Overview

The integration of Bosch IoT Gateway Software with Azure IoT allows customers to build diverse gateway applications using the advantages of edge computing in combination with the Azure IoT platform capabilities. Azure IoT customers will be able to gain unified visibility into thousands of downstream devices and perform complex data analysis and automation with high volumes of device data locally and from the cloud according to your use case.

What it does

Bosch IoT Gateway Software provides connectivity for devices from a variety of specifications, and offers a unified representation of these devices. An abstraction layer represents the devices and their functionalities in the form of Functional Items (FIs) for applications to use. In addition, the gateway can run logic locally which enables monitoring and automation use cases where data gets processed at the edge.

The Azure IoT integration ensures bi-directional communication between the two which allows you to:

• Access devices connected to the Gateway in IoT Hub
• Filter devices and functionalities based on granular criteria
• Configure device twin updates and messages
• Customize message format (including ADT v1) to accommodate any user application
• Update device and twin properties on either side
• Process device telemetry messages through the Azure IoT Edge services

How it works

The Azure IoT Edge operates using a container mechanism. Applications deployed on the edge are packed in docker containers called modules. Such modules can be related to Azure stream analytics, machine learning, functions, and other custom applications.

The Azure IoT Edge runtime consists of two modules that are responsible for operation and communication between the applications, as well as to the cloud.

• The Agent module - responsible for installing, uninstalling and updating other modules.
• The Edge Hub module - provides a communication means between modules and also with Azure IoT Hub.

Bosch IoT Gateway gets deployed as an Azure IoT custom module using a docker container image. The Edge Hub is responsible for routing the device messages from the gateway locally and to the cloud.

To perform the integration between Bosch IoT Gateway Software and Azure IoT, users will need to deploy the Bosch IoT Gateway Software as an Azure IoT Edge module, as described in the Setup Guide.

Benefits

• Cost Savings - process large data volumes at the edge before sending to the cloud.
• Better Business Insights - use custom data points to leverage better data science and analytic models.
• Flexible Applications - build monitoring and automation applications using Bosch IoT Gateways flexible OSGI modules.