Generally speaking, an industrial gateway needs to have the following capabilities:
? 1 with the lower (automation system) protocol resolution capabilities (communication protocols: Modbus, PPI, MPI, CNC, etc.; bus protocols: CAN, PROFIBUS, etc.; industrial wireless protocols: WirelessHart, 433, etc.), the current gateway to communication protocols, only a small number of manufacturers will be considered for the lower bus protocols as well as wireless protocols, and at the same time the traditional The bus protocol conversion is also called industrial gateway, gateway can not be divided.
? 2 have the ability to interface with the protocols of the upstream (IT system), and the communication capability of the upstream (Ethernet, WIFI, 3G, 4G, NB-IOT, etc.)
? 3 has the ability of secondary development of upward and downward private protocols
? 4 have the ability of data caching, local computing (fog computing)
? With such capabilities can be said to be a perfect gateway, on the other hand, industrial field applications are very complex, the current cost of data access is very high, often resulting in the owners want to information technology systems, access costs accounted for more than 1 ? of the cost. Therefore, the gateway manufacturers will be based on the size of the market to layout the appropriate product level. However, at present, whether domestic or foreign gateway factory, it is difficult to cover all the applications, coupled with the gateway factory to the IT system's docking protocol, as well as docking is not uniform. Resulting in access costs are still high now. Greatly affect the application of cloud and big data.
The main types of gateways on the market today are unidirectional data collection type, bidirectional simple version, bidirectional enhanced version.
One-way type data acquisition type
The lower has a serial port or gateway, the upper has a network port or GPRS. support for protocol parsing, mainly moudus, the upper and lower protocols can be customized, can be used in the form of software on-demand burner to achieve. Support data caching, time stamping of data.
Bidirectional Simple Version
Rich interfaces for up and down (serial port, network port, 3G, 4G); pre-programmed with a variety of communication protocols (PLC, CNC, plastic injection molding machine, electric power); support for secondary development
Bidirectional Enhancement Version
Added wireless communication for down on the Simple Version
In addition to the Simple Version, the Simple Version also includes a wireless communication for down.
Bi-directional Enhanced Version
In addition to the Simple Version, the Bi-directional Enhanced Version adds the ability to interface with wireless communication and bus-type interfacing.
The second of these is currently the most in demand, the first type and the third type of the current market is not clear, in some industries there has been a very strong demand, but the reproducibility is not as good as the second type, so fewer people are currently developing. At the same time the first and third types have certain risks when choosing wireless communication protocols (upward or downward). Industrial gateway market can directly reflect the level of development of China's industrial Internet of Things, if you want to look at the development of industrial Internet of Things in the country, I think the current stage to look at the development of the domestic industrial gateway can have a certain judgment on the market.