What is IoT Device Management?

IoT device management offers a wide range of offerings, which will assist you with everything from authentication, provisioning, controlling, configuring, maintaining, and monitoring of IoT devices. In the rest of this article, we would be discussing everything you need to know about IoT device management.

IoT Device Management describes the processes that ensure that connected devices are registered, configured, provisioned, maintained, and monitored. For instance, all of the major cloud service providers, such as Azure IoT Hub, Google Cloud IoT, or AWS IoT, provide IoT device management services as part of their overall services.

How Does IoT Device Management Work?

There are four high-level steps involved in IoT device management and ensuring connectivity between devices. Below we will discuss each of those four steps.

Step One: Sign Up Your Devices

You will likely discover an abundance of intelligent devices already connected to the internet. Although this is true, each device must be connected to the internet for the first time. Once you’ve activated the device, the first step is to register it.

For example, each device in AWS IoT is referred to as a thing. A thing can either be a physical gadget or a logical description of a device. One device, or multiple devices, based on your requirements can be registered at a time.

Step Two: Configuring and Provisioning Devices

Before you can begin using your new device, you must first configure it. To better understand the concept of configuration and provisioning of a device with AWS IoT, let’s examine an example.

The following three resources are required in AWS IoT core so as to provision your device to be used:

• A data privacy policy for IoT

An IoT policy refers to a document that describes the devices’ capabilities and the various places where those devices can send and receive data. Your device will not be able to send or receive data without this policy. In order to deploy a device in the IoT core, you must first combine the IoT policy with the device certificate.

• An X.509 certificate

This digital certificate validates that the key within the device is correct by leveraging the X.509 public key infrastructure. You can either allow AWS to build an X.509 certificate for you or utilize the one that you have created. An IoT-enabled device registered on the IoT core can use the certificate to communicate with the device and authenticate.

In order to use your newly developed app on your smartphone, you will need to duplicate a certificate on your PC and then apply it to the thing and onto the device as well. To have a reliable long-term connection, AWS utilizes X.509 certificates, which is convenient because you only have to copy the certificate onto the device once.

• Your Internet of Things device/sensor

Keep in mind that the preceding procedure might be beneficial if you only need to provision a single or a few IoT core devices. For many gadgets, the process is arduous and time-consuming. It should be noted, however, that AWS allows us a mechanism to automate this process for a variety of devices.

Step Three: Sending and Receiving Data

There are two protocols that are used to interact with IoT devices in real-time:

• MQTT

A lightweight sub/pub protocol is employed for cases where network bandwidth is limited and where sending a big volume of data is not practical. IoT solutions often utilize this device-to-device protocol.

• HTTP

Also known as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), it is a protocol used for transmitting data over the internet. It is capable of handling a significant amount of information compared to MQTT and it is not suited for areas with low bandwidth.

Step Four: Data Analysis

The final step is to do computational and operational analysis on the data generated by IoT devices. Follow these steps while you are working on data:

• Execution of workflow

Identify a data processing procedure for IoT devices or sensors that collect data. For instance, in the case of reduced temperature, a notification should be sent to users immediately. A specified process for an IoT-enabled system can let you take swift actions.

• Maintenance

It is imperative to monitor the condition of IoT devices on a regular basis. Make sure to put a maintenance plan in place for IoT devices or sensors.

A practical illustration is when your IoT sensor or device ceases to deliver data, this might have an impact on your business operations. Hence, you should make sure you have an action plan in place that sends an alert to the owner whenever the device stops transmitting data.

• Action and analysis

Any specified action based on the data acquired by IoT sensors should be performed by IoT devices which are connected. In this case, an increase in the room temperature level should automatically prompt the air conditioner to manage the level of the temperature.

Tech Stack Required for IoT Devices

1. Cloud Infrastructures

Your IoT application is founded on the Cloud Platform. The data generated by your IoT devices will be sent to the cloud. With respect to IoT solutions, you have different cloud platforms to pick from, but you should select the one that matches your data requirements.

Here are some of the most popular cloud platforms to consider.

AWS IoT

The cloud services AWS IoT offers include the ability to link your IoT devices to each other and AWS cloud services. AWS IoT lets you connect devices to AWS IoT-based applications via device software.

Selecting the most appropriate and up-to-date technology for your IoT solution is made simple by the platform. To help you manage IoT devices, AWS IoT supports the protocols below:

• MQTT
• MQTT over WSS
• HTTP
• LoRaWAN

In addition to managing device setups, AWS IoT also provides monitoring and auditing of the obtained data, as well as access control and encryption for that data.

Azure IoT

Azure IoT is a cloud infrastructure that empowers you to integrate your IoT solutions with cloud services that are scalable, secure, and facilitates edge-to-cloud IoT applications. You’ll be able to link, monitor, and control a myriad of devices using it. Physical objects or IoT devices are referred to as things that are connected to the Azure IoT cloud. Information obtained from things is either processed using AI or handled by people to provide insights for action. Once individuals understand their opportunities, they can take steps to capitalize on them.

With Azure IoT Hub, your IoT devices and IoT apps can communicate with one other with a dependable and secure connection. The gadget is connected virtually via a cloud-hosted system. By delivering automated device provisioning solutions, the platform speeds up IoT implementation.

Google Cloud IoT

By using the Google Cloud IoT platform, you can have access to key insights from the world’s entire device network. It’s an environment that is easy to use, scalable, and that enables you connect, analyze, and store data at the edge and in the cloud and with fully managed interaction. From ingested data to intelligence, you can take advantage of the features that Google Cloud IoT building blocks have to offer to extract the value from your device data.

2. Internet of Things (IoT) devices and physical objects connected to the Internet

IoT devices comprises transducers like sensors and actuators, as well as other intelligent, connected, and smart objects. In an interconnected system, sensors can collect data on the surrounding environment and respond to it. When linked, sensors give valuable information in the form of output and share that information with other connected systems.

3. Methods of communication for IoT transmission of data

The Internet of Things connects multiple devices to a network, exchanging information and data that facilitates the interaction between machines and humans. IoT connectivity is very crucial. Devices of Internet of Things (IoT) can connect to a network in a variety of ways, including wired and wireless connections.

Planning for an IoT deployment involves determining which communication method is most appropriate. Selecting the proper communication method depends on numerous aspects, including how far apart the devices are, how much power the devices need, and how quickly the connection is able to travel.

Why You Should Use IoT Device Management Platform for IoT Device Management

• Make the device’s security stronger

It is crucial to keep your devices secure. Just like computers, mobile devices, and tablets, IoT device software and firmware updates also need to be updated regularly to make sure that vulnerabilities are found and fixed.

Device administration platforms such as IoT Device Management Platforms enable you to deploy new programs, firmware, and configuration files across multiple devices simultaneously. These are the mechanisms by which one is able to manage the deployment of thousands of devices in widely distributed places.

• Integration is simplified

In most cases, the processing and presentation of device data require the movement of this data to other locations, where it must be parsed by other programs. You should make sure the devices you deploy in the field and in the platforms are compatible with the device management software.

• Improve efficiency and reduce expenses by shortening time to market

IoT device management software decreases development and testing time for IoT developers. The platform, when integrated with a connectivity solution, delivers all the requirements needed to get the network up and running as soon as possible. A future-proof architecture also gives you the opportunity to expand your IoT solution deployments and their growth in the future.

Simplifying and automating network and device management activities helps you focus on your core competencies while keeping expenses down.

• Reduce complexity, troubleshoot, and monitor the network.

The reality is that since the implementation of IoT may consist of hundreds or thousands of geographically dispersed nodes, attempting to troubleshoot via a manual process looks prohibitively expensive or even inefficient. Moreover, you risk losing business-critical data when you most need it if you leave the nodes unattended.

Being able to view real-time status, network traffic, and registered nodes from a top-down perspective is provided by deploying an IoT solution on the IoT device management platform.

Final Thought

IoT device management systems are absolutely essential for deploying and running IoT sensors and field devices. They allow you to onboard your sensors and devices and also monitor and maintain their full life cycle. While demand for IoT device management solutions will continue to increase, the Internet of Things is on the rise. However, it is still a long way from stable standardization and full reliability.