Around five years ago, M2M (machine-to-machine) connectivity was an emerging field with no standard technology approach. Today, the use of Internet protocols to connect virtually any kind of device is common practice - and the Internet Controller concept developed by Connect OneTM is a well-established standard, widely utilized throughout many industries.
Connect One created the concept of the Internet Controller as a way to Internet-enable devices without requiring a costly and time-consuming redesign of the existing hardware. Our goal was to enable engineers to Internet-enable devices without draining host processor capacity, using costly high-power processors, or increasing the amount of memory on the board.
The role of the Internet Controller is to mediate the connection between the host and the Internet via the communication medium. In the same way that other controller chips offload certain functions from a host processor, such as VGA, DMA, and interrupt controllers, an Internet Controller chip, acting as an embedded device server, offloads Internet communication tasks from the host processor.
A Complete Embedded Hardware and Software Solution
An embedded Internet Controller is a complete hardware and software solution that acts independently of the host processor and operating system and enables the developer to add IP connectivity to his existing design with minimal changes to the hardware and minimal or no change to the application. The developer can use the existing processor, memory, operating system and application, and just add a few commands to set the Internet configuration parameters and to activate Internet communications.
iChip™ stores the Internet protocols and device configuration parameters in onboard flash memory, which is remotely updateable in most models. iChip also uses onboard SRAM for buffering and for executing routines, providing sufficient SRAM to ensure that packets will not be lost during Internet sessions.
iChip works with any host processor, any (or no) host operating system, any modem that supports the industry-standard Hayes AT command set, and all the most popular LAN and WiFi controllers for embedded applications. Connect One developed its own Internet protocol stack and RTOS to run the Internet protocols on iChip. The result is a flexible, dependable, highly optimized and efficient TCP/IP communication controller that offers much more than just basic TCP/IP connectivity - and is a "drop-in" IP networking solution for any current or future requirement. To learn more about how iChip offers much more than just TCP/IP, please read the White Paper "iChip and the Internet Protocols: Much More than Just TCP/IP".
Built-in Security
iChipSec™ is the first and only embedded device server on the market that includes an SSL3/TLS1.0 client for secure socket transactions and an FTPS client for secure FTP file transfers. Development for HTTPS and SMTPS is planned. All iChips offer security features that may not be available from other IP solution vendors, such as secure SMTP authentication for sending emails or MD5 password encryption for accessing iChip's embedded Web server. To learn more about iChipSec's security features, please read the Technology Brief.
Features for Optimizing Network Connectivity
iChip also includes many features that optimize network connectivity. For example, when going online, iChip can automatically report its host name, port number and dynamic IP address to a socket server, mailbox or Web registration page. Once registered, clients may query the servers in order to retrieve iChip's current IP address. iChip's Web server can be configured to activate automatically after going online.
In the case of cellular networks, iChip includes a "connectivity watchdog" that monitors the cellular network connection and automatically establishes a new PPP link to reconnect in case of a lost carrier. iChip will report if a device is online or offline. iChip also includes many features that are not available in most TCP/IP-enabled modems. To learn more about the advantages of using iChip in a cellular application, please read the White Paper Migrating M2M Applications to 2.5G and 3G Cellular Networks".
Remote Management
iChip includes a remote management agent that enables devices to be remotely managed via Connect One's Device Connectivity Server (DCS), which is a combination Web server, registration server, and proxy server. The DCS allows devices with dynamic and/or illegal IP addresses to be accessed and to act as servers, regardless of the IP address they are assigned. This is especially important for remote access to devices deployed behind a firewall or NAT (Network Address Translator). Devices can be remotely configured via the Web or sockets. Connect One's AT+i™ protocol provides a simple interface for remote device access. To learn more about the Device Connectivity Server, please read the Technology Brief.
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