IoT Application Functions and Types

IoT Internet of Things. IoT refers to the internetworking of devices that are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity features allowing data exchange over the Internet. application functions are classified into three categories:

• Device Classification—Using Lua scripts, an IoT device can be assigned a “device class”. For each of BLE Bluetooth Low Energy. The BLE functionality is offered by Bluetooth® to enable devices to run for long durations with low power consumption., Zigbee and USB Universal Serial Bus. USB is a connection standard that offers a common interface for communication between the external devices and a computer. USB is the most common port used in the client devices. devices, the details of how and where the Lua script runs is slightly different, but the core idea is the same - identify the IoT devices, set the respective device class attribute and parse any device attributes such as sensor information, using a Lua script. After the device class is set for a particular IoT device, the application or an IoT transport profile can filter on all subsequent data packets received from that IoT device for any further processing or data transport.

• Device Data Processing—IoT applications can implement data aggregation, data enrichment and any business logic to work with the data from their IoT devices. APIs Application Programming Interface. Refers to a set of functions, procedures, protocols, and tools that enable users to build application software. for configuration and management or IoT devices can also be implemented here. Any application implementing edge compute will need to also implement the Device Classification function. Generally, if partner applications perform any edge compute, the application containers usually implement all 3 functions of classification, data processing and transport, though there is no strict requirement to do so.

• Data Transport— IoT applications can be made to configure secure connections to the partner’s business application servers as needed. Any data format conversions needed can also be implemented by the IoT application. Protobufs are available on the Aruba Support Portal - ArubaOS 8.x, and ArubaOS 10.x protobuf definitions here. Application developers can implement their own specific protocols for data transport as well.

A partner application can implement one or more of the above broad functionality, as relevant to the use case. Since applications can be designed to perform only specific functions, application developers should note that it may be necessary to install and use more than one application on their IoT Connector for an end to end solution.

Use case example:
To design an application to only classify BLE IoT devices using a Lua script you will need to use the application in conjunction with either an IoT Operations Transport Profile or a dedicated “data transport only” application, such as the ArubaOS application, in order to have an end to end data flow from your IoT devices to your business application. As such, unless the partner is building an application which does all three of the above functions, applications should be considered more like building blocks for executing the end to end solution.

The most common use cases for partners' IoT applications are as follows:

• IoT device classification - BLE

• IoT device classification - USB

• Zigbee Device Management

• Device Classification + Edge Edge is a device persona that connects endpoints to the fabric. Compute + Data Transport

• AP Beacons Management

• IoT Radio firmware management (will be available in a later release)

• IoT device classification - Wi-Fi Wi-Fi is a technology that allows electronic devices to connect to a WLAN network, mainly using the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz radio bands. Wi-Fi can apply to products that use any 802.11 standard. RTLS Real-Time Location Systems. RTLS automatically identifies and tracks the location of objects or people in real time, usually within a building or other contained area. (will be available in a later release)

For more information about each application type, and how to build them, see IoT Application Development.