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Q&A: What should I know about ThingWorx Edge features?

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Race to the finish line of IoT app development with ThingWorx Edge!

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Hi everyone,

 

Today’s post comes fully packed with an intro to our ThingWorx Edge strategy. Learn how to connect your machine data to ThingWorx, how our SDKs work, why you’d want to use them and how you can deploy agents.

 

To learn more about the Edge with ThingWorx, I spoke with Shravan. When Shravan’s not following Formula 1, learning about the latest trends in AI or playing cricket, he’s leading our development teams as the PM for the Edge. Check out what he had to say:

 

Kaya: How can I connect my machine data to ThingWorx through a protocol that the platform does not natively support? 

Shravan: If you’re looking to connect your machine data to ThingWorx through a proprietary protocol and you require a 1:1 connection with the platform, we have two paths you can take. You can either:

  1. Utilize PTC’s Edge MicroServer (EMS) out-of-the-box solution. This is a stand-alone application that you can configure to send property updates, files, etc. to your instance of the ThingWorx Platform. It’s almost like a little mailman.
  2. Or, if you want to build connectivity into your own Edge devices, you can take advantage of PTC’s Edge Software Development Kits (SDKs). We offer three SDKs—C, .NET and Java—to enable you to build connectivity into your own custom application.

 

Kaya: And how can I connect my machine data to ThingWorx if my protocol is known?

Shravan: Alternatively, if you’re a customer that communicates over a known protocol, then we’d recommend using our ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity product, also known as KEPServerEX or ThingWorx Kepware Edge.

 

For more background, I’ll go into a little more depth:

  • KEPServerEX works in a Windows environment. It leverages OPC and IT-centric communication protocols (SNMP, ODBC and web services). It has more than 150+ drivers that help to establish stable and secure communication channels to devices, PLCs, Gateways, etc.
  • ThingWorx Kepware Edge, launched during LiveWorx 2019, provides the most valuable features of KEPServerEX to be deployed in Linux-based gateways, starting with three key drivers: Modbus Ethernet, Allen-Bradley ControlLogix Ethernet and Siemens TCP/IP.

 

Kaya: Okay, great. Let’s cover SDKs first. In one sentence, can you explain how our SDKs work?  

Shravan: The SDKs provide services for establishing a secure WebSocket connection (AlwaysON) to the ThingWorx Platform so that you can perform functions such as property updates, file transfers, tunneling, software content management (SCM), etc.

 

Kaya: At a high level, why do SDKs leverage AlwaysON?

Shravan: Typically, transferring data to a server in IoT would require leveraging either REST web services, which has high connection overhead, works over HTTP or using MQTT, which requires a server and additional open ports.

 

So, an ideal connection should have three key features as a minimum:

  1. Stays continuously on.
  2. Is always ready to receive data and execute commands.
  3. Should also use existing open ports on firewall.

 

ThingWorx Edge SDKs provide this ideal connection though “Always On” protocol, which is based on WebSockets.

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Kaya: What are the top three things a developer can do with the SDKs? 

Shravan: Here are my top three.

  1. Thing property updates: Events can subscribe to changes in property values and in aspects of properties.
  2. File transfer: Browse remote directories and files on an instance of ThingWorx platform and enable bidirectional file transfer between an edge device and an instance of the platform.
  3. Tunneling: Allows users to establish secure, firewall-friendly application tunnels for applications that use TCP, such as VNC or SSH.

 

Kaya: How can you deploy SDK-based agents to devices?

Shravan: You can deploy the agent in two main ways. One where the agent lives adjacent to the control and monitoring application of the machine and the other where the agent is directly integrated to the control and monitoring app of the machine.image

 

Kaya: Anything else you want to mention? 

Shravan: The Edge SDKs support a framework for adding additional functionality to the SDKs. This is known as the Edge Extension Framework. This allows additional functionality to be provided as installable services, which allows them to be extended in a manageable way while keeping the core SDK as compact and efficient as possible. Software Content Management (SCM) was the first commercially available Edge Extension.

 

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This concludes the first installment of our series on Edge. Be on the lookout for deeper dives into KEPServerEX, SDKs, ThingWorx Kepware Edge and AlwaysOn.

 

Reach out if you have any questions.

 

Stay connected,

Kaya

 

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P.S. For everyone who’s followed me for the past year, I’d just like to extend a huge thanks, as “Ask Kaya” has just turned one! It’s been a great first year and I’m excited for year two!

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‎Aug 16, 2019 04:06 PM
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