Over 1 trillion sensors are connected to networks around the world: everything that can be improved by connecting it to the internet is being connected to the internet by some means. By 2025, there will be over 50 billion SIM cards in use and humans will have digitized all our archives. New information will be created at such a rate that the amount of data stored digitally may double every month. Much of this data will come from machines talking to each other or talking to us. By the end of the decade, pretty much everything that can have a connection, will have a connection. Connecting everything to one global network has its challenges in terms of heterogenous connection protocols, legacy to modern hardware connectivity requirements, and data processing capabilities at internet scale.
The concept of a device that was always online was first envisioned in 1999. Although there were connected devices, such as Machine to Machine (M2M) connections, truly always connected infrastructure, the Internet of Things (IoT), came into usage from 2009 to 2011.
An ecosystem of always-online devices has certain requirements in terms of assorted sub-components (sensors, edge, gateway, cloud, etc.), its reliability, its ability to support a wide range of connectivity protocols, its security, its autonomous operation, its scalability, and its edge intelligence.
CIMCON iEdge 360 platform is built to enable connectivity for heterogenous devices and sensors across various industrial and consumer applications.
As a complete platform (an integrated edge management system), CIMCON iEdge 360 device provides all the features and tools to integrate with disparate devices, sensors, and enterprise backends.
CIMCON Digital’s competence and experience in the industrial automation space is leveraged to build connectivity options in the best IoT Edge device on the market.
iEdge 360 provides the following edge connectivity options:
Serial RS-485
Ethernet
PoE
BLE 4+
Zigbee
WiFi 2.4GHz
NFC
Analog I/O
Digital I/O
GSM/LTE
Keeping in mind the range of its applications, iEdge 360 has been designed with scalability and low latency requirements. A typical CIMCON iEdge 360 device can transmit 250+ data points per millisecond.
The CIMCON iEdge 360 has both industrial and consumer applications. Therefore, the iEdge 360 device supports a range of connectivity options:
MODBUS RTU/TCP
BACnet RTU/TCP
OPC DA
OPC UA
DNP.3
ONVIF
SIP
RTSP
OBEX
MQTT
HTTP
CoAP
The iEdge 360 device also provides PLC drivers from top end Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).
A key requirement of an IoT-enabled connection ecosystem is the availability of a well-designed and extensible edge management platform which quickly provisions devices, onboards users, provides device control, and enables telemetry analytics.
CIMCON iEdge 360 platform provides its own edge management system (iCloud) to perform these edge management functions. However, the iEdge 360 has demonstrated its ability to work with other industrial automation platforms with edge management features.
The iEdge 360 platform hosts a firmware that is built with secured design and coding practices. It is rigorously tested for vulnerabilities and security holes. Therefore, the device is secure by design.
iEdge 360 implements a host of security techniques for managing communication with the cloud. The device performs a x.509 certificate-based authentication with the cloud over a TLS connection; this secure connection is used for telemetry transmission.
The support and maintenance access to the iEdge 360 device is enabled via an inbuilt VPN option.
iEdge 360 extends the notion of security to its connected devices and sensors. All hardware connected is license-enabled, eliminating the possibility of unauthorized use of a device.
CIMCON Digital understands that everyone’s requirements are unique. So, the iEdge 360 platform provides a developer SDK for creating customized applications that can be executed on the edge. The types of applications range from ML applications, telemetry enrichment, and statistical calculations, to external(attached) device control and more.
The iEdge 360 platform is perfect for administrators, support personnel, and business users who value simplicity. The iEdge 360 platform supports the Node-Red execution environment natively. This allows users to create a flow based on their requirements which can be downloaded onto the iEdge 360 device for execution.
Keeping in mind that the iEdge 360 device will complete the connected ecosystem journey in multiple industries, CIMCON Digital has included features that ease and automate key administrative tasks. The iEdge 360 device includes a Web-based device portal to help users with device administration. Additionally, the iEdge 360 device performs unattended over the air (OTA) firmware updates, giving you peace of mind.
