EDGE Essentials in IIoT

EDGE Essentials in IIoT 

Architecting an IIoT system begins at the edge where industrial "things" are instrumented with sensors, actuators and edge nodes. 

Key attributes: 

• On board data processing reduces the latency for time critical control decisions. 
• Synchronized data can be acquired.
• Edge ready hardware is available.

To deploy IoT systems at the edge, below mentioned are the considerations. 

• Data Acquisition 
• Data processing
• Control
• Communication
• Security
• Deployment

Data Acquisition: Data is collected using edge nodes such as sensors, actuators at the machinery. Data can be temperature, pressure, position, vibration, rpm, motor/pump speed etc. When we talk about Data Acquisition, we have to consider sample rate of the data (i.e. at what time/moment need to collect each sample/data), resolution, triggering, signal conditioning and Isolation. 

Let me explain each term: Sample rate is number of samples per second taken from a analog (continuous) signal. Resolution is the number of bits that are used to represent each signal. Triggering indicates when particular data is crossed its threshold value then only we will take that sample for processing. In triggering also, continuous monitoring of data is there, but when threshold  value crosses, then only we collect the data.  Signal conditioning is the manipulation of a signal in a way that prepares the signal for the next stage of data processing. It improves the signal quality. Isolation is to isolate different signals from noise and other environmental disturbances.

Majority of the time spent on collecting data, instead of that time must be spent on analyzing the data. In my next article i will be discussing more about other considerations in EDGE essentials. 

Thank you.