IoT device management: what you need to consider

The world of IoT revolves around the Networking physical thingsto process their data for useful applications. That sounds banal at first. However, if you take a closer look at the topic, it quickly becomes clear that there are already a number of important factors to consider during and after the networking process. Networking a device important issues that need to be considered.

In this article, networking is understood to mean that a Device IP is made capable and its Data via defined interfaces to a Provide remote server can.

So when it comes to Design IoT application and for customers, it is essential to provide Security, configuration and monitoring issues to clarify. For this reason, device management is an essential component of IoT applications - especially in a B2B context.

Device management - the life cycle of an IoT device

The device management should also be based on the entire life cycle of an IoT device (see Figure 1) can be considered. This starts with planning, i.e. the creation of a device schema, and ends with the decommissioning of IoT devices.

Figure 1: Life cycle of IoT devices

Device management: life cycle of IoT devices

Source 1: Own representation according to [1].

During this life cycle, device management covers the following core topics [2]:

Device provisioning and authentication:Device provisioning is a process in which the device is installed in a system, e.g. a IoT Platformis created and made known. Authentication is an essential part of this process and is fundamental to the Security in the Internet of Things. To prevent devices from logging into the network without authorization, they must have their Prove identity e.g. through the Use of certificates or authentication tokens.
Configuration and control:Once a device has been networked, it should usually also be removed from the Remotely configurable and therefore controllable be. For this purpose, the so-called Device Twin used. It makes it possible to configure the device at any time - whether online or offline - by synchronizing the configuration and changing the Communication with the physical device possible.
Monitoring and diagnosis:During operation, it is important to Condition of the device of the devices. Here, too, the Device Twin used to provide information about important conditions. It is precisely these states that should be included in the Modeling the data schema in order to make them remotely accessible or visible using Device Twin.
Firmware updates and maintenance:As is well known Firmware updates is the be-all and end-all when it comes to providing secure applications. Accordingly, this is also one of the core topics of device management. The challenge lies in this, Installing firmware updates remotely - and not just on one device, but on an entire Variety of devices.

IoT device management - which standards already exist?

Device management also plays a key role when it comes to ensuring that a Design and develop an IoT solution. Accordingly, the Open Mobile Alliance has developed the LightweightM2M (LwM2M) Protocol developed [3]. LwM2M is currently based on the CoAP protocol and covers topics such as Firmware update, configuration and monitoring from [4]. The standard OPC UA [5] supports device management, particularly in an industrial context, by providing Information model for example, makes it possible to place semantics behind data values and thus Describe device data [6,7]. For example, a technical address for a data value such as "0x0000428: 39.8" becomes something meaningful such as a value for temperature in °C: 39.8.