ICONICS IoTWorX™ communicates to Microsoft Azure or third-party applications using the most popular transport protocols. Once the IoT device is online, it will register with the IoT Hub so that it can authenticate and send and receive data. Acting as a secure message broker, the IoT Hub will allow for remote device management, provisioning and configuration. Configuration of IoTWorX includes onboard energy, building and industrial protocol point managers (BACnet, OPC UA, Modbus and Web services). Security is inherently built in and provided through the Azure subscription. Relying on Azure security makes IoTWorX one of the most secure IoT device software solutions in the market. As a result, it can be safely configured from anywhere in the world.
ICONICS IoTWorX Architecture
Communication between IoTWorX and the Azure IoT Hub is accomplished via a publish/subscribe method using the bi-directional AMQP transport protocol supported by Microsoft. IoTWorX publishes its messages to the IoT Hub independently from the subscribers that will ingest the data. This decouples the IoT device from the consuming applications and services in the cloud. The Azure IoT Hub acts a message broker between the IoT device and the connected subscribers, which are the consuming applications.
These consuming applications will be ICONICS GENESIS64, Hyper Historian, AnalytiX and MobileHMI, which are ready to subscribe to the IoT Hub and ingest data provided by IoTWorX. This makes IoTWorX a perfect fit for edge-to-cloud applications taking advantage of Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite services.
IoTWorX is also capable of delivering data to third-party applications such as ERP, MES and other enterprise applications running in private or in public clouds other than Azure. IoTWorX will provide data to third-party applications using Representational State Transfer (REST) and MQTT as established IoT transport protocols. This allows ICONICS to provide the most flexible cloud and IoT solutions in the marketplace.
While IoTWorX can be implemented as a software layer on top of an existing PC or workstation application, the real power of an IoT device is in the implementation of low-cost hardware devices that can be placed in remote locations or just about anywhere there is information to be collected. There are a number of vendors that offer a low-cost communications IoT device platform, off the shelf. IoTWorX will operate on devices running Intel’s Atom processor and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB (Long Term Service Branch). Hardware manufacturers typically offer several communications options that can include Ethernet, Wireless Ethernet (Wi-Fi), 3G or 4G wireless, ZigBee, Bluetooth, USB ports, and either RS232 or RS485 serial ports.
The following image shows the overall system architecture of ICONICS’ IoTWorX and depicts how data is ingested by ICONICS software running in Azure to provide mobile and analytics solutions for remote monitoring. It also demonstrates the concept of providing data to third-party business applications via REST and MQTT.
Overall IoTWorX System Architecture
IoT devices are cost-effective and easy to deploy with secure communication to the cloud. Facility Directors and Energy Managers now have a great tool at their disposal to quickly deploy proof of concept and production grade applications. IoTWorX is provisioned and communicates data securely via the Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, taking advantage of the inherent security features that come with an Azure subscription. The IoT device securely publishes on premise data to the Azure IoT Hub. The ICONICS IoT solutions don’t stop by just providing data to the cloud and leaving it up to the customer to custom write value-add mobile and analytics applications. ICONICS’ off-the-shelf visualization, analytics and mobile products running in the Azure cloud subscribe to the IoT Hub and readily ingest the data from the Azure IoT Hub, enabling customers to easily create SCADA, Smart Building, Historian, and mobile applications.
Deployment of IoTWorX is quick and easy. Once connected to the network on site, the IoT device will self-register with a Web service and let ICONICS know that it is alive and ready to communicate. Through secure communications via the Azure IoT Hub, an ICONICS provision and configuration Web site will display the IoT device’s location on the map and provide system health monitoring information for the operating system’s important processes. The IoT device’s onboard communications, including BACnet, SNMP, Modbus, OPC and more, can be configured remotely from a Web interface. For example, IoTWorX will be able to discover a building’s BAS controllers on the BACnet network and publish data to the IoT Hub.
ICONICS IoT Device Monitoring – Device Location and System Status
There are several different transport protocols to choose from when it comes to connecting process, factory and building automation devices to the Internet of Things. While there will likely never be a single “winner” amongst them, ICONICS believes it is important to adhere to open standards for maximum interoperability between devices and applications. Each transport protocol offers its own unique set of pros and cons that make it apparent that, when it comes to IoT applications, it is more important to offer the power of choice, rather than just one broad solution. The following is an overview of the leading transport protocols that ICONICS is integrating into IoTWorX.
Advanced Message Queuing Protocol AMQP is a binary application layer protocol that was created to substantiate a vast number of messaging applications and communication designs. It provides flow-controlled, message-oriented communication with built-in options for message delivery guarantees, as well as authentication and/or encryption based on widely accepted Internet authentication and data security protocols such as Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) and/or Transport Layer Security (TLS). AMQP is the primary transport layer protocol used by the Azure IoT Hub, and is the default transport layer for IoTWorX, as it supports read and write functionality for command and control of industrial and building automation equipment.
The OPC Foundation has also identified AMQP as one of its protocols of choice upon which to build a reference implementation of Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) connectors, which serves as the basis for its IoT platform. As a charter member of the OPC Foundation, ICONICS plans to support AMQP because of its efficient design, which is optimized for messaging between devices.
The HTTPS transport protocol was designed to serve up requests and responses in the client-server computing model for Web page communications. Clients typically submit an HTTPS request message to the server, which then returns a response message in the form of resources including HTML files and other content, such as completion status details. Within the response message, the HTTP server can also perform other functions on the client’s behalf. The HTTPS protocol can more easily traverse firewalls without the need for specific IT policies to be implemented. This is the main reason that ICONICS is including support for HTTPS, in addition to the other transport protocols, in its IoTWorX design.
When the need arose to define a stateless means for people to access information in an IoT-friendly way, Representational State Transfer (REST) came to the rescue. REST leverages the HTTP transport protocol to deliver the data, and typically uses JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) to define its presentation. JSON is a flexible, lightweight format similar to XML, and has been proven on many different programming languages.
Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) is a protocol that was specifically created for SCADA systems and their related networks. It uses a publish/subscribe mechanism to minimize the payload and overhead with application-specific, custom JSON or binary formats. MQTT is widely accepted in IT departments worldwide, with many open source examples available in just about any programming language. ICONICS recommends using MQTT when network bandwidth is at a premium, and always with a secure communication method such as TLS.
Modbus is an open serial communication protocol that has become a standard communications protocol in industry, and is now the most commonly available means of connecting industrial electronic devices. It is used widely by many manufacturers throughout many industries. Versions of the Modbus protocol exist for serial lines (Modbus RTU and Modbus ASCII) and for Ethernet (Modbus TCP). ICONICS supports all three of these versions of Modbus communication.
SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol, and is a simple protocol that allows devices to expose useful information to other devices. This information can be the CPU fan speed of a computer or the routing table of a router. Almost every network device answers to SNMP requests. SNMP gives Network Managers access to information from nearly every device connected to the network.
OPC UA is the result of a multi-year collaboration of industry leaders who aimed to create an open standard for exchanging information in a rich, object-oriented and secure way. This standard represents the answer to the fundamental need for mapping and exchanging real-life information in a platform-independent way, while maintaining compatibility with the OPC Classic specifications.
OPC UA is a robust, secure and scalable expansion of the highly successful basic COM/DCOM-based OPC standard communication protocol. It enables the interoperability of best-of-breed, real-time alarm management and historian systems. This allows for a standard model of plant floor integration with the enterprise. Any plant system that is currently using OPC communications can easily add OPC UA applications to their existing system, giving them the added value of Web services that allow for more enterprise connectivity.
ICONICS also offers connectivity to virtually any information that is available through a standard Web service protocol. This enables users to augment real-time and historical energy, building and industrial automation data with information such as weather data, energy prices and much more.
ICONICS IoTWorX supports Modbus, SNMP, and Web Services as well as OPC UA. The application load can be higher due to more performant processors (e.g. Intel Atom or even I5 or I7 used by automation OEMs). ICONICS IoTWorX can support read and write capabilities via AMQP.
There are four models of IoTWorX: “Communicator”, “Collector”, “Analyzer” and “Visualizer”. These provide rich connectivity, data collection, analytics and monitoring for any application. They also provide connectivity to the cloud and third-party applications for maximum interoperability.
The IoTWorX Communicator is the base model. Its purpose is to provide real-time data from facilities and manufacturing sites to the Azure cloud. The IoT Communicator provides data communications for industrial and IT protocols including Modbus TCP/IP, OPC UA, SNMP, Web Services and much more.
The IoTWorX Hyper Collector is the standard model and includes the features of the Communicator model, providing real-time data communications for industrial and IT protocols. In addition, the Collector model has the ability to store and forward data messages in packets with a built-in scheduler to periodically publish that data to the Azure IoT Hub. ICONICS Hyper Historian for Azure, as the subscriber, will be able to consume the data packets.
The IoTWorX Analyzer is the advanced model that includes the features of the Collector model, providing real-time data communications for industrial and IT protocols, plus has the added benefit of edge analytics with onboard Fault Detection and Diagnostics. Data will be processed at the edge, which limits the data being published to the Azure IoT Hub.
The IoTWorX Visualizer is an option that will initially be offered to strategic Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and is meant for applications behind an organization’s firewall to provide an ICONICS HTML5 server on the IoT deice. This will enable OEM customers to serve up ICONICS graphics directly from the device to browsers on an isolated automation network.
A key benefit of IoTWorX is that it provides built-in system health monitoring that allows for remote diagnostics of the device’s system performance. These diagnostics are available via an easy-to-use, intuitive dashboard.
The IoTWorX Communicator is the base model. Its purpose is to provide real-time data from facilities and manufacturing sites to the Azure cloud. The IoT Communicator provides limited data communications for simple I/O, Modbus TCP/IP and OPC UA.
A key benefit of IoTWorX is that it provides built-in system health monitoring that allows for remote diagnostics of the device’s system performance. These diagnostics are available via an easy-to-use, intuitive dashboard.
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