Distributed edge processing of internet of things device data in co-location facilities

• US 10,230,798 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2018
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Equinix Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Equinix Incorporated
• Inventors: Doraiswamy, Vijaay, Lillie, Brian J., Koty, Ramchandra Jayateerth, Jeyapaul, Jaganathan, Purohit, Purvish
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Quang N
• Application Number:
  US15/863,565
• Publication Number:
  US 20180131770A1
• Time in Patent Office: 431 Days
• Field of Search: 709223, 709203, 709206, 709217, 709219, 709222, 709224, 709226, 709228, 709230, 709232, 370264, 370328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1036 Load balancing of requests to servers for services different from user content provisioning, e.g. load balancing across domain name servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information

Abstract

Techniques are described for distributed processing of Internet of Things (IoT) device data by edge systems co-located within a globally-distributed set of co-location facilities deployed and managed by a co-location facility provider. For example, a method includes selecting, by at least one of a plurality of edge computing systems co-located within respective co-location facilities each deployed and managed by a single co-location facility provider, a selected edge computing system of the plurality of edge computing systems to process data associated with events generated by an IoT device. The method also includes provisioning, at the selected edge computing system, an application programming interface (API) endpoint for communication with the IoT device, receiving, by the selected edge computing system at the endpoint, the data associated with the events generated by the IoT device, and processing, by the selected edge computing system, the data associated with the events generated by the IoT device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

selecting, by at least one of a plurality of edge computing systems co-located within respective co-location facilities each deployed and managed by a single co-location facility provider, a selected edge computing system of the plurality of edge computing systems to process data generated by an Internet of Things (IoT) device;

provisioning, by the at least one of the plurality of edge computing systems, a proxy executing on one or more computing devices for processing the data at the selected edge computing system;

provisioning, at a gateway device of the selected edge computing system, an application programming interface (API) endpoint associated with the proxy for communication with the IoT device;

receiving, by the selected edge computing system at the API endpoint, the data generated by the IoT device; and

processing, by the proxy of the selected edge computing system, the data generated by the IoT device and received at the API endpoint.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the proxy, filtering the data generated by the IoT device based on configured policies; and

by the proxy, discarding a subset of the data generated by the IoT device without forwarding the subset of the data to a core processing system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

by the proxy, performing network protocol translation on the data generated by the IoT device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a communication channel between the IoT device and the API endpoint,

wherein receiving comprises receiving, by the selected edge computing system at the API endpoint, the data generated by the IoT device via the communication channel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the data comprises routing, by the selected edge computing system, the data to a core processing system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the selected edge computing system comprises selecting the selected edge computing system in response to an IoT device registration manager of one of the edge computing systems receiving a device registration request from the IoT device, the method further comprising:

managing registration and authentication of the IoT device by the IoT device registration manager.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the selected edge computing system comprises selecting based on IoT device type and configured policies.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the selected edge computing system comprises selecting based on IoT device location and configured policies, wherein the second edge computing system is located geographically closest to the IoT device.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein processing the data comprises processing the data by a core processing center operated by the co-location provider.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein processing the data comprises processing the data by one or more computing devices of an enterprise associated with the IoT device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the data comprises processing the data by one or more computing devices of a cloud service provider.

12. A system comprising:

a plurality of edge computing systems co-located within respective co-location facilities each deployed and managed by a single co-location facility provider, wherein at least one of the plurality of edge systems is configured to select a selected edge computing system of the plurality of edge computing systems to process data generated by an Internet of Things (IoT) device and provision a proxy on one or more computing devices for processing the data; and

a gateway device of the selected edge computing system configured to provision an application programming interface (API) endpoint for communication with the IoT device, wherein the API endpoint is associated with the of the selected edge computing system, receive, at the API endpoint, the data generated by the IoT device, and process the data generated by the IoT device and received at the API endpoint.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each of the edge computing systems comprises:

an Internet of Things (IoT) device registration manager configured to manage registration and authentication of IoT devices;

an IoT edge processor configured to provision application programming interface (API) endpoints for communication with the IoT devices; and

an IoT edge configurator configured to process data generated by the IoT devices, wherein the data is received via the API endpoints.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the proxy filters the data generated by the IoT devices based on configured policies, and discards a subset of the data generated by the IoT devices without forwarding the subset of the data to a core processing system.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the selected edge computing system comprises:

an IoT traffic analytics engine configured to provide information regarding a state of one or more of the computing devices of the proxy.

16. A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions that when executed cause one or more processors of an edge computing system to:

select the edge computing system, from among a plurality of edge computing systems co-located within respective co-location facilities each deployed and managed by a single co-location facility provider, to process data generated by an Internet of Things (IoT) device;

provision a proxy executing on one or more computing devices of the edge computing system for processing the data at the selected edge computing system;

provision an application programming interface (API) endpoint associated with the proxy at a gateway device of the edge computing system for communication with the IoT device;

receive at the API endpoint the data generated by the IoT device; and

process, by the proxy of the edge computing system, the data generated by the IoT device and received at the API endpoint.