Users are able to benefit from a pre-configured, pre-certified IoT gateway that can connect to a wide range of heterogeneous sensors and systems to cloud-based services. According to the company target uses will include Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications such as smart cities, smart agriculture, connected homes and vehicles, digital signage systems and other IoT applications.
According to the company’s CEO, Jason Carlson, "OEMs are increasingly demanding IoT gateways that are complete, application-ready systems. To meet this growing need, we have designed a highly flexible and configurable gateway system that can be optimised to meet a wide variety of specific application demands. Together with our embedded design and manufacturing services, we are now able to meet any specific IoT gateway requirement."
As well as the engineering and production of optimised IoT solutions, congatec's embedded design and manufacturing service also includes certification services, an increasingly essential element of deploying wireless technologies and edge devices that connect to carrier grade infrastructures.
The wireless connectivity of the system is scalable with 6 internal USB ports and 3 miniPCIe slots which are able to support LTE 3GPP modems, 2x WI-FI, 2x LAN with PoE and PROFINET features, low power BlueTooth (BTLE) and 6LoWPAN.
Other low power wide area networks including LORA, 3GPP, LTE-MTC, Sigfox or UNB can also be supported upon customer request. This allows for maximum flexibility in supporting all major IoT connectivity requirements. The housing is equipped to mount up to 8 antennas supporting multiple wireless standards in parallel, while enhancing signal quality by utilizing antenna diversity. The small size (200x230x40mm³) metal housing is certified to IP53 protection class for outdoor applications.
congatec has said that the system was developed to support scalable computing performance utilising Qseven modules, which range from the NXP single-core i.MX6 processor up to a quad core Intel Pentium CPU. The gateway also supports the upcoming next generation of Intel Atom processors (Intel code name "Apollo Lake") for deployment in emerging IoT gateway and edge computing application scenarios, up to and including high availability fog computing systems.
The IoT gateway system supports all the features of congatec's embedded board controller, which are a must for reliable IoT applications. Amongst other functions, the congatec feature set enables secure boot, management of Multi-Master I²C Bus, Multi Stage Watchdog, non-volatile User Data Storage, Manufacturing and Board Information, Board Statistics, as well as Power Loss Control.
