Alibaba Cloud IoT Platform connects devices to the cloud with built-in device management, secure communication, message subscription and forwarding, and data services including storage, analytics, filtering, parsing, and integration. Cloud APIs enable remote device control from your server.
Get started with IoT Platform
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Learning Path: Learn to develop and connect devices to IoT Platform.
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Basic concepts: Learn IoT Platform concepts before you start.
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FAQ: Answers to common questions.
How it works
The figure below shows the message flow between devices, IoT Platform, servers, and clients:
End-to-end device communication requires device development, server-side development (including the configuration of the cloud SDK), database creation, and mobile app development. During this process, you must define and process device messages.
The following table describes how devices communicate with IoT Platform.
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Communication link |
Description |
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Upstream communication |
Devices establish persistent MQTT connections with IoT Platform and report data by publishing topics and payloads. |
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Device messages are forwarded to your server through an AMQP consumer group. |
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The data forwarding feature processes device data and forwards it to Alibaba Cloud services, including ApsaraDB RDS, Tablestore, Function Compute, Lindorm Time Series Database, Lindorm, DataHub, and Message Queue for Apache RocketMQ. |
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Downstream commands |
The business server calls the Pub API over HTTPS to send a command from a business application to a topic on IoT Platform. |
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IoT Platform uses the MQTT protocol to publish data (a specified topic and payload) to the device. |
Communication methods covers device communication in detail.
IoT Platform Data Service supports data ingestion, parsing, storage, metrics, analytics, APIs, and applications to help you unlock device data value.
Feature overview
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Feature |
Description |
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Public instances let developers explore IoT Platform features. Enterprise instances provide device connectivity, management, O&M, and data services for production workloads. |
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Supports multiple protocols (MQTT, CoAP, HTTPS), platforms (C, Node.js, Java), and networks (2G/3G/4G/5G, NB-IoT, LoRaWAN, Wi-Fi) to accelerate device-to-cloud development. |
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Manages device lifecycles with advanced search, tags, jobs, shadows, and file management. |
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Integrates with Alibaba Cloud services (Tablestore, RDS, Lindorm, TSDB, FC, MNS, RocketMQ) for M2M communication, data storage, computing, and message queuing. |
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Ingests, parses, stores, and analyzes IoT data at scale. Data metrics and data applications help unlock the value of device data. |
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Instance-level monitoring, alerting, log analysis, OTA updates, device diagnostics, and Security Center integration. |
For the complete feature list, see Features.
Benefits
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Stable connectivity for a massive number of devices
Handles hundreds of millions of device connections and millions of concurrent messages. Provides access-layer DDoS mitigation of up to 600 Gbps from DDoS attacks and an SLA above 99.95%.
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Low cost and global device access
Costs significantly less than self-managed MQTT clusters while providing full management and O&M capabilities. Deployed across eight regions worldwide, so devices automatically connect to the nearest access point.
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Ease of use and flexible scaling
Supports pay-as-you-go and subscription billing with seamless scaling. Provides one-stop device management, real-time monitoring, and integration with Alibaba Cloud services to simplify IoT development.
For the full list, see Benefits.
Scenarios
IoT Platform supports smart homes, smart agriculture, smart media, and more. See Scenarios.
Billing
IoT Platform supports two billing methods: pay-as-you-go and subscription.
After activation, a public instance is provided for trial use. Older public instances use pay-as-you-go billing, while newer public instances offer fixed specifications at no charge. For production workloads, purchase an Enterprise instance with subscription billing.
For billable items, billing methods, and pricing details, see Billing.
To activate and purchase the IoT Platform service, click Activate Service Now and then Purchase Enterprise Instance.
Usage
You can access IoT Platform in the following ways.
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Method |
Description |
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Manage IoT Platform resources through the web-based console. |
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Cloud SDKs and Cloud APIs |
Send HTTPS or HTTP GET/POST requests to the API endpoint using a cloud SDK. Include the required request parameters as described in the API documentation. You can use OpenAPI Explorer to discover APIs, test them online, and generate SDK sample code. Get started with cloud SDKs at Download a cloud SDK. |
FAQ
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Category |
Question |
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Alibaba Cloud services |
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Device connectivity |
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Message communication |
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Cloud SDKs and APIs |