Constrained IoT devices* don't generate much data.
Their payload is few hundred bytes per message, however choosing the wrong communication protocol can be a costly mistake
* Constrained IoT devices are typically battery operated and cellular connected devices (although not only) that are limited in power, throughput or network coverage
Here's a breakdown of how a 96 byte message grows to over 8 Kbytes using HTTPS POST
What is in use today?
Most IoT devices use MQTT brokers, however they are not efficient enough for constrained devices.
Constrained and cellular connected devices use lwM2M servers. However they are not flexible,
not built for data transfer and difficult to integrate with.
Some IoT devices still use HTTP & REST API which present a convenient yet inefficient interface
What does Copxy offer?
Copxy utilizes CoAP and DTLS stacks and gains the same performance advantage as lwM2M based solutions. But contrary to lwM2M Copxy is designed with data transfer in mind
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Copxy uses GET/POST/PUT terminology just like standard HTTP/REST solutions. Copxy allows IoT devices to talk “REST API” style without the added overhead cost of HTTP and TLS protocols, and connects seamlessly with any existing HTTP based application servers – so you can focus on solution not protocol
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Copxy presents the same data model and request/response methods as HTTP which is super convenient for implementing data transfer applications. It does so by using CoAP, UDP and DTLS instead of TCP/TLS which yields much better performance in IoT scenarios
lwM2M | MQTT | HTTP | Copxy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Data Model | Object/Resource | Text/JSON | Text/JSON/Binary | Text/JSON/Binary |
Registration required | Register + Update | Connect + keep alive | none | none |
Transaction Model | Server initiated requests | Broker messages | Client initiated Request/Response | Client initiated Request/Response |
Transactions | Read/Write/Execute | Pub/Sub | GET/POST/PUT | GET/POST/PUT |
Copxy is designed specifically for constrained IoT devices
Copxy’s mission is
☞ Reduce traffic for constrained IoT devices
☞ Improve performance in low bandwidth networks
☞ Provide easy production and key distribution flows
☞ Without compromising security and flexibility
Main advantages
Copxy is designed with many years of IoT experience and leverages advantages from our deep knowledge of lwM2M, MQTT and HTTP solutions.
We focused Copxy on data transfer efficiency, but also gave thought to a few key issues that are important to IoT device makers
Improve traffic and power performance
For typical IoT messages Copxy uses x6-x7 shorter messages. This immediately improves traffic and throughput and has significant impact on power. Improve even more on multiple request scenarios
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See our benchmarks page
Lighter embedded stack
Copxy is using UDP, DTLS and CoAP. These stacks are simple and a perfect fit for constrained embedded implementations. Overall the requirement of Copxy are less than MQTT or HTTP which require a full TCP and TLS stack so your embedded requirements are smaller
Superior performance in NB-IoT networks
As cellular IoT deployments become bigger the difficulties of large latency networks and low coverage issues become apparent. Many recent studies point out the superiority of CoAP in NB-IoT networks
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Read more about CoAP and NB-IoT
POST
GET
PUT
REST like interface
Copxy uses request / response notation just like HTTP and connects easily with REST API servers. You don't need any brokers or additional servers like MQTT or lwM2M implementations
Always secured
Supporting both PKI (X.509) and PSK your communication with Copxy is always secure. PSK keys can be purged and rotated easily
Keep your existing application server
If you already have an application server you can connect to it with no additional integrations. If you don't, just pick any off-the-shelf popular application server you like
Simplify provisioning
From our years of experience in IoT we know that one of the acute problems is provisioning devices. Copxy has the ability to automatically provision devices upon registration and also provides a simple interface for devices to provision themselves
How Copxy works?
Copxy's advantage lies in its simple proxy architecture. Copxy does not aim to provide any application knowhow but only to connect to your application servers in the most efficient and secure way. We leave the knowhow to you, and you can use any existing application server you have today
Click the architecture drawing to the right to see an example of how our IoT Telemetry device "rooster" sends data to its application server implemented on the popular Tomcat application framework
