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Zigbee Dongle vs. Dedicated Gateway for Azure IoT: An Architecture Choice
Hello Azure IoT Community, I'm deep into the architecture phase of a large-scale smart building project, using Azure IoT Hub as our central command. We're incorporating numerous Zigbee-based sensors and actuators for energy and environment monitoring. A critical debate has emerged: should we rely on a centralized Zigbee USB dongle, or deploy distributed, dedicated Zigbee gateways like the OWON SEG-X5? This decision impacts system resilience, cloud integration efficiency, and long-term operational stability. The Core Trade-off: Simplicity vs. Resilience Option A: The Centralized Dongle Approach This model uses a USB dongle connected to a gateway server, which becomes the sole coordinator for the Zigbee network before relaying data to IoT Hub. The Appeal: Low initial cost and simplicity for prototyping. The Scalability Risk: This creates a Single Point of Failure (SPOF). If the host server needs maintenance or encounters an issue, the entire Zigbee network—and all dependent automations—go offline. For a commercial building, this is a critical operational risk. Option B: The Distributed Gateway Architecture This model employs dedicated, standalone Zigbee gateways (e.g., https://www.owon-smart.com/zigbee-gateway-zigbeeethernetble-seg-x5-product/) deployed across different zones or floors. Each forms its own robust mesh and connects directly to Azure IoT Hub. The Resilience Gain: Faults are isolated. One gateway’s maintenance affects only its zone. The Edge Intelligence Advantage: Modern gateways can process data and execute rules locally. For instance, a gateway can directly process inputs from a Zigbee Door/Window Sensor (DWS 312) and a Multi-Sensor (PIR 323) to trigger a local light switch, all without a round-trip to the cloud. This aligns perfectly with the Azure IoT Edge paradigm, ensuring responsiveness and offline operation. Streamlined Cloud Integration: Gateways like the SEG-X5 come with integrated MQTT API support, allowing them to send structured data directly to IoT Hub, simplifying device management and message routing in the cloud. A Practical Insight from an ODM Case Study Our experience as an IoT ODM manufacturer has shown this shift in practice. In a project akin to the Hotel Room Management case in our portfolio, the initial design using a central server with dongles presented reliability concerns. The final solution utilized distributed OWON SEG-X5 Zigbee Gateways in each hotel wing. These gateways managed all in-room devices—from Smart Sockets (WSP 406 series) and Light Switches (SLC series) to Thermostats (PCT 504)—locally. They used their MQTT API to send consolidated occupancy and energy data to the building's cloud platform (integrated with IoT Hub). The result was a system where guest room automation remained functional despite network fluctuations, and maintenance could be performed per wing without building-wide impact. Conclusion and Discussion For proof-of-concepts, dongles are sufficient. For production-grade, scalable deployments where uptime is critical, dedicated gateways provide the necessary architectural foundation. I'm keen to hear from the community: In your Azure IoT solutions, how have you integrated non-IP protocol devices like Zigbee? What strategies do you employ to balance edge processing with cloud analytics? For those using gateway architectures, how do you handle device provisioning and security at scale? If you're interested in the technical specifics of how Zigbee gateways interface with cloud platforms, including API structures and network design considerations, we've elaborated on these topics in a technical overview on our site: [https://www.owon-smart.com/news/zigbee-dongles-vs-gateways-how-to-choose-the-right-network-coordinator/ ]. Looking forward to a fruitful discussion.
Routing on IOT Edge
Hi, I have a problem that I have been dealing with for quite some time. Trying to put a "where" in a routing for AZIOT edge hub. have tested this which works. FROM /messages/* WHERE $connectionModuleId = 'noded' INTO BrokeredEndpoint("/modules/testjob/inputs/edgehub") . But what I want to do is a "where" against appProperties. I have tried every conceivable "syntax" for this?? Inserts an example message. { "message": { "systemProperties": { "contentType": "application/json", "contentEncoding": "UTF-8", "iothub-message-source": "deviceMessages", "iothub-enqueuedtime": "2017-05-08T18:55:31.8514657Z" }, "appProperties": { "processingPath": "{cold | warm | hot}", "verbose": "{true, false}", "severity": 1-5, "testDevice": "{true | false}" }, "body": "{\"Weather\":{\"Temperature\":50}}" } } Thanks for any help I can get. Can't find any documentation for this?IOT device event twin change
What are the ways to catch IOT device event twin change in azure? I want to send notification or execute something like function app, when device twin event occur and reported property get change. I am using .net 8 and azure. let me know all possible ways. Thanks, Bhavin Bhesaniya.Detect IOT device twin report property and execute notification
Hello Community, I am seeking for the help to achieve one functionality for my IOT device. I have crated one Azure IOT device under azure IOT hub. Now on the device twin whenever my device report property get change( any property), It should send some event notification to the end user. What is the best way to achieve this? I want to use Azure event grid but the template is not available in message routing you can see below. If i use Event Hub then there is a risk to increase latency. let me know if there is any other way to get this with lowest latency. Thanks, Bhavin Bhesaniya.
CNCF project Akri usage survey and latest update
We are looking to improve Akri and want to learn more about your experience with it! Please help us with a 3 minutes survey if you have tried/evaluated Akri for leaf device discovery. For more information about Akri, visit the Akri GitHub or check our presentation at KubeCon 2024. To learn what’s new for Akri, check our latest release: v0.12.20.
Problem with running Azure spatial-analysis container
Hi, I need to create and run Azure spatial analysis container on my desktop machine. Everything should be running fine according to IoT Hub. But i'm not getting any output and when looking to logs of the spatial-analysis module i saw this error a lot: 2024-03-06T19:46:45.429562642Z <warning> 93 [VIDEO_INGESTER-cognitiveservices_vision_spatialanalysis_1.store.spatialanalysisgraph.videosource] cognitiveservices_vision_spatialanalysis_1 Error: Failed to allocate shared buffer. Skipping frame. 2024-03-06T19:46:45.501593175Z <warning> 93 [VIDEO_INGESTER-cognitiveservices_vision_spatialanalysis_1.store.spatialanalysisgraph.videosource] cognitiveservices_vision_spatialanalysis_1 Failed to get CUDA handle: cudaIpcGetMemHandle failed with error 2 2024-03-06T19:46:45.502484545Z <error> 93 [VIDEO_INGESTER-cognitiveservices_vision_spatialanalysis_1.store.spatialanalysisgraph.videosource] cognitiveservices_vision_spatialanalysis_1 Cannot create cuda shared buffer. Size: 6684672 I have no idea what to do also this is report from nvidia-smi: +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | NVIDIA-SMI 530.30.02 Driver Version: 527.99 CUDA Version: 12.0 | |-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | GPU Name Persistence-M| Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC | | Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. | | | | MIG M. | |=========================================+======================+======================| | 0 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 L... On | 00000000:01:00.0 On | N/A | | N/A 55C P8 16W / 115W| 2609MiB / 6144MiB | 28% Default | | | | N/A | +-----------------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Processes: | | GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory | | ID ID Usage | |=======================================================================================| | 0 N/A N/A 34 G /Xwayland N/A | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Thanks in advance for your help!Getting started with Zephyr RTOS on the MXChip IoT DevKit
Zephyr RTOS now has support for the very popular MXChip AZ3166 IoT DevKit! I have just posted the following short video on my https://www.youtube.com/@BenjaminCabe, and I encourage anyone interested in trying out Zephyr RTOS on the MXChip DevKit to watch it and give the https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/develop/getting_started/index.html a try 🙂 Note: The Wi-Fi chip isn't supported yet, but contributions are welcome 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiDsMlRipJY
Firmware update MS Azure IoT Starter kit
Hi! I am trying to download the firmware for the Vision AI Microsoft Azure IoT Starter Kit, but I get an error when trying to download the firmware from https://store.altek.com.tw/downloads/Azure-IoT-Starter-Kit- anyone else that has problems downloading the firmware?: This item might not exist or is no longer available This item might have been deleted, expired, or you might not have permission to view it. Contact the owner of this item for more information.
