Introduction

An Industrial Gateway is specifically tuned and designed for industrial environments and IoT applications. Like any other IoT Gateway Design that operate at the edge of the network, an industrial gateway connects devices and resources in the local network environment with remote assets for information/data collection and aggregation. The modular industrial gateway can link systems employing diverse network protocols, while often providing on-board processing to secure, filter and manage complex data flows. These edge devices can receive data flows from hundreds of individual sensors, and other devices–over network schemes like Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and funnel them to the network edge where the data can be processed or transmitted.

This case study showcases Mistral’s expertise in providing end-to-end product design and development of Industrial Automation solutions, in this case a modular industrial gateway.

The Customer

The customer is one of the leading companies of the industrial sector that manufactures devices and software with next generation production systems. The company provides turnkey solutions for monitoring the productivity potential of industrial sites and commercial buildings.

The Requirement

The customer approached Mistral to design and develop a Linux based Modular Industrial Gateway. They were looking to build Industrial Gateway / RTU devices which would capture industrial parameters like temperature and pressure while generating notifications if the parameters cross a defined upper or lower limit. The main features of the Modular Industrial Gateway are:

• The Industrial Gateway or the IoT Gateway Design had to gather or deliver data over MODBUS protocol and IEC62056-2 with a Web based GUI for Configuration and Monitoring
• Modular Industrial Gateway had to be compliant to multiple safety and security certifications and regulations (EN 55022, EN 55024, IEC 61000)
• Event-based logging functionality
• Automatic SMS and e-mail notification triggered by defined alarms
• Configuration and Monitoring support through Modbus TCP
• Automatic Meter Reading Web-service Client
• Support for both 2G and 3G GSM, GPRS Interface
• Connection to Open VPN servers
• Connect to VPN servers supporting PPTP and IPSec
• SNMP support, trap broadcast
• Multiple digital / analog input and output interface support
• Support for multiple types of RTDs
• DIN2 enclosure
• Supports Modbus Slave RTU devices
• Multi Language support
• Supporting role based multi-user and multi session.

Solution Provided

Mistral developed the complete Modular Industrial Gateway, managing the entire product development cycle from concept to production.The IoT Gateway Devices design and development included, hardware design, porting of Linux, web-based UI development, middleware development and product qualification.

The Industrial Gateway is built around Texas Instruments Sitara processor with following features:

• Eight Analog inputs and Two Analog outputs
• Two RTD inputs
• Eight Digital IOs
• Four Relay controls
• Quad Band and 3G Data connectivity
• Operating supply range: 9-36V
• Operating temperature range of -20 C to 70 C

The initial Industrial IoT Gateway Design was done on a reference platform, for early software development. Mistral used this development platform as a reference design, customized it to meet the form factor requirements of the prototype and developed the solution. The Web based/GUI was developed for configuration and monitoring the Industrial Gateway. Based on the parameters defined, the Industrial Gateway provides alarms and notifications to the user.

Mistral designed the Industrial Gateway in two stages – Functional completion that includes design, development and second the Certifications and production worthiness activities

Read the full case study about the Modular industrial Gateway to know more about Industrial certifications, Web and I/O Drivers implemented, Embedded Database and more.