As many of you will know, this year part of 2G networks are being eliminated in different countries despite the moratorium imposed at the time. In this sense, integrators and manufacturers have focused on this fact, advancing to what had to happen one day and left devices ready for this. Manufacturing and designing equivalent devices with NBIoT, Lorawan and even 4G connectivity.
Even so, in many contexts the change from 2G to 3G or 4G had not been made due to the battery consumption that this change implied on the device, which in many cases must be autonomous and without the possibility of being connected to the electrical network to remain on, so that the best alternative to adapt these devices in case of not having good Sigfox or Lorawan coverage is undoubtedly the NBIoT connectivity.
At the level of data volume and directly impacting the cost of connected things, the UDP protocol is undoubtedly the most widely used protocol.
That said, many times we find companies that do not have the capacity or sufficient volume to be able to modify or customize the connection protocol or what is the same, the shape of the plot and the data that is sent. It is for this reason that thethings.iO, advancing the change of all these devices, launches a new service that helps and allows all these companies to be able to integrate their devices seamlessly with the platform: thethings.iO easyGateway.
What is easyGateway?
easyGateway is the new system of thethings.iO to integrate all your NBIoT / UDP devices that come with factory firmware and cannot modify their protocol to connect to thethings.iO with the defined protocol.
How does it work and what is its performance?
Very easy. Your productId will have a dedicated UDP port only for your product, so you will have a highly available communication channel independent of the rest of the devices or server load that allows you to have the data received immediately available on the platform. As you will see later, it is for this reason that the easyGateway service is a service that is billed separately but that is only € 10 / month regardless of the number of devices you connect or have running without associated development costs.
How much does the development of my custom easyGateway cost for my product?
- easyGateway is designed for quick and easy startups. No associated development costs that increase the initial cost of implementation and allow our customers to launch MVPs without an initial overhead of preparation expenses. The cost of the service is established to be able to reserve the port and dedicate a single channel for your product without queues with other devices.
Is easyGateway free then?
No. At the development level we want you to start quickly and be able to demonstrate to your clients that your integration and your project are working correctly, so the development is cost 0 and is available in 48h-72h from its activation. Once activated, easyGateway is billed monthly.
The devices with which I use easyGateway, how do I register them?
With easyGateway this process is facilitated in a fully automated way as in the case of Sigfox. Once this feature is activated, any device that you connect configured to the port indicated by the platform will appear automatically in the things manager panel with the name associated with the serial number or identifier sent by the device.
And the data?
Once the frame and the device have been converted in the things manager of thethings.iO, you can decode the received frame as a normal and simple payload in the same way as with connected Sigfox or Lora devices.
How can I learn more?
Soon we will post more information on our developers.thethings.io page so that you can follow the integration tutorial (estimated integration time <10 minutes) and you can find examples on our blog with the steps to follow for its use.
When will it be available?
The system is now available by sending the frame format to easyGateway@thethings.io . The automated system for generating gateways through the panel will be available in early 2021 so the activation will be completely instantaneous and automated.
What does thethings.iO easyGateway mean?
A before and after in the integration of NBIoT systems since with absolutely no development on the device, with zero cost of firmware or hardware customization and with the simple configuration of the assigned port ( the same of the productId ) and the server easyGateway.thethings.iO you already have your IoT system started in less than 24 hours. All this without touching or paying a single development line on the device. You buy your devices from your NBIoT device provider, configure the connection and you’re done. Your data and your NBIoT devices with your own IoT platform in a matter of hours!
