First introduce what is DTU
DTU: Data Transfer Unit, data transmission unit.
DTU itself is a kind of middleware, responsible for wireless/wired information transmission, divided into Wi-Fi/4G/Ethernet, they use different communication means for information interaction, the concept of the Internet of Things lies in overall planning and Management lies in the interaction between the server and the point, but for many equipment companies, they may not be good at information interaction, and DTU is the solution to this situation.
Equipment companies can use our DTU as communication middleware, which can minimize the difficulty for users in information interaction between end devices and servers, so that users only need to consider the development of end devices and the application of server logic, no longer need to consider complicated Whether it is wireless Wi-Fi/4G or wired Ethernet, whether the connected server is in the form of TCP, UDP, HTTP or MQTT, information can be exchanged conveniently.
Application scenarios of DTU
DTU does not only exist in the concept. There are many scenarios where DTU has been used, such as the automatic switch of 5G base stations. Operators will monitor the communication pressure of 5G base stations. When it is late at night and the network is less used, operators will The power of the base station will be turned off remotely, and the way to turn off is to directly send Modbus commands through the DTU to achieve the purpose of saving energy.
Not only that, turning on and off the base station is just a type of information transmission. You can exchange any information through DTU. For example, you can send a command to query the current power usage of the base station, and the returned result will also return the data to the server through DTU, so that the server It can monitor the operation of equipment in real time.
Not only in the environment of people’s livelihood, DTU can show its fists. The emergence of DTU is actually a change in control thinking, adding a way for equipment control. For the original equipment, collecting data, processing data, Equipment actions, etc., are all done on the equipment. When the operator is not on site, our controllability of the equipment is very poor.
The value of DTU
Increasing server thinking
While the Internet of Things is booming, it has brought the concept of servers more clearly, and the Internet of Everything is not empty talk. People expect a more centralized monitoring and control system for equipment, but in fact, the two biggest problems brought about by this transformation are communication and server-side, how to send equipment monitoring data to the server, How the server processes data, stores data, and analyzes data are all problems.
Many IoT platforms have followed suit. Alibaba Cloud, Baidu, Tencent, and China Mobile have launched their own related IoT platforms to give samples to many IoT companies. So the current pattern is that large-scale IoT applications or enterprises will use their own IoT platforms to manage and control devices, while small IoT applications or enterprises will flock to the arms of these large payment platforms mentioned above. The data generated by these devices, Finally having a home, they will be sent to the background of these servers for processing.
Therefore, when the problem of the server direction is solved step by step, the problem of data transmission is also carried out simultaneously. Large-scale applications or devices will have their own communication units, but small and medium-sized enterprises do not have the ability to independently complete device information transmission. ability, this kind of scene is very suitable for DTU to play. Therefore, DTU is actually an application product in the direction of the Internet of Things, a communication middleware, and does not exist exclusively for a certain device.
The value of Modbus
As mentioned above, the new era brings new ideas of the Internet of Things, and the concept of aggravating the server is to simplify the deployment of the device side and to get rid of the independence of the end device more completely. People want to deprive the brain of the end device so that they will not If you have your own ideas, there is a risk of problems if you have logic processing, and it is also a trouble to develop these logics.
Take the simplest street light system, its light sensor will detect the surrounding light conditions, and it can be regarded as turning on the street light in low light (at night), then the light sensor is the detection device, and the switch of the light it controls is the control device. The simplest implementation logic is to always monitor the value of the light sensor to decide whether to turn on the light. Therefore, a processor is needed to execute this logic all the time. This is the simplest control system, and the control system in practical applications will have many detectors and controllers. And people just want to deprive the value of this processor, because it will cost manpower and material resources, and if this processor fails, it will cause the entire system to fail.
This is the value of Modbus, and Modbus is just the kind of general protocol that people expect to control equipment. If the device itself supports Modbus, then it can directly perform control interaction through Modbus commands.
Take the above simple street light system as an example, if the light sensor and light switch equipment support Modbus command control, then the server as the control processor can monitor thousands of street lights at the same time, and the server can issue Modbus commands to query the light sensor status. value, and then analyze whether it is necessary to issue Modbus commands to control street light switches. When the information is collected, the actions of the equipment are implemented by Modbus commands as the carrier, and then all the control logic is moved to the server. We can really realize the peer-to-peer The simplification of equipment makes the control system centralized.
Finally, a word about network IO.
The above has mentioned DTU, and also mentioned the increasingly serious server thinking, Modbus, and the application of DTU plus Modbus. As for network IO, it is actually a terminal gateway with a trade-off effect.
Although the control system can be realized by combining all the sensors and controllers that support Modbus, and then interacting the data with the server through the DTU, the equipment that supports Modbus is generally more expensive, and the network IO appears to save costs. It is also a DTU capable of information transmission, but at the same time it can also be directly used as a control device to perform switch on and off, perform switch value collection and analog value collection, and increase the function of the DTU, thus simplifying the cost of the entire system.
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