SmartWorks Requirements

This instruction provides general requirements and recommendations to easily manage the SmartWorks platform.

Note that any device with internet connection can be connected to the SmartWorks platform.

Communication Protocols

The SmartWorks platform is deployable on public cloud, on premises, and there is also an Altair managed deployment that can be used.

Regardless of the chosen set-up, you will need to create a connection between SmartWorks and your devices to connect them and manage the data. Since data can come from many sources, you will need to configure those sources first to send data to SmartWorks following a web protocol.

SmartWorks enables you to enhance your experience by being compatible with both HTTP and MQTT protocols. They are not only compatible separately but are also synchronized so that both protocols can be used at the same time.

Before starting to use SmartWorks, please make sure appropriate ports are open to enable communication between your devices and the platform. Also, access to requisite DNS must be enabled.

MQTT Protocol

MQTT is the standard messaging protocol for the Internet of Things based on publish/subscribe information. It allows for messaging between device to cloud and cloud to device. Connections are always handled by a MQTT broker, which is responsible for receiving and filtering the messages using topics. The parameters to configure the MQTT broker connection and the topics needed are available on the platform.

Requirements:
  • Ports required: 1883, 8883, 8080 and 8888.
  • Host: tcp://mqtt.your.domain.com

HTTP Protocol

HTTP is the protocol used to transfer data over the web. Clients and servers communicate by exchanging individual messages (requests and responses). You can check the available endpoints to establish communication here.

Requirements:
  • Ports required: 80 and 443
  • Host: https://api.your.domain.com

Public IP Addresses and DNS Entries

If the Platform is going to be accessed from the Internet, a set of public IP addresses will be needed as well as the necessary infrastructure to route traffic to the services. Typically, a load balancer will be put in front of the services and then traffic will be routed to Kubernetes Ingresses. For every public IP address there would be the corresponding DNS A record.

X509 Certificates

In the same way as in the previous paragraph, x509 certificates would be necessary to secure HTTP endpoints.

Mail Server

Our Platform provides an internal mail server to send email messages when a user registers or to invite users to a Space. This server needs a mail relay to resend emails to their destination. It will be necessary to have the necessary configuration parameters to use the relay.

Data Volume Limitation

Before sending data to SmartWorks you must consider that it is a public platform hosted by Altair. Our cloud has a limited bandwidth so there are some limitations regarding the volume of data during communications. The platform can handle 2 requests per second and per device.

If you want to cater to a different number of requests, you must choose to deploy on premises and adjust SmartWorks to your own requirements.

Note that this limitation might change across time depending on the demand of other users.