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The system architecture is shown above. The scope of the OpenlinkIQ® protocol specification covers the highlighted parts.
During the publication process it will be shown how easy any manufacturer can build their own end devices and how sensor data efficiently, and over long distance, will flow into an IoT platform.
The application protocol is the protocol layer where sensor data or meter data is formatted into digital values, and encrypted to ensure security and privacy of these data, before they are transmitted over a radio communication link.
The application protocol used for transport is M-Bus, a widely used communication protocol for meters. It is a standardized protocol developed under CEN, and is specified in the EN 13757 standard series.
Recent standardization initiatives have shown that the M-Bus application layer is capable of being transported over a variety of LPWAN technologies. It will be shown that OpenlinkIQ® is no exception and will support this concept as well.
The protocol specification is the full specification of the wireless communication interface. It describes how a physical data frame is structured, how the application protocol is embedded in the physical data frame and how an intelligent coding scheme is used to provide robust long range communication even when interference from other radio transmitters is present in the same frequency band.
A number of radio communication frequencies assigned for OpenlinkIQ® will be defined in the specification.
Finally, some essential requirements for the transmitter are specified. These ensure that the end device will conform to European regulations and, when deployed in a large scale system, the best performance is still maintained, with a high probability of coexistence with other systems in the same frequency band.
When considering the connectivity from the data collector towards an IoT data server this is not part of the OpenlinkIQ® scope.
While the purpose of the OpenlinkIQ® protocol is to deliver data securely from thousands of end devices to a few data collectors (star topology), the data collectors will use other protocols to forward the data frames securely into IoT Data servers.
End device data are typically encrypted and authenticated. Data shall not be decoded in the data collectors, but shall be forwarded unaltered to be decoded and authenticated in the head-end system.
The IoT Connectivity guide proposes a protocol for how data can be formatted and embedded in a data container and forwarded using a standard IoT connectivity protocol implemented in a Kamstrup research data collector.