Site Navigation: Technical Documentation | Introduction to EdgeX Foundry | EdgeX Foundry Microservices Architecture | API Reference | Definitions
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EdgeX
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EdgeX Foundry is a versatile, flexible, open-source Edge and Cloud software, with plug-and-play architecture to enable you to utilize the variety of components already created for EdgeX Foundry, to customize them, or to create your own components as you need them under an Apache 2 license.
The appeal of EdgeX Foundry is its simplicity. The architectural "structure" is created by the linking of EdgeX Foundry's microservices to each other.
In addition, a large amount of work has been completed so that you, and other members of the open source community, can add other specific microservices.
Why use EdgeX Foundry instead of something else, and what are the advantages?
- Flexibility: EdgeX Foundry is polyglottic enabling Developers to develop components in any software language and not be limited to only one language, such as Java. Other software connecting to IoT is not as flexible and requires Developers to use specific programming languages.
- Usability: EdgeX Foundry provides the Software Development Kit (SDK) to provide scaffolding to get you started. Instead of a steep learning curve, learning a complex system before being able to develop in the environment, EdgeX Foundry provides an easy-to-use environment and the ability to use it immediately.
- Reliability: EdgeX Foundry is unique because it is supported by a wide array of reliable, established companies and organizations.
EdgeX Foundry has a microservice-based architecture and performs the following activities:
- Collects data from the “south side,” by communicating with the physical IoT devices and sensors
- Transforms and packages data for the “north side,” and communicates the data to the Enterprise data storage, enterprise analytics, and intelligence engines
- Moves data north, laterally, or south as needed
- Provides a small amount of intelligence or analytics (rule engines, CEP, limited machine learning) at the edge of the network to provide early detection and warning capability
- Enables third parties (partners, vendors, customers, and so forth) to provide, replace, or augment their own solutions within the stack
Architectural Tenets
EdgeX Foundry has the following attributes:
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FoundryTM is a vendor-neutral open source project hosted by The Linux Foundation building a common open framework for IoT edge computing. At the heart of the project is an interoperability framework hosted within a full hardware- and OS-agnostic reference software platform to enable an ecosystem of plug-and-play components that unifies the marketplace and accelerates the deployment of IoT solutions.
EdgeX is an important enabler for interested parties to freely collaborate on open and interoperable IoT solutions built using existing connectivity standards combined with their own proprietary innovations.
EdgeX Foundry goals include:
- Build and promote EdgeX as the common open platform unifying Internet of Things (IoT) edge computing
- Enable and encourage the rapidly growing community of IoT solutions providers to create an ecosystem of interoperable plug-and-play components around the EdgeX platform architecture
- Certify EdgeX components to ensure interoperability and compatibility
- Provide tools to quickly create EdgeX-based IoT edge solutions that can easily adapt to changing business needs
- Collaborate with relevant open source projects, standards groups, and industry alliances to ensure consistency and interoperability across the IoT
Where does EdgeX Foundry sit alongside the numerous other IoT initiatives?
EdgeX Foundry is focused on the Industrial IoT Edge. Like Cloud Foundry it leverages cloud-native principles (e.g. loosely-coupled microservices, platform-independence) but is architected to meet specific needs of the IoT edge including accommodating both IP- and non-IP based connectivity protocols, security and system management for widely distributed compute nodes, and scaling down to highly-constrained devices.
- The project’s sweet spot is edge nodes such as embedded PCs, hubs, gateways, routers, and on-premises servers to address key interoperability challenges where “south meets north, east, and west” in a distributed IoT fog architecture
- The loosely-coupled platform as shown below can run entirely on one edge node or be distributed across multiple nodes
- Device Services can also run independently on smart sensors and communicate directly with Core Services in a tier above
EdgeX Foundry will benefit industry-specific interoperability efforts and strives to be a unifying force, creating an ecosystem of ecosystems, providing maximum flexibility to unify heterogeneous ingredients.
A key tenet of the EdgeX Foundry Project is to maintain platform independence for maximum scale:
- Any Silicon (for example, x86 or ARM)
- Any Operating System (for example, Linux, Windows, Mac OS)
- Any App Environment (allowing microservices written in Java, Javascript, Python, Go, C/C++, etc. to work together through the common APIs)
Loosely-Coupled Microservice Platform Architecture
EdgeX Foundry proposes a loosely-coupled tiered IoT architecture by allowing customers to deploy a mix of plug–and–play microservices on compute nodes at the edge depending on the capability of the host devices, where they sit in the solution stack, and the use case. Based on initial code contributions from Founding Members there is a fully-functional Alpha platform in the project today that will continue to mature in the community. As an open source, community-driven project, the current architecture scheme will evolve over time.
Required Interoperability Foundation (Highlighted in Purple)
- Core Services, Device Services SDK, Loosely-Coupled Microservice Deployment Framework, Foundational APIs for Data Flow, System Management and Security and Developer Value-add
Optional Reference Services (Grey)
- The project code base will include reference services constituting a full edge software platform so it is functional out of the box. Developers can leverage these optional services OR replace them with preferred alternatives.
- The platform is purpose-built to facilitate interoperability across existing protocol standards while enabling proprietary innovation for key value-add such as edge analytics, data orchestration, database, security, system management and services
The architecture supports communications “north, south, east and west” as needed in the IoT “fog” and can be deployed on a variety of edge nodes in a tiered computing architecture. The deployment of combinations of different plug-and-play microservices simply depends on the use cases and capability of the host device.
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Site Navigation: Technical Documentation | Introduction to EdgeX Foundry | EdgeX Foundry Microservices Architecture | API Reference | Definitions
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