Connect a Device

In this guide you will learn how to connect a device to akenza

If you do not have a physical device at hand, you can use the Device Simulator.

1. Create a Data Flow

Data Flows define how device data is processed and stored in akenza.

1.1. Device Connector

To create a Data Flow, select Create Data Flow on the menu tab Data Flow. Select the Device Connector of your choice. The following Device Connectors are available:

• LoRaWAN

• HTTP

• MQTT

• CoAP

• Sigfox

• Disruptive Technologies

• Yanzi

Device connector

1.2. Device Type

Choose your Device Type to extract, transform and normalize the data sent from the device. Akenza provides an extensive device type library with 100+ ready-to-use device types from different manufacturers around the globe.

If you do not find a suitable Device Type, you can create a Custom Device Type for your device.

Select Passthrough if no data parsing is required. The payload will be forwarded without changes.

Device Type

1.3. Output Connector

Choose one or multiple Output Connectors for your Data Flow. Output Connectors define the data destination of your Data Flow. The following options are available to process your data to:

Data sinks:

• akenza DB
• Webhook
• Azure IoT Hub
• Google Pub/Sub
• InfluxDB
• AWS Kinesis
• Apache Kafka

Notification services:

• E-Mail
• SMS
• Microsoft Teams
• Slack

Output connectors

The akenza DB Output Connector ensures, that all data passing through this Data Flow are saved and thereby become accessible.

Learn more about Data Flows:

Data Flows

2. Create a Device

To create a new device, select Create Device in the Assets Inventory.

Asset Inventory Overview

2.1 Basic device Information

Add a device name and optionally a description, a tag, or define a custom field. Select Next.

Device information

Choose the Data Flow that you have created just before and select your desired offline timeout. Select Next.

2.2. Connectivity Parameters

Fill in the Connectivity Parameters for your device.

• LoRaWAN: See LoRaWAN
• HTTP / MQTT: Alphanumerical string of length between 8 and 64 characters

Connectivity parameters

Finish the process with the Create device button.

To check incoming data of your device, select your device from the Asset Inventory table and check device status on the Device detail page.

Device detail page

Congratulations, you have successfully added your first device!