Follows is a list of available communication protocols you can use to send data to Senaps.

HTTPS: Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

HTTPS connections are the easiest ways to add sensor data to Eratos as they dont require you to create and configure a Data Source. Instead, POST API requests can be made to push data to a datastream directly.

Details outlining the requests can be found here.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network.

In this configuration, Senaps will poll a server on a regular basis, looking for new and updated files to transfer. This approach can also be used to upload data from a computer (acting as a server) to a Datastream.

MQTT: Message Queuing Telemetry Transport

MQTT is a lightweight, publish-subscribe, machine-to-machine network protocol for message queue/message queuing service. Senaps supports 2 MQTT configurations: client and broker.

MQTT Broker

An MQTT broker is an intermediary entity that enables MQTT clients to communicate. Specifically, an MQTT broker receives messages published by clients, filters the messages by topic, and distributes them to subscribers.

Using the above definition, your network of sensors are the clients and Senaps becomes the subscriber of the MQTT Broker, relaying ACK confirmation messages back to the Broker once the data packet has been received.

As an MQTT broker allows devices (clients) to communicate in a decoupled way, the complete architecture can be scaled and modified very easily without even affecting existing client devices.

Because the MQTT broker is a central entity and does all of the heavy lifting, the client devices only have to do minimal processing with minimal bandwidth.

MQTT Client

In this scenario, an interemetent broker is not used. Instead, messages are sent directly to Senaps as if Senaps was acting as the broker. This implementation is simpler, but not as scalable. To do this, you will need to ensure your sensor/ IoT device is capable of sending MQTT messages over the internet to Senaps.

AMQP: Advanced Message Queuing Protocol

Sensor Connections in Action

The above scenarios highlight the simplest and most effective way to connect your IoT network to Senaps, but they are not the only way. Depending on your circumstance and limitations you may want to implement other solutions. Here are a few examples of setups that are currently live in Senaps.

Example 1: LoRaWAN

The LoRaWAN® specification is a Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) networking protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery-operated ‘things’ to the Internet in regional, national, or global networks, and targets key Internet of Things (IoT) requirements such as bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, mobility, and localization services.

The below example shows a Sensor sending Lora Radio Data to a LoRaWAN Gateway that is a component of the MQTT Broker service. The LoRaWAN Gateway converts the radio data packet into a digital data packet, then can be re-shaped through the MQTT Decoder in a format that is compatible with the Senaps Observation framework. Senaps then subscribes to the observations data outputted by the MQTT Broker.

Example 2: Arduino

Arduino hardware can be attached to any sensor to manipulate and then publish the data to a given MQTT/AMQP Client, in this case, messaging.senaps.eratos.com. Arduino can host code that enables the data coming off the sensor to be transformed into the Senaps Observations framework, ready to be ingested by Senaps, enabling Senaps to create a time series of sensor observations over time. The official Arduino documentation for sending data over MQTT can be found here.

Example 3: Satellite

Example 3 is a unique example currently live on the platform, highlighting the agnostic capability of Senaps. Data is transferred from the sensor to a satellite, then back down to earth to an HTTP Broker, which then posts HTTP data packets to a unique and secure endpoint developed for the customer.

What's next?

The above scenarios and examples are just a taste of what is currently live on the platform. They highlight the most common approaches to getting started in Senaps but do not cover all possible configurations.

Now it's your turn to get your sensor data into Senaps to start creating your own personal data fabric within the Eratos Ecosystem.

Support

The Sensor network setup before Senaps is not our area of expertise, but it is something we have experience in, and are happy to guide users in the right direction. We also have IoT Provider Partners who we can put you in touch with to get you started as quickly as possible.