Everybody is talking about IoT, and a slog often heard these days is "IoT is everywhere". With the development of sensors, mobile devices, embedded systems and cloud servers, the technologies of IoT have been widely used in various industrial marketing sectors including emerging areas such as Smart City, Smart Grid and multiple other Smart Things in the world.
The true value of IoT is realized when these connected devices and sensors communicate and share data with each other and the cloud, analyzing information and transferring it to applications or systems that can change our everyday life.
Srini Gadgil, AMD senior systems architect, presented the challenges of today's IoT gateway solutions in the afternoon session at the recent Digitimes Embedded Technology Forum (DTF). The intelligent IoT gateway is a mission-critical component for smart homes and IoT solutions.
According to a Gartner report, there were 8.7 billion connected devices in 2012. And the research house foresees this total to expand to 26 billion devices by 2020. The immense connectivity to sensors, actuators and control devices spanning multiple communication protocols, as well as connectivity to the cloud servers for big data services and analytics, will change the ways things are done compared with the past. Things to be considered are the conversion and processing of raw data with a combination of CPU and GPU processing capabilities.
The conventional models of IoT networks are many-to-many infrastructure, Gadgil remarked. Any device including mobile phones, PCs, sensors even RFID tags will be able to dynamically join the network, collaborate and cooperate efficiently to achieve different tasks. The many-to-many communication paradigm is characterized by multiple devices contributing and receiving information, with the information elements often interlinked across different networks. Because this many-to-many paradigm, it is difficult for systems to apply security policies within the current paradigm of mobile devices.
AMD provided embedded solutions and cultivated the embedded system market for a long period of time. The more devices become connected every day, the more companies face increased challenges because fragmentation, interoperability and security threats. To address this, AMD is focused on developing an IoT gateway solution that offers integration of multi-protocol networking, embedded control, enterprise grade security, and application integration in an effective platform. AMD is trying to deliver integrated hardware and software solutions specifically designed to meet market needs.
The first thing, Gadgil said during the session, is multi-operating system support with cross platform support. AMD sees that IoT Gateway solutions are focus on building local intelligence in the IoT gateway. This will use fast CPU processing power combined with GPU capabilities.
The second factor is the form factor to support devices from home Wi-Fi routers to home control center. AMD proposed an IoT Gateway system based on multiple network protocols such as Zigbee, Wi-Fi and GPRS according to the typical IoT application scenarios and requirements from telecom operators, then presented the data transmission between wireless sensor networks and mobile communication networks, provided protocol conversion of different sensor network protocols, and control functionalities for sensor networks, and finally gave an implementation of prototyping system and system validation in 2015.
The third key point is that software architecture will be scalable. The flexible user interface is an important consideration to accommodate different software platforms. Gadgil presented some home gateway product scenarios as a good example in the seminar. AMD is working on developing and deploying home gateways that connect different mobile devices and provides common interfaces and seamless communication between devices and the cloud.
Targeting Smart Home markets, the first set of gateway solutions will feature versions based on the AMD G series SoC product family and will be available in 2015. It will provide integrated and pre-proofing hardware and software that help develop, prototype and deploy application services faster so companies can focus on creating new, value-added services.
Srini Gadgil, AMD senior systems architect
