Interest in open source IoT platforms continues to grow. The flexibility, security and support ecosystem of open source solutions provides a viable alternative to more traditional IoT platforms. This short article describes a smart cities’ use case based on an open source IoT platform from SiteWhere.
With headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, SiteWhere is an open-source IoT application enablement platform (AEP) offering two solutions. First, SiteWhere’s Community Edition (CE) is offered under CPAL license. For this solution SiteWhere’s strategy is to become the prevalent open source IoT platform. SiteWhere supports both on-premise and cloud deployment models and a modern architecture that uses a pluggable and extensible framework approach. Second, SiteWhere’s Enterprise Edition (EE) is available under a commercial license with a subscription revenue model. For this solution, SiteWhere uses a direct sales model and works with systems integrators to create point solutions in the healthcare, smart cities, energy, asset tracking and agriculture industry sectors.
The SiteWhere IoT platform was used by developers in the creation of FLEXMETER, a flexible smart metering architecture for smart cities. FLEXMETER is an IoT solution that, according to its developers, “…collects and integrates heterogeneous information from multiple energy vectors (e.g. electricity, water, gas and heating) to foster innovative services to end-users.” The IoT solution allows data from heterogeneous devices to be collected, correlated and analyzed. The solution allows cities and utilities to better manage energy consumption, control accounting activities, deliver usage information to energy consumers, thwart energy theft, enhance energy grid quality and improve demand response systems.
According to MachNation’s 2016 IoT Application Enablement ScoreCard, SiteWhere excels in three primary areas. First, SIteWhere is one of only a few open-source IoT AEPs. This brings SiteWhere numerous benefits of open-source software in areas such as security and extensibility. Second, SiteWhere comes with support for multitenancy and a variety of deployment options. SiteWhere supports a variety of deployment options including a multi-tenant instance that can be deployed in the cloud or on-premises. Multitenancy is an important consideration for enterprises or service providers looking to deploy multiple apps across several tenants. Third, SiteWhere’s Enterprise Edition (EE) offers carrier-grade features like cluster management and high-availability as well as enterprise-grade features such as cluster management, platform monitoring and high-availability.
Determining the unique features and usability of IoT platforms is very challenging. To better compare IoT platforms, MachNation has created its MachNation IoT Test Environment (MIT-E). The hands-on tests we perform in MIT-E provide enterprises and municipalities with comparative data on actual platform usage.