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US-20260129105-A1 - MULTIMODE EDGE TO CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MONITORING AND MANAGING GPS DATA IN IOT NETWORKS

US20260129105A1US 20260129105 A1US20260129105 A1US 20260129105A1US-20260129105-A1

Abstract

In one aspect, a method includes determining, at an Internet of Things edge gateway, that a primary connection to a cloud service is not operational, the primary connection being a connection through which, during a normal mode of operation by the Internet of Things edge gateway, information collected by the Internet of Things edge gateway are sent to the cloud service for subsequent access. Upon determining that the primary connection is not operational, the method includes switching from the normal mode of operation to a local mode of operation at the Internet of Things edge gateway, wherein in the local mode of operation, the Internet of Things edge gateway enables access to a subset of the information via a secondary connection to a backup cloud service. Moreover, the method further includes sending the subset of the information to a secondary server over a secondary connection.

Inventors

  • Nikhil Mathur
  • Poornima Kandhade
  • Lakshmi Thiyagarajan

Assignees

  • CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20241105

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . A method comprising: determining, at an Internet of Things edge gateway, that a primary connection to a cloud service is not operational, the primary connection being a connection through which, during a normal mode of operation by the Internet of Things edge gateway, information collected by the Internet of Things edge gateway are sent to the cloud service for subsequent access; upon determining that the primary connection is not operational, switching from the normal mode of operation to a local mode of operation at the Internet of Things edge gateway, wherein in the local mode of operation, the Internet of Things edge gateway enables access to a subset of the information via a secondary connection to a backup cloud service; and sending the subset of the information to a secondary server over a secondary connection.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining that the primary connection is operational again; and switching from the local mode of operation back to the normal mode of operation.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising: deleting a local cache in which the subset of the information is stored for access during the local mode of operation.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the secondary connection is a secure connection.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the backup cloud service is a zero-trust network access cloud service.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein, in the local mode of operation, the subset of the information are stored in a local cache on at least one of the Internet of Things edge gateway or a server associated with the zero-trust network access cloud service.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the information include global positioning related data for the Internet of Things edge gateway.
  8. 8 . A network gateway, comprising: one or more memories having computer-readable instructions stored therein; and one or more processors configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to: determine that a primary connection to a cloud service is not operational, the primary connection being a connection through which, during a normal mode of operation by the network gateway, information collected by the network gateway are sent to the cloud service for subsequent access; upon determining that the primary connection is not operational, switch from the normal mode of operation to a local mode of operation at the network gateway, wherein in the local mode of operation, the network gateway enables access to a subset of the information via a secondary connection to a backup cloud service; and send the subset of the information to a secondary server over a secondary connection.
  9. 9 . The network gateway of claim 8 , wherein the network gateway is an Internet of Things edge gateway.
  10. 10 . The network gateway of claim 9 , wherein the Internet of Things edge gateway is deployed on one or more assets that periodically move between different geographical locations.
  11. 11 . The network gateway of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to: determine that the primary connection is operational again; and switch from the local mode of operation back to the normal mode of operation.
  12. 12 . The network gateway of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to deleting a local cache in which the subset of the information is stored for access during the local mode of operation.
  13. 13 . The network gateway of claim 9 , wherein the secondary connection is a secure connection and the backup cloud service is a zero-trust network access cloud service.
  14. 14 . The network gateway of claim 9 , wherein the information include global positioning related data for the Internet of Things edge gateway.
  15. 15 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising computer-readable instructions, which when executed by one or more processors on an Internet of Things edge gateway, cause the Internet of Things edge gateway to: determine that a primary connection to a cloud service is not operational, the primary connection being a connection through which, during a normal mode of operation by the Internet of Things edge gateway, information collected by the Internet of Things edge gateway are sent to the cloud service for subsequent access; upon determining that the primary connection is not operational, switch from the normal mode of operation to a local mode of operation at the Internet of Things edge gateway, wherein in the local mode of operation, the Internet of Things edge gateway enables access to a subset of the information via a secondary connection to a backup cloud service; and send the subset of the information to a secondary server over a secondary connection.
  16. 16 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15 , wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to: determine that the primary connection is operational again; and switch from the local mode of operation back to the normal mode of operation.
  17. 17 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15 , wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions further cause the one or more processors to delete a local cache in which the subset of the information is stored for access during the local mode of operation.
  18. 18 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15 , wherein the secondary connection is a secure connection and the backup cloud service is a zero-trust network access cloud service.
  19. 19 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18 , wherein, in the local mode of operation, the subset of the information are stored in a local cache on at least one of the Internet of Things edge gateway or a server associated with the zero-trust network access cloud service.
  20. 20 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15 , wherein the information include global positioning related data for the Internet of Things edge gateway.

Description

BACKGROUND Global Positioning System (GPS) supports mobile use cases in Internet of Things (IoT) systems. IoT edge gateways are deployed at the edge on assets (e.g., movable systems in field in which IoT devices are deployed, on buses, trucks, etc.). IoT edge gateways are capable of collecting GPS location and transmitting the same to cloud servers where this information can be accessed and managed by IoT system operators. As number of IoT devices grow, handling a flood of messages from a large number of edge IoT gateways can disrupt/take down the connection between IoT edge gateways and the cloud servers. Consequently, network operators may not be able to access the collected GPS data from the cloud servers. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the figure number in which that element is first introduced. FIG. 1 illustrates an example IoT system and corresponding cloud connectivity according to some aspects of the present disclosure. FIG. 2 illustrates an example IoT system and corresponding ZTNA connectivity according to some aspects of the present disclosure. FIG. 3 illustrates an example IoT environment with multi-modal edge to cloud infrastructure. FIG. 4 illustrates a method for data access in a multi-modal edge to cloud infrastructure according to some aspects of the present disclosure. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a computing system according to some aspects of the present technology DETAILED DESCRIPTION OVERVIEW Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to addressing disruptions in network connectivity between IoT edge gateways and cloud servers. In one aspect, a method includes determining, at an Internet of Things edge gateway, that a primary connection to a cloud service is not operational, the primary connection being a connection through which, during a normal mode of operation by the Internet of Things edge gateway, information collected by the Internet of Things edge gateway are sent to the cloud service for subsequent access. Upon determining that the primary connection is not operational, the method includes switching from the normal mode of operation to a local mode of operation at the Internet of Things edge gateway, wherein in the local mode of operation, the Internet of Things edge gateway enables access to a subset of the information via a secondary connection to a backup cloud service. Moreover, the method further includes sending the subset of the information to a secondary server over a secondary connection. EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS As noted above, Global Positioning System (GPS) supports mobile use cases in Internet of Things (IoT) systems. IoT devices may be deployed in any number of use cases. Such use cases include, but are not limited to, deployment in the fields such as oil fields, wind farms, power grids, etc. Other use cases can include autonomous driving applications, factory floors, transit systems, etc. In order to convey underlying information collected/monitored by IoT devices, IoT edge gateways are deployed at the edge on assets (e.g., stationary or movable systems in field in which IoT devices are deployed, on buses, trucks, etc.). These IoT edge gateways may have software applications running thereon to collect various types of information including, but not limited to, GPS related information. GPS related information can include critical data such as live streaming information, cache buffers, sampling frequency updates, location information, geofence configurations, viewing alerts on violations, etc. Such information may be said to be critical, because they allow Operation Technology (OT) users (may also be referred to as system operators) to access and monitor IoT assets in the field. OT users, through their respective terminals, retrieve these GPS related information from a cloud server to which IoT edge gateways are connected and periodically send collected GPS related information thereto. As the number of IoT devices and hence IoT edge gateways increase, the load on these cloud servers also increase. The increased load and/or other network connectivity issues may result in disruption to the connectivity of IoT edge gateways to the cloud servers, which in turn prevents OT users from accessing the GPS related data. To address these disruptions, a User Interface (UI) portal and an edge application that can be both deployed in the cloud server and at the IoT edge gateways for monitoring and managing GPS related information are disclosed in this application. When the edge application is deployed to an IoT edge gateway, the edge application operates in the “cloud” mode if it is able to connect to the cloud server and exchange messages. Under circumstances where the edge application on an IoT edge gateway cannot connect to the cloud server, the edge application automatically enables the “local” mode which can prov