Smart Industry 1/2016

Visible Things
To help companies looking to take
advantage of the possibilities offered
by the IoT, Avnet Silica has put
together all the building blocks
necessary to deliver a highly flexible
and comprehensive edge-toenterprise
evaluation and development
IoT platform. Targeting a
wide range of markets, the Visible
Things platform is one of the first
IoT systems and applications platforms
to made available from an
electronics component and systems
distributor. The platform delivers
tested, proven, secure and integrated
hardware and embedded
software to connect smart sensors
and embedded devices via gateway
solutions or LPWAN networking
technologies, right through to
the cloud and enterprise software
applications. It is designed to be a
highly flexible offering that provides
customers a menu of different
options along the path from edge
to enterprise.
The platform supports short-range
connectivity to a gateway, and Wi-
Fi and 3G cellular communications
to the cloud and enterprise software
applications. It also supports
the SIGFOX and LoRaWAN IoT networks,
which have been designed
to provide secure low-cost narrowband
information messaging to
meet the requirements of the IoT
and smart city, machine-to-machine
and industrial applications.
In terms of security, the platform
includes the UbiquiOS secure gateway
embedded software, which
integrates cryptographic technologies
as well as Transport Layer
Security v1.2, and server certificate
(OCSP) and client certificate authentication.
For additional security,
the platform roadmap includes
the early introduction of further
silicon-based technologies that
will, for example, integrate a secure
element for deployment in smart
sensor edge devices.
Starter Kits
Delivering a simple out-of-the-box
setup, three reference-design starter
kits have been made available
to enable developers to get applications
up and running quickly.
Each starter kit includes a board
Edge devices and gateways
Sigfox
MQTT
LwM2M
Messaging
managed by ARM Cortex based
microcontrollers. The basic Visible
Things starter kit comprises a smart
sensor board including Bluetooth
Smart connectivity and motion,
temperature/humidity and light/
proximity sensors, together with
a gateway board, which manages
connectivity to the cloud service
via Wi-Fi. Available as an expansion
option, a GSM peripheral module
with embedded SIM and SIMconnector
options enables cellular
connectivity to cloud enterprise
software services. SIGFOX and Lo-
RaWAN based kits include SIGFOX
and LoRaWAN module sensors
respectively, as well as additional
motion and light sensors. The Visible
Things platform also provides
a mobile app, available for iOS and
Android based devices, enabling
easy access to local hardware configuration
and connection to cloud
services.
Cloud Services
A key element of the platform is
the Devicepoint cloud service. Underpinned
by IBM software components,
the service builds upon data
from sensors and edge devices
with contextual information, plus
data from other sources to deliver
real-time analysis and long-term
business intelligence. The tool can
also be customised to enable greater
management of sensor data for
analytics, reporting and workflow
management.
IBM Identity and Access Management
Devicepoint services
(WebSphere Application Server)
Informix (Primary)
Informix (Secondary)
We offer a
simple out-ofthe-box
setup
Philippe Fremont
Informix (Primary)
DB2 (Secondary)
IBM
API
Mgmt
Watson
Analytics
Report
Integrations
Visible Things Team (Avnet-Service, SPICA) - Managed Services and
24 x 7 Support
Figure 2- Visible Things Cloud Service
Enterprise System
Edge-to-Enterprise
While the challenges and choices
are many in developing IoT systems
and applications, the opportunities
are greater still in being able to
deliver better efficiencies and new
services to customers. The Visible
Things platform is comprehensive
and flexible IoT development solution
that offers tested, proven and
integrated components to enable
companies an exceptionally fast
edge-to-enterprise IoT deployment.
The platform will also be
continually augmented with new
hardware and software options
such as support for NB-IoT communications,
further cloud services,
enhanced SIM services, and increased
edge-device security features
in the future.
www.avnet-silica.com
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