The IoT gateway is the hardware or software component that connects controllers, sensors, and other smart devices to the cloud. Whether it is a dedicated hardware device or software program, the IoT gateway is where all data transmitted between IoT devices and the cloud is routed. Smart gateways or control layers are another name for IoT gateways.
What is an IoT Gateway?
Data is sent between IoT devices and the cloud using the IoT gateway, which can also serve as a network router. In the early days, most gateway devices simply transmitted traffic from IoT devices to the cloud. Nowadays, gateway devices often manage both inbound and outbound traffic. IoT data is sent to the cloud using outbound traffic, while firmware updates and other device management operations use inbound traffic.
Some IoT gateways perform tasks beyond traffic routing. Sometimes, gateway devices can preprocess data locally at the edge before sending it to the cloud. To reduce the amount of data that needs to be sent to the cloud, devices may perform deduplication, aggregation, or summarization of data in the process. This can significantly impact response time and network transmission costs.
Sending data between IoT devices and the cloud using an IoT gateway
An additional layer of security for IoT networks and the data they transmit is another advantage of IoT gateways. Despite improvements, the security of IoT devices is often found lacking. For example, a TCP/IP library used by billions of IoT devices was found to contain the Ripple20 vulnerability in 2020, making such devices susceptible to attacks.
Adopting IoT gateways with features such as tamper detection, encryption, hardware random number generators, and encryption engines is one way businesses can protect their IoT networks. These and other features can help protect individual devices from attacks and safeguard the IoT gateway.
How Do IoT Gateways Work?
A simple IoT gateway performs duties similar to a Wi-Fi router. The gateway receives Wi-Fi connections from the IoT system and then routes data from IoT devices to the cloud. However, IoT gateways are often much more complex.
The fact that IoT devices use various different protocols means that IoT gateways can be more complex than Wi-Fi routers. These protocols include low-energy Bluetooth, BACnet, Zigbee, and Z-Wave. Therefore, to support all IoT devices in an enterprise, an IoT gateway may need to handle a variety of protocols.
The fact that IoT devices use various different protocols makes gateways often more complex than Wi-Fi routers
In addition to supporting these protocols, gateways must also be able to route various forms of IoT traffic to the correct locations. While data from building security sensors may need to be transmitted to a SaaS provider running a cloud-based security interface, data from a set of industrial sensors may need to be transmitted to a database in the cloud.
IoT gateways may need to locally cache data in case of internet outages, or if the data being overwhelmed exceeds its processing capacity, which is another reason they can be more complex than Wi-Fi routers.
IoT gateways often provide failover clustering or horizontal scaling capabilities to handle increasing workloads.
Edge Computing and IoT Gateways
Some IoT devices generate a large amount of data. If a company has a significant IoT device ecosystem and wants to transmit all that data to the cloud, it can become a problem. IoT gadgets can exhaust a company’s entire internet capacity, and the cost of storing data in the cloud can be high.
Using edge computing for at least some basic data processing can help prevent such issues. This approach helps reduce the amount of data that must be transmitted to the cloud, thus lowering costs and bandwidth usage.
Suppose a company has a set of IP-enabled security cameras that are all transmitting real-time data. Sending all unprocessed video footage to the cloud for data processing certainly doesn’t make much sense, especially if some cameras are primarily focused on empty spaces.
If a company has a large IoT device ecosystem and wants to send all of that data to the cloud, it can become a problem
Processing video clips at the edge is more efficient than immediately uploading all monitoring clips. Edge devices can distinguish between security clips that the business deems worth keeping and irrelevant clips, such as videos of empty rooms. Clips that need to be evaluated can be sent from the edge device to the gateway device, which will upload the information to the cloud.
IoT gateways are critical for controlling and protecting IoT devices, and they can also help businesses reduce bandwidth usage associated with IoT.
IoT Gateway Architecture
There are four architectural layers found in IoT infrastructure. These include the following:
Network Layer: At this layer, data is compiled from multiple sources and sent securely to processing systems. Data aggregation and format conversion are tasks performed by the Data Acquisition System (DAS). At this level, the IoT gateway can securely connect IoT devices and processing infrastructure.
Sensor Layer: Devices collect data at the sensor layer for later processing.
Data Preprocessing Layer: IoT sensor data is preprocessed at this layer and undergoes basic data analysis to limit the amount of data before transmission to cloud-based infrastructure. IoT edge devices operate at this layer.
Cloud Application Layer: Due to cloud-based infrastructure, applications and users can access data and results of in-depth data analysis. Data warehousing or storage is also possible at this layer.
IoT Gateway Hardware
IoT gateway devices fill the communication gap between cloud-based IoT platforms, sensors, devices, and systems. IoT gateway devices provide local processing and storage solutions, as well as the ability to autonomously manage on-site devices based on sensor input data by systematically connecting on-site and cloud.
Edge gateways sit at the intersection of edge systems, where the local intranet used by other devices in your ecosystem meets the public internet. It is the primary access point for network connections inside and outside the device ecosystem.
IoT gateways are critical for controlling and protecting IoT devices
Are Routers IoT Gateways?
Routers may be the most widely used among all IoT gateways. They transmit IP packets in and out of local networks as well as in and out of IoT devices, allowing your smart sensors or other devices to connect to the internet and share the data they generate.
IoT Gateway Software
The digital age has yet to see the arrival of many machines and factories. To leverage the advantages of the industrial IoT, they must first be connected. The solution is IoT gateway software, which you can use for new devices and currently installed devices.
IoT gateway software enhances the transparency of machine and process data. Real-time monitoring of process data, including temperature, pressure, vibration, etc., ensures that your output meets high standards. Using rules to analyze specific data makes predictive and planned factory maintenance easier.
Benefits of Using IoT Gateways
Setting up an IoT gateway will provide short-term and long-term benefits, whether your business is ready to invest extensively in the IoT or wants to start using some devices here and there.
Connecting Devices to Each Other
IoT gateways are like universal remote controls. A universal remote allows you to operate all gadgets from one area, saving you time and effort. While you can have multiple remotes, each suited for specific devices, it is not convenient. Your devices can still operate and be controlled without an IoT gateway, but doing so is more challenging and does not allow you to set them up for collaboration.
IoT gateways act as the central hub for data transmission between connected devices. Through the cloud, people and other devices can communicate with each other. When you send or receive information to IoT devices (such as protocol changes), the IoT gateway and supporting cloud software are used to communicate with the IoT devices.
To expand and simplify its functionality across the physical space and when used with an increasing number of IoT devices and smart sensors, IoT gateways can also connect to each other. Universal IoT gateways can be installed early in your technology plan, allowing you to add devices easily and quickly.
IoT gateways can simplify communication by filtering data into valuable information
Data Filtering
Your IoT gateway can not only facilitate communication between devices but also simplify communication by filtering data into valuable information. Looking at every record would be of no use and would slow down the execution and communication speed of IoT devices, as they can capture new data bits in an instant. To enhance communication and response time, IoT gateways are smart and capable of working at the edge. This means that each gateway can consider and check the data provided before sending only the necessary filtered data to the cloud.
Translating Communication Between IoT Devices
Despite the rapid integration of IoT devices into our daily lives and the constant emergence of new services and products to improve nearly every aspect of our lives, there is currently no standard universal device language.
For example, even if the lighting and climate control in an office are equipped with motion sensors, it is questionable whether they can interact with each other unless they are made by the same company or unless you have an IoT gateway that can translate their data.
As more IoT devices are added, the central hub becomes increasingly important in simplifying how they work together.
Mitigating Security
The security issues that IoT devices bring increase with their number. You may have heard horror stories about IoT going wrong, such as smart cars going out of control or Wi-Fi baby monitors allowing hackers to eavesdrop. All IoT devices are vulnerable to external interference and hacking, but IoT gateways add another layer between the internet and the actual devices. Even if your business does not invest heavily in IoT, gateways allow for future investments while enhancing the security of the IoT devices you already have.
The security issues brought by IoT devices increase with their number
Smart Edge
It is crucial to remember that IoT gateways are an example of “smart edge” or “intelligent edge.” This means that data can be processed and understood by the IoT gateway itself without needing translation and processing by a third party or individual. IoT gateways are a typical example of proactive smart edge.
IoT Gateway Use Cases
Below we can see some practical use cases of IoT gateways, and next, we will explain two different examples:
Video Surveillance Systems
IoT companies now offer high-definition video surveillance solutions with excellent picture quality. This would not be possible without IoT gateways that preprocess, filter, and compress the data.
These systems generate a significant amount of records that need to be stored and checked in some way. As we have discussed, IoT gateways may have additional computing power to preprocess data. Due to edge computing, video sources are automatically evaluated locally. Therefore, the system does not retain meaningless records.
IoT companies now offer high-definition video surveillance solutions with excellent picture quality
Industrial Refrigerator Monitoring
This system focuses on managing the collected data, displaying various metrics in industrial coolers and monitoring them. Let’s focus on the components we need, information gathering, rather than the technical complexity of the solution.
Industrial refrigerator monitoring sensor nodes should be able to withstand extremely low temperatures. Under such harsh conditions, it is better not to connect the sensors directly to the internet via 4G.
IoT gateways collect data from sensors using low-range protocols and then send it to the cloud. The requirements for handling low temperatures disappear because they are located outside the harsh environment.
IoT Edge Security
Smart IoT devices installed at the network edge are an example of IoT gateways. These devices can provide both advantages and disadvantages for IoT security.
Decentralized Infrastructure
The moderate data processing power of IoT gateways has both advantages and disadvantages for security. Edge computing for distributed data processing helps with resilience and data minimization, but the security of distributed architectures can be more challenging as they cannot be shielded by boundary-based defenses.
Data Minimization
Data generated by IoT devices must be filtered through the IoT gateway before being sent over the internet. This helps reduce the amount of data exchanged and the likelihood of critical data being leaked through cloud-based servers.
The IoT gateway can have built-in security features between IoT devices and the open internet
Edge Security
The IoT gateway can have built-in security features between IoT devices and the open internet. Since IoT helps eliminate the security vulnerabilities often present in IoT devices, this helps protect organizations’ IoT devices and the sensitive data they collect from cyber threats.
Conclusion
Businesses often deploy IoT devices, which presents challenges for managing and monitoring them. A centralized hub known as an IoT gateway connects IoT gadgets and sensors to cloud computing and data processing.
Modern IoT gateways often enable bidirectional data transmission between the cloud and IoT devices. As a result, IoT sensor data can be uploaded for processing, and commands can be sent from cloud-based applications to IoT devices.
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