IoT Platforms

IoT platforms are software applications that offer several services that support the development and deployment of an IoT solution. Services include sensor and device registration, authentication, message queueing, rule engines, action controllers, and data analytics. They can act as the gateway, processor, and controller, all in one, with sensors on one end and workers on the other.

There are several IoT platforms available, from simple to complex, and each with its own approach, architecture, and features. Several IoT platforms are available as PaaS (Platform as a Service) solutions.

AWS IoT Platform

While most complex platforms are commercial solutions, the AWS IoT platform is a good option to learn the fundamentals. AWS allows developers to experiment with their solutions for development and learning purposes, and the platform is scalable for production use once you are ready. The AWS IoT platform has a central component, known as AWS IoT Core, a managed cloud service that lets connected devices easily and securely interact with cloud applications and other devices.

AWS IoT Core can support billions of devices and trillions of messages and can process and route those messages to devices and AWS endpoints reliably and securely. With AWS IoT Core, your applications can keep track of and communicate with all your devices, all the time, even when they aren’t connected.

Services

Following are the typical services that IoT platforms offer.

• Connect and manage your devices.

  IoT Platforms allow you to connect sensors to gateways and processors on the cloud. They support standard web protocols such as HTTP and WebSockets and specialized IoT protocols such as MQTT.

• Secure device connections and data.

  IoT platforms provide authentication and end-to-end encryption throughout all points of connection so that data is never received or transmitted from sensors that are not a part of your solution.

• Process and act upon device data. IoT platforms provide processing capabilities to filter, transform, and act upon sensor data as it is received, based on the application logic you define.