Holistic IoT gateways

Your application in focus: The success of IoT projects stands and falls with the consideration of your very own application - from A to Z. From our point of view, holistic gateways include your business model, your marketing, rollout, commissioning up to the cloud and the update tool.

Success with IoT does not come off the peg. We offer you not only the experience from numerous projects, but also proven modular elements that we develop, produce and also maintain as an IT/OT system for you to create a professional overall solution. See below the technical fields in which you can find your solution.

	Processor selection Your application already specifies many things, e.g. a desired battery usage determines the processor choice. Or vice versa? Whether energy-optimised µController or powerful ARM processor with AI, Linux Yocto or firmware is also determined here. More information >
	Interface to the Cloud Ethernet, LTE or LoRaWAN®: In addition to this decision, it is also necessary to define data volumes, encryption and protocols. MQTT is modern here, but what awaits the cloud portal and your users there? More information >
	Connection of sensors/IOs What data do you actually want to evaluate? Do you want to integrate your own sensor? Or do you want to "tap into" existing data? Here it is important to integrate and consider application knowledge with your specialists. More information >
	Mechanical structure ... there is also a lot to consider for this! Often a marginal topic, but of crucial importance. Do you want to install a retrofit gateway, i.e. in an existing environment? Do you want a top-hat rail or does your enclosure have to be waterproof? Exemplary but important questions. More information >
	Want a remote update? Your IoT gateway will also need updates at some point. But to what extent? Is an image update enough? Or do you want to be able to differentiate between applications and recipes? And what about security updates? As you can see: We should take a look at it together! More information >
	The cloud portal - for you and your users Without the cloud, there is no IoT application and vice versa. But which use cases do you want to cover? Monitoring? Service assistance? Or do you also need an efficient commissioning tool? Holistic means that you also get the cloud portal from us. Coordinated, from a single source, in the same project! More information >

PROCESSOR CHOICE: THE COMPUTING POWER FOR YOUR APPLICATION

Your application requires a computing power that defines the processor. Furthermore, other framework conditions bring additional requirements that are relevant for the selection of the processor, e.g.:

Battery operation required?
Intensive local pre-processing of data?
Use of Linux-compatible software or AI algorithms?
Size of the locally required memory?
Number of interfaces to the process?

You see: Together with you, we put your application through its paces. Together we bring application knowledge, business case and technology for the heart of your gateway to the point!

Interface to the Cloud

Easily definable, mostly still exciting in detail: The amount of data to be transmitted as well as its transmission frequency are the basis for the interface in the gateway.

With clever pre-processing and pure transmission of results, radio technologies such as LoRaWAN, mioty, Cat M1 and 450 MHz can be used ideally and in an energy-saving way with a high range. JSON/MQTT ultimately provide the bridge to IT and thus to the cloud application.

Sometimes, however, the data required in the cloud is so extensive that Ethernet or LTE/5G are unavoidable. Often LTE/5G is preferred in order to be independent of a local IT environment. In this case, we advise you with solutions for national and international roaming. The right modem, the right operator and the question of eSim vs. SIM card are in focus here. Our projects implemented so far provide you with facts and experience so that you can optimally specify your gateway.

Secure, encrypted communication is "on-top". Here there are numerous solutions in different scales. It is also important to keep an eye on the balance between security and effort in the creation and daily operation.

CONNECTION OF SENSORS/IOS

An often underestimated area, because sometimes it is "predetermined". But crucial for the application and your business case: What data do you want to process and have available? Which data is crucial for the benefit from the IoT gateway?

Technically, you can fall back on a variety of solutions:

Integrated IOs = leanest design for DI/AI
Standard fieldbus such as IO-Link, RS-232/RS-485 plus associated protocol, CAN or similar
Connection of a sensor system itself via SPI or similar (direct integration of sensor components, e.g. MEMS)
A combination of the above

The measuring principle, sensor technology and clever design of the measuring frequency are groundbreaking elements if the gateway is to run in battery mode. There is hidden potential for optimisation here in order to achieve long runtimes!

YOUR DESIRED MECHANICAL STRUCTURE

Consideration of the process interface for the sensor technology, environmental conditions such as humidity, temperature, dust, installation options for retrofitting, electrical connection in general or size: here it becomes individual and specific. Whether standard enclosure with PG and IP65 or a self-designed enclosure in plastic or metal, created with the industrial designer? Closed, encapsulated, reserved for the service technician?

Here, too, it is a matter of teamwork: what are the requirements from the application and what does this mean for the enclosure definition and thus the "packaging" of the electronics?

You can see from our questions: we have already been able to provide solutions for a large number of projects. We are also happy to work with the designer and constructor of your choice!

WANT A REMOTE UPDATE? TECHNICAL FIELD DEVICE MANAGEMENT AS AN OPTION

Important for the application, security and further development - for many applications, you want or need to change or add something after installation in the field. In a remote update portal designed individually for you, you define who is allowed to change what on your field devices and thus on your IoT gateway.

You specify what is to be changed:

Operating system (if available)
Application software and installed tools
Configuration files
Application programmes (e.g. PLC programme - if available)
Recipes or parameter files
Security updates of the communication

As you can see, it can be very complex! Sometimes, however, a pragmatic image update is sufficient, which finds its way to the IoT gateway as a whole - tested beforehand: In the sense of "keep it simple".

We are also at your disposal for this. Of course, this very hardware-related cloud portal can also be realised independently of the actual application portal, especially if you already have a cloud portal in use or want to realise it separately.

THE CLOUD PORTAL - FOR YOU AND YOUR USERS

This is "literally" the crowning glory: Grossenbacher Systeme can develop the complete solution of IoT gateway and cloud portal for you in one project. Holistically and ideally coordinated with each other. This reduces friction losses during the project and increases the speed of implementation - time to market, which can be decisive.

Together with you, we develop the cloud portal: whether as a service tool or direct operating portal ("SCADA-in-the-cloud"), with alarms and events, live and historical data, operation across diversified user rights. You define your cloud application with us in workshops for agile and rapid implementation.

The cloud is yours - your software, developed for you. Hosted by you or your IT partners. Or for you with us.