When one thinks about Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), it is common to imagine dashboard visualization, real-time analytics, and interconnected devices communicating all the time. The truth, however, is that not all industrial areas boast stable internet connection.
Industries, factories, power plants, and other facilities may have issues with connectivity from time to time. For such environment, cloud-oriented IoT monitoring solution can become rather burdensome.
This is the reason behind the popularity of offline-first IIoT solutions in modern industrial monitoring systems.
Offline-First – What Does It Mean?
The offline-first solution continues its work even if internet connection is disrupted.
Data from sensors is not transferred immediately to cloud. Instead, data processing and storage takes place on the local end, and only then cloud synchronization occurs when connectivity is restored.
Each layer performs certain duties.
Data Collection
Sensors read parameters like:
- Temperature
- Pressure
- Gas concentrations
- Flow rate
- Humidity
- Vibration of equipment
- Particulates
Data collection is performed constantly and does not depend on internet connection.
Edge Processing
As an alternative to uploading raw sensor data to the cloud directly, an edge device can perform such operations:
- Filtering invalid data
- Aggregation of data
- Creation of alerts on the spot
- Anomaly detection
- Buffering of data in case of outage
It will lower the use of bandwidth and increase the speed of response.
Local Storage
There are some benefits of keeping data local:
- Data safety in case of outage
- Speeded-up historical searches
- Continuous reporting
- Trend analysis
Local database turns into a necessity if facilities have unreliable internet connection.
Cloud Synchronization
Once internet connection is restored, only necessary data is synchronized.
Tasks in cloud include:
- Data storing
- Fleet management
- Multi-site reporting
- Analysis
- Remote access
- Sharing of dashboards
Such combination allows you to utilize the best aspects of both approaches.
Don’t Forget about Security
In many cases, industrial systems control critical infrastructures, which makes security vital.
Best practices include:
- Encryption of communication
- Authentication of devices
- Firmware update security
- Network segmentation
- Principle of least privilege
- Monitoring and logging
Offline operation should never put the system’s security at risk.
Future Outlook
Edge computing keeps growing as businesses try to increase speed of decision-making and cut their dependency on cloud connection. Rather than focusing on cloud as the central part of any system architecture, a lot of industrial teams move intelligence towards the data source.
This ensures reliable performance while minimizing latency and increasing resiliency in situations when connectivity is not guaranteed.
If you want to learn more about industrial monitoring technologies featuring connectivity and modern monitoring techniques, visit Emissions and Stack for educational materials on stack monitoring, industrial emissions monitoring, and cloud-based environmental monitoring systems.
Conclusion
Offline-first development is not simply for coping with the problem of an Internet outage; it is developing systems that will keep delivering value while they are running in real-world conditions.
With the continued growth of Industrial IoT, developers with knowledge of edge computing and local processing will be well positioned to succeed.
Top comments (0)