Global industrial connectivity supplier Moxa, distributed in Australia by Madison Technologies, explains how industrial IoT deployments can be simplified with cloud ready IIoT Edge Gateway.
Industries are adopting the IIoT to interconnect production equipment, machines, and applications across OT and IT networks. By leveraging powerful cloud services and edge computing solutions, IIoT applications can transform large volumes of collected data into actionable intelligence that can drive optimisation and predictive maintenance in smart industries, cities, and utilities.
To accelerate your IIoT application development, Moxa provides the ThingsPro® Software, which simplifies your edge-to-cloud data communication. With the option to integrate with on-premise SCADA and popular PaaS and SaaS cloud services for flexible development.
Moxa’s ThingsPro® Software provides a cloud-ready gateway solution for easy and secure connectivity between edge and cloud, ensuring transparent data exchange between OT and IT systems. In addition, you can leverage modern RESTful APIs to transform data to actionable insights for smart diagnostics and communication between heterogeneous systems.
Cloud Connectivity Made Simply
Moxa’s cloud-ready IIoT edge gateway family consists of industrial computers that are optimised for edge computing applications in the manufacturing, oil and gas, and transportation sectors. The supplementary IIoT software, ThingsPro®, simplifies the connection of edge data to the cloud. It provides multiple connectivity options, including Modbus and generic MQTT/HTTPS protocols, and comes with built-in clients to connect to AWS and Azure cloud services.
Application Case 1. Hybrid IIoT for Increased Productivity and Reduced Downtime
Manufacturers have found that using edge computers can help reduce the loading on cloud resources, simplify data processing, and improve overall device efficiency (OEE) using preventive maintenance. With powerful data analytics available as cloud services, companies only need to deploy Moxa’s gateway computers and system sensors to measure and predict equipment conditions and thereby reduced downtime.
System requirements can consist of collecting raw data from sensors and sending to the local SCADA for operational purposes, collecting system data of equipment status and transferring to public cloud platforms for asset condition monitoring and analytics, and quick data filtering to save transmission and processing cost on cloud services.
ThingsPro® Gateway software on Moxa’s MC-1100 computers provide configurable Modbus templates and RESTful APIs to simplify data collection and utilisation. With built-in SDK to develop programs for easy adoption of public cloud platforms, data-logger utility for Modbus-to-MQTT conversion, and built-in Tag Selector to easily select and upload specific tags to cloud platforms.
Application Case 2. Distributed Wellhead Monitoring in Onshore Oil and Gas Projects
As oil and gas fields are often spread over hundreds or even thousands of square miles and located in remote areas, many oil and gas companies are taking advantage of IIoT solutions to collect and process large volumes of data from the field for supporting their daily operation and decision-making process.
System requirements can consist of collecting data from a range of field sensors and devices and transferring it to a cloud data centre, energy-efficient data processing and transmission in hot and hazardous conditions, as well as network reliability and security for data aggregation and integrity.
The compact MC-1100 computers come with Ethernet, serial, and DI/DO interfaces for data connections and are equipped with an Intel Atom®-based processor and C1D2/ATEX certifications to withstand hazardous conditions. With a built-in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for data integrity and security, ready-to-use Modbus-to-MQTT conversion for faster project development and LTE keep-alive function to maintain stable data transfer to cloud services.
Application Case 3. Remote Asset Management for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
Intelligent transportation systems are already an essential part of people’s daily lives. Keeping such a complex system operating smoothly is a big challenge for transportation authorities who typically incur high costs by sending personnel to sites where equipment has malfunctioned. The key challenge is to quickly identify the devices that have failed in the field.
System requirements can consist of performing remote monitoring reliably in outdoor environments, tracking the health of PTZ cameras to implement preventative maintenance thereby reducing downtime, and redundant monitoring for PTZ cameras.
Both the UC-8100A computers and EDS-P506E-4PoE switches can operate in the -40 to 70°C temperature range with easy access to cloud APIs via SDKs for AWS and Azure cloud platforms. In addition, the UC-8100A computer has LTE connectivity to report the status of PTZ cameras connected to I/Os. With PoE switches performing failure-checks of IP cameras and rebooting them after timeout expires.
Accelerating your IIoT development is essential to ensure the correct data is delivered at the right time so that your application can reap the benefits of the IIoT. It requires an easy and fast solution for data acquisition, an efficient solution for data logging and processing, and an easy and secure solution for data connectivity.
However, a truly intelligent IIoT gateway solution should also consider ways to make devices smarter and more rugged for deployment, operation, and maintenance. Moxa’s intelligent IIoT gateway solutions not only speed up IIoT development, but also simplify efforts to operate and maintain your IIoT gateways, making them perfect choices for your IIoT applications.
To learn more about how industrial IoT deployments can be simplified with cloud ready IIoT Edge Gateway, visit the website or phone 1800 72 79 79 to speak with Madison Technologies’ Customer Connect team.