On October 20th 2016, the Proximus EnCo platform went live after a one year beta period. Curious developers could play around freely on the platform during this beta phase, which was mainly focused around Internet of Things and API’s.
Before we go further into the IoT aspect of the platform, let’s go a bit deeper into the history of the project. After a short proof of concept, at the end of August 2015 Realdolmen and Proximus together started up a work force to develop a platform which should enable Proximus to externalize internal assets via API’s so other companies and developers could use those assets in their own solutions. Goal was to make a minimum viable product by November of the same year. One year after this beta period, after a lot of feedback from users, and adding new assets and functionalities, enco.io was released.

Sensor-as-a-Service

The first asset on the Proximus EnCo platform was Sensor-as-a-Service, which revolves all around IoT. In here, users can activate their LoRa-enabled device, to send packages over the Proximus LoRa network to the EnCo platform and retrieve their data via API’s. The LoRa network is a new type of radio network typically aimed at IoT cases. As the network is low power long range, it allows for a device to work autonomously, sending data over the network for years with just a battery. This makes it ideal for cases where an IoT device is moving around, placed in nature or other difficult positions. Some examples of this we have seen in the course of the beta period. One case needed track & trace functionality for delivery vans, where another case measured the quality of water in the ponds in parks. Further aspects of the SEaaS asset revolve around the changing and controlling of metadata of the device, manually inserting values on sensors, sending data over LoRa (instead of receiving) and monitoring of the LoRa traffic of your device.

API

After the first users started using the Sensor-as-a-Service asset, they quickly reached the limitation of having to call an API to receive their sensor data. A common feature request was to forward to data to an endpoint of their choosing. As such, the CloudChannels asset was brought to life. The asset went through several upgrades during its lifetime, and ended up as a popular feature in combination with SEaaS. It allows for selecting and defining an input source, specifying the structure, setting output sinks and defining rules and formats for these sinks. For example, in most IoT cases your input source will be your LoRa device. As an output sink you could use an HTTP endpoint. In this scenario you could define a rule that an incoming sensor value needs to surpass a certain threshold, before it is sent towards the HTTP endpoint in the format you defined.

The joined forces of Proximus and Readolmen experts certainly created a strong platform to connect partners, stimulate co-creation and enable your digital solutions.
Don’t hesitate to take a look at enco.io! Registration is easy and all assets allow for a limited free usage.

If you have any questions on IoT, or want more information on how to become a Connected Company, please contact our expert Roel De Cuyper, Division Manager The Connected Company via roel.decuyper@realdolmen.com.

Do you want to learn more about The Connected Company, read the blogpost published previously:

Become a connected company with these 10 principles