IoT Platform and Device Management
What the exam tests
IoT Platform and Device Management tests the platform's role between devices and applications: onboarding, profile modelling, codec conversion, lifecycle management and APIs.
Core functions
- Connection management: sessions, heartbeat, reachability and transport security.
- Device management: registration, activation, configuration, firmware over-the-air upgrade, remote reboot and decommissioning.
- Profile modelling: a device profile declares manufacturer, model, protocol and the service/property/command/event structure. A property is reported data; a command is platform-to-device; an event is a notable occurrence.
- Codec plugin: converts the device's binary or vendor-specific payload into the platform's JSON model and back.
- Northbound APIs serve applications; southbound interfaces serve devices.
- Device shadow: the platform's last-known state, useful when a device is asleep.
Worked example
Onboarding an NB-IoT temperature sensor: create a profile with a temperature property and a reporting-interval command; register the device with its IMEI; bind a codec that parses two bytes into degrees Celsius; then send a command and confirm the property report. The profile defines what the device is, the codec defines how its bytes are understood, and registration binds a real identity to the profile.
Traps
Do not mix up profile and codec: the profile is the data model, the codec is the parser. Do not call application-facing APIs southbound. Do not forget that sleeping NB-IoT devices may need the platform to cache commands until the next uplink.