AggreGate Platform

AggreGate Platform

Dashboard in AggreGate Client
Developer(s)	Tibbo Technology Inc.
Initial release	October 10, 2002 (2002-10-10)
Stable release	5.21.02 / July 31, 2015 (2015-07-31)
Development status	Active
Written in	Java
Operating system	Cross-platform
Available in	English, Russian, Romanian, Chinese
Type	Internet of Things, Device management, Machine-to-Machine, Remote monitoring
License	Proprietary EULA
Website	http://aggregate.tibbo.com

AggreGate IoT Platform is a software framework used for monitoring and managing diverse hardware devices. Though often used in OEM projects, AggreGate offers several out-of-box solutions in areas such as network management, industrial and building automation, physical access control, and attendance monitoring.

Such a generic hardware management platform has become possible because device management and remote monitoring systems in diverse arenas share much common functionality. For example, alerting, reporting, role-based access control and failover clustering are common for both SCADA and network management systems.

Details

The system's core concept is device data normalization. Any device may be represented using variables, functions and events. By reading/writing variables, calling functions and subscribing to events, any device can be controlled. Thus, AggreGate uses software device drivers and hardware protocol converters ("Agents"^[1]) to normalize device data and inject it into the live system. Device data and metadata is cached in the database to provide instant access that doesn't involve any I/O with the hardware.

Typically, device management project involves three stages:

Developing device drivers for the hardware
Creating custom data processing and presentation tools (report templates, widgets, alerts, etc.)
Configuring third-party systems to work with AggreGate APIs

History

AggreGate was initially called LinkServer, since its first versions could only route raw data between hardware devices located across LANs. At the time, the system facilitated firewall penetration, obviating static "white" device IP addresses. Beginning with v3.0 (released 2006), the system was able to parse and process device data. V3.0 also introduced centralized configuration data storage and delayed writes, allowing batch setup of devices that have unstable or periodic server connections.

The system was used only in OEM projects (such as managing open-source programmable time recorders^[2]) till 2008. The first public release of AggreGate was published in February 2008.^[3] In summer 2008 Tibbo released AggreGate Network Manager (7th place in WindowsNetworking.com Readers' Choice Awards for 2011^[4]), the first fully packaged product based on the platform. A year later, in 2009, the AggreGate Time and Attendance product was released, followed by AggreGate SCADA/HMI later this year.

Solutions

There are currently five end-user products based on AggreGate Platform:

AggreGate Network Manager^[5]^[6] – for monitoring and managing IP networks
AggreGate SCADA/HMI^[7]^[8] – industrial control and automation system
AggreGate Data Center Management - umbrella data center management solution
AggreGate Incident and Situation Management - situation center management solution
AggreGate Time and Attendance ^[9] – corporate employee attendance management solution
AggreGate Access Control – physical access control system
AggreGate Building Automation – for smart building infrastructure management

Other solutions based on AggreGate include remote monitoring, fleet management, vending machines management, sensor network control, automatic meter reading, people/vehicle counting, digital signage, mobile device management, event management and home automation. It was also used as a base of some educational projects.^[10]^[11]

The underlying platform provides a high level of flexibility for creating derived solutions. However, the system is often criticized for its complex user interface.^[12]

External links

References

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