In the world of IoT (Internet of Things) there are many possiblities to connect devices to a central control software (the IoT-platform):
- LAN-Cable (Local Area Network)
- Bluetooth
Nearly all internet-capable charging stations have a built-in wireless modem, which can be equipped by a data-SIM. An encrypted E2E connection to the APN is being established. From there the data will be tunneled via VPN connection to the Chargepoint Management System (CPMS).
To tolerate possible fluctuations in connection quality and data transmission rate, the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) provides for the measures:
- Offline-capability of charging stations, granuarly configurable
- Timeouts and intervalls, granuarly configurable
Gridware provides even further abstraction with the connection status for each device. It has these states:
- offline
- limited online
- online
All hardware is permanently monitored for so-called life signs. If there is a lack of life signs for an individually configurable timeout, a Reason to Act will be triggered.
