As the Internet of Things (IoT) evolves, businesses face the challenges of integrating multiple devices and protocols, many of which have to deal with varying power and connectivity requirements. This combination may also comprise legacy technologies.

IoT Gateways are an important part of robust IoT solutions. It is providing computational power in edge computing systems. If your company has invested in broadening the IoT solutions, you must have heard this term more frequently. Let’s understand the concept with detailed information.

What is an IoT Gateway? 

It is an intelligent central hub that connects the devices with each other and to the cloud through the Internet of Things. Then, it translates communication between the devices and filters data into valuable information.

The right and efficient Internet of Things gateway incorporate communication technologies to connect end-devices (sensors, actuators, or more complex devices) with backend platforms (data, device, and subscriber management). It has a computing platform that allows pre-installed or user-defined applications to handle data (routing and computing at the edge), devices, security, communication, and other facets of the gateway. At its core level, it enables the connections between various data sources and destinations.

How does it work? 

Some sensors and controllers like Wi-Fi or Bluetooth don’t support energy-intensive protocols. Many devices aggregate data that becomes burdensome and invaluable in raw form. They all are connected to a number of public and private networks.

An IoT Gateway solves this issue by translating protocols to encrypt, process, manage and filter the data. In an Internet of things (IoT) ecosystem, a gateway lies in between devices and sensors to communicate with the cloud.

IoT Gateway acts as a communication bridge between IoT Sensor Network and Cloud Server. The device has a layered architecture. Here are some of the crucial software and hardware layers that will help you get a much better understanding of the IoT Gateway Development process:

1. Hardware Platform: It defines the processing power & memory specifications of the IoT Gateway. You can also call it the powerhouse of the gateway. A hardware platform is selected according to the complexity of the IoT application(s) that have to be deployed.
2. Operating System: The selection of a particular OS depends on the legacy systems. The OS should be compatible with the existing systems in order to save costs and hassle-free integration.
3. Analytics Engine: It makes sure the raw data is converted to actionable insights
4. Integrated Application development platform and Device Drivers: It supports the development and addition of new devices, applications, or systems to the IoT network. 

Top features 

The robust IoT technology can perform many critical tasks, be it data filtering, enabling visualization, or complex analytics. Here is its list of features:

• Enabling transmission with legacy or non-internet connected devices
• Data caching, buffering, and streaming
• Data pre-processing, cleansing, filtering, and optimization
• Handful data aggregation
• Networking and hosting live data
• Data visualization and basic data analytics through IoT Gateway applications
• Managing user access and network security
• Device configuration management
• System diagnostics

A versatile IoT Gateway plays a vital role by offering edge computing ability to empower technicians in the field and at the plant. It implies that it bridges the gap that lies between operations and IT infrastructure within a business.

Why is it important? 

Whether you are ready to invest in IoT or start with a few devices, setting up the gateways will always provide quick and massive benefits to your business.

• Connecting devices with each other and to the cloud

It’s more of a hassle to manage and control the individual remote for different devices. Having a universal remote will save your time and effort as you can control them from a central location. You don’t have to take the load of managing the different remotes that can’t be programmed to work together.

As a centralized hub, the gateway provides a single location to communicate the data in devices with the help of the cloud. It implies that when you deliver or obtain the information to an IoT device, you are interacting with them through an IoT Gateway.

These gateways can connect to each other for integrating and increasing their functionality throughout a physical location, a large number of IoT devices, or smart sensors. By installing them early, you can add devices seamlessly that will saves your precious time and effort.

• Interpreting communication between IoT devices

Smart IoT devices are becoming an integral part of business operations where the latest products and solutions are launched. Still, the standards for a common language between devices do not exist.

For instance, your office may have several IoT devices. They are still unlikely to communicate with one another unless they are from the same manufacturer or unless you have Internet of Things gateways for translating the information.

When more IoT devices are included in the technology, the need for hubs will also rise to simplify how they work together.

• Filtering data

IoT devices have the ability to record information within seconds. Analyzing every record will increase the hassle. It reduces the efficiency of the operations of the devices and how they communicate with each other. The universal gateway allows and simplifies your devices to communicate with each other by filtering data into valuable bits of information. It is intelligent enough to work at the edge, which means each gateway can think about and navigate through the provided data. The filtered data is sent to the cloud, increasing communication and response times.

The new generation gateways are competent in filtering out the high-end information from the gathered data. They also have the ability to take the required action on it.

• Security and risk mitigation 

The security risks also increase with the rising IoT devices. The outside influence and hacking are possible with all IoT devices. An IoT Gateway adds an extra layer of security between the internet and the device itself. It prevents any data tampering or unrestricted access. Even if you are not much into IoT solutions, the universal gateway will surely demand your investment as it provides extra security for all the IoT devices you already have.

• Intelligence at the edge

IoT Gateways are an example of “intelligence at the edge” that understands and processes the data. It implies that there is no need for any third party to comprehend the valuable information. This high-tech gateway will lower your costs of operations. You don’t need to have the high processing power, memory, and storage as it will do all the work for you. 

Don’t opt for Traditional Gateways 

Traditional IoT gateways are non-intelligent. Though they perform a wide range of functions such as device connectivity, protocol translation, data filtering and processing, security, updating, and management, they are still not enough.

 Choose IoT based Gateways

New and smart IoT gateways come with advanced additional functionalities such as edge analytics on data produced by IoT devices before it is sent to the cloud, or without transmission to the cloud. They provide organizations with a number of benefits including: 

• High scalability – These gateways take intelligent data from the data center or cloud and push it into the field or network edge 
• Faster production – An accelerated and more advanced production line can reduce time-to-market significantly 
• Lower telecommunications costs – IoT gateways have the ability to isolate devices and sensors that aren’t performing before they cause bigger problems for the production line.

Zenatix IoT Gateways

The IoT Gateways play a crucial role in the connectivity of the building. Zenatix is one of the leading IoT companies in India. We are empowered to render state-of-the-art automation solutions to our clients by connecting the physical assets over the internet.  If you want to know how high-tech gateways can help you, contact us and get the right advice for the correct implementation.