required between the terminal and the gateway, but the users of PaaS are developers, and it provides tools and components. Therefore, using the language directly between the endpoint and the gateway may result in different technology stacks and complexities. Using different languages ​​provides better flexibility and scalability.
• Security: Information transfer between the terminal and the gateway and the gateway to the PaaS may involve sensitive information, so additional data verification is required to ensure information security, such as data encryption and identity verification. And using different languages ​​can provide better security and protection mechanisms.
• Maintainability: Using different languages ​​can make downstream systems more maintainable and easier to manage. In this way, developers can use different language frameworks to write applications, and such language frameworks are safe and easy to develop. Sex, etc. have been tested and verified.
• In addition, sometimes there are reasons for the equipment itself. When the cost of the equipment is low, the memory is also small, and information can only be processed through 01 sequences or simple machinery. It cannot store huge underlying languages ​​​​like PaaS cloud servers. Of course not for all devices.

So knowing this information can already solve many problems for product managers who are new to the Internet of Things industry. Let’s look at a case.

3. How to solve the problems encountered in reality?

Background: In my previous career in designing Internet of Vehicles products, a problem arose. One day the business department came to me and said that a large customer had purchased n locator devices, but these 80% of the devices have been successfully imported to the saas platform and have been turned on. However, the platform shows that they are not activated, but the functions can be used normally. After checking the code, the development colleagues found that the devices have been activated and online normally.

Analysis: Then we analyze the normal workflow of the device from the perspective of the product. The device reports information (login package, heartbeat package) to the gateway. After the gateway parses it, it reaches PaaS. PaaS storage related After logging in the log/time and other information, synchronize it to SaaS. SaaS accepts the login package normally, and the backend adjusts the status to activated. It seems that there is no problem. Logically speaking, the device can be activated and online normally.

The above assumption is based on the fact that after the device has been imported into the platform, it is then powered on and online. After going online, the heartbeat packet, login packet, etc. can be reported normally through the protocol. If the device is powered on and online first, and then imported to the platform, at this time, the device If the heartbeat package and login package have already reported relevant information before importing, then the package body such as your own login package cannot be reported in time, and the gateway cannot parse it. Naturally, the status is not activated.

Write at the end

The Internet of Things covers a wide range, and different fields have different methods of data processing and information reporting. If you have a different understanding of the article, you are welcome to leave your opinions in the comments.

This article was originally published by @布布的 shit-shoveling officer on Everyone is a Product Manager. Reprinting without the author’s permission is prohibited.

The title picture comes from Unsplash, based on the CC0 agreement.

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