The edge architecture
In the previous section, we identified the three macro components of an edge device to understand their features. In this section, we are going to analyze the three macro-components from the architectural perspective by identifying their components, which are shown in the following diagram:
Figure 4.11 – The IIoT edge architecture
The edge gateway
The edge gateway is the core of the edge device. The main responsibility of the edge gateway is to connect to the industrial data source to gather the data and send it to the IIoT data hub through an internet protocol, such as Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT), Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), HTTPS, or Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP).
The most important components of the edge gateway are the industrial adapter and the IoT adapter. The industrial adapter usually subscribes to the data from the industrial field and publishes it on a data bus. Typically...