This is the south side of the platform: everything that happens between OpenGate and the things in the field. Where the north APIs are consumed by your applications, these are spoken by devices, gateways, sensors and machines.

The two conversations

Every integration comes down to two of them, in opposite directions:

flowchart LR
    DEV["Device"] -->|"data collection<br>pushes readings"| OG["OpenGate"]
    OG -->|"operations<br>asks for actions"| DEV
Conversation The device Documented in
Data collection Pushes inventory and business data: serial number, ICC, MSISDN, location, temperature, pressure, consumption HTTP · MQTT
Operations Receives operation requests and answers with the result HTTP · MQTT

The north side of operations — how an application launches them and reads the results — is in Operations.

Eleven protocols, two directions

OpenGate speaks eleven protocols, and the question that decides your architecture is which side opens the conversation:

Protocols The device needs
The device calls OpenGate HTTP · MQTT · WebSocket · CoAP · DLMS Outgoing connectivity only
OpenGate calls the device DLMS · DLMS Gas · IEC102 · SNMP · SSH · Telnet · ICMP To be reachable at an IP address

Plus RADIUS, where the counterpart is the operator’s network rather than a device.

Supported protocols is the full matrix: every protocol, who initiates, what it carries and where its documentation lives. Start there if you are deciding how to connect something.

Where to go For
HTTP · MQTT · WebSocket · CoAP The transports OpenGate listens on
Meter and industrial protocols DLMS, DLMS Gas, IEC102 and SNMP: the polling model
Remote access SSH, Telnet and ICMP
RADIUS accounting Network-side session reporting

When the device does not fit

Real fleets are not uniform. Two mechanisms absorb that:

  • Connector Functions let you run your own JavaScript inside the platform to translate between OpenGate and whatever the device actually speaks. This is the answer to almost every “our devices do it differently” problem.
  • Topology covers devices that are not reachable directly: gateways, mesh networks and the path that addresses a device several hops away.

Also here