Main Features of Edge Computing Gateway

The Internet of Things is growing rapidly and moving towards the Internet of Everything (IoE). In the era of full connectivity, the surge in the number of device connections and the amount of data in the Internet of Things has promoted the development of edge computing technology. Edge computing Internet of Things innovatively brings edge computing architecture into the field of the Internet of Things, providing data processing, storage, and application near the edge of things. It solves the "last mile" problem of Internet of Things communication and realizes the intelligent connection and efficient management of Internet of Things devices.

In this article, USR will introduce edge computing Gateway from four aspects.

1. Why do we need Edge Computing Gateway?

2. What is the purpose of the edge computing gateway?

3. Main features of edge computing gateway

4. Typical application of edge computing gateway

Why do we need Edge Computing Gateway?

Nowadays, the Internet of Things has become a key force to promote a new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. What is the Internet of Things? Simply put, the Internet of Things makes the Internet of Things, and its ultimate goal is to connect everything.

With the rapid development of Internet of Things technology, all walks of life begin to transform digitally, connecting more and more devices to the Internet. Statistical authorities predict that by 2025, the number of global Internet of Things device connections will reach 100 billion. Under this trend, enterprises will face the following challenges:

When massive data is migrated to the cloud for processing, the lack of real-time data analysis and processing capabilities greatly increases the burden of data processing in the cloud. 

It is difficult to centrally deploy and manage numerous IoT devices and applications, as well as diverse interfaces and protocols.

Edge Computing Internet of Things: The Combination of Edge Computing and Internet of Things

Edge computing greatly simplifies the processing of massive terminal data in the cloud.

Edge computing is deployed at the edge of the network near things or data sources, and provides edge intelligent services through an open platform that integrates network, computing, storage, and application capabilities. The data collected by the terminal device is directly analyzed and processed in real-time at the edge of the network without uploading to the cloud. Edge computing meets the key requirements of industry digitization for agile connectivity and real-time data optimization.

The combination of edge computing and Internet of Things technology has given birth to the edge computing Internet of Things. Edge computing Internet of Things brings edge computing architecture into the field of the Internet of Things. Edge Computing Gateway, which integrates network, computing, storage, and application capabilities, can be deployed at the edge of the network near the device or data source to provide device management and control services at the edge of the network. Therefore, the edge computing Internet of Things solves the "last mile" problem of industrial Internet of Things communication and realizes the intelligent connection and efficient management of Internet of Things devices.

What is the purpose of the edge computing gateway?

The Internet of Things for Edge Computing aims to meet the following requirements:

Adapt to a variety of physical interfaces and protocols, so that the Internet of Things terminal can access the Internet quickly and smoothly.

Realize the unified management of a large number of terminal devices.

Realize local processing of local traffic and rapid response.

Open the industry collaboration system.

The following figure shows the edge computing IoT architecture, which is characterized by edge intelligence and cloud management. Through the gateway's open edge computing capability, the edge computing Internet of Things quickly adapts to the intelligent data processing needs of all walks of life and realizes the quick response of millisecond-level key businesses, local aggregation and optimization of data, and active return of high-value data to the cloud.

Edge Computing Internet of Things Architecture

The Edge Computing IoT architecture uses two core components: the Edge Computing Gateway and the cloud-based IoT platform.

Edge Computing Gateway is an Internet of Things gateway with edge computing capability, which can analyze and process massive terminal data locally. Support rich industrial Internet of Things interfaces (such as PLC, RF, RS-485, DI) and protocols, and flexibly access various sensors and terminals. Open hardware and software resources to support container deployment. Industry applications can be deployed in containers on demand to achieve local processing of access terminal equipment data.

Cloud-based Internet of Things platforms can be interconnected with various industry application systems to achieve intelligent connection of terminal devices. Cloud management architecture is adopted to centrally manage a large number of terminal devices and reduce operation and maintenance costs. It adopts open architecture and an open standard northbound application programming interface (API) to interconnect with third-party industry application systems.

Key Features of Edge Computing Gateway

The cloud platform is open

In the edge computing Internet of Things solution, the cloud-based Internet of Things platform uses cloud computing technology to achieve unified management of networks, devices, containers, and applications in the cloud. The platform also provides an open northbound API to support flexible docking with third-party industry application systems, as shown in the figure below.

Open architecture

Cloud Internet of Things platform adopts open software architecture, provides standard RESTful northbound API, interconnects with application systems in various industries, and realizes application value-added services.

Service Integration

The cloud-based IoT platform manages gateways, containers, and applications in a unified way, and supports the installation of containers and applications.

Cloud-based deployment

The cloud-based IoT platform supports distributed cluster deployment, seamless capacity expansion, and centralized management of a large number of IoT gateways.

Gateway open

As shown in the figure below, Edge Computing Gateway supports container deployment, allowing users to install their own business applications in the container. In addition, it provides various eSDK interfaces for containers and application invocation resources.

The container is a lightweight, Linux-based approach to virtualization isolation. A traditional virtual machine consists of a CPU, memory, disks, and peripherals and is used as a real machine. In contrast, Linux containers implement resource isolation and allocation based on the Linux kernel, making the applications in them think they are running on separate machines.

Typical Application of Edge Computing IoT

Edge computing Internet of Things has been widely used in power distribution, smart cities, smart integrated energy services (IES), and other fields. It has become an important driving force for cross-industry digital transformation. The following describes the application of edge computing Internet of Things in power distribution and intelligent IES scenarios.

Internet of Things for power distribution

The Internet of Things combines traditional distribution automation technology with the Internet of Things technology to realize the digital transformation of the distribution network. This solves many long-standing problems that traditional industrial control technology can not solve, such as the management of many terminal devices and business management and control. Therefore, the Internet of Things for power distribution can provide a better user service experience and improve the efficiency of service operations.

In the power distribution Internet of Things scenario, the edge computing Internet of Things adopts the "cloud-tube-edge-end" architecture to achieve full connection and intelligent management.