EdgeX Foundry platform
The layers and services of EdgeX Foundry provide a two-way transformation engine between edge devices/nodes and cloud/enterprise applications.
EdgeX translates and transforms edge data coming from sensors and devices and delivers it to applications over network-based protocols in formats and structures that meet the needs of customers. It also takes edge data from applications and delivers it to the edge nodes/devices for updates, control, and actuation. In this section, you will find the main services available for the EdgeX loosely couple microservices architecture.
Device Services Core Services Supporting Services Application Services
Device Services
Device Services are the edge connectors interacting with sensors/devices or IoT objects (“things”) including Machines, Robots, Drones, HVAC Equipment, Cameras, etc. Leverage available connectors to control devices and/or to get edge data from/to EdgeX. You can also use the Device Service SDK to create your own EdgeX Device Service.
Available Device Services:
- Modbus
- BACnet
- REST
- MQTT
- SNMP
- RFID
- ONVIF Cameras
- USB Cameras
- Virtual Simulator
- Plus many more from the commercial ecosystem
Core Services
This is where most of the knowledge as to what “things” are connected, what data is flowing through, and how EdgeX's open edge software platform is configured in a given deployment.
Available Core Services:
- Core Data - persistence repository for edge data readings collected from south side devices.
- Command - facilitates and controls actuation requests from the north side to the south side.
- Message bus – an internal message bus used for fast and optimal communication between the EdgeX services
- Metadata - a repository of metadata used by other services for knowledge about the devices and how to communicate with them
- Registry and configuration - provides information and configuration properties for associated services within the system.
Supporting Services
Includes key services that support the wider operations of the platform in a business context, such as edge rules, scheduling, notifications, and analytics.
Available Supporting Services:
- Rule Engines - eKuiper is the EdgeX Foundry reference rules engine that allows users to realize fast data processing on the edge and write rules in SQL format.
- Scheduler - an internal EdgeX “clock” that can execute operations on any EdgeX service on a configured interval or schedule.
- Notifications - provides EdgeX services with a central facility to send out notifications to another system or operator etc.
Application Services
App Services are the means to extract, process/transform, and send sensed edge data from EdgeX Foundry to an endpoint or application of your choice. This could be an edge data analytics package, enterprise or on-prem application, or a cloud system such as Microsoft Azure of Amazon Web Services, etc.
Available Application Services:
- Configurable Application Service - a standard pre-built service that the user can easily configure (rather than code) to deliver data to a list of standard supported endpoints.
- Application Services - other standard pre-built services include a record & replay service, and an inventory service to work alongside the RFID device service.
- Application Functions SDK - build your own service functions as needed by using the provided SDK.
Security Services
Security elements protect data and control of devices, sensors, and other IoT objects managed by EdgeX Foundry.
There are two major security components:
- Secret Store - Central repository for EdgeX Foundry microservices secrets, such as tokens, passwords, certificates, etc. Developers of other EdgeX microservices use the secret store to create, store, and retrieve secrets relevant to their corresponding microservice.
- Reverse Proxy / API Gateway - Single point of entry for all EdgeX REST traffic. It acts as the barrier between external clients and EdgeX Foundry microservices that prevents unauthorized access to the REST APIs.