The system structure of UniSVR’s mobile IoT solution is based on NB-IoT technology and HermIoT cloud service, as shown in the figure above.
HermIoT cloud is the core of the system, process and transmitting vast data among large volume and various devices.
Like our previous HermesDDS, its application structure has four levels:
1. Cloud Service
Besides the core HermIoT mobile cloud, there can be more application clouds. For example:
- NB-IoT Admin Cloud
This is an AAA cloud to manage authentication, authorization, and accounting.
- Car Diagnostic Cloud
More details are shown in the Application Section.
- Other Application Clouds
Some application clouds are shown in the Application Section for your reference. We believe that you can come up with better applications in your industry, and we are glad to help you build your application cloud.
2. Regional/Private Service
In large systems, besides a cloud to serve all devices and users, there could be a cloud to serve a regional or a group of devices and users.
To take the Car Diagnostic Cloud as an example, the automobile maintenance plant is a major part of the application and there is a private cloud to support this application.
3. Onsite Platform
In a broad sense, any device that is embedded with the Mobile IoT Board is a HermIoT Gateway, or called gateway for short, and it is an onsite platform.
To increase the flexibility of deployment, some people use the two-level structure that has the gateway and the hub.
HermIoT Gateway usually has, besides the NB-IoT connection, three-mode WiFi connections: AP mode, client mode, AP + client mode. Some advanced gateways offer options of Bluetooth, NFC, SPI, I2C, DI, DO, UART, etc.
The hub on the other hand has no NB-IoT connection, so it needs a gateway to connect to the cloud.
The two-level onsite platform is mostly used in a large site consisting of a few small sites. An example is a home consisting of a few rooms. Then the home is equipped with a gateway, and each room is equipped with a hub.
The HermIoT Gateway allows multiple devices to share a Mobile IoT Board, which not only reduce the cost, but also allow onsite interaction to achieve quicker response than the interaction through the cloud.
In the mobile IoT scenarios, the site includes
- Mobile Site
The site attached to a person or a vehicle is the mobile site. The movable site, such as the mobile toilet, is also the mobile site.
- Fixed Site
This is the special case of the mobile site, the zero-speed mobile site; so the mobile IoT solution of course can be used at the fixed site.
The mobile IoT solution has extra benefits for the fixed site on some occasions.
It is a better solution for a remote site or the site with little infrastructure, such as a park, a farm, a ranch, a rooftop deck, etc. These places are not easy to build broadband Internet, so the NB-IoT based solution is quite suitable.
It is also suitable for the normal home. Nowadays most people have the Internet data plan with their mobile phone. Many of them will set the mobile phone as the hotspot when their other devices need the Internet at home, so they don’t have a fixed modem at home.
However, many IoT applications should be online even the device owner is not home. In this case, the NB-IoT based HermIoT Gateway is an economic solution.
Moreover, the NB-IoT HermIoT devices consume little power, so they can use a battery to operate for a long time. For unexpected power shutdown, it will keep operation, which tops the normal broadband modem.
At the fixed site such as the home, the narrow band mobile connection still has its unique role even the broadband connection is available. For example, although the smart display shown in the above figure can access various multimedia applications, the independent and encrypted NB-IoT channel can increase the authentication protection (welcome license of this proprietary technology).
4. Network Edge Device (NED)
The NED is the device that directly interacts with the onsite environment. It may embed the Mobile IoT Board in it, so it can connect to the cloud directly, such as the CRD (Cloud Ready Device) in the above figure. On the other hand, it may connect to the HermIoT Gateway first, and then connect to the cloud through this onsite platform.
Finally, please note that UniSVR’s mobile IoT solution is compatible with its HermesDDS IoT solution. The combination of both can therefore manage well the application involving both the fixed site and the mobile site.