Building IoT Apps: How to use open data standards

Today, IoT data is often confined to independent, silo-ed data management systems. These silos are often proprietary, based on black-box protocols set up to answer a limited set of specific questions. The majority do not permit any data sharing, or system interoperability. Because it impedes the connection between sensors and datastreams, silo-ing is the primary impediment blocking the true power of IoT.

IoT is at its best when devices can communicate with each other, and information from disparate sources can be combined. This allow us to understand how disparate phenomena affect each other, draw parallels and conclusions that were not evident before, and reuse and repurpose data to new ends, thereby drawing greater value from the wealth of information that is already being collected.

So, as IoT builders and developers, how do we use open standards to achieve this vision?

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has been addressing this issue head-on. OGC is responsible for a suite of open standards for IoT, the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (OGC SWE) standards. The newly approved OGC SensorThings API standard is the latest in this line of standards. It is purpose-built for IoT, responding specifically to IoT situations such as power, connectivity, and bandwidth constraints, and supporting real-time data delivery.

But still, how do we incorporate open standards as we develop, how do they influence system design, and… which standard??

SensorUp is hosting another series of tutorial webinars, starting this March 17th. Tutorials will run each Thursday at 11am MDT for four weeks. 

We’ll go over the standards available from the OGC, specifically, comparing OGC SensorThings API with OGC Sensor Observation Service (OGC SOS), both OGC Sensor Web Enablement (OGC SWE) standards. We’ll also go into detail about connecting sensors, organizing data, and using the SensorThings API to build applications. Finally, to help illustrate all the above, we’ll get into concrete examples, including how to connect with MQTT and the design of a recent application we built.

We’d love to see you at the webinar series! Visit sensorup.com/#signup to learn more, and register today!

Check out the video for an example sensor management application 🙂