Optional services

Cloud Fieldbus

Cloud Fieldbus is a Cumulocity application with the ability to collect data from fieldbus devices and remotely manage them. This section describes how to

• Connect fieldbus devices.
• Manage the connected fieldbus devices.
• Configure the remote management capabilities of particular types of devices and import and export them.

It is supported out of the box by the following terminals:

• Pssystec Smartbox-Modbus for Modbus/RTU
• Netcomm Wireless NTC-6200 for Modbus/TCP and Modbus/RTU
• Cinterion Java modules for Modbus/RTU and CAN bus
• OPC-UA for OPC-UA Servers
• Pssystec SmartBox DP for Profibus

OPC UA support is implemented in Java and runs on any system running JRE7 (Java Runtime Environment 7) or newer.

If you want to support Cloud Fieldbus with your terminal, please contact info@cumulocity.com for more information.

Connecting Fieldbus devices

For the following instructions, we assume you have a Cloud Fieldbus terminal available and it is registered as a device in your Cumulocity tenant. To register a terminal with Cumulocity, follow the instructions provided with the terminal.

Connecting Modbus/RTU devices

To connect a Modbus/RTU device:

1. Physically wire the Modbus/RTU device through RS/485 or RS/232 to the terminal.
2. Give the device a unique Modbus address according to the instructions provided with the Modbus device (e.g. by setting a jumper on the device).
3. Check the serial communication settings of the device according to the instructions provided with the device (i.e. baud rates and communication protocol). These have to match with all devices on the bus.
4. In the Device Management application, click All devices in the Devices menu in the navigator. In the device list, select the terminal and switch to the Modbus tab.
5. Change the communication settings shown in the section Serial communication to match the settings on the bus, if needed.
6. Change the transmit rate and the polling rate according to your requirements. The polling rate is the frequency at which the Modbus devices are polled for changes. The transmit rate is the frequency where measurements are sent to Cumulocity.
7. Click Save changes if you made changes.
   
   
8. To start communication between the terminal and the Modbus device, click Add new device.
9. Enter a name for the device and select the type of the device from the drop-down field. To add new device types, see Configuring Fieldbus device types below. Set the Modbus address of the connected device.
10. Click Add. Cumulocity will now send a notification to the Modbus terminal that a new device is ready to be managed. This may take a few seconds.

After completion, a new child device has been added to the terminal and can now be managed. You can click on the name of the device in the table to navigate to the device. If you have not yet added Modbus devices to the terminal, you may have to reload your browser window to make the Child Devices tab visible.

Connecting Modbus/TCP devices

To connect a Modbus/TCP device:

1. Make sure that the Modbus/TCP device is connected to the terminal, i.e. directly through an Ethernet cable or through a switch. If you are using a Modbus gateway, configure the gateway in a way it can communicate with the Modbus devices behind the gateway.
2. Check the network settings of the device using the instructions provided with the device.
3. In the Device Management application, click All devices in the Devices menu in the navigator. In the device list, select the terminal and switch to the Network tab. Verify that the LAN settings of the terminal match the settings of the device so that TCP communication can be established.
4. Switch to the Modbus tab.
5. Change the transmit rate and the polling rate according to your requirements. The polling rate is the frequency at which the Modbus devices are polled for changes. The transmit rate is the frequency at which measurements are sent to Cumulocity.
6. Click Save changes if you made changes.

Adding child devices

1. To start communication between the terminal and the Modbus device, click Add new device.
2. Enter a name for the device and select the type of the device from the dropdown field. To add new device types, see Configuring Fieldbus device types below. Set the Modbus address and the IP address of the connected device.
3. Click Add.

Cumulocity will now send a notification to the Modbus terminal that a new device is ready to be managed. This may take a few seconds.

We assume that all Modbus/TCP communication uses the standard Modbus/TCP port 502. On the NTC-6200, the port to be used can be configured through the variable “service.cumulocity.plugin.lua__modbus.port” using, for example, Device Shell or the local web user interface of the device.

Connecting CAN devices

To connect a CAN device:

1. Physically wire the CAN device through to the terminal.
2. Check the serial communication baud rate of the device according to the instructions provided with the device. These have to match all devices on the bus.
3. In the Device Management application, click All devices in the Devices menu in the navigator. In the device list, select the terminal and switch to the CAN bus tab.
4. Change the baud rate setting shown in the section CAN bus communication to match the settings on the bus, if needed.
5. Change the transmit rate according to your requirements. The transmit rate is the frequency where measurements are sent to Cumulocity.
6. Click Save changes if you made changes.

Adding child devices

1. To start communication between the terminal and the CAN device, click Add CAN device.
2. Enter a name for the device and select the type of the device from the dropdown field. To add new device types, see Configuring Fieldbus device types below.
3. Click Add.

Cumulocity will now send a notification to the Fieldbus terminal that a new device is ready to be managed. This may take a few seconds.

After completion, a new child device has been added to the terminal and can now be managed. You can click on the name of the device in the table to navigate to the device. If you have not yet added Fieldbus devices to the terminal, you may have to reload your browser window to make the “Child Devices” tab visible.

Connecting OPC UA servers

To connect an OPC UA server to Cumulocity, you need a gateway or industrial PC running the Cumulocity OPC UA agent.

1. Make sure that the OPC UA server is connected to the gateway or PC, i.e. directly through an Ethernet cable or through a switch.
2. Check the network settings of the gateway and make sure that the OPC UA server is reachable from the gateway.
3. In the Device Management application, click All devices in the Devices menu in the navigator. In the device list, select the gateway and switch to the OPCUA tab.
4. In the URL field, enter the URL of the OPC UA server as seen from the gateway.
5. Set the username and password to access the OPC UA server.
6. Change the transmit rate and the polling rate according to your requirements. The transmit rate is the frequency at which measurements are sent to Cumulocity. The polling rate is the frequency at which the OPC UA server polls for changes. Note that not all OPC UA servers support setting a polling rate. In such cases, the OPC UA server sends data usually whenever it changes.
7. Click Save changes if you made changes.

Adding child devices

1. To start communication between the gateway and the OPC UA server, click Add OPCUA device. An OPC UA server may host many devices as part of its object model.
2. Enter a name for the OPC UA device.
3. Enter the absolute Browse path of the OPC UA device. The browse path of the device is configured on the OPC UA server and represents the “root” of the OPC UA device in the OPC UA server object model.
4. Select the type of the child device from the drop-down box. To add new device types, see Configuring Fieldbus device types below.
5. Click Add.

Cumulocity will now send a notification to the OPC UA agent that a new device is ready to be managed. This may take a few seconds.

After completion, a new child device has been added to the gateway and can now be managed. You can click on the name of the device in the table to navigate to the device.

Connecting Profibus devices

Connecting Profibus differs slightly from the regular Plug & Play approach of Cloud Fieldbus. The gateway device acts as slave on the Profibus so it can easily be integrated into existing infrastructure. This means that Profibus data must be actively sent to the gateway though. Typically this is done by programming a PLC to actively send information to the gateway via it’s configured Profibus slave address.

1. Physically wire the Profibus device to the terminal.
2. In the Device Management application, click All devices in the Devices menu in the navigator. In the device list, select the terminal and switch to the “Profibus” tab.
   
   
   
   
3. The baud rate is automatically detected by the gateway and is just being displayed here.
4. Change the transmit rate according to your requirements. The transmit rate is the interval at which measurements are sent to Cumulocity.
5. Set the slave address of the terminal.
6. Configure your Profibus Master device to communicate to that slave address. To do so, refer to the gateway manual (e.g. SmartBox DP).
7. Click Save to update the gateway with the new settings.

Adding child devices

1. To start communication between the gateway and the Profibus device, click Add Profibus device.
2. Enter a name for the new device.
3. Select the type of the child device from the drop-down box. To add new device types, see Configuring Fieldbus device types below.
4. Click Add to confirm and notify the gateway.

Now A child device will be created containing the data configured in the selected device type.

Cumulocity will notify the gateway to send data for the newly created child device.

Managing Fieldbus devices

Once connected, you can now manage your device. Switch to the Child devices tab of a device to list the connected Fieldbus devices and navigate to a Fieldbus device. Depending on the capabilities of the device and its configuration in Cumulocity, you can:

• Collect measurements
• Send alarms on coil or register changes
• Log coil and register changes as events
• Monitor the status of coils and registers

Collecting measurements

If the device type of the Fieldbus device is configured to collect measurements, these will be visible in the Measurements tab. They will also be available for usage in the Data Explorer and in Dashboard widgets.

Data is collected according to the interval specified in the “transmit rate” property of the terminal as described above. To optimize the data traffic, data that is exactly the same as collected previously may not be sent again.

Monitoring alarms

If the device type of the Fieldbus device is configured to send alarms, these will be visible in the Alarms tab and usable in widgets. To determine the alarm status, the Fieldbus devices are monitored for changes according to the “polling rate” setting of the terminal. If a particular coil or register is non-zero, an alarm will be raised. If the value goes back to zero, the alarm will be cleared.

Logging events

Similar to alarms, changes in Fieldbus devices can be monitored and logged as events. Each time, the value of the monitored coil or register changes, an event is created. You can see the events in the “Events” tab of the device or use them in widgets. You can inspect the new value of the monitored coil or register by clicking on the event and unfolding the event details.

Monitor a device status

The status of devices can be monitored in real time using dashboard widgets in the Cockpit application. Navigate to the Cockpit application, create a dashboard or report, and add widgets as described in the Cockpit section in the User guide. The Cloud Fieldbus has two new widgets: The “Fieldbus Device” widget and the “SCADA” widget.

Monitoring device status using the Fieldbus Device widget

The Fieldbus Device widget provides you with a tabular display of the status of a device. The status of the device can also be modified through the widget.

To use the Fieldbus Device widget, follow these steps:

1. Select a dashboard and click Add widget in the top menu bar.
2. Select the Fieldbus Device Widget and edit the title of the widget.
3. Choose the device that should be shown in the widget in the Target assets or devices section.
4. Select the coils and registers that should be shown on the widget.

In the widget, the selected coils and registers are grouped into display categories as configured in the device type. The Fieldbus Device Widget updates automatically as soon as there is new data available. You do not need to click on reload.

Registers and coils that can be changed are represented by active widgets. For example, in the screenshot above, the “Master switch” coil and the “Mode” register are editable. If you click a switch, an operation to change the corresponding coil or register is sent to the terminal. Similar, if you change a value and click Set, an operation is created. The terminal will then carry out the configuration change on the device, as requested through the operation. While the operation is being processed, a progress indicator is shown.

Monitoring status using the SCADA widget

The SCADA widget provides you with a graphic representation of the status of a device.

To use the SCADA widget, follow these steps:

1. Select a dashboard and click Add widget in the top menu bar.
2. Select the SCADA widget and edit the title of the widget.
3. Choose the device that should be shown in the widget in the Target assets or devices section.
4. Upload an SVG file with the graphic representation of the device. SVG files are vector graphics that have to be specifically prepared with placeholders for the status information. See Preparing SVG files for the SCADA widget below.
5. Assign placeholders to devices. Note that multiple devices can be taken as source.
6. You now need to assign each placeholder to a property of the device. Hover over each placeholder and select Assign device property or Assign fieldbus property. A dialog box comes up, in which you can choose basic device properties or fieldbus properties (i.e. status coils and registers). Select the desired property and click Select.
7. After assigning all placeholders, a preview of the widget with the current values of the properties is shown. Click Save to place the widget on the dashboard.

Preparing SVG files for the SCADA widget

The SCADA widgets inspect uploaded SVG files for placeholders. These placeholders are replaced by actual values from devices. Placeholders have a specific syntax and can be used anywhere in the SVG file. To add a placeholder, enter the name of the placeholder in double curly braces using your design application or a text editor.

When creating svg files, we recommend you to use “https://boxy-svg.com/". It is easy to use, quality chrome extension.

<text class="text" xt-anchor="middle" x="100" y="236.982125" width="200" ...>
    {{batteryValue}}
</text>

Configuring Fieldbus device types

New Fieldbus device types can be set up in the Device database page which you open from the Device Types menu in the navigator.

Click New in the top menu bar. In the Device type field, select the protocol of your device and enter a name for it.

Now you can start adding coils and register definitions to the device type, depending on the selected protocol (see the descriptions below).

Configuring Modbus data

Adding a coil definition

Click Add at the top right of the Coils (discrete inputs) section, to add a coil definition. This will open a dialog to specify the coil. Enter the following information:

1. Enter the name of the coil as being displayed in the user interface.
2. Optionally, enter the display category to structure your data in widgets.
3. Enter the number of the coil in the Modbus device.
4. Select the Show status checkbox if you want to show the coil’s current value in the Fieldbus Device Widget. In this case, you can enter the text that the Fieldbus Device Widget should show for unset and set coils.
5. Select the Update status checkbox if you want to be able to edit the coil from the Fieldbus Device Widget.
6. Select the Raise alarm checkbox if an alarm should be raised when the coil is set in the device. In this case, you can specify the type of the alarm that is raised, its text and its severity. Note that there can only be one alarm active of a particular type for a particular device.
7. Select the Send event checkbox if an event should be generated each time the value of the coil changes. If Send event is selected, you can specify the type of event and the text in the event.
8. Click OK to finish editing the coil.

The same functions are available for discrete inputs. However, it is not possible to update the status of a discrete input.

Adding a register definition

Click Add at the top right of the Holding registers section, to add a register definition. This opens a dialog to enter the details of the register definition:

1. Enter the name of the register being displayed in the user interface.
2. Optionally, enter the display category to structure your data in widgets.
3. Enter the number of the register in the Modbus device. You can indicate a subset of bits to be used from a register by providing a start bit and a number of bits. This allows you to split a physical Modbus register into a set of “logical registers”.
4. To scale the integer value read from the Modbus device, you can enter a multiplier, a divisor and a number of decimal places. The register value is first multiplied by the “multiplier”, then divided by the “divisor” and then shifted by the number of decimal places. Note, that the terminal may use integer arithmetic to calculate values sent to Cumulocity. For example, if you use a divisor of one and one decimal place, a value of 231 read from the terminal will be sent as 23.1 to Cumulocity. If you use a divisor of ten and no decimal places, the terminal may send 23 to Cumulocity (depending on its implementation).
5. Indicate the unit of the data, for example, “C” for temperature values.
6. Select the Signed checkbox if the register value should be interpreted as signed number.
7. Select the Enumeration type checkbox if the register value should be interpreted as enumeration of discrete values. If Enumeration type is selected, you can click Add value to add mappings from a discrete value to a text to be shown for this value in the widget. Click Remove value to remove the mapping.
8. Select the Show status checkbox if you want to show the current value of the register in the Fieldbus Device Widget.
9. Select the Update status checkbox if you want to be able to edit the register from the Fieldbus Device Widget. If Update status is selected, two additional fields Minimum and Maximum appear. Using these fields, you can constrain numerical values entered in the widget.
10. Select the Send measurement checkbox if you want the values of the register to be regularly collected according to the transmit interval (see above). In this case, add a measurement type and a series to be used. For each measurement type, a chart is created in the Measurements tab. For each series, a graph is created in the chart. The unit is used for labelling the measurement in the chart and in the Fieldbus Device Widget.
11. Select the Raise alarm checkbox if an alarm should be raised when the register is not zero in the device measurement. In this case, you can specify the type of the alarm raised, its text and its severity. Note, that there can only be one alarm active of a particular type for a particular device.
12. Select the Send event checkbox if an event should be generated each time the value of the register changes. If Send event is selected, you can specify the type of event and the text in the event.
13. Click OK to save your settings.

In the Options section, select the checkbox Use server time to create the time stamps for data on the server instead of on the terminal. If you need to support buffering of data on the terminal, leave this checkbox clear.

Finally, click Save to save your settings.

If you edit a device type that is currently in use, you may need to

• restart the terminals that use the device type,
• reconfigure dashboards and widgets that use the device type.

Configuring CAN bus data

CAN device types can be configured in a very similar way as Modbus device types. For more information, see Configuring Modbus data above. The differences are:

• Holding registers are used to describe the different pieces of data inside CAN messages.
• Enter the CAN message ID of the specific message the data should be extracted from. Use a hexadecimal number for the message ID.
• Conversion of values is extended by an offset parameter. This will be added or substracted from the register value, depending on its sign. The offset calculation is done after applying multiplier and divisor, and before performing decimal shifting.

Configuring OPC UA data

OPC UA device types can be configured in a very similar way as Modbus device types. For more information, see Configuring Modbus data above.

The main difference is how data is addressed. OPC UA servers provide a hierarchical object model of connected nodes. The nodes are addressed by the browse path from the root of the object model to the respective node.

To simplify configuration, the browse path is split into two parts in Cloud Fieldbus:

• From the root to the OPC UA device (configured above).
• From the OPC UA device to a node with data of that device.

When you click Add, enter the second part of the path into the Browse Path field as shown in the image below. Note that the OPC UA agent currently only supports nodes of type “Variable”. The description of the paths should be either provided with your OPC UA server or with your devices.

Configuring Profibus data

To configure a Profibus device type, select “Profibus” as device type from the dropdown list and enter a name for it.

In the Register section, click Add at the right to add one or more register definitions as described exemplarily for Modbus devices in Adding a register definition above.

In the Options section, select the checkbox Use server time to create the time stamps for data on the server instead of on the terminal. If you need to support buffering of data on the terminal, leave this checkbox clear.

Finally, click Save to save your settings.

If you edit a device type that is currently in use, you may need to

• restart the terminals that use the device type,
• reconfigure dashboards and widgets that use the device type.

Configuring CANopen data

There are two ways to create a new device type. Either manually from scratch via the “New” operation or via import of an EDS file for the corresponding device.

Manually creating a new device type from scratch

Navigate to the Device database page and click New. The following window will open:

Select “CANopen” as fieldbus type and enter a name for your device type. Specific to CANopen is the CANopen device type field which accepts a hex number.

In the Variables section, you determine the CANopen variables. Variables inside the “Object Dictionary”(OD) of the CANopen device can be accessed later by adding the variables to the device type definition. Via the Add button at the right of the Variables section, new variables can be configured.

The following fields can be observed:

• Name: The name of the variable.
• Display category: This field is used to group variables into sections in the visualization.
• Index: Index of the variable in the OD of the device.
• Sub-index: Sub-Index of the variable in the OD of the device.
• Data type: The type of the variable (e.g. boolean, unsigned).
• Access type: E.g. read only, write only, etc.
• Unit: Logical unit of the variable.
• Show status: Defines how the variable is shown in the inventory.
• Update status: Defines how the variable is updated in Cumulocity.
• Send measurement: Create a measurement when the value of the variable is changed.
• Raise alarm: Create an alarm if a given mask matches with the value of the variable ((value & mask) == mask). Therefore, it is possible to raise alarms on single bits of e.g. an Unsigned8 variable, like the Error-Register.
• Raise event: Create an event, whenever the value of the variable is changed.

After adding variables to the new device type, they are listed in the Variables section of the device type. All variables are grouped by the given display category, i.e. variables with same category are grouped together.

After completing your configuration, click Save to save your settings. The device type can be used now to add CANopen devices to the platform. The device type can be updated after creation.

Importing a device type

To import a new device type, see the Exporting and importing device types section.

After importing the EDS file, all variables defined in the file are listed in the Variables section of the device type. The user can then enrich the imported variable configurations by opening the configuration dialog for each variable (e.g. the missing display category can be set or mappings can be defined).

Configuring CANopen device data

To configure CANopen device data navigate to the desired device and switch to the CANopen tab.

In the CANopen communication section, the following parameters can be configured:

• Baud rate: This field must match with the used baud rate in the CANopen network.
• Polling rate: The rate at which the agent sends requests to the CANopen devices. to determine changes in variables.
• Transmit rate: The transfer rate, i.e. the rate at which the terminal sends regular measurements to Cumulocity.

In the CANopen section, up to 127 CANopen devices can be added to the gateway as child devices by giving the following parameters:

• Name: The name of the device used for visualization.
• Device type: The device type of the CANopen device. The user can select from a list of all CANopen device types which are stored in the device database.
• Node ID: The CANopen node ID of the device. It is used for addressing the device inside the CANopen network.

The device type and node ID need to match with the real CANopen device, otherwise setting up the communication is not possible or wrong values will be transmitted.

Exporting and importing device types

To manage device types more conveniently, you can export device types to a file once they are edited in the user interface. The file can be re-imported to set up other Cumulocity accounts easily or to restore the types from a backup. The import functionality also supports importing ready-made device types provided by device manufacturers.

To export a device type, hover over the device type that you would like to export and click Export. Your browser will download a file named “<device type>.json” with the device type definition.

To import a device type, click Import in the top menu bar. This will open a dialog that lets you choose between importing a ready-made device type and uploading a previously exported device type. You can change the name of the device type during import using the New device type name field.

Cloud Sensor App

Overview

The Cumulocity IoT Cloud Sensor App sends sensor measurements from an Android smartphone, an iOS smartphone or a Texas Instruments (TI) Sensor Tag to Cumulocity to be securely processed and managed. Additionally, all devices can be remote-controlled by Cumulocity.

Info: The TI Sensor Tag is a low energy wireless device manufactured by Texas Instruments © http://www.ti.com/.

To use the Cloud Sensor App for Android you need a smartphone with Android version 5.0 or higher.

To use the Cloud Sensor App for iOS you need a smartphone with iOS version 11.0 (or higher).

Info: The screenshots are exemplarily taken from an Android smartphone. Unless mentioned otherwise the screens look similar in the Cloud Sensor App for iOS.

Installing the Cloud Sensor App

On an Android smartphone

To install the Cloud Sensor App on your Android smartphone, open the Cockpit application in your Cumulocity IoT tenant, expand the right drawer and click Add smartphone from the quick links.

This will start a wizard showing the QR code for downloading the Cloud Sensor App.

Scan this QR code with any scanning application on your smartphone.

You will then be navigated to the Google Play Store for the installation of the Cloud Sensor App for Android.

On an iOS smartphone

To install the Cloud Sensor App on your iOS smartphone, navigate to the App Store, search for Cumulocity IoT Sensor App and install the app on your smartphone.

Registering the Cloud Sensor App to your tenant

From an Android smartphone

Their are two ways to register your Android smartphone as a new device in your tenant:

• Option 1: Scan a QR code with encrypted registration credentials (only available for Android smartphones)
• Option 2: Use web-based registration

The QR code registration process (option 1) uses credentials derived from the username and password of the user who is currently logged into the IoT tenant while in the web-based registration process (option 2) unique device credentials are used.

Info: Just in case you want to re-register your smartphone, and you change from option 1 to option 2 (or vice versa), you first must delete the smartphone object in Device Management.

Registering using a QR code with credentials

Click Next in the Cockpit wizard to display the QR code with credentials to register your smartphone to your Cumulocity IoT tenant.

Your smartphone will be added to the devices list in the Device Management application, which can be accessed by navigating to All devices in the Devices menu in the navigator.

Moreover it will be added to the group “Phones” (which will be created if not available yet). You will find the group in the Group menu in the navigator. This feature is only available in case of QR code registration.

Info: Until you scan the registration credentials QR code, the button will remain in the pending state showing the message “Waiting…”. Scanning the QR code will complete the registration process.

Important: The registration credentials are encrypted. However, we highly recommend to use specific demo user accounts on your tenant for large public presentations. Do not use this method for production tenants or for tenants containing sensitive data.

Registering using web-based registration

To register your smartphone manually, follow these steps.

1. Press the Web-based Registration link on the Cloud Sensor App Welcome screen on your smartphone.
   
   
   
   
2. Select the instance on which your IoT Sensor Demo tenant is hosted, e.g. cumulocity.com.
   
   
   
   
3. Press Register device to start the registration. A device ID will be displayed which needs to be entered during device registration in the Cumulocity tenant.
   
   
   
   

Next, go to your Cumulocity tenant.

1. In the Device Management application, click Registration from the Devices menu, click Register device and in the upcoming window select General device registration.
   
   
   
   
2. Enter the devide ID provided by the app on your smartphone.
   
   
   
   
3. A message will show up that your device has been successfully registered. Click Complete to proceed.
   
   
   
   
4. Finally, click Accept to complete the registration process.
   
   
   
   

Your smartphone will be registered and added to the devices list in the Device Management application, which can be accessed by navigating to All devices in the Devices menu in the navigator.

For further information about registering a device on the platform manually, refer to Connecting devices in the Device Management section.

Next, you need to accept several permission requests allowing for accessing data (photos, media and files) on your device, make and manage phone calls and access the location (including network information and GPS data) to let the smartphone transfer network and GPS data to the cloud. This requests only show up once.

Once your smartphone is registered, the device name, which identifies your smartphone in the platform, is displayed on the screen of the Cloud Sensor App. You may edit this name here.

From an iOS smartphone

To register your iOS smartphone as a new device to the Cumulocity platform, process the following steps.

Info: In case of an iOS smartphone, no QR-code-based registration is provided.

1. On the start screen of the Cumulocity IoT Sensor App, press Connect to Cumulocity, to connect your device to Cumulocity.
   
   
   
   
2. If you connect to Cumulocity for the first time, you need to register your device next.
   In the Account details page of the Cumulocity IoT Sensor App, provide the relevant details for the Cumulocity account you want to register the device to, i.e. username and password, tenant and the instance on which your IoT Sensor Demo tenant is hosted, e.g. cumulocity.com. The instance can be selected from a drop-down list.
   
   
   
   
3. Press Connect to connect to the Cumulocity platform.
   

Next, go to your Cumulocity tenant.

1. In the Cumulocity platform, a message will show up that your device has been successfully registered. Click Complete to proceed.
   
   
   
   
2. Click Accept to complete the registration process.
   
   
   
   

Your smartphone will be registered and added to the devices list in the Device Management application, which can be accessed by navigating to All devices in the Devices menu in the navigator.

For further information about registering a device on the platform manually, refer to Connecting devices in the Device Management section.

Pressing the “i” symbol in the upper right corner of the start screen of the Cumulocity IoT Sensor App will open the “About” information of the application.

Viewing sensor data

On an Android smartphone

Press View sensors to view the data from sensors on your Android smartphone.

The sensor data (i.e. gyroscope, location, acceleration, magnetic field and barometer data), will be shown on the smartphone.

Example 1

Example 2

On an iOS smartphone

Press View sensors to view the data from sensors on your iOS smartphone.

The sensor data (i.e. gyroscope, location, acceleration, magnetic field and barometer data), will be shown on the smartphone.

Example 1

Example 2

Info: Note, that on on IoS smartphone you can view sensor data without being connected to Cumulocity. However, only on connecting your phone to Cumulocity the sensor data is being sent to the platform.

Sending sensor data to Cumulocity

The measurements from the sensors of your smartphone will automatically start being sent to your Cumulocity tenant when your smartphone is connected to the platform.

The data points will be displayed in the graphs on the Info tab of your smartphone device in the Device Management application.

A 3D rotation widget on this dashboard will depict the data from a gyroscope sensor on your smartphone if present.

To save battery power, the Cloud Sensor App sends measurements to Cumulocity only when the data change is significant, or every 20 minutes by default. This interval can be changed in the Device Management application.

Switch to the Configuration tab of your device and specify the interval in milliseconds.

Connecting TI Sensor Tag to the Cloud Sensor App

The Cloud Sensor App connects to both TI Sensor Tag version 1.20 and 1.30 via bluetooth.

On an Android smartphone

Use the Scan devices button in the Cloud Sensor App to connect a Sensor Tag.

On an iOS smartphone

Press the Add Tag button in the Cloud Sensor App to connect a Sensor Tag.

All Sensor Tags which are discoverable are displayed. To make a Sensor Tag discoverable, press the red button next to it. The Sensor Tag will start blinking to show that it is ready to connect. It should immediately appear in the list of visible bluetooth devices in the Cloud Sensor App.

Press Connect next to the Sensor Tag of your choice. The Bluetooth connection between the Sensor Tag and your smartphone will be established. Once the Sensor Tag is paired with your smartphone, you will see it as a record on the Cloud Sensor App’s screen:

Observing information and sensor data from the TI Sensor Tag is possible by pressing View sensors on its card.

In your Cumulocity tenant, the data points for the Sensor Tag will be displayed on the graphs in the dashboard of your smartphone and as measurements in the Device Management application.

To detach the Sensor Tag from your smartphone, press Remove on its card.

Device control

The Cloud Sensor App can receive real-time control commands from Cumulocity.

The Messaging widget, for example, can be used to send text notifications to the smartphone. The vibration relay control can be used to turn on/off the vibration motor.

Create a dashboard for your smartphone device as described in Creating a dashboard in the Cockpit section.

Add the Messaging widget to the dashboard, for details see Widgets collection.

To send a message from Cumulocity, enter a text into the Messaging widget and click Send.

The message will appear as a pop-up on the screen of your smartphone.

If the vibration switch is turned on, the smartphone will start vibrating until the switch is turned off again.

Info: The smartphone must remain connected to the platform to receive these commands.

Cloud Remote Access

The Cumulocity Cloud Remote Access microservice allows you to remotely access operating panels and other devices via a web browser.

When to use Cloud Remote Access

To provide the best level of control, remote devices should be represented as devices in the Device Management of Cumulocity, with the corresponding reporting, remote control and real-time functionality.

In some cases however, it is not possible or not economic to implement every aspect of a machine or remote device in a Cumulocity agent. For example, it might be a legacy device that does not have APIs for accessing certain parts of the functionality, or it may have many very low-level configuration parameters that would be very involved to map to Cumulocity.

In this case, you can use Cloud Remote Access to securely manage remote devices. The benefit is that you manage the device in the same way as if you had it physically close to you.

Important: Be aware that using Cloud Remote Access includes administrative intervention:

• Often, devices have no detailed permission management, so you give a user very fundamental access to the device.

• When using Cumulocity IoT to remotely operate machinery, make sure that all remote operations follow the safety standards.

Supported protocols and gateways

The following protocols are supported:

• Remote Desktop (VNC)
  • Shares the desktop of the remote device
  • Mouse and keyboard for interaction
• Secure Shell (SSH)
  • Console for command line access
  • Keyboard for interaction
• Terminal (Telnet)
  • Protocol used for old device types
  • Console for command line access
  • Keyboard for interaction

The following gateways are supported:

• Netcomm NTC 6200
  • Gateway router device
  • Latest Firmware (4.2.1)
  • VNCProxy plugin
• Linux agent
  • Can be used on any linux-based gateway device
  • Latest version required
• Third-party devices
  • Many third-party devices are supported, for details see Devices guide

How Cloud Remote Access works

Cloud Remote Access is a secure way to directly access remote devices through a web browser.

The following protocols are supported:

• Remote Desktop (VNC)
• Secure Shell (SSH)
• Terminal (Telnet)

Cloud Remote Access works as in the illustration below. The remotely controlled device runs a VNC, SSH or Telnet server and is connected to a gateway compatible with Cloud Remote Access. This gateway must be registered as a device within the Device Management application in Cumulocity. More information about registering devices and instructions can be found in Device Management > Device Registration in the User guide.

With Cloud Remote Access users can

• view status visualizations and track updates of remote devices directly in the same way as if you were at the device location,
• connect to remote devices easily as complex VPN setups are not required,
• establish connection via Telnet or SSH to the gateway itself or to any device in the local area network.

The connection to remote devices is securely encrypted through TLS technology. Additionally, passwords are encrypted in your Cumulocity account, so that you do not need to manage them elsewhere.

Using Cloud Remote Access

Cloud Remote Access is available in the Device Management application.

To use Cloud Remote Access, the following prerequisites have to be met:

• a Cloud Remote Access compatible gateway connected to your Cumulocity account;
• a remote device with a VNC, SSH or Telnet server that is connected to the gateway and reachable from the gateway;
• “Remote access” permission granted to the tenant user;
• Cloud Remote Access microservice included into your subscription plan.

Click All devices and select the desired gateway from the device list.

When you open the gateway you will find the Remote access tab in its tab list.

In the Remote Access tab, you can configure devices for remote control, so-called “endpoints”, and connect to remote devices.

Connections can be established to the gateway itself (localhost) or to any device in the local area network reachable by the device.

Info: If the prerequisites are met and you do not see the Remote access tab in the tab list of your gateway, please contact sales@cumulocity.com.
Info: If you are a gateway manufacturer and would like to support Cloud Remote Access on your gateway, please contact us via empower.softwareag.com.

Configuring endpoints

The “endpoint” is the IP address and port of the VNC, SSH or Telnet server running on the remote device. The IP address and port need to be reachable from the gateway.

To configure new remote devices, click Add endpoint. Follow the descriptions below for configuring the various types of endpoints.

Info: To be able to configure an endpoint, you need ADMIN permission for “Remote access” and “Device control”. To read data, a READ permission is sufficient. For more information on permissions, refer to Administration > Managing permissions in the User guide.

Adding remote access endpoints via VNC

To configure a remote access endpoint via VNC, enter a description for the remote access endpoint, the IP address and port, and the password of the VNC server. Click Save to add the endpoint to the list.

Once the connection is established, a new browser tab will open displaying the front screen or operating panel of the remote device you are connected to. The top bar of the screen will show “starting VNC handshake” when the process is starting.

Adding remote access endpoints via Telnet

Enter the name of the endpoint. Select the Telnet protocol from the dropdown menu. Enter the IP address and the port. When ready, click Save.

Important: Be aware, that Telnet is considered to be an insecure protocol lacking built-in security measures. For network communication in a production environment we highly recommend to use the SSH protocol instead.

Adding remote access endpoints via SSH

To configure a remote access endpoint via SSH, enter the name of the endpoint, select the “SSH” protocol from the dropdown list, and enter the IP address and the port. There are two Sign-in methods to be selected:

• Username and password: If this method is selected, it is mandatory to enter username and password.

  

• Public/private keys: Automatically generate public and private keys or simply paste pre-generated keys. The keys can also be uploaded from a file.

  

Info: The public key needs to be installed on the remote device as authorized_key.

Optionally, you can also add a host key to ensure connection to the correct device. This key can also be uploaded from a file.

Click Save to save your settings.

The following formats are supported when adding new keys:

• OpenSSHv1
• OpenSSHv2
• PEM
• SSH2

The following algorithms are supported when adding new keys:

• RSA
• DSA
• ECDSA
• ED25519

Editing or removing endpoints

To edit or remove an endpoint, click the menu icon at the right of a row and select Edit or Remove from the context menu.

Auto-saving host key

A host key is a public key of the server which is generated when an SSH server is installed. It is used to verify the identity of the server.

By enabling the auto-saving host key functionality you will no longer need to enter the host key after each connection. Instead, the host key can be automatically saved after the first successfully established connection to a remote access endpoint.

In order to enable the auto-save host key functionality, navigate to the Remote access page under the Settings menu in the Administration application. Activate the checkbox and then click Save.

Connecting to endpoints

To connect to configured endpoints, choose an endpoint in the Remote access tab and click Connect.

The connection to the configured remote device is established and the VNC, SSH or Telnet screen is shared in the client area.

To terminate the connection, click Disconnect.

Audit logs

Audit logs are available for each gateway device.

For each connection the Cloud Remote Access microservice creates an operation in scope of the current user. The operation then will be updated by the device to reflect the current status. Finally the operation will be in state SUCCESSFUL or FAILED.

The audit logs can be found in the Control tab of the gateway device.

Compatibility and limitations

VNC protocol

The following versions of the VNC protocol are currently supported:

• RFB 003.003
• RFB 003.007
• RFB 003.008

The functionality has been tested on the following VNC servers:

• Real VNC 5.3.2
• Tiger VNC 1.6.0/1.7.0
• TightVNC 1.3.9
• EfonVNC 4.2
• Vino

The following operating systems/browsers are currently supported:

Telnet protocol

The following limitations apply to Cloud Remote Access for Telnet:

SSH protocol

For Cloud Remote Access for SSH the same limitations as mentioned for Telnet apply (see above). Also the following additional limitations are known:

• International characters are not to be supported yet.
• Only limited number of control characters are working. For example interrupt (CTRL+c) is not working yet.
• Mouse movements are not supported.
• Only SSHv2 protocol is supported.

Troubleshooting

Endpoints cannot be set up

If you cannot set up new endpoints, check if you have sufficient permissions.

To set up new endpoints, you need ADMIN permission for “Device control” to be able to register a device and ADMIN permission for “Remote access” to be able to add an endpoint.

To establish a connection to a remote operating panel, a READ permission for “Remote access” is sufficient.

For more information on permissions, refer to Administration > Managing permissions in the User guide.

Connection fails

The connection via a gateway to a remote VNC, SSH or Telnet server can fail because of network problems. In this case you need to contact your network administrator.

Unsupported protocol version

In case of Real VNC, if you get an error message stating that you are using an unsupported protocol version (e.g. 005.00x), try the following workaround:

1. Open VNC.
2. Navigate to Options.
3. Select the Export tab.
4. Search for “ProtocolVersion”.
5. Enter “3.8” as protocol version.x

Connectivity

The Connectivity agent, which works from within the Cumulocity Device Management application, provides basic information on mobile devices and additional connectivity details.

Cumulocity integrates with the SIM connectivity management platform Jasper. For the SIM connectivity management platforms Comarch and Ericsson, Cumulocity provides an experimental implementation. For more details, please contact our support team.

The following features are supported by these providers:

As you can see, Jasper currently is the most feature-rich provider.

The following description is primarily based on Jasper, but the same configuration and usage also applies to the other providers. If there are any differences, they will be stated explicitly.

The following sections describe:

• How to set up your Jasper Control Center account (examplarily)
• How to configure the connectivity to the SIM provider in your Cumulocity tenant
• How to link SIMs and mobile devices
• Which information is shown in the Connectivity tab
• How to manage connectivity from Device Management

Setting up your Jasper Control Center account

The following steps describe how to create a dedicated user in the Jasper Control Center. This user is used for all access from Cumulocity to Jasper Control Center, so the permissions of the user have influence on functionalities available in Cumulocity.

Info: In a similar way, we recommend to set up a dedicated user for Ericsson or Comarch to get the credentials required to connect to Cumulocity. Ask your administrator or our support team for further information.

Besides the user, you also need a so-called API license key (only required for Jasper) and API server URL. To determine your API license key and API server URL, use a Control Center administrator user to log in to your Control Center account and click API integration on the Control Center home page. Your API license key and the API server URL are displayed on the top left.

To create a user in Jasper Control Center perform the following steps:

1. As an admin user, navigate to Admin and Users.
2. Click Create New.
3. Enter the user name and further details of the user.
4. If you want to be able to activate and deactivate SIM cards from Cumulocity, or to send SMS from Cumulocity, use the role ACCOUNTUSER. Otherwise, use the role ACCOUNTREADONLY.
5. Click OK to create the user, then enter your admin password and click OK again.

The user is now created but does not have a password yet. Follow the instructions emailed to you by Control Center to set a password.

Configuring the connectivity for the SIM provider in Cumulocity

Process the following step to configure the connectivity in Cumulocity:

1. Use a Cumulocity administrator user to log into the Cumulocity platform.
2. Switch to the Administration application.
3. Click Connectivity in the Settings menu of the navigator. If the menu item is not displayed, make sure that your user has ADMIN permission for Connectivity. If the menu item is still not available, contact support to make the Connectivity agent available in your tenant.
4. Switch to the SIM provider settings tab.
5. Select a provider from the drop-down list.
6. Enter the credentials (URL, key (in case of Jasper), username and password) for the respective SIM provider account. If you do not have any credentials, ask your administrator.
7. Click Save to save your settings.

The Connectivity agent is now set up.

Linking SIMs and mobile devices

Switch to the Device Management application and navigate to a device that is connected through a SIM card managed by the SIM provider of your choice. The device should have a Connectivity tab. If this tab is not shown,

• your user does not have permissions for Connectivity,
• the device is not linked to a SIM card,
• the device is linked to a SIM card, but the card is not managed by the respective SIM provider account.

To assign permissions, navigate to the Administration application and make sure that your user has a role assigned with READ or ADMIN permission for Connectivity.

Jasper and Comarch identify SIM cards through their ICCID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier). Ericsson is using MSISDN (Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number) instead. In most cases, devices will report the ICCID and MSISDN of their SIM card automatically to Cumulocity.

If the ICCID is not shown automatically check the following:

• Determine the ICCID of the SIM card. It is printed on the SIM card and is visible in Control Center.
• Enter the ICCID in the Info tab, then click Save.
• Click Reload in the tab menu bar to make the Connectivity tab appear.

Note that it may take a few seconds until the tab appears for the first time on a device, as Cumulocity checks if the particular SIM card is managed by the SIM provider.

Connectivity tab

In the Connectivity tab you will find the following sections:

• Status
• SMS
• Sessions
• Audit logs

Info: Some sections may not appear or may be empty. For example, if there have been no SMS sent and you do not have permission to send SMS, you will not see the SMS section.

The Status section lists summary information for the SIM card.

The first row shows if the device is currently running a data session. If it is, the start of the session and the current WAN IP address of the device is displayed.

The second row shows further status information: The ICCID of the SIM card, the activation state of the SIM card and, if set, the fixed IP address assigned to the SIM card. Provided you have ADMIN permission for Connectivity, you can change the activation state by using the drop-down menu.

At the bottom you will find usage information for the current month, i.e. from the first of the month till today. Hovering over the tooltip shows the covered time period, including the usage during the past month.

The SMS section shows the text messages sent to the device and received from the device, including information on

• when the message was sent or received
• where it was sent from and where it was sent to
• the delivery status of the message:
• For messages to the device: “Pending”, if it was not yet received by the device, or “Delivered”, if it was received by the device.
• For messages from the device: “Received”, if it was received by the SIM provider, or “Cancelled”, if it was not yet received by the SIM provider.
• What the direction of the message is: MT (“Mobile terminated”), if it went to the device, or MO (“Mobile originated”) if it came from the device.

Provided you have ADMIN permission for Connectivity, you can also send text messages to the device by entering the text and clicking Send SMS.

The Sessions section shows the log of data sessions carried out by the device. It lists when the session started, how long it took and how much data traffic was consumed.

The Audit logs section lists all changes to the SIM card and its tariff. It shows the type of change, old and new values when the change was carried out by whom, and if it was successful.

The Connectivity tab does not update in real-time. To show current data, click the Reload in the top menu bar.

Checking connectivity

If you suspect that a device is not correctly reporting to Cumulocity, or it is not receiving commands, you can verify the connectivity status of the device.

In the Connectivity tab, check if

• the SIM is activated. If the SIM card is not activated, you can activate it selecting “Activated” from the status drop-down menu.
  
  It may take a while until the SIM card is activated in the network. There may be a reset of the device needed to make it dial up to the network again.
• The device is connected to the network. If the device is not connected to the network, this may have several reasons:
• The device is in a location without mobile network coverage. If the device reports network quality parameters, you can navigate to the Measurements tab of the device and verify the last reported signal strength and error rate parameters.
• There is a network or hardware problem (antenna, modem). For the Jasper Control Center, for example, click the cogwheel icon on the top right and select SIM details, then open the Jasper Control Center diagnostics tool. If the device is not attempting to connect to the network, it may be broken.
• The device is in a data session. If the device is not in a data session, this may, again, have several reasons:
• The APN settings are incorrectly configured in the device.
• The SIM card is over traffic limit.
• Data roaming is disabled on the device and the device is not in the SIM card’s home network.
• Data roaming for the particular network is not included in the SIM card’s plan.
• The SIM configuration was changed.

Data connectivity can be analyzed in various places:

• If the device reports its network configuration, navigate to the Network tab and verify, potentially edit, APN settings.
• If the device supports shell, navigate to the Shell tab and verify, potentially edit, APN settings and roaming configuration.
• Check the Sessions section on the Connectivity tab to see if the device has been communicating earlier and how much traffic it used.
• Check the Audit logs section on the Connectivity tab to see if there were any recent changes to the SIM card.
• Finally, click the cogwheel on the top right and select SIM details to navigate to the SIM configuration in Jasper Control Center.

The SIM details menu item requires you to have a login for Jasper Control Center. This login is independently provided by your administrator.

If the device is still not reporting to Cumulocity, there may be a configuration or software problem on the device.

• The device may have lost its credentials, for example, due to a factory reset or full loss of power. In this case, you can re-register the device.
• There may be a configuration or software problem with the device, which has to be analyzed in a device-specific way.

IMPACT

This document describes

• in which way Nokia IMPACT integrates with the Cumulocity platform,
• how IMPACT devices are registered at Cumulocity through the IMPACT agent,
• how to work with IMPACT device protocols.

IMPACT Integration

Cumulocity offers an integration with the Nokia IMPACT Data Collector which is designed to collect data from heterogeneous devices. Integrating Cumulocity with IMPACT, enables you to make use of existing Cumulocity features like connectivity monitoring, data visualization or real-time analytics with IMPACT devices.

Info: Currently only the integration of LWM2M devices has been tested.

The IMPACT agent in Cumulocity registers itself at the Nokia IMPACT platform. Similarly, it subscribes to events such as devices coming online or reporting data at IMPACT.

The following illustration provides an overview on the Cumulocity IMPACT integration.

Info: Your subscription needs to include the IMPACT feature. If you do not see the functionality described in this document, please contact the Cumulocity support.

To be able to communicate with a device through IMPACT the device must be registered in IMPACT. How to register a device in IMPACT is not in the scope of this document.

Device lifecycle integration

IMPACT devices do not need to be registered again in Cumulocity. Cumulocity’s device lifecycle integration automatically handles the following events:

IMPACT device protocols

To process data from IMPACT devices, Cumulocity uses device protocols. Through device protocols you can observe your resources and perform other actions like creating alarms.

Device protocols are accessible through the Devices types menu in the Device Management application. For details on the general usage see Device protocols.

How to add an IMPACT device protocol

To add a new IMPACT device protocol follow these steps:

1. In the Device Management application, navigate to the Device protocol page, accessible from the Device types menu in the navigator.
2. Click Add device protocol in the top menu bar.
3. In the upcoming window select IMPACT as device protocol type.
   
   
4. In the next dialog, enter a unique ID, a name and an optional description for the device protocol.
   
   
5. Click Create to create the new device protocol.

The device protocol will open in a new page.

In the Device protocol page you will see the description at the top left and the ID, the creation date and date of the last update at the top right.

Below a list of resources configured for the device will be listed (which is empty when creating a new protocol), showing the ID, name and potentially configured functionalities for each resource.

Example: Resource list for the device protocol “Temperature Measurement”:

How to add a resource to a device

Click Add resource at the bottom of the resource list to add a new resource to your device.

For each resource you may specify the following parameters:

Optionally, you may turn on several functionalities for the resource:

Send measurements

Turn on Send measurements to specify a measurement.

• In the Type field, enter the type of the measurement, for example “c8y_AccelerationMeasurement”.
• Series are any fragments in measurements that contain a “value” property. In the Series field you can enter for example “c8y_AccelerationMeasurement.acceleration”.
• The Unit field specifies the unit of the given measurement, for example “m/s” for velocity.

Create alarm

Turn on Create alarm if you want to create an alarm out of the resource. Specify the following parameters (all mandatory):

• In the Severity field, select a severity for the alarm. May be one of CRITICAL, MAJOR, MINOR, WARNING.
• The Type field is a text field which is used for duplicating alarms and for configuring the priority of alarms in the Administration application.
• In the Status field, select an alarm status. may be one of ACTIVE, ACKNOWLEDGED, CLEARED.
• In the Text field, provide a textual description for the alarm.

Send event

Turn on Send event to send an event each time a certain condition has been triggered. Specify the following parameters:

• In the Type field, enter the type of the event, for example “com_cumulocity_model_DoorSensorEvent”.
• In the Text field, enter the text which will be sent, for example “Door sensor was triggered”.

Auto observe

Enabling Auto observe for a resource means, that each time the device with this particular resource appears, Cumulocity will automatically receive all values. It is not necessary, to subscribe to it manually.

Info: At least one functionality must be set to enable Auto observe.

Finally, click Save to create the resource. The resource will be added to the resource list.

In the resources list you can see if functionalities have been turned on for a resource. Active functionalities are indicated by the related icons. In the example below, Send measurements and Auto observe are turned on.

LoRa Actility

Cumulocity can interface with LoRa devices through Actility’s ThingPark Wireless. You can:

• Provision and deprovision LoRa devices easily using the Cumulocity Device Management. No interaction in the ThingPark user interface is required.
• Decode upstream payload packets using a web-based user interface.
• Debug and postprocess raw device data through Cumulocity events.
• Send downstream data to the device using Cumulocity operations.
• Make use of existing Cumulocity features with LoRa devices, for example: connectivity monitoring, device management, data visualization with dashboards, real-time analytics and more.

The following illustration gives an overview of the Cumulocity LoRa Actility integration.

The following sections describe how to:

• Configure your ThingPark account credentials in Cumulocity
• Create device protocols for all devices.
• Register devices and visualize Actility payload using Cumulocity
• Deprovision a device in ThingPark
• Send operations to a device
• ThingPark Api availability monitoring in Cumulocity
• Troubleshooting for warning messages

Note that your subscription needs to include this feature. If you do not see the functionality described in this document, please contact support.

Configuring ThingPark account credentials and application EUI

Before using LoRa devices with Cumulocity, you need to configure your ThingPark account details in the Administration application. In order to create new credentials or replace existing ones, go to the Administration application and select Connectivity in the Settings menu in the navigator.

Creating new account credentials

If you go to Connectivity for the first time, you will be asked to provide credentials and application EUI which is used for LoRa device provisioning.

Enter the following information:

• profile ID: This depends on your ThingPark account and environment. If you are using, for example, the Dev1 ThingPark environment your profile ID will be “dev1-api”. Multiple tenants can have the same profile ID.
• username: your ThingPark user name
• password: your ThingPark password
• application EUI: This is a global application ID in the IEEE EUI64 address space that uniquely identifies the application provider of the device. It is a 16 character (8 byte) long hexadecimal number. There can be only one application EUI for a tenant but multiple tenants can have the same application EUI.

Do not use the same ThingPark login (username and password) for other tenants. The profile ID, username and password are used to retrieve an access token to send further requests to the ThingPark platform. It is possible to renew the access token by replacing the account credentials.

Click Save. If everything is okay, there will be a message “Credentials successfully saved”.

Replacing account credentials

In order to replace your credentials, click Replace credentials.

Enter your profile ID, username, password and application EUI (for details on profile ID and application EUI see Creating new account credentials.

Click Save. Your old credentials will now be replaced with the new ones.

Creating device protocols

To process data from LoRa devices, Cumulocity needs to understand the payload format of the devices. Mapping a payload data to Cumulocity data can be done by creating a LoRa device protocol.

During the device registration, you can associate this device protocol. The received uplink callbacks for this device with a hexadecimal payload will then be mapped to the ones you have configured in your device protocol. If a device protocol has been changed after being associated to a device, the reflection of the change can take up to 10 minutes because of the refresh mechanism of the Actility Server Side Agent.

Info: Device protocol mapping only supports decoding for fixed byte positions based on the message type.

In order to create a device protocol, navigate to the Device Management application and select Device protocols in the Device types menu in the navigator. You can either import an existing device protocol or create a new one.

Importing a predefined device protocol

In the Device protocols page, click Import.

Select the predefined device type, for example “LoRaWAN Demonstrator” or upload from a file. Click Import.

Alternatively, you may also load the device protocol from a file and import it.

Creating a new device protocol

In the Device protocols page, click New device protocol in the top menu bar. The following window will open:

Select LoRa as the device protocol type, provide a name for it and click Create.

Under Message types, specify the message types. LoRa devices can send messages of different types with different encodings per type.

Select the way the message type is encoded in the Source dropdown box:

• FPort: if the message type can be determined by looking at the FPort parameter of a message
• Payload: if the message type can be determined by looking at the subset of the message payload itself

In the following example payload structure, the first byte indicates the message type source (as highlighted).

In the user interface you can enter this type of message type source information as follows: In the Start bit field, indicate where the message type information starts in the payload and in the Number of bits field, indicate how long this information is, for example start bit = “0” and number of bits = “8”.

Click Add value to create the value configuration.

In the upcoming window, configure the relevant values as shown in this example.

The value configuration maps the value in the payload of a message type to the Cumulocity data.

Under Message type, configure the Message ID according to your device message specification and map it to the Cumulocity data. The message ID is the numeric value identifying the message type. It will be matched with the message ID found in the source specified on the device protocol main page (i.e. Payload or FPort). The message ID needs to be entered in decimal numbers (not hex).

In this example payload structure the message ID is “1”.

Under General, specify a name for the value and the category under which it will be displayed in the values list. The associated name for this value will be displayed under the Display category given.

Under Value selection, define from where the value should be extracted. In order to do so, indicate where the value information starts in the Start bit field and how long this information is in the Number of bits field.

In this example the “Channel 1 Type” information starts in byte 2 (i.e. start bit = “16”) and is 1 byte long (i.e. number of bits = “8”).

The hexadecimal value is converted to a decimal number and afterwards a “value normalisation” is applied.

Under Value normalisation define how the raw value should be transformed before being stored in the platform and enter the appropriate values for:

• Multiplier: This value is multiplied with the value extracted from the Value selection. It can be decimal, negative and positive. By default it is set to 1.
• Offset: This value defines the offset that is added or subtracted. It can be decimal, negative and positive. By default it is set to 0.
• Unit (optional): A unit can be defined which is saved together with the value (e.g. temperature unit “C” for degree Celsius).

For detailed information on how to decode the payload, refer to the documentation of the device.

Info: “Little endian” support to decode the payload has been added.

Under Options, select on of the following options, if required:

• Signed - if the value is a signed number
• Packed decimal - if the value is BCD encoded

Under Functionalities, specify how this device protocol should behave:

• Send measurement: Creates a measurement with the decoded value
• Raise alarm: Creates an alarm if the value is not equal to zero
• Send event: Creates an event with the decoded value
• Update managed object: Updates a fragment in a managed object with the decoded value

You can also have a nested structure with several values within a measurement, event or managed object fragment. In case of a measurement all the properties of the same type will be merged to create a nested structure. In case of an event or a managed object all the properties with the same fragment are merged to create a nested structure. Also refer to the example of a nested structure for a “Position” device protocol below.

Click OK to add the values to your device protocol.

After clicking Save, your device protocol is created with the values you defined.

Example with single property

The following image shows an example for a message which sends a measurement when the battery level changes.

Example with nested structure

The following image shows an example of a nested structure for a device protocol reporting the current position of a GPS device. The display category is named “Position” and contains values for longitude and latitude.

The message ID should be the same for all the values. Enter the rest of the parameters according to the instructions above. Enter “c8y_Position” in the Managed object fragment field and create a new value for each: longitude and latitude.

This will be the result:

Registering LoRa devices

To register a LoRa device, navigate to the Device Management application and click Registration in the Devices menu in the navigator. Click Register device.

In the upcoming window, click Custom device registration and select LoRa:

Cumulocity fully supports the LoRa device provisioning with Over-the-Air Activation (OTAA) which is the preferred and most secure way to connect with the LoRa network. If Activation by Personalization (ABP) is required to be used, refer to the LoRa device registration with ABP section.

In the next window fill in the required information:

• Device profile: Select the appropriate device profile from the dropdown list.
• Device protocol: Select the appropriate device protocol from the dropdown list.
• Device EUI: This is the unique identifier for the device. It is a 16 character (8 byte) long hexadecimal number. You can find it on the device itself.
• Application key: This is an AES-128 application key specific for the device that is assigned to the device by the application owner and is responsible to encrypt. The application key is a 32 character (16 byte) long hexadecimal number. JOIN communication. You can find this key on the device itself.
• Connectivity plan: Select the appropriate connectivity plan from the dropdown list.

Click Next to submit the device registration request and create the device.

You can verify that the device is really connected by checking that events are actually coming in. You can do so by clicking on a device and opening the Events tab. All events related to this device are listed here.

The provision status is shown under Device data in the Info tab of the device.

For more information on viewing and managing your connected devices, also refer to Device Management.

LoRa device registration process

A device is created based on the above workflow.

First it is checked, if the device already exists. If no device exists with the same device EUI in the ThingPark account, the device is first provisioned on the ThingPark platform and then created on the Cumulocity platform with a link to the device in the ThingPark platform. If the device exists in the ThingPark account, a validation will be applied to compare these devices based on application EUI (for OTAA activation) and device profile. If the validation is successful, the device is created only in Cumulocity with a link to the device in the ThingPark platform. If the validation fails, a failure message will be shown (see troubleshooting section for device registration) and the device is not created in Cumulocity.

LoRa device registration with Activation by Personalization (ABP)

Activating the device by personalization is not recommended and not fully supported in Cumulocity LoRa device registration.

However, if you would like to create a device with this activation type in Cumulocity and use the LoRa features - such as sending operations to a device, deprovisioning a device and setting LoRa device protocol type with custom device protocol configuration - you must first provision the device in the ThingPark platform. Moreover you have to create “AS Routing Profile” for Cumulocity using destination http://actility-server.cumulocity.com as a “Third Party AS (HTTP)” and assign it to your devices manually. Afterwards, you can register this device using LoRa device registration. In this case, the Application key field in the LoRa device registration is invalid.

Limitations for LoRa devices created with general device registration

The general device registration for LoRa devices is no longer supported.

Existing LoRa devices that have been created in Cumulocity with the general device registration process have limitations. For those devices, it is not possible to send operations to the device, deprovision the device and set the LoRa device protocol type with custom device protocol configuration.

It is recommended to delete and re-register these devices using LoRa device registration to fully use the LoRa feature.

Deprovisioning LoRa devices

You can deprovision a LoRa device in the ThingPark platform. This means that the device will no longer be connected to the network. Its history data will still be available in Cumulocity, but the device will be deleted in ThingPark.

To deprovision a device, navigate to the respective device in the Device Management application under All devices. Click More in the top right and select Deprovision device.

After confirming the deprovisioning, the device will be deprovisioned in ThingPark.

To provision the device again, the device should be deleted and re-registered using LoRa device registration.

Sending operations

If a LoRa device supports receiving hexadecimal commands, you can send them using shell operations. Notice that these commands are not serial monitor commands. In order to send an operation, navigate to the device you want to send an operation to in the Device Management application under All devices. Switch to the Shell tab.

In the following screenshot you can find some examples of a device protocol’s predefined commands and their format.

Enter the shell command or view/edit the predefined command in the >_Command field.

If you enter the command without defining a port, it will be sent to the default target port (i.e. 1) of the device. If you enter the command and define a port (format “command:port”), it will be sent to the specified target port instead of the default port.

Click Execute. The operation will be sent to the device. The timing depends on Actility ThingPark.

The status of the operation is set to SUCCESSFUL when the operation has successfully been sent to the ThingPark platform. The status of the operation is set to FAILED when a problem occurred with the validation of the command or after the operation has been sent to the Thingpark platform.

ThingPark API availability monitoring

The ThingPark API is monitored and if it is not reachable, an alarm is created to notify all subscribed tenants using this feature. The alarm is cleared right after the ThingPark API is reachable again.

Troubleshooting

Connectivity

Authorization to the provider´s platform failed

This warning message shows up if a provided profile ID, username or password is invalid.

To resolve this, provide correct credentials and try again.

Device registration

Access to device denied

This warning message shows up when there already exists a provisioned device in ThingPark with the same device EUI used for device registration and the validation comparing those devices based on application EUI (for OTAA activation) and device profile has failed.

To resolve this, provide the correct application EUI from Connectivity application and device profile and try again.

No LoRa provider settings found

This warning message shows up when there are no credentials set up for the ThingPark account.

To resolve this, refer to Configure ThingPark credentials.

Getting device profiles from provider failed

This warning message shows up when the tenant’s access token to Thingpark becomes invalid. Invalidation of the token might happen when the same ThingPark credentials are used for another tenant.

This issue can be solved by reconfiguring the ThingPark credentials to renew the access token. Refer to configure ThingPark credentials for reconfiguration of the credentials.

No device protocols configured

This warning message shows up when no LoRa device protocol exists to be used for device registration.

To resolve this, configure at least one device protocol using Device database.

No connectivity plans with free slots available

This warning message shows up when the connectivity plan in ThingPark has reached the limit for the device count.

To resolve this, either contact ThingPark on the device quota limits for your connectivity plans or remove unused devices from ThingPark and retry registering the device in Cumulocity.

LightweightM2M

Lightweight M2M (LWM2M) is a traffic and resource-optimized protocol to remotely manage IoT devices. The protocol is standardized by the Open Mobile Alliance. For more information, see http://openmobilealliance.org/iot/lightweight-m2m-lwm2m.

You can connect any device supporting LWM2M to Cumulocity without programming. Instead, you configure how LWM2M devices are mapped to Cumulocity using device protocols.

Registering LWM2M devices

To connect LWM2M devices, you need to upload a CSV file with registration data. This data is required to enable LWM2M communication. The CSV holds all information for factory bootstrap and client-initiated bootstrap. In the factory bootstrap mode, the LWM2M client has been configured with the necessary bootstrap information prior to the deployment of the device. The client initiated bootstrap mode requires a LWM2M bootstrap-server account pre-loaded in the LWM2M client. Below, you can see two CSV examples:

In the first CSV example you can see the following fields:

The table below reflects the full set of possible fields that can be added:

In this CSV example, the security mode value is “PSK”. With “PSK” enabled, additional mandatory fields must be filled. All fields, available to “PSK”, can be observed in the table below:

Info: Firmware updates are also supported. For more information, see Device Management > Managing device data in the User guide.

After creation, the bootstrap parameters can be viewed and changed in the LWM2M bootstrap parameters tab in the Device details page, see LWM2M bootstrap parameters.

LWM2M device protocols

To process data from LWM2M devices, Cumulocity uses device protocols. Device protocols are accessible through the Devices Types menu in the Device Management application. For details on the general usage, see Device Management > Managing device types.

Creating LWM2M device protocols

Once you have registered a device with the proper CSV file, you can manage LWM2M device protocols. Each piece of information available by the LWM2M client is a resource. The resources are further logically organized into objects. The LWM2M client can have any number of resources, each of which belongs to an object. In the device protocols you can observe your resources. Furthermore, you can choose whether to create measurements, events or alarms out of those resources.

To add a new LWM2M device protocol follow these steps:

1. In the Device Management application, move to the Device protocol page.
2. Click Add device protocol in the top menu bar.
3. In the upcoming dialog select LWM2M as device protocol type.
   
   

4. Next, upload an appropriate DDF or XML file. DDF or XML files describe the data provided by your device. They are typically provided by the manufacturer or by standards bodies such as IPSO. There are also 3 “special” device protocols (DDF files) for standard OMA objects: 6 (location tracking), 5 (firmware update) and 3 (device information). If these files are not uploaded, then neither location tracking nor firmware updates will work. By default, the LWM2M agent adds mappings to these objects and knows how to “handle” their information without any additional configuration. The XML schema used by LWM2M can be found here.
   If the DDF files for the default mappings are uploaded in the management tenant, all subscribed user tenants will inherit this behavior.
   
   

5. In the next dialog, you can see the name and description of the protocol. Click Continue to create the new device protocol.
   
   

The device protocol will open in a new page.

In the device protocol page, you will see the description at the top left and the ID, the creation date and date of the last update at the top right.

Below, a list of resources configured for the device will be listed (which is empty when creating a new protocol), showing the ID, name and potentially configured functionalities for each resource.

Info: LWM2M protocol resources cannot be edited.

Example: In the following screenshot you can see an example device protocol. This object should be used with a temperature sensor to report a temperature measurement. It also provides resources for minimum/maximum measured values and the minimum/maximum range that can be measured by the temperature sensor. An example measurement unit is “degrees Celsius”.

Adding additional functionalities to a resource

The functionalities that you may enable are the following:

Send measurement

Turn on Send measurement to specify a measurement.

• Enter the type of the measurement. For example, “c8y_AccelerationMeasurement”.
• Series are any fragments in measurements that contain a “value” property. For example, in the series field you can enter: “c8y_AccelerationMeasurement.acceleration”
• The “Unit” field specifies the unit of the given measurement. For example, “m/s” for velocity.

Create alarm

Turn on Create alarm if you want to create an alarm out of the resource. Specify the following parameters (all mandatory):

• Severity - one of CRITICAL, MAJOR, MINOR, WARNING
• Type
• Status - one of ACTIVE, ACKNOWLEDGED, CLEARED
• Text

Send Event

Turn on Send event to send an event each time you receive a resource value. Specify the following parameters:

• Enter the type of the event. For example, “com_cumulocity_model_DoorSensorEvent”.
• Enter the text which will be sent. For example, “Door sensor was triggered”.

Custom Actions

Turn on Custom Actions to map LWM2M data into Cumulocity using custom data processing actions. For specialized integration use cases, it is required to perform customized data processing on LWM2M data. One example are LWM2M resources of the OPAQUE data type that contain proprietary, binary data, CBOR, XML or alike.

Cumulocity LWM2M allows the set of custom actions to be extended using decoder microservices. A decoder microservice is an ordinary Cumulocity microservice that implements a simple decoder interface. The LWM2M agent calls this microservice for decoding data in a customer-specific way. We are providing an according example how to write such a decoder microservice in our public Bitbucket repository.

Auto observe

If Auto-Observe is turned on for a resource, the LWM2M server observes a specific resource for changes.

Info: At least one functionality must be set to enable “Auto observe”.

LWM2M device details

Info: In the Device management application, you can view all details of a device. The following details are specific to LWM2M devices. For information on general details refer to Device details in the Device management section.

Objects

In the Objects tab of a LWM2M device, you can view all objects, resources and instances of the device. Additionally, you can create new operations, see all currently pending operations and view the history of all previous operations.

Info: In order to see resources in the Objects tab, the resources first have to be added in the Device Protocols page.

The following operations may be available in each instance:

• Read Object: Reads all instances for the selected object and lists all available resources for each instance.
  
  
  
  
• Read Instance: Reads the current instance of the given object and lists all available resources.
  
  
  
  
• Create Instance: Creates a new instance for the selected object.
• Delete Instance: Deletes the selected instance.

Info: Some instances do not have all of the listed operations.

Some object cards show additional operations which can be performed. These operations become available after reading the object/instance, for example, device Update. In order to perform the operation, click Execute.

More information can be acquired for each resource by hovering over the tooltip icon.

Additional information on recent operations can be viewed by clicking the operations button located on the right side of an instance card. The button is only visible if any operation has been performed. The number of unread operations can be seen on the top right of the button. In the example below there is only one.

To view the history of all operations, simply click View history. Note, that you will be redirected to the Control tab.

Audit Configuration

In the Audit configuration page you can audit the current device by comparing it to a selected reference device. It is also possible to sync properties to the values of the referenced device.

Click Audit configuration in the right of the top menu bar to navigate to the Audit configuration page.

To sync properties, select the desired reference device from the dropdown list. Check the properties that you wish to sync and click Sync selected properties.

Info: The numbers in the green circles represent the number of properties in the instance which have the same value in both devices. Respectively, the numbers in the red circles represent the number of properties which have different values compared to the values of the referenced device. If an instance is expanded, you can select only specific properties which can be synced.

LWM2M bootstrap parameters

In the LWM2M bootstrap parameters tab, bootstrap parameters of the current device can be viewed and changed. To modify a parameter, enter the desired value in a field of your choice and click Save.

Important: Currently only the “NO_SEC” and “PSK” security modes are supported.

For further information on the fields in the LWM2M bootstrap parameters tab, see Registering LWM2M devices.

Handling LWM2M shell commands

In the Shell tab of a device, LWM2M shell commands can be performed. Each command has a different functionality. Find all available placeholders (e.g. “objectID”, “instanceID”) and commands with their respective descriptions below:

In the next table you will see all available commands and a brief description of their functionality.

Adding validation rules to resources

Validation rules are used to verify that the data a user enters in a resource meets the constraints you specify before the user can save the resource.

Validation rules can only be added to resources which have “write” permissions. Resources which can have validation rules are marked by the following icon:

When hovering over the icon, you can see whether there are defined validation rules.

Add a new validation rule by clicking on the desired resource and then click Add validation rule.

Validation rules can have the following types:

• Date: Simply enter a date and choose your desired rule.
• Number: Only values of “Integer” or “Float” type are allowed depending on the resource.
• ObjectLink: Reference to another object using the format “/Object/Instance/Resource”.
• Regex: Add a string which describes the validation pattern. For example, “.*dd” means that the string must end with “dd”.
• String: Enter a string value which can be either “True” or “False".

After selecting a type, the following rules can be chosen:

• Greater than
• Lower than
• Equals
• Equals not
• Greater or equals than
• Lower or equals than

Info: Not all rules are available to each type.

To delete a rule, simply click on the delete icon:

Click Save to save your settings.

Complex rulesets

In order to enable more complex conditions, multiple validation rules can be defined for a resource:

• Multiple rules can be defined in a validation rule group. A user input is only valid if each of the rules in the validation rule group is satisfied (logical AND).
• It is possible to declare multiple validation rule groups. If multiple validation rule groups are declared, user input is valid if any of the validation rule groups is satisfied (logical OR).

The screenshot above provides an example for the use of validation rule groups: User input is valid if the given string does not match “test” (equals not). It is also valid if it ends with “asd” and it matches the contents of the LWM2M resource /3/0/15.

Complex rulesets are based on Boolean Disjunctive Normal Form, which allows arbitrary complex rules to be defined.

Sigfox

Cumulocity can interface with Sigfox devices through the Sigfox Cloud. You can:

• Provision Sigfox devices easily using Cumulocity Device Management.
• Decode upstream payload packets using a web-based user interface.
• Debug and post-process raw device data through Cumulocity events.
• Send downstream data to the device using Cumulocity operations.
• Make use of existing Cumulocity features with Sigfox devices, for example: connectivity monitoring, device management, data visualization with dashboards, real-time analytics and more.

The following illustration grants you a quick overview of the Cumulocity Sigfox integration:

The following sections describe how to:

• Manage the connectivity settings in Cumulocity.
• Create device protocols with Cumulocity’s device database.
• Register devices and visualize the Sigfox payload using Cumulocity.
• Update devices registered with the general device registration.
• Send operations to devices.

Moreover, check out the Troubleshooting section in case of any issues.

Info: To be able to use the Sigfox agent, your tenant needs to be subscribed to the following applications: sigfox-agent, feature-fieldbus4. In case of any issues, please contact support.

Managing the connectivity settings

Before you register a device, you need to configure Sigfox Cloud credentials in the Connectivity page in the Administration application. You have to set up these Sigfox Cloud credentials in Sigfox.

Before you create API access to Cumulocity, you need to have an “Associated user” which is added to the Cumulocity group in Sigfox Cloud and has the following profiles:

• Customer [R]
• Device Manager [W]

Important: Without the profiles described below, the required Sigfox API access can not be set up.

Step 1

If you already have an associated user make sure it has the profiles mentioned below and proceed to step 2.

The group name is not constrained. “Cumulocity” is used as a sample group name throughout the remaining steps.

First, enter into your Sigfox Cloud account and create a new user. Add the user to the group and select the “Customer [R]” and “Device Manager [W]” profiles.

Step 2

After creating an “Associated user” with the proper group and profiles navigate to the Groups page. In the API access tab, create a new entry and add the following profiles:

• Customer [R]
• Device Manager [W]

Step 3

After the API access entry has been created, you can connect your Sigfox Cloud account to Cumulocity via the Connectivity page in the Administration application. Navigate to the Connectivity page and switch to the Sigfox provider settings tab.

The following information has to be provided:

• Login: The login token is located in the API access entry in the Sigfox Cloud.
• Password: The password token is located in the API access entry in the Sigfox Cloud next to Password.
• Parent Group ID: This ID is written in your URL when you are logged into your Sigfox account and you have selected the “Cumulocity” group. For example, “https://backend.sigfox.com/group/9823ruj29j9d2j9828hd8/info”.

**Info:**The group name in the screenshot below is only an example. It does not necessarily have to be “Cumulocity”.

Click Save credentials to save your settings. If everything is correct, a message “Credentials successfully saved” will be displayed.

If you wish to overwrite your previous credentials, click Replace credentials and add your new credentials.

Creating device protocols

To process data from Sigfox devices, Cumulocity needs to understand the payload format of the devices. Mapping payload data to Cumulocity data can be done by creating a Sigfox device protocol.

During the device registration, you can associate this device protocol. The received uplink callbacks for this device with a hexadecimal payload will then be mapped to the ones you have configured in your device protocol.

If a device protocol has been changed after being associated to a device, the reflection of the change can take up to 10 minutes because of the refresh mechanism of the Sigfox microservice.

Info: Device protocol mapping only supports decoding for fixed byte positions based on the message type.

To create device protocols, select Device protocols in the Device types menu in the navigator of the Device Management application. You can either import an existing device protocol or create a new one.

Importing a device protocol

In the Device protocols page, click Import.

Select the desired predefined device type or upload it from a file. When ready, click Import again.

Creating a new device protocol

In the Device protocols page, click New device protocol and select Sigfox from the options list.

Provide a name for the device protocol an and optional description, and click Create.

Under Message types, specify the message types. Sigfox devices can send messages of different types with different encodings per type. Depending on the device, the type can be determined by looking either at the FPort parameter of a message (Source: FPort) or at the subset of the message payload itself (Source: Payload).

In the Source field, select the way the message type is encoded:

• Payload: if the message type can be determined by looking at the subset of the message payload itself

In the following sample payload structure, the first byte indicates the message type source (as highlighted).

In the user interface, you can enter this type of message type source information as follows: In the Start bit field, indicate where the message type information starts in the payload. In the Number of bits field, indicate how long this information is. For example, start bit = “0” and number of bits = “8”.

Configuring values

Click Add value to create the value configuration.

In the following window, configure the relevant values as shown in this example.

The value configuration maps the value in the payload of a message type to the Cumulocity data.

Under Message type, configure the Message ID according to your device message specification. The message ID is the numeric value identifying the message type. It will be matched with the message ID found in the source specified on the device protocol main page (i.e. Payload or FPort). The message ID needs to be entered in decimal numbers (not hex).

In this sample payload structure the message ID is “1”.

Under General, specify a name for the value and the category under which it will be displayed in the values list.

Under Value selection, specify from where the value should be extracted. In the Start bit field, indicate where the value information starts and in the Number of bits field, indicate the length of the information.

In this example, the “Channel 1 Type” information starts in byte 2 (i.e. start bit = “16”) and is 1 byte long (i.e. number of bits = “8”).

The hexadecimal value is converted to a decimal number and afterwards a “value normalization” is applied.

Under Value normalization, specify how the raw value should be transformed before being stored in the platform and enter the appropriate values for:

• Multiplier: This value is multiplied with the value extracted from the Value selection. It can be decimal, negative or positive. By default it is set to 1.
• Offset: This value defines the offset that is added or subtracted. It can be decimal, negative or positive. By default it is set to 0.
• Unit (optional): A unit can be defined which is saved together with the value (e.g. temperature unit “C” for degree Celsius).

For detailed information on how to decode the payload, refer to the documentation of the device.

Under Options, select on of the following options, if required:

• Signed - if the value is a signed number
• Packed decimal - if the value is BCD encoded

Under Functionalities, specify how this device protocol should behave:

• Send measurement: creates a measurement with the decoded value
• Raise alarm: creates an alarm if the value is not equal to zero
• Send event: creates an event with the decoded value
• Update managed object: updates a fragment in a managed object with the decoded value

You can also have a nested structure with several values within a measurement, event or managed object fragment. In case of a measurement, all the properties of the same type will be merged to create a nested structure. In case of an event or a managed object all the properties with the same fragment are merged to create a nested structure. (Also refer to the example of a nested structure for a “Position” device protocol below.)

Click OK to add the values to your device protocol.

Click Save to create the device protocol.

Example with single property

The following images show an example for a message which sends a measurement when the battery level value changes.

Example with nested structure

The following images show an example of a nested structure for a device protocol, reporting the current position of a GPS device. The device protocol is named “Position” and contains values for longitude and latitude.

The message ID should be the same for all the values. Enter the rest of the parameters according to the instructions above. Enter “c8y_Position” in the Managed object fragment field and create a new value for each: longitude and latitude.

This will be the result:

Registering Sigfox devices

To register a Sigfox device, navigate to the Registration page in the Devices menu in the Device Management application and click Register devices. In the upcoming window, select Custom device registration and then Sigfox.

Info: If Sigfox is not one of the available options, your tenant is not subscribed to the relevant applications, see information at the top.

In the next window, fill in the required information:

• ID: Unique device ID. The value must be a hexadecimal number.
• PAC: Porting authorization code for your device. The value must be a hexadecimal number.
• Contract: Choose your desired contract.
• Device protocol: Select your desired device protocol from the drop-down list.
• Product certificate key: This key can be located in https://partners.sigfox.com/. Navigate to your device and copy the certificate key. If the checkbox is not selected and no product certificate key is specified, the device will be considered a prototype.

Info: The term “Device type” is used both by Sigfox and Cumulocity, but with different meaning. In Sigfox, a device type specifies how to route data from devices. In Cumulocity, a device type describes the data that is sent by devices of a particular type.

After clicking Next the device registration request will be submitted and the device will be created.

You can verify that the device is really connected by checking that events are actually coming in. You can do so by clicking on a device and opening its Events tab. All events related to this device are listed here.

For more information on viewing and managing your connected devices, also refer to Device Management.

Updating devices registered with the general device registration

If devices have previously been registered via the general device registration the following URLs have to be manually changed in the Sigfox Cloud:

• https://sigfox-agent.cumulocity.com/sigfoxDataCallback to https://<tenantId>.cumulocity.com/service/sigfox-agent/sigfoxDataCallback
• https://sigfox-agent.cumulocity.com/sigfoxServiceAcknowledgeCallback to https://<tenantId>.cumulocity.com/service/sigfox-agent/sigfoxServiceAcknowledgeCallback
• https://sigfox-agent.cumulocity.com/sigfoxServiceStatusCallback to https://<tenantId>.cumulocity.com/service/sigfox-agent/sigfoxServiceStatusCallback
• https://sigfox-agent.cumulocity.com/sigfoxErrorCallback to https://<tenantId>.cumulocity.com/service/sigfox-agent/sigfoxErrorCallback

Info: General device registration for Sigfox devices is no longer supported.

Sending operations

If the device supports sending hexadecimal commands, you can send commands from the “Shell”. In the Device Management application, navigate to the device you want to send an operation to in the All devices page. Switch to the Shell tab.

Info: Operations do not go to executing state immediately. They go to executing state when the device is expecting the downlink message. Afterwards, the pending operation which is created first goes to executing state.

Troubleshooting

No contracts available

In order to resolve this error, please contact support.sigfox.com to create a contract for your Sigfox account.

Sigfox callbacks in backend.sigfox.com are not created correctly

The information for the callback setup is retrieved by a microservice.

To verify whether your setup is correct, execute the following REST API request:

```http
GET {{url}}/tenant/currentTenant
```

Info: The request above is simply an example API request that could be used. For more info on REST API requests, refer to the Tenants in the Reference guide.

Issues with alarm provisioning

If the “transfer operation failed” alarm is triggered, the device is already provisioned in the Sigfox platform and changing the device type in the Sigfox platform failed. In order to fix this issue, you have to manually change the device type in the Sigfox platform to the intended one.

Provisioned status is set to false

In case of this alarm, you can see that the Provisioned status is set to “false” which means that no data is coming from the Sigfox platform. In the alarm message there is more information regarding the error. In this case the PAC code given during registration was invalid.

Info: If the provisioning process has been completed, but has failed, information is returned as an alarm with the reason of the failure provided.

The Provisioned status is set to true when the device provisioning process is completed and success information is received from the Sigfox platform. Additionally, it is set to true when uplink messages are retrieved from the device.

Info: The status is updated asynchronously which means that sometimes you might have to wait a bit until it is set to true.

Callback creation failed

This alarm is created when one or more callback creation requests have failed in the Sigfox platform. You can view the alarm either in the Alarms page or in the Home page.

In order to fix this issue, navigate to the Sigfox platform web interface and check the device type with the id mentioned in the alarm.

In this case navigate to the following address: https://backend.sigfox.com/devicetype/5cd3d97ee833d9746698b27d/callbacks

If the mentioned callbacks cannot be located in the Sigfox platform, you must create them manually. All of the required information needed for the creation of the callbacks is already given in the alarm description. In the case of the above alarm, the following callback is listed first:

• [[callback=[type=DATA_BIDIR, url=«tenant_url»/service/sigfox-agent/sigfoxDataCallback, httpMethod=POST, bodyTemplate={“device”:"{device}",“time”:"{time}",“snr”:"{snr}",“station”:"{station}",“data”:"{data}",“rssi”:"{rssi}",“seqNumber”:"{seqNumber}",“ack”:"{ack}"}, contentType=application/json, headers={Authorization=Basic …}]]

In order to manually create the callback, the following properties must be filled:

• type
• url
• httpMethod
• bodyTemplate
• contentType
• headers

Info: The Authorization header displayed in the alarm does not show the user credentials.

Non-mentioned properties from the alarm are:

• sendSni
• sendDuplicate

These properties will be set to false.

Tenant SLA Monitoring

Overview

The Tenant SLA Monitoring service lets service providers monitor the availability and response time of tenants and sub-tenants.

Info: The Tenant SLA Monitoring service is only available to the main Management Tenant.

In detail, it offers the following features:

• monitoring of the availability for each tenant
• information on the current availability status of tenants (yes/no)
• information on the tenants availability in percentage
  • during the last day
  • during the last week
  • during the last month

By using Tenant SLA Monitoring, service providers can instantly check

• if any tenant is currently down,
• if all tenants are fully functional,
• the current response time for each tenant,
• the current status of a specific tenant,
• the availability KPIs (key performance indicators) of all tenants in the last day/week/month.

Use the the Device Management application to visualize Tenant SLA Monitoring data.

Using Tenant SLA Monitoring

Prerequisites

The management tenant needs to be subscribed to the application “Tenant-sla-monitoring” to see any monitoring results.

For details on application subscription, refer to Enterprise Tenant > Managing Tenants > Application in the User guide.

How the service works

Every 5 minutes, the Tenant SLA Monitoring service probes for the response time of each tenant, and all its sub-tenants (if not disabled), and stores the results.

To be able to do so, the service automatically subscribes to all sub-tenants of a subscribed tenant, to get its credentials and gain access to its API.

Moreover, for each subscribed tenant (i.e. management tenant), a source in the Device Management application is created in which the monitoring results, including those of the sub-tenants, are stored as measurements.

Viewing measurements

To view the measurements showing the monitoring results, open the management tenant´s source (device) in All devices in the Device Management application and switch to the Measurements tab.

In the API Response Time diagram, you see the response time of the tenants in milliseconds.

Additionally, you will find diagrams showing the average availability values for the tenants for the following periods:

• Api Availability Day Average - 24 hours
• Api Availability Week Average - 7 days
• Api Availability Month Average - 30 days

These average values are calculated by summing up the timespan of all timeout and response time alarms (e.g. created if data is missing, see below) for the specific time period and divide it by the total timespan.

For further details on measurements refer to Device Management > Device details > Measurements in the User guide.

Creating alarms

The Tenant SLA Monitoring service will create alarms in case of the following scenarios:

• Unavailability of a tenant - Whenever a tenant is not reachable, the service will not store any measurement but will leave gaps in the measurement series. When the tenant becomes available again, the service will search for the last measurement stored for the tenant and create an alarm for the calculated time of unavailability.
• High response times - If the required response time is not met (defaults to 300ms). This alarm will be active until the response time drops below the defined limit again.
• Time spans which have not been monitored

These alarms are used to calculate the availability of the system in percentage, shown as measurements (see above).

To view recent alarms, switch to the “Alarms” tabs of the management tenant´s source.

webMethods Integration Cloud

Since 2018, webMethods Integration Cloud can be used to integrate with Cumulocity IoT. With the launch of a common Software AG Cloud platform, the integration has been further enhanced by providing single sign-on access between webMethods Integration Cloud and Cumulocity IoT for a seamless experience.

More information on the webMethods Integration Cloud is available at https://www.softwareag.cloud/site/product/webmethods-integration.html.

Info: Related to this, support for the Cumulocity Zapier integration will be discontinued. No new subscriptions are possible with immediate effect. Functionality for existing customers is not affected.