WisDM: Bringing Down your Gateway Network Management Concerns One by One
The IoT industry is constantly growing, and if you are in business, you will face more challenges. At RAKwireless we are always working to facilitate the development of applications in all their stages, we have everything you need, no matter if you are exploring this field for the first time by developing your first IoT project, or if you need to implement a professional IoT network for your company in different parts of the world, we can help you!
But we not only offer the necessary hardware, we also develop software that makes it even easier to use it. This time we want to talk to you about one of our most important software tools and one that has been very useful for our users since its launch: WisDM.
It would be easy to talk about how awesome our tool is and its great features, for example allowing you to get notified if something goes wrong on your network. However, this time we want to introduce you to a common IoT scenario with common problems and show you how they could be easily solved using WisDM. Let us begin.
Imagine that you have developed a complete IoT solution. Business is going very well and you are working in many places, even in different provinces. Its operation is to create a network for each site so that users can connect their end nodes according to their needs. Obviously, it is using the best gateways for LoRaWAN®: WisGate Edge. In these types of cases, we have learned that there are 10 common concerns, and we want to show you how to solve them.
User Concern #1: I have installed many gateways in different cities/countries, if I keep growing, it will be very difficult to maintain or configure all of them.
RAK Solution: This is a common concern of our customers, and that's why WisDM exists. WisDM allows you to manage and configure your gateways remotely, that is, you can even work from home managing your gateways in different places.
User Concern #2: This Management that you are talking about, may be useful, but what if I need to update the firmware of a device, and not to mention if I have to update the firmware of many of them? I’ll need to go to the site.
RAK Solution: Well, we have good news for you! With WisDM you can update the gateway firmware, remotely, and not only that, but you can group the gateways according to organization and location and update the firmware of all of them with a few clicks!
User Concern #3: Ok, managing my devices sounds great, but what if some of them fail?
RAK Solution: Well, we know that if something can go wrong, it will! But we know that there are some good practices to prevent and correct failures. One of them is to have a good System Log. WisDM gives you the option to remotely access any of your gateways and review logs in real time using SSH. Or if you prefer to see a history, you have the Retrieval System Log setting, which allows you to see the history of the logs even grouped into different time periods.
User Concern #4: Sometimes I have failures because the packets do not arrive on time, is there any way to check the quality of my network?
RAK Solution: Yes, in the latest version, WisDM allows you to have statistics of your network, which are message intensity, signal quality and network performance. This will be reflected with data such as RSSI, SNR or channel usage.
User Concern #5: What about the network the gateway is connected to?
RAK Solution: All WisGate devices have a Multi-WAN function, that is, they can connect via Ethernet, WiFi or Cellular, and with WisDM you can adjust the priority for the WAN interface depending on which is the most stable network.
User Concern #6: Wow! This is really amazing but my business is growing and I think at one point the team will be bigger. Is there a way to assign roles on WisDM?
RAK Solution: We think about that too. WisDM has the feature: Role Management. It provides a multi-tiered user and permissions management system, ensuring that even the most demanding organizations such as service providers can manage access and visibility for both their management teams and location users, with different levels of permissions.
User Concern #7: Is it secure?
RAK Solution: Yes, of course! We handle data securely protected by using industry standards, regardless of data transmission or data storage. WisDM login via RAK ID provides 2-factor authorization. On top of that, we are GDPR certified!
User Concern #8: That sounds really cool! Now my only concern is to look for an LNS to send my data!
RAK Solution: Not really. Because with WisGate Edge you have a built-in LNS and you don't need to switch to another platform, but that's not all, in WisDM you will find the statistics dashboard for end devices and control their visibility!
User Concern #9: Well, now I'm not worried about an LNS but WisDM, because it must be very expensive and accessible only to big companies.
RAK Solution: If we told you that you can start for free? Yes, you can start adding up to three RAK Edge gateways completely free! And if you need to scale, you can do it at really affordable prices according to your needs.
User Concern #10: Wow, WisDM is really amazing! I will order my WisGate Edge and immediately receive them, I will add them to WisDM.
RAK Solution: Actually, you don't need to wait because we are working on a new feature to make it possible for our users to receive the information of the gateways, including serial number and EUI, when we ship the gateways from our warehouse. If the user uses the packet capture and base station work mode, he can add the gateways in the organization location in advance without waiting and also edit the network interface settings of the gateway. So you can manage your gateway while it's still on the go and save time on deployment.
Those were just 10 typical concerns an IoT user might have, and now you know that we can be your best partner to improve your business or even create it. You can visit WisDM right now and start working, and if you don't have your WisGate Edge, what are you waiting for? Visit our store and check the new products of the WisGate family!