Skip to main content
Monthly Archives

August 2017

More EdgeX Device/Sensor Connectivity

By Blog, EdgeX Foundry

Written by Jim White, TSC Member and  Chair of Core Services Working Group

When we first introduced EdgeX to the LF community back in the spring of this year, Dell contributed more than a dozen micro services, a lot of documentation, and the start of a build process.

Since, the community has grown considerably (now more than 60 companies have signed on), we have held our first community technical meetings to set the roadmap for the first community release and direction for releases to come over the next 12-18 months.  We also have community members already contributing to the project or working on the upcoming release.

At Dell, we are still very much a part of this effort, and today I’d like to announce the contribution of six more example device microservices (we call them device services) to the open source EdgeX platform.  These are microservices we built from the device service SDK as examples of how to connect to actual devices like those using Modbus, BACnet, BLE, SNMP, and MQTT protocols.  So they serve multiple purposes in the community:

  • Demonstrate more south side connectivity
  • Demonstrate other implementations of the device service via the SDK
  • Demonstrate connectivity to EdgeX via specific industrial Iot protocols
  • Allow more real world devices to be connected to EdgeX today!

EXF_Platform Architecture

Modbus is a serial communications protocol that has been in existence since 1979 (truly brownfield!) and is used primarily in programmable logic controllers (PLC) and electronic devices.

BACnet is used in building automation and control networks that typically manage heating, ventilation and AC systems.

SNMP is an internet standard protocol that was created for collecting and organizing information about systems / devices on an IP network – most notably like modems, switches, severs, printers, etc.

If you own a smartphone or have a home smart device, you are probably already familiar with the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol which is used typically in wireless personal area networks.

And MQTT is a pub-sub messaging protocol used on top of TCP/IP in combination with a message broker that has been used in a variety of use cases and systems for a few decades.

When we first released EdgeX, we provided the device service SDK and a single device service, which was the virtual device service.  The virtual device service allowed for the simulation of any device /sensor connectivity into EdgeX through software, but did not facilitate actual devices.  With the collection of device services that Dell is contributing today, EdgeX now has open source community code to connect to real devices.

At Dell, we continue our commitment to this project and plan to contribute more of the code we created as part of our original Fuse Project.  We also join with the community to make additional contributions and commitments jointly.  Come join in the effort and help us, the entire EdgeX Foundry community, make the best open source IoT platform on the planet.

IoT Innovator: V5 Systems Joins EdgeX Foundry to Help Bring Industrial IoT to the Outdoors

By EdgeX Foundry, In the News

V5 Systems, vendor of self-powered edge computing for the outdoors, announced this week that it has joined EdgeX Foundry, an open-source platform committed to building a common framework for the Internet of Things (IoT) with edge computing.

EdgeX Foundry was launched by The Linux Foundation and seeded with source code by Dell. Members of the EdgeX Foundry ecosystem and others will be able to integrate their products onto V5 Systems’ solutions and custom create new outdoor Industrial IoT solutions.

Read more at IoT Innovator.

EdgeX Foundry Member Spotlight: Beechwoods Software

By Blog, EdgeX Foundry

During our last F2F meeting, we had the opportunity to sit down with Brad Kemp, the President and Founder of Beechwoods Software and an EdgeX Foundry Board Member. Known as a technical “rainmaker” in the startup community, Brad believes that IoT should be a seamless experience that “just works,” which is why Beechwoods was one of the initial members of EdgeX Foundry when it launched in April. Check out the video of our chat below to learn more about common challenges his customers face and how he believes EdgeX Foundry will help solve those issues.  

The Register: Grab a fork! Unravelling the Internet of Things’ Standards Spaghetti

By EdgeX Foundry, In the News

The great thing about standards is that there are always so many to choose from. We’ve seen the standards forest grow countless times before. The Internet of Things is a vast digital petri dish for them, and they just keep growing.

Recently we’ve acquired another initiative to pull together vendors working in IoT. It’s called EdgeX Foundry, and it’s the latest effort from the Linux Foundation.

Read more at The Register.

CIO: Open Source is Powering the Digital Enterprise

By EdgeX Foundry, In the News

By leveraging broad based collaboration and strong communities of independent developers, open source innovation is transforming the very core of information technology and enabling organizations to win in today’s digital economy. As a community we all gain from these efforts.

Technology is now being strategically applied to support the fast-paced and rapidly changing demands of businesses and the customers they serve. In the new digital reality, an organization’s cloud, application, IoT, and data analytics strategies (to name a few) can make or break an organization’s success. Businesses are realizing they are now in the technology business.

Read more at CIO.