AVNET's iotconnect.io cloud platform is an online service that you can use to send data to, and then show it on a dashboard. In this blog series I'm learning the Python SDK and integrating BLE devices. In this post: the SDK is revamped and now shows how to register the kit as a real cloud gateway device, with child devices.
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What is a Gateway Device?
In the first 5 posts, the SmartEdge IIOT Gateway was used as a simple cloud device.
It was a fixed entity that knew how to connect to the cloud, how to get sensor data, and how to exchange that.
With the new example that Avnet made for this gateway and the OnSemi RSL10 family, they have promoted the kit to a gateway device.
A gateway is responsible to collect data from other devices that may not be able to connect to the cloud. And is responsible for exchanging that with the cloud.
image source: iotconnect.io help page for device registration
There's flexibility with Gateway devices that's harder to achieve with normal devices.
Once it knows about a device it has to support, it can support a number of them.
Let's say that it supports OnSemi sensor kits and camera kits (it does and I have them, that's why I take this example 
).
If you choose so, the kit is able to pull data of these kits (or ask them to take a photo) without registering. As long as they are in range, they can be polled.
The gateway can automate the registry of these devices, and include their metrics on your cloud.
This is your decision. You can make a design that only polls from known entities.
image source: iotconnect.io help page for device registration
A Gateway Device on iotconnect.io
When the Avnet example runs the first time, it automatically upgrades your kit's online registration from a standard cloud device to a gateway.
It uses a rest API to perform these activities.
By default, also a virtual child device is registered. This virtual device represents a software service running on your gateway.
It's a great way to showcase the Gateway principle if you don't have access to one of the OnSemi evaluation kits.
image source: iotconnect.io portal showing my gateway and the virtual client device that's automatically registered by the gateway.
It's a good example, exchanging useful information of the IIOT Gateway.
It tells the cloud what child device types it knows, if a device of those types has ever connected, and versions of their plug-in software.
It also sends data about its own software version.
image source: iotconnect.io portal showing the last metrics of the virtual client device
It is an example, but this could be something you use in your own company, to support management of your flock of things.
There are two other device types registered on the gateway: an OnSemi RSL10 SmartSense kit and an RSL10 Camera kit.
These are also defined as allowed children on the cloud and can be integrated with your portal. More on that later.
image source: rsl10 example portal showing the results of a request to the RSL10 Camera kit to take a photo
In the next posts, I'll review how this kit registered itself as Gateway, and how the integration with the OnSemi camera kit is designed.
For the Python and BLE lovers.