Device connectivity
As already mentioned in getting started, a crucial decision needs to be made regarding how you will connect the devices: directly or via a gateway.
Connect device directly
Connect devices via gateway
In case your device cannot be directly connected to the cloud, you might need to additionally employ a gateway
This chapter will help you with details on the following concepts:
Device data model
The IoT introduces the need for managing the identities of devices including the management of credentials that are used for setting up secure connections between devices and the cloud.
This section gives an overview over the data model used to realize this within the device connectivity layer (Bosch IoT Hub).
Device communication patterns
In the IoT devices communicate via different patterns. The two major communication patterns are device to cloud communication for sending telemetry data to an application (with or without guaranteed delivery) and cloud to device communication for sending commands to a device.
Protocol adapters
The device connectivity layer provides various adapters which can be used by your physical devices
Cloud Protocol Gateway - operated by a customer
The world of IoT consists of IP-ready devices that can connect to the cloud directly and non-IP-ready devices that communicate with the cloud via gateways acting as protocol translators.
Cloud Protocol Gateway - operated by a customer
Security
Security is a critical concern in every IoT application. This includes authentication on a per-device level as well as securing the communication channel.
Multi-tenancy
As multiple customers can subscribe to the device connectivity layer, each subscription has a unique tenant ID and all tenants are separated from each other.