This document discusses challenges with Internet of Things (IoT) networks that lack gateways and instead connect devices directly to the cloud. It outlines issues like limited cellular connectivity, lack of local processing and redundancy, and difficulty implementing uniform security policies. The document proposes using IoT gateways to address these issues. It describes the key challenges in developing effective IoT gateways, like supporting multiple connectivity protocols and providing high performance processing. Finally, it presents AMD's IoT gateway architecture and software stack, which leverages their CPUs and GPUs to offer cost-effective solutions for local processing, redundancy, manageability and scalability.

1. MARCH 2015|
IOT GATEWAY CHALLENGES
AND PLATFORM SOLUTIONS
SRINI GADGIL
SENIOR SYSTEMS ARCHITECT
MARCH 2015

2. 2 | AMD EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | MARCH 2015 |
IOT APPLICATIONS
Enterprise/Building Management
Smart Cities Smart Home
Health Care
Smart Grid
Industrial Automation
2012 ( Source Cisco)
8.7B
Connected Devices
2020 (Gartner)
26B

3. 3 | AMD EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | MARCH 2015 |
IoT NETWORK WITHOUT GATEWAYS OR “LIGHT GATEWAYS”
CloudMobile / Wireline Access Network
Data CenterThings
Control
Devices
Cellular
Network
WAN
Network
IOT PAN/LAN
Network

4. 4 | AMD EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | MARCH 2015 |
ISSUES WITH NON-GATEWAY NETWORK / CLOUD CENTRIC APPROACH
Network issues
‒ Cellular Network Limitations : Range, Bandwidth, Reliability in Buildings,
power, penetration
‒ Cost of Spectrum
‒ Capacity
‒ Cost
No Gateway / “Light” non-processing Gateway
‒ No redundancy if the Network Connection/Cloud App. is lost
‒ No local processing : this will impact processing time
‒ It will be difficult to implement uniform security policies.

5. 5 | AMD EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | MARCH 2015 |
ENTERPRISE SOLUTION FOR IOT WITH GATEWAYS
Security +
Access Control
Business Premise IOT Network
Cloud
Data Center
HVAC + Power + Lighting
Irrigation and
Water Mgmt.
Control Devices
IOT Access Gateway
Solar Energy Management
IOT Gateway
• Local Intelligence : provides
redundancy during
network/cloud outages
• Faster local processing
• Future proofed for
enhanced Applications
Support
• Mitigates access
bottlenecks
• Uniform security policies
can implemented
Cellular
Network
WAN
Network
Mobile / Wireline Access Network

6. 6 | AMD EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | MARCH 2015 |
IoT GATEWAY CHALLENGES
IOT Access Gateway
Multi-protocol Connectivity
Support all the protocols used to connect
sensors, actuators, control devices and
network uplinks
High Performance Processing
For certain specialized workloads such as
Machine Vision and Biometric processing for
fast response time
Manageability
Support SDN enabled Networking stacks for
configuration, management, automation,
orchestration.
Cost effective solution
Gateway is cost optimized for lower BOM cost.
Lower power, fan less operation.
CPU throughput / redundancy
CPU throughput to support standalone
operation in case of loss of connection to the
cloud
Scalability
Platform HW and SW architecture must be
built for addition of future applications and
related devices
OS Platform
OS platform should have wide acceptability
and must support a diverse device and
applications ecosystem
Device Ecosystem
Gateway platform should support rich
ecosystem of present and future devices :
sensors, actuators, control devices
Local Processing vs Cloud
The Gateway Architecture should partition
this very carefully the main tradeoff is
between faster response time vs cloud/big
data capabilities

7. 7 | AMD EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | MARCH 2015 |
AMD IOT GATEWAY ARCHITECTURE
I/O : USB, Ethernet, UART,
PCIe, RS-485, etc.
Drivers
Sensors
Actuators
Devices
Monitoring
And Control
Short / Medium
Range PAN/LAN
Access Network
WiFi, DASH7, ISA100
ZigBee, 802.15.4
Bluetooth
Ethernet, EtherCAT,
Modbus, Profinet
Device Drivers
GPU based image
processing
Wired/Wireless
Protocol Stacks
Protocol Conversion
Image Recognition
IOT Applications
Data Acquisition and
Logging
Access Gateway Software
Functions
Drivers
Ethernet /
MAN / WAN
Networks
Drivers
Cloud Datacenter
LINUX / RTOS
Appliances
Wireless MBus
Wi-fi 802.11ax
Cellular
Satellite
T1/E1
Storage

8. 8 | AMD EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | MARCH 2015 |
AMD IoT GATEWAY SOLUTION BASED ON G-SERIES CPUS
IOT Access Gateway
Multi-protocol Connectivity
Supports all the protocols used to connect
sensors, actuators, control devices and
network uplinks
GPU processing GPU processing can be
used for local fast response Biometric /
Optical sensor image processing.
Supports HD displays.
Innovative solution for SDN, NFV
Supports SDN enabled Networking stacks.
Some NFV functions such as Security
implemented on GPUs
Cost effective solution
CPU + GPU solution is cost optimized for lower
BOM cost. Lower power for fan less operation.
IOT Gateway
SPI
EEPROM
PCIe
DDR3 DIMM
Enet
MAC/PHY
Module
Module
Module
USB
PCIe/USB
USB
USB
USB
CPU throughput
CPU throughput will support standalone
operation in case of loss of connection to the
cloud
Scalability
Platform HW and SW architecture is built for
addition of future applications

9. 9 | AMD EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | MARCH 2015 |
AMD IOT GATEWAY SOFTWARE STACK
AMD HSA Processor
OS User Space
CPU bound IOT Functions
GPU
GPU (Acceleration) bound
IOT Functions
CPU
Shared Memory
MAC/PHY
Applications
Reporting Monitoring
Biometric Image Processing
Module
Event Notification
Device Connectivity Drivers
OS Kernel Space
Power and Lighting Control
Access Control
And Security
Communication Protocol Stacks
Data Acquisition and logging
Power Metering
Cloud Application for power
Metering
Cloud Application for
Security
Applications
Cloud Applications and
Databases
Power and Lighting Control
Power Analytics
Access Control
And Security
Mobile App