After you connect devices to IoT Platform, the devices can communicate with IoT Platform. IoT Platform can forward device data to other Alibaba Cloud services for storage and processing. You can deploy IoT applications based on the IoT Platform architecture. This topic describes the service architecture of IoT Platform.
Devices
You can connect devices to IoT Platform by using different protocols and SDKs. Then, you can manage the devices.
IP devices: devices that support the TCP/IP protocol, such as Wi-Fi devices. Devices of this type can be directly integrated with Link SDK.
Non-IP devices: indicates the devices that do not support the TCP/IP protocol, such as ZigBee, BT, KNX, and ModBus devices. Devices of this type can connect to IoT Platform only by using a gateway that is integrated with Link SDK. You can configure a custom communication method between a gateway and its sub-devices. For more information about how to configure Link SDK for C to connect a sub-device with IoT Platform, see Overview of gateways and sub-devices.
Cloud gateway devices: You can directly connect devices to IoT Platform by using cloud gateways over open source Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), JT/T 808, or GB/T 32960.
IoT as Bridge devices: IoT Platform supports communication over MQTT, Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), or HTTP. Other types of protocols, such as the fire protection agreement GB/T 26875.3-2011, Modbus, and JT808, are not supported. If devices cannot be directly connected to IoT Platform in specific cases, you can use the IoT as Bridge SDK to deploy a bridging service and establish connections between the devices or the bridging service and IoT Platform.
IoT Platform
After you connect devices to IoT Platform, the devices can report data to IoT Platform. IoT Platform allows you to collect, forward, store, analyze, and monitor device data in real time. IoT Platform provides authentication methods and permission policies to ensure data security.
For more information about the services that are provided by IoT Platform and other IoT services, see Features and Other Alibaba Cloud IoT services.
After you integrate IoT Platform with other Alibaba Cloud services, you can transmit data between devices and business servers and forward device data from IoT Platform to other Alibaba Cloud services for storage. For more information, see Overview.