An Internet of Things (IoT) gateway is an agent that serves as the connection point between the cloud, controllers and sensors. It may be a physical device or a software program. All data moving to and from the cloud moves through this gateway. It may also be referred to as an intelligent gateway or a control tier. A simple way to conceive of an IoT Gateway is to compare it to your home or office network router or gateway. Such a gateway facilitates communication between your devices, maintains security and provides an admin interface where you can perform basic functions.
In telecommunications, the primary purpose of a gateway is to provide a bridge between different types of communication technologies. These technologies can vary in terms of connectivity types, interfaces, or protocols. For example, your Internet Gateway at home connects your Local Area Network (LAN) with your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This gateway links the WAN of the ISP through technologies like PPP or HDLC with your LAN with TCP/IP. The IoT Gateway follows the same principle of bridging communications for different technologies. The IoT devices connect to the IoT Gateway using short-range wireless transmission modes such as Bluetooth LE, ZigBee, Z-wave, or long-range like LTE, LTE-M, Wi-Fi. After connecting, it links them to the Internet (Public Cloud) through Ethernet LAN or Fiber Optics WAN (HDLC/PPP).
IOT gateway key features:
- Communication bridging
- Additional security
- Energy efficiency
- Translate all IoT connection types into a single standard protocol
- Latency
Communication bridging
An IOT gateway creates a bridge between sensors or actuators and the internet. Sensors generate a lot of data in a very short period of time. A gateway aggregates the data, translates sensors’ protocols and preprocesses the data at the edge before sending it to the cloud. This preprocessing helps reduce the volume of the data that is transmitted to the cloud. This can have a huge response on response time and network transmission costs.
Additional Security
This gateway also provides additional security for the IOT network and the data it transmits. As it manages the data moving in both directions, it protects the data moving to the cloud from leaks. It uses tamper detection, encryption, hardware random number generator to protect the IOT devices in the network.
Energy efficiency
An IOT gateway helps to improve energy efficiency on IOT devices. Even energy intensive technologies like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are not supported by sensors with limited battery life. But a nearby IOT gateway connected to the grid can serve as a bridge to to manage all these sensors’ communication.
Translate all IoT connection types into a single standard protocol
An IOT gateway translates all mixed connection types into a single standard protocol. A communication protocol needs to make devices communicate with each other efficiently and send their data to a central analysis platform. It should be able to understand many of these protocols and translate communication from the sensor to the cloud.
Latency
Time can be critical for certain IOT applications. The sensors/devices can’t afford to transmit data to the cloud and wait to get a response before taking action. This is true for life-or-death situations in the medical realm or for fast-moving objects like cars.
Higher latency can be avoided by processing the data on the gateway and giving commands locally. However, many sensors/devices in IoT applications are too small and too low-battery to do the processing themselves. Gateways can reduce latency in time-critical applications by processing on the gateway itself rather than the cloud.
Here are some examples of IOT gateways:
