Seamless FOTA/SOTA is necessary to enjoy the benefits of IoT
Bosch IoT Suite supports ON Semi RSL10 product family
Remote services with Raspberry Pi IoT Gateway


On the 18th, ON Semiconductor integrated its IoT platform into the 'Bosch IoT Suite'. Currently, the 'RSL10 sensor development kit' and 'RSL10 SmartShot camera' are supported within the Bosch IoT Suite ecosystem, and other platforms are scheduled to be added in the future.

◇ Seamless FOTA/SOTA is necessary to enjoy the benefits of IoT

As automated and intelligent infrastructure is realized through IoT, various opportunities are being created across all aspects of daily life and work environments. Furthermore, many startups are entering the IoT market, showcasing ideas and solutions that will provide enhanced capabilities in the near future.

Numerous startups are playing a significant role in the IoT ecosystem thanks to component and subsystem suppliers providing extensive design support, including evaluation boards, reference designs, and detailed literature. Through this, proof of concept (PoC) is being achieved as prototypes are rapidly developed and small-scale pilot projects are underway. However, several challenges remain to be addressed for the large-scale deployment of IoT devices.

Without an effective solution, it is not easy to manage a large number of devices as well as perform software updates. For various reasons, IoT requires regular Firmware-Over-The-Air (FOTA) and Software-Over-The-Air (SOTA) updates.

In particular, security is critical for IoT devices because they are primarily used in remote locations and are vulnerable to physical and virtual attacks. Therefore, security patches must be applied periodically, and remote deployment is the only viable method. Remote software deployment extends the product lifecycle and generates additional revenue streams through rapid bug fixes and the release of new features.

One of the characteristics of IoT is the massive amount of data generated and transmitted by sensing devices. Without solutions that capture, store, and automatically analyze this data to provide information that supports decision-making, the full benefits of IoT cannot be realized.

ON Semiconductor recently integrated various IoT platforms into the Bosch IoT Suite. The Bosch IoT Suite is a set of cloud and on-premises services for IoT application development. Provided as a Platform as a Service (PaaS), it enables the rapid implementation of highly scalable cloud-based IoT applications while also supporting highly sensitive environments within on-premises settings. More than 15 million devices are connected to the Bosch IoT Suite.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a protocol that offers several advantages, including portability, lightweight design, resource availability accessible from anywhere via smartphones and tablets, and IP gateway connectivity. BLE-enabled devices are typically connected to the Bosch IoT Suite through an IoT gateway running the middleware, 'Bosch IoT Edge'.

ON Semiconductor provides a plugin for Bosch IoT Edge to integrate its solutions into the Bosch IoT Suite. This software package is installed on the Raspberry Pi gateway powering Bosch IoT Edge to enable end-to-end services for ON Semiconductor sensor platforms, such as data and device management, firmware updates, and digital twins.

In addition, the 'Eclipse Vorto' abstraction layer was developed to improve the user experience. The Eclipse VORTOS language harmonizes device APIs to enable IoT developers to rapidly integrate devices for building device-agnostic IoT solutions. The VORTOS repository is an open platform where device manufacturers share device information models with other IoT stakeholders, facilitating solution development.

Once the concept has been defined and tested, the challenge in large-scale IoT deployments lies not only in device management and updates, but also in continuously managing, understanding, and processing the data provided by sensors. ON Semiconductor supports this by adding ready-to-use BLE capabilities to the Bosch IoT Suite through a Raspberry Pi-based gateway.