IoT Gateway and IoT platforms are totally different from each other. IoT gateway is a programmed hardware device at the edge of sensor network whereas an IoT Platform is a cloud based software used for device management, storage and analysis.
IOT PLATFORM
A multi-layer technology that is used to manage and automate connected devices is known as the IoT platform. IoT platform is cloud software that connects to the sensors, gateways, end-user applications, or any other physical thing that has a network connectivity
IoT platforms provide visualization to the data, device management and analytics over the obtained data. They serve as a middleware between the edge devices and user interfaces.
It basically connects your hardware, however diverse, to the cloud by using flexible connectivity options, enterprise-grade security mechanisms, and broad data processing powers.
For developers, an IoT platform provides a set of ready-to-use features that greatly speed up the development of applications for connected devices as well as take care of cross-device compatibility
Moreover, IoT platforms provide data security involving encryption, comprehensive identity management, end-to-end data flow encryption, device authentication, user access rights management, and private cloud infrastructure for sensitive data to avoid potentially compromising breaches.
Google, Amazon, Microsoft Azure, IBM, and many other giants provide their IoT platforms and have their custom pricing Policies.
In this era of digital transformation, many businesses are benefitting from IoT Platforms.
IoT platforms and IoT dashboards are different as IoT dashboard is one of the services provided by IoT Platforms.
IOT GATEWAY
An IoT gateway (also known as a smart gateway) is a hardware device with a script running on it or an individual software program that serves as a mediator between the cloud and physical sensors, computing devices, and control systems. The data flow is mainly towards the cloud but can also be to and fro in cases where actuation is required. Sensors may generate thousands of data points per second. An edge connects an internal local area network, which is a network of sensor nodes or IoT devices, with the Internet.
A gateway facilitates to pre-process of the data (edge compute) locally at the edge before sending it on to the cloud. When data is aggregated, summarized, and analyzed at the edge, it minimizes the volume of data that needs to be forwarded on to the cloud, which can have a big impact on response time.
GATEWAYS ALSO PROVIDE SECURITY TO THE DATA FLOWING TO THE CLOUD.
The sensor nodes are connected with connectivity protocols like LoRa, Sigfox, Zigbee, etc and all the data of node devices is collected at the gateway. IoT gateways can depend on Ethernet, WiFi, or on cellular technology like GSM, LTE, NBIoT, or LTE-M for their network connectivity to send data further to the cloud.
IoT gateways use protocols such as MQTT, HTTP/S, REST, TCP, etc to send data to the cloud. MQTT in IoT devices has many benefits over data protocols.
The gateways can be controlled based or can even possess a processor which adds to modulation and modification of the functioning, speed, and computing capability.
A BRIEF ABOUT WHAT WE DO AT PSIBORG TECHNOLOGIES:
We, at PsiBorg – a full-stack IoT product development company, are specialized in hardware development, wired and wireless connectivity protocols, security, device management, optimized computing at the edge, and complete software for IoT endpoints and gateways.
We are focused on designing and developing a range of smart products and IoT-based industry solutions with deep customer insights and end-user inputs.
