SUSE & Youmoni – a complete IoT stack for public and private IoT use cases

Technical whitepaper authored by:

Rhys Oxenham, Senior Director of Field PM & Engineering, SUSE Edge

Johan Edgren, Founder and CEO at Youmoni

Access the PDF here.

Introduction

Youmoni’s cutting edge, end-to-end IoT platform, is now integrated with the SUSE Edge stack, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro (SLE Micro) for edge-computing and sensor integration. Youmoni and SUSE are executing on a common roadmap which includes tasks to migrate existing containerized infrastructure over to Kubernetes for next-generation edge devices (based on K3S, or Podman for the smallest devices), IoT management in the cloud (based on RKE2), and Rancher Prime for end-to-end management of the entire fleet. Youmoni has developed a comprehensive and flexible enterprise IoT platform alongside SUSE’s secure and scalable edge infrastructure. The end-to-end offering is complete for any enterprise or partner that wants to digitize its assets using IoT and to transfer public cloud IoT solutions to its own private cloud and/or on-premises infrastructure.

Youmoni IoT Platform

The Youmoni IoT Platform includes all necessary components to jump start an IoT project and/or solution. A project can typically be up and running in days, rather than months, eliminating technical debt related to infrastructure and user interface coding. It includes edge computing, a gateway application layer, and a ready-to-use backend with micro services delivering the IoT platform. For end users, it also includes ready to use dashboards and apps with modular user interfaces developed using React and React Native technology.  The Youmoni suite provides service apps for maintenance, logistics for drivers, and consumer apps for connected products.

SUSE and Youmoni IoT Stack

The SUSE and Youmoni Stack for IoT is a unique combination for any organization or enterprise that wants to deploy, run, scale, and maintain a single, or multi-tenant, IoT platform for public or private IoT use cases. SUSE’s comprehensive, highly scalable, and secure infrastructure enables any IoT deployment and supports the end-to-end lifecycle of an edge-computing implementation, right from initial onboarding through to patching, monitoring, and lifecycle management.

From public cloud to on-premises infrastructure

The unique combination of SUSE infrastructure and Youmoni IoT Stack offer an end-to-end IoT solution which runs as either a public cloud infrastructure or an on-premises infrastructure, or a combination of both, making the solution incredibly dynamic and flexible for a wide variety of use-cases and requirements.

SUSE product support and future roadmap

SUSE and Youmoni have developed a common road map for the integration of more products and concepts. The primary focus for the next phase is SUSE’s Rancher Prime integration for deployment and monitoring of the complete stack including edge computing. We are also further tightening the integration of the containerized components of the Youmoni solution towards the utilization of SUSE’s Kubernetes offerings, predominantly K3S on the edge devices, providing support for edge container monitoring, security, and updates.

Security and scalability

Security and scalability are top priorities for both SUSE and Youmoni. The SUSE Linux Enterprise infrastructure, enabling a hardened, immutable, and highly secure operating system, and the containerized Youmoni IoT back-end services together ensure that the platform not only delivers confidence to customers, but also scales according to each customer’s demand. The architecture is based upon microservices that scale and multiply as needed in each container (pod). The whole platform can be managed by the SUSE Rancher platform (currently in progress). Edge computing, sensor data and API requests are filtered in layered and software defined networks, proxies’ mapped ports to services, and all requests need to use verified tokens (JWTs) to access the REST API’s. Security has been taken to another level by also introducing mandatory intra-service tokens in the Youmoni platform and persistent metadata describing IoT assets can be encrypted using the built-in Youmoni Crypto Service. Sensor data stored in separate time series databases are anonymized and only use device IDs and key/asset IDs as metadata.

IoT End to End

Connect: Connect your assets by adding sensors or by using existing data interfaces. An IoT gateway sends the data to the Youmoni IoT cloud where it is stored, visualized, processed, and analyzed. 

Visualize: To maximize your insights, we visualize your data to make it easy to understand. The Console, which can easily be branded with a company design. The Console presents the connected assets, location, sensor status and notifications etc. 

Asset focus: The Youmoni IoT Platform focuses on business objects, things, and assets rather than technical IoT devices. The Console presents everything in business context, not in device context. The asset model with dynamic and separated storage of customer’s products and or business objects metadata makes data exchange and business integration easy. 

Youmoni Services and Business Solutions

Several business solutions for different industrial verticals are available on the platform. Ready-to-use applications such as tracking of assets, vehicles, remote monitoring of machines and products, smart property solutions, and automated retail including mobile payment support are all available. Standard business solutions are defined as specific edge computing sensors and business logic, combined with data transformation rules, a suitable console (dashboard), application UI controls, sensor transformation, notification rules, and user roles. Specific and adapted business logic can be added using custom containers, and the Youmoni Machine Learning service utilizes deep learning for intelligent predictive maintenance and anomaly detection.

The Youmoni Platform Tech Stack

The Youmoni IoT Platform consists of four main layers. The fundament are the Platform Services and the Business Application layers, which can implement different applications for various business verticals. The application layer is easily customized with customer configuration, adapted user interfaces and branding. Each tenant and application can be configured with its own user, role, access model, IoT device, and sensor configuration, as well as including business logic events for data exchange and notifications.

The stack is a multi-tenant platform developed for maximum flexibility and scalability. Backend services use event sourcing and are written in Scala. Adaptations and configurations are mainly implemented as JSON configurations, JavaScript, and/or in the system admin dashboard provided in the customer’s user interface (the console). The presentation frameworks use modern React/React Native technology for native apps. Authentication is implemented using OAuth, and JWT’s are used in REST APIs and User Interfaces to ensure user/service session integrity across, and between, all services in the platform. 

Devices, interoperability, and integration 

The platform already supports Youmoni selected and integrated IoT hardware, which includes a wide variety of out of the box sensors and peripherals, but can also easily integrate other third-party devices and services that use public IoT standards such as MQTT.  All services expose REST APIs and integration with business systems such as ERP, SCADA, MDM, and PIM systems are easily made. SUSE and Youmoni are also investigating tighter integration with SUSE’s upcoming inclusion of Project Akri, which provides a standardized mechanism for the discovery and utilization of IoT devices within Kubernetes.

Machine Learning

The Youmoni stack also includes a framework for implementing machine learning using TensorFlow for deep learning. Youmoni is working on training models for automated and predictive monitoring using the autoencoder. The models can receive data from Youmoni integrated sensors and learn patterns in industrial machines e.g., engines, compressors, and/or behaviors in a smart property. The framework can predict normal behaviors and patterns and warn/notify if anomalies are detected, making proactive service and/or corrections a reality. 

SUSE IoT Console and Field Service App

Verified edge computing hardware

At the edge, the Youmoni IoT Application stack (based on Kura/Java/Scala), today running in Podman containers, is verified with SLE Micro 5.4+ on standard Raspberry Pi and industrial RPi hardware, e.g. Kontron or Techbase. However, it’s important to note that any hardware platform that’s capable of running SLE Micro (an incredibly extensive list given the comprehensive ecosystem that SUSE shares with its hardware partners) can easily be adapted to the Youmoni IoT platform, on both x86_64 and aarch64 hardware, if I/O drivers are available and mapped into the container infrastructure.

Youmoni Hardware

Youmoni also designs and manufactures IoT hardware with focus on multipurpose sensors and gateway boards. Youmoni Sense features sensors such as radar, temperature, humidity, acceleration, microphone, and external I/O for analogue sensors. RS232 and/or CAN bus can be used in numerous control and monitoring use cases. Youmoni Data Plug is a data and sensor integration card for multiple protocols and communication standards. Both devices support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 5G using an add-on card or external modem. The hardware devices can be customized for the customers’ use cases and optimized for cost, size, standards, mounting or other specific needs. The Youmoni embedded platform is a middleware platform written in C/C++ running on FreeRTOS.

Kontron Edge with SLE Micro and Youmoni Sense

Contacts and more information at:

Youmoni
https://youmoni.com

https://youmoni.com/contact

SUSE

https://www.suse.com/solutions/edge-computing/

https://www.suse.com/contact/