Management services and protocols

Pelion Device Management: Lightweight Machine to Machine (LwM2M)

Device Management Connect implements the LwM2M specification, which delivers consistent device management, irrespective of the device's hardware or the application it's running.

LwM2M manages devices and their interactions using the following interfaces:

• The bootstrap interface: Bootstrapping devices configures them for secure connectivity with Device Management (through Device Management Connect). Tip: More information about the Device Management registration options is available in the Device onboarding and connection section.
• The client registration interface: allows devices to register with Device Management and present their Resources so that they can be visible to web applications.
• The device management and service enablement interface: allows applications to access and perform operations on device Resources. The management interface can read, write and execute actions on the device, and is based on the LwM2M Resource model.
• The information reporting interface: allows applications to observe any changes in a Resource on a client, receiving notifications when new values are available or certain conditions are met.

Communication: The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP)

Device Management Connect uses CoAP to communicate with devices. The CoAP protocol is a low overhead protocol, designed specifically for constrained devices (those with limited MCUs) and low-power IP networks. CoAP allows these devices to communicate with other devices and with internet servers using a compact binary format. It normally uses only UDP, but Device Management Client has added TCP support. It also supports the TLS/DTLS protocol to provide transmission security and device authentication.

Optimizations for IoT devices

To get the most out of a constrained device's resources and battery life, Device Management Connect includes some optimizations.

Monitoring Device Management Connect

To monitor the Device Management Connect service, you can access metrics using the Connect Statistics API.

Web application connectivity to Device Management

Web applications use Device Management Connect to access device information. Integration relies on using the REST APIs or SDKs to connect to and access information on a Device Management account.

Here are more details on the integration process.

Device Management Edge for IoT gateways

Device Management Edge offers support for IoT gateways, which are used to connect devices to Device Management when those devices cannot connect independently, usually because they use non-IP protocols such as Modbus. To allow these devices to connect, Device Management Edge offers protocol translations. At the same time, it provides services that help administer the gateway itself, as well as the ability to process and react to data on the gateway itself.

Full documentation is available in the Device Management Edge site.