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Built-in Cloud Services

Eclipse Kura provides by default a set of services used to connect to a cloud platform. The following sections describe the services and how to configure them.

The CloudService API is deprecated since Kura 4.0. The functionalities provided by CloudService are now provided by the CloudEndpoint and CloudConnectionManager service interfaces. See the section describing the Kura 4.0 cloud connection model for more details.

The DataService and MqttDataTrasport APIs are not deprecated in Kura 4.0.

CloudService

The CloudService provides an easy-to-use API layer for the M2M application to communicate with a remote server. It operates as a decorator for the DataService, providing add-on features over the management of the transport layer.

In addition to simple publish/subscribe, the CloudService API simplifies the implementation of more complex interaction flows like request/response or remote resource management. The CloudService abstracts the developers from the complexity of the transport protocol and payload format used in the communication.

The CloudService allows a single connection to a remote server to be shared across more than one application in the gateway providing the necessary topic partitioning. Its functions include:

  • Adds application topic prefixes to allow for a single remote server connection to be shared across applications.

  • Defines a payload data model and provides default encoding/decoding serializers.

  • Publishes life-cycle messages when the device and applications start and stop.

To use this service, select the CloudServices option located in the System area and select the CloudService tab as shown in the screen capture below.

The CloudService provides the following configuration parameters:

  • device.display-name - defines the device display name given by the system. (Required field.)
  • device.custom-name - defines the custom device display name if the device.display-name parameter is set to "Custom".
  • topic.control-prefix - defines the topic prefix for system messages.
  • encode.gzip - defines if the message payloads are sent compressed.
  • republish.mqtt.birth.cert.on.gps.lock - when set to true, forces a republish of the MQTT Birth Certificate when a GPS correct position lock is received. The device is then registered with its real coordinates. (Required field.)
  • republish.mqtt.birth.cert.on.modem.detect - when set to true, forces a republish of the MQTT Birth Certificate when the service receives a modem detection event. (Required field.)
  • enable.default.subscriptions - when set to true, the gateway will not be remotely manageable.
  • birth.cert.policy - specify the birth certificate policy. The options are Disable publishing, Publish birth on connect and Publish birth on connect and reconnect.
  • payload.encoding - Specify the message payload encoding. The possible options are Kura Protobuf and Simple JSON.

DataService

The DataService provides the ability to connect to a remote broker, publish messages, subscribe to topics, receive messages on the subscribed topics, and disconnect from the remote message broker. The DataService delegates to the MqttDataTransport service the implementation of the transport protocol that is used to interact with the remote server.

The DataService also adds the capability of storing published messages in a persistent store function and sending them over the wire at a later time. The purpose of this feature is to relieve service users from implementing their own persistent store. Service users may publish messages independently on the DataService connection status.

In order to overcome the potential latencies introduced by buffering messages, the DataService allows a priority level to be assigned for each published message. Depending on the store configuration, there are certain guarantees that stored messages are not lost due to sudden crashes or power outages.

To use this service, select the DataService option located in the System area and select the CloudService tab as shown in the screen capture below.

The DataService offers methods and configuration options to manage the connection to the remote server including the following (all required) parameters described below.

  • connect.auto-on-startup - when set to true, the service tries to auto-connect to the remote server on start-up and restore the connection every time the device is disconnected. These attempts are made at the frequency defined in the connect.retry-interval parameter until the connection is established.
  • disconnect.quiesce-timeout - allows the delivery of in-flight messages to be completed before disconnecting from the broker when a disconnection from the broker is being forced.
  • store.housekeeper-interval - defines the interval in seconds used to run the Data Store housekeeper task.
  • store.purge-age - defines the age in seconds of completed messages (either published with QoS = 0 or confirmed with QoS > 0) after which they are deleted (minimum 5).
  • store.capacity - defines the maximum number of messages persisted in the Data Store.
  • in-flight-messages parameters - define the management of messages that have been published and not yet confirmed, including:
  • in-flight-messages.republish-on-new-session
  • in-flight-messages.max-number
  • in-flight-messages.congestion-timeout

MqttDataTransport

The MqttDataTransport service provides the ability to connect to a remote broker, publish messages, subscribe to topics, receive messages on the subscribed topics, and disconnect from the remote message broker. To use this service, select the MqttDataTransport option located in the System area and select the CloudService tab as shown in the screen capture below.

The MqttDataTransport service provides the following configuration parameters:

  • broker-url - defines the URL of the MQTT broker to connect to. (Required field.)
  • topic.context.account-name - defines the name of the account to which the device belongs.
  • username and password - define the username and password that have been assigned to the device by the account administrator (generally username is account-name_broker). (Required field.)
  • client-id - defines the identifier of the MQTT client representing the device when connecting to the MQTT broker. If left empty, it is automatically determined by the client software as the MAC address of the main network interface (in general numbers and uppercase letters without ':'). This identifier has to be unique within your account.
  • keep-alive - defines the "keep alive" interval measured in seconds. It specifies the maximum amount of time that should pass without communication between the client and the server. The client will ensure that at least one message travels across the network within each keep alive period. In the absence of a data-related message during this time period, the client will send a very small MQTT "ping" message that the server will acknowledge. The keep alive interval enables the client to detect when the server is no longer available without having to wait for the long TCP/IP timeout. (Required field.)
  • timeout - sets the timeout used for all interactions with the MQTT broker. (Required field.)
  • clean-session - controls the behavior of both the client and the server at the time of connect and disconnect. When this parameter is set to true, the state information is discarded at connect and disconnect; when set to false, the state information is maintained. (Required field.)
  • lwt parameters - define the MQTT "Last Will and Testament" (LWT) settings for the client. In the event that the client unexpectedly loses its connection to the server, the server publishes the LWT message (lwt.payload) to the LWT topic on behalf of the client. This allows other clients (subscribed to the LWT topic) to be made aware that the client has disconnected. LWT parameters that may be configured include:
  • lwt.topic
  • lwt.payload
  • lwt.qos
  • lwt.retain
  • in-flight.persistence - defines the storage type where in-flight messages are persisted across reconnections. They may be stored in memory, or in a file on the disk. (Required field.)
  • protocol-version - defines the MQTT Protocol version to be used. This value may be 3.1 or 3.1.1.
  • ssl parameters - defines the SSL configuration. SSL parameters that may be configured include:
  • ssl.hostname.verification
  • ssl.default.cipherSuites
  • ssl.certificate.alias