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Internet of Things

Device Simulator with CSV Data

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Design Objective

In 2019 I delivered a design to integrate the IoT platform Device Simulator with IoT platform Connection and Analytics Services.

The objective of this design is to improve the customization of simulated device data and by automation of Data Management configurations enabling data to be stored in the DB2 data lake by the Connection Service.

“A LOB engineer running a POC can use out-of-the-box simulated device data and in a minute with no other actions required start exploring simulated entities and apply analytics functions to the simulated entity data”

Design Requirements

  • The requirements on this design
  • Device simulator shall by default be Activated
  • The Device Simulator editor shall provide a setting to “Save device events to the data lake”
  • The Device Simulator shall automatically generate and activate a physical and logical interface for a simulated device if the “Save device events” property is selected
  • The Device Simulator editor shall optionally allow a CSV file to be uploaded containing a simulated time series of data.
  • The Device Simulator shall construct an event payload schema from CSV file column names and data types.
  • The Device Simulator shall, by rows in the CSV file, send data events with column values as event payload.
  • The Device Simulator editor shall run (as-is) in the client browser. Closing the browser will terminate simulation and ingest of simulated data
  • The Device Simulator shall support the export/import of the simulator configuration.
  • Limitation: A user shall not be allowed to edit the simulated device type and the event payload schema after the physical and logical interface has been defined.

Production Design

The final Device Simulator production design.

ChrisDevon

Meet Chris is the Application Developer and Devon is the Edge Device Developer. 

Chris and Devon are the most frequently used personas in the developer experience design across the platform capabilities.


Simulated Devices Design

The Device Simulator design in Watson IoT Platform enables developers to build and test the IoT applications without deploying physical devices beforehand.

Get Hands-on Next Generation IoT Platform

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Abstract

Learn how to get started with Watson IoT Platform quickly and take advantage of the leading platform for industrial IoT. This lab will provide an overview and hands-on experience of Watson IoT Platform, including: Connection Service—to connect devices and start event data ingest; and Analytics Service—to gain insights from data using an extensible catalog of analytical functions.

Lab Introduction

This recording introduces the ‘Getting Hands-On with Watson IoT Platform’ hands-on lab. It introduces the operator persona, the scenario, the instrumentation of the Munich HQ with the sensors used in this lab.

Lab Material

Think2019-Lab4322-NextGenIoTP-Presentation

 

Think2019-Lab4322-NextGenIoTP-LabHandbook

 



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Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management

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Abstract

In this lab, you will explore the Risk and Security Management capability in the Watson Internet of Things platform. You will get hands-on experience on connecting devices, configuring client and server certificates, managing connection policies, and tracking compliance to the configured security policies. You will also review the Risk and Security Management user experience, new experimental features and provide your feedback on the usability of the design.

Lab presentation

Think2018_DevZoneLab5009_RiskManagement

Lab handbook

Think2018_DevZoneLab5009_RiskManagement_LabHandbook

 



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Simulating Devices in Watson IoT Platform

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Abstract

In this lab, you will learn how to simulate devices connecting to the Watson Internet of Things Platform. Using simulated devices, you can quickly get started with the Watson IoT Platform, explore the IoT service model in IBM Cloud, and use IoT Platform APIs to retrieve device data, and test your IoT applications without using any physical devices.

Think2018_DevZoneLab4603-SimulatingDevicesInWatsonIoTPlatform

 



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Getting Started with Watson IoT Edge Gateways

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Abstract

In the IoT Edge hands-on lab, you will learn about the steps to configure and connect a Raspberry Pi device to run as an IoT Edge Gateway connected to the Watson IoT Platform. You will also learn about the distribution of Data Management and custom Edge Service workloads to the IoT Edge Gateway. These workloads will perform filtering, transformation, and analytics on edge sensor data events.
As a lab attendee, you will explore the user experience in working with IoT Edge Gateways and provide your feedback on the design of this preview 2 beta capability.

Lab presentation

Think2018_DevZoneLab4966-IoTEdge

Lab handbook

Think2018_DevZoneLab4966-IoTEdge-LabHandbook

Post-lab instructions

The content of this lab can use used in your IoT Platform organization. Use these post-Think 2018 instructions.

Think2018_DevZoneLab4966-IoTEdge-LabHandbook-PostThink2018

 

 



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Download instructions to run the lab post-Think 2018 


Download Raspberry Pi SD Card Image (1.16GB)


Download Source Code (Zip)

IoT Edge Design

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In 2018 I delivered a design on the IoT Edge developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

What is IoT Edge?

Edge devices generally live on the edge of the network within an enterprise. They are specific hardware sensors, industrial controllers, or other industrial devices residing on private or potentially proprietary networks at a physical location.

Edge devices are creating quite a challenge for systems integrators since most are generally building cloud-based applications which rely on receiving information from IoT devices to accomplish the business goal.

There are many challenges that exist in developing a path for this information flow, including

  • Latency vs Time
  • Quality vs Time
  • Bandwidth and Cost
  • Security and Vulnerability
  • Compliance
  • Maintenance and operations

 

Read more about my design research on the IoT Edge experience in the Watson IoT Platform


Design Research on IoT Edge
Design research on the IoT Edge experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Hills

The Hills for IoT Edge may be viewed as a stack of capabilities that deliver value to the Business and the Solution.

“Chris, an IoT application developer, can develop and deploy applications that are transparent to the instrumentation of devices at the edge”
Hill 1 formulates the transparency of IoT Edge to solution development.
“Devon, an IoT Edge developer, can develop workloads for the edge using common cloud programming models, and automate workload distribution, management and updates on Edge Gateways”
Hill 2 expresses the WOW on adopting new Cloud programming models for the IoT Edge and moving away from the constraints of monolithic FW.
“Dave, an IoT Ecosystem Partner, can deliver IoT Gateway products with edge capabilities, managed by the IoT Edge”
Hill 3 that states the value to the partner ecosystem to leverage the IoT Edge as a platform for delivering edge-based services by shipping on or shipping with.

Design Vision

Chris, the IoT Application developer, can develop code to work with state and conditions of manageable assets, without knowledge of individual instrumentation, data workload distribution, or network connection state.

Using IoT Edge, Chris can

  • Create Edge Gateway types, select IoT Edge capabilities, and register Gateways, using the IoT Platform UI and APIs
  • Provision IoT Core capabilities to IoT Edge gateways
  • Distribute Data Management workloads to the edge to Filter Messages and Compute Device Device State and submit State Change Events
  • Connect devices to the Gateway to Ingest, Store and Forward MQTT messages
  • Develop and deliver cloud applications, independently of changes made to the edge instrumentation

Devon the IoT Edge developer, can develop workloads for the edge using common cloud programming models, and automatically distribute, manage and update workloads on Edge Gateways.

Using IoT Edge, Devon can

  • Create, build and upload custom containers to the IoT Edge component registry
  • Provision, Update and Manage custom containers on IoT Edge Gateways
  • Use the local MQTT message bus in IoT Core, to integrate messaging across custom containers, devices, and cloud
  • Create and test Cloud Functions on the cloud and configure as edge followers to run at the edge
  • Create aggregation of devices into Things
  • Create Rules and Actions, using Device and Thing state, and distribute as workloads to the edge

UX design

The User Experience of IoT Edge has three major parts

  • IoT Edge extensions to Watson IoT Platform Gateway Types
  • IoT Edge extensions to Watson IoT Platform Gateways
  • New IoT Edge Services

Developers will use existing concepts of IoT Platform Gateway Types. By choosing the option to make a Gateway an IoT Edge Gateway, developers get access to additional capabilities when defining a gateway type. The new capabilities are introduced together with the existing gateway properties or added as new tabs.

When adding a new Edge Gateway Type, a developer will create a gateway type, select the Edge option, and then choose the hardware architecture for gateways of this type. The options are Intelx86, ARM32, ARM64.

The developer can also optionally select Edge Services that will run on gateways of this type. The developer can browse the Edge Service Catalog for a list of services and available versions for gateways of this architecture. The latest version is shown by default. Alternatively, a different version can be viewed and selected.

For developers that want to get an overview of available Edge Services, the Edge Service Catalog is available for browsing and exploring the Docker images that have been configured for a service.

Link
IoT Edge Design
Extensions to IoT Platform gateways for optional IoT Edge capabilities.
Link
IoT Edge Design
Adding an Edge Service from the Edge Service Catalog to an IoT Edge Gateway.
Link
IoT Edge Design
Browsing Edge Service in the Edge Service Catalog.

Design flows

The following screen flows demonstrate the user experience design in IoT Edge Preview 2.

Developer flow to create a new IoT Edge Gateway and configure Edge Services.

 

Developer flow to view the state of a running IoT Edge Gateway and its Edge Servcies

 

Developer flow to browse Edge Services in the Edge Service Catalog

IoT Edge Preview 2 Production Design

The following screen flows demonstrate the production design in IoT Edge Preview 2

Creating a new IoT Edge Gateway.

 

Browsing Edge Service in the Edge Service Catalog.

Related Designs

New designs are emerging in the Watson IoT Platform for IoT Edge.

Explore more information on the existing designs for Watson IoT Platform for IoT Edge.


Design Research on IoT Edge
Design research on the IoT Edge experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Getting Started with IoT Edge
DevZone Lab at Think 2018 on IoT Edge using Preview 2 Beta.

ChrisDevon

Meet Chris is the Application Developer and Devon is the Edge Device Developer. 

Chris and Devon are the most frequently used personas in the developer experience design across the platform capabilities.


IoT Platform Developer Experience
Design research on the developer experience in the Watson IoT Platform.

Getting Started with IoT Edge
DevZone Lab at Think 2018 on IoT Edge using Preview 2 Beta.

Getting Started with Watson IoT Platform Data Management

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Abstract

In this lab, you will learn how to get started with the IoT Platform and use Data Management to transform and normalize data from connected devices. Using Data Management, you can define event type schemas for your device messages and create interfaces that define abstractions, and compute the state of your devices.

Think2018_DevZoneLab4990-GettingStartedWithDataManagement

 

 



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Device Activity Policy Design

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In 2017 I contributed to the design research and design concepts for Device Activity Policy for Risk and Security Management in the Watson IoT Platform.

What is Device Activity

Device Activity is an indicator of device health. In the Design Research on IoT Device Activity, it was proven that Time since the last message is a preferred metric on device activity and health. This new design for the Watson IoT Platform provides a new Risk and Security Management policy that defines the expected messaging activity for devices connected to the IoT platform. The policy monitors whether a device sends a request at least once every defined time period. A threshold for device activity can be defined generally for all devices, and exceptions defined for individual device types. Compliance with the Device Activity policy can be monitored on the dashboard, or reported on using drill-in reports.

Design Vision

The design vision for the new Device Activity policy is to call with the concepts already established for Risk and Security Management policers in the Watson IoT Platform. Learn more about the common design policies in Risk and Security Management Design. The new policy should be available in the Security section in the platform, next to other policies. The policy should have a simple default setting that applies generally across devices on the platform. This policy should set clear a clear threshold on the expended frequency of messages arriving from healthy devices exhibiting an active behavior. The policy should also allow exceptions to be set individually for any device type that differs from a default general policy. As an option, the threshold value may be set indefinitely to disable checking and make any devices of a type compliant.  

Using compliance reporting, administrators and operators may identify any devices that exhibit unhealthy behavior. Drill-in reports allow users to view device status and perform diagnostic actions.   

Personas

Risk and Security Management is primarily targeting two of the IoT personas

  • Adam is an IoT Security Operator. He ensures security and compliance by specifying policies that detect abnormalities and prevents devices to be compromised. He reports to audits on compliance with regulations and policy coverage on devices.

  • Sally is an IoT System Operator. She handles the day-to-day system operations on the LOB and client IoT organization. She makes sure that new device types and devices are registered, are behaving, and are up to date with recent secure firmware. She defines policies, creates and runs actions on policy alerts that act on misbehaving devices.

Hills

 
“Adam, the security analyst can define a Device Activity policy for devices, to determine whether a device is active or inactive by tracking how frequently a device talks to the platform, activating the policy, and reporting on the coverage of the policy, in under 5 minutes”

Use-Cases

As a security analyst, I can

  • View the default (disabled) device activity policy configuration 
  • Modify the default device activity and set a messaging interval
  • Add a custom rule as exception device activity policy configuration for a device type
  • Preview the predicted compliance of the new policy configuration
  • Save and enforce the updated device activity policy configuration

UX Design

The UX design of the use-case above.

 

The UX design of the Device Activity policy.

Final Product Design

Final production design for Device Activity Policy editor.

 

Final production design for Device Activity Dashboard and Compliance Reporting.

Related Designs


Design Research on IoT Device Activity. 
Read more about the research on device behavior metrics to use for a Device Activity policy in Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management.


Risk and Security Management Design. 
Read more about the design of the Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management policies.


Compliance Reporting Design. 
Read more about the design for reporting compliance with Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management policies.

Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management Lab. 
DevZone Quick Lab at Think 2018 on Risk and Security Management.


Sally

Meet Sally the IoT System Operator. 

Sally is one of the most frequently used operator personas in the design across the platform capabilities.

Adam

Also, meet Adam the IoT Security Operator. 


Design Research on IoT Device Activity. 
Read more about the research on device behavior metrics to use for a Device Activity policy in Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management.

Risk and Security Management Design. 
Read more about the design of the Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management policies.

Compliance Reporting Design. 
Read more about the design for reporting compliance with Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management policies.

Watson IoT Platform Risk and Security Management Lab. 
DevZone Quick Lab at Think 2018 on Risk and Security Management.

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