What is Device Registry in IoT?
Device Registry is unique feature provided by Fogwing IIoT Platform to register the devices and make it ready for activation before deploy. It helps to make the smart IoT devices ready for self activation by customers or end users. Device Registry allows bulk devices registration and activation.
Device Registry facilitates the registering of the multiple edge devices using the clone feature. The IoT solution provider or customer can activate them on need basis.
Fogwing IIoT Platform's device registry feature allow Over the Air Activation (OTAA) of devices in 3 approaches.
QR Code based Activation using Mobile Devices
Activation through Website
Activate through Fogwing Portal
Pre-Conditions:
Device Registry feature is accessible for "Startup" and "Growth" plan subscribers. Before using Device Registry, Application should have been created in Fogwing IIoT.
Who can use Device Registry feature in Fogwing IIoT?
Device Registry feature is provided for customer who build IoT Devices or IoT Solution for end customers. The device maker can pre-register devices even before making or shipping it to the end customers. So customers can activate the devices without the device provider's help through Over the Air Activation approach.
How to register a device in Device Registry?
The process to register an edge device is similar to creating an edge device in devices section. The fields and attributes templates are similar to edge devices so when the device is activated, the entire registry information moved to devices page to make it available for connections. An IoT Hub access record automatically gets created once the registered device activated in the edge devices section.
The following steps are required to register devices in Device Registry module.
Go to Fogwing Portal and login using your account.
Click on 'Registry' under ‘Device Network’ section on left side menu.
Click on the 'Add' button available on the right on the Device Registry Page.
It will navigate to 'Add Device Registry' page. Enter all required field to declare the device. The device registry fields are very similar to Edge Device Creation in 'Edge Devices' Section.
Enter the Edge Name, Description, Select the Application, Edge Type fields. Application should have been created before register the devices.
Click on the 'Generate' button to auto generate' unique Edge EUI ID. This is critical to identify each devices uniquely.
Enter the Latitude and Longitude fields to auto fill the Edge Location field if required.
If you want to add the device location to the payload by default, click on the check box 'Add location to payload'.
Finally Click the ‘Submit’ button.
Now you can also declare the attributes for this device very similar to 'Edge Device' section attributes creation.
You device is successfully registered in the device registry section and ready for activation.
Note: If you want to create multiple devices with similar declaration and attributes, you may use the "Clone" option to create any number of devices (as per the subscription level). The clone feature automatically create all devices with unique device name and EUI ID.
How to connect devices registered in Device Registry?
Devices registered in Device Registry section does not have access to Fogwing IoThub immediately since devices are not in activate state. However the credentials required for device to connect to Fogwing IoThub can be pre-generated at the time of registration. By default, IoThub access supports MQTT connectivity, so at the time of registering the device in Device Registry, it's IoThub (MQTT) credentials are pre-created at the Device Registry level.
The following are default value for each devices registered in Device Registry section to access the Fogwing IoThub (MQTT):
IoThub Server Host: iothub.enterprise.fogwing.net
IoThub Server Port: 1883 (un-secure) and 8883 (secure)
MQTT Client ID: <Device EUI ID>
MQTT Username: <Device EUI ID>
MQTT Password: <Activation Code>
MQTT Publish Topic: fwent/edge/<Device EUI ID>/inbound
MQTT Subscribe Topic: fwent/edge/<Device EUI ID>/outbound
When the device get activated, automatically the IoThub (MQTT) access created with above credentials, so the devices that are preconfigured, can connect to Fogwing IoThub access instantly.
How to activate a device in Device Registry?
As listed earlier, There are 3 different ways an edge device can be activated from the Device Registry.
Device activation through Fogwing Portal:
Devices registered in Fogwing IIoT can be activated from the Device Registry section itself. The following steps are required to activate the device from the device registry section using portal.
Go to Fogwing Portal and login using your account.
Click on 'Registry' under ‘Device Network’ section on left side menu.
To activate a particular edge device, Click on the 'Activate' button under the Actions.
The device activation will be submitted to the activation engine and get activated within 2 mins.
Once the edge device activated, it will be removed from Device Registry section and gets listed as an edge device in the Edge Devices section. Until the device connect to the IoThub, it will be showing the status as 'unconnected'.
Activate Device using QR Code Scan:
The registered edge devices can be activated using unique QR Code and OTAA(Over the Air Activation) approach. Each devices registered in Device Registry section will get unique QR code which can be seen or downloaded from the Fogwing Portal. Any mobile device can be used to activate the devices by scanning the QR Code.
The following steps should be followed to get QR Code and Activate.
Go to Fogwing Portal and login using your account.
Click on 'Registry' under ‘Device Network’ section on left side menu.
Click on the 'QR Code' option under the Actions in the Device Registry page.
The QR Code page will appear as below. you can download the QR Code from this page for later reference. These QR code can be attached to the devices when shipping to end customer to make them using it to activate the device by themselves.
To Activate the device, user can scan the QRCode using any mobile device.
QR code scan will directly lead to the Fogwing Device Activation site where in the 'Activation Code' must be entered to activate it.
Once the device gets activated the user will now find the device in the Edge Devices section.
Activate Device using Device Activation Site
Fogwing IIoT Platform provides a separate activation site for anyone to activate the devices using QR code or Device EUI ID. This feature is provided for IoT Solution Provider to ship the devices to end customer and make them activate it through the activation site.
The following steps should be followed to get QR Code and Activate.
Go to Fogwing Activation site : https://activate.fogwing.net
The activation site will prompt to enter the Device EUI to find the accurate device for activation.
Once valid Device EUI ID entered, Click on the 'Submit' button to find the target device for activation. If the Device EUI ID is valid, the page will bring the Device information as shown below and prompt for 'Activation Code'.
Enter a valid activation code provided at the time of device registration to activate it.
Press the 'Activate' button to activate the Edge Devices.
If the 'Activation Code' is correct, the device will be activated within 2 mins.
Once device activated through Activation Site, device should be able to connect to Fogwing IoThub as mentioned above.
How to view the Device Health Dashboard Quickly?
Device Health Dashboard is provided as part of the Fogwing Activation Site for third party to access without using Fogwing Portal. Device health dashboard provides information about the device connection status and health information.
Note: Device Health Dashboard will show the device health only after activation. Device health dashboard can be accessed through scanning the Device QR Code (which can be found in Device health page with in the Fogwing Portal) or by entering the EUI ID in the Fogwing Activation website.
What's next?
Once you have finished registering and activating an 'Edge Device' in the Fogwing IIoT Platform you may go ahead and explore simulator feature to validate your device activation functionalities.
For any feedback and enquires on the functionalities of the Edge Devices, write to our support team at [email protected]