Internet of Things (IoT) gateways: The driving force behind smart cities

     In the last 10 years, there have been many breakthroughs in smart cities. While typical infrastructure, such as Ethernet or Wi-Fi networks, enables most of the communication between systems and subsystems, with the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), the number of nodes in various systems continues to proliferate. In order to support those systems with more different subsystem nodes, IoT gateways are increasingly becoming the driving force behind smart cities. Texas Instruments (TI) offers semiconductor solutions across the entire IoT landscape, from low-level nodes to advanced cloud servers, to help customers solve design challenges in different ways.

     Whether it's flexible transportation, efficient energy, or effective water and waste management, smart cities today offer systems that improve citizens' well-being and work and life efficiency. While many technologies are essential for a smart city, the most important aspect of realizing a smart city is having a highly interconnected infrastructure to support the sharing and exchange of overall information across the installed systems.

     At the moment, much of the communication between systems and subsystems is done using typical infrastructure such as Ethernet or Wi-Fi networks, but there is still a significant need for other networks to support systems with more diverse subsystem nodes. This type of network benefits from the use of embedded Internet of Things (IoT) gateways that not only support a variety of connection types across different nodes and upstream Ethernet, WiFi, and other networks, but also provide the overhead processing power that is urgently needed in the industry today, greatly reducing the workload and complexity of the design of various nodes. Since design complexity is directly related to the cost of nodes, and the proliferation of nodes is inevitable in the development of IoT, the use of embedded IoT gateways is an important consideration in enabling the rapid growth of IoT and ensuring its long-term viability and success.

     Texas Instruments can provide semiconductor solutions covering the entire IoT field from low-level nodes to advanced cloud servers, and key indicators such as node cost and server performance will be the focus of TI's future, and the efficiency of embedded IoT gateways will also become an extremely important aspect. With these considerations in mind, TI offers a wide range of solutions for this area, including integrated wireless components (SimpleLink wireless connectivity), high-performance processors (Sitara AM335x) and microcontrollers (MCUS)(TM4C12x), which can meet the system requirements of various IoT gateways. At the same time, it can solve the challenges encountered by customers in the design process in different ways.

     Among the many solutions, the TM4C129x MCU family is one of TI's key offerings that deliver efficient and unmatched CPU hybrid performance, on-chip memory, integrated peripherals, security, and an industry-leading integrated Ethernet MAC+ PHY. When the TM4C129x MCU family is used in conjunction with its stable and broad software suite, this combination is the best choice for an embedded IoT gateway solution that can be tested at any time. Proof of concept is also possible with a low-cost, cloud-connected evaluation kit (EK-TM4C1294XL) or a more fully functional connectivity development kit (DK-TM4C129X).

     How smart will smart cities eventually become? In fact, the depth of this intelligence will ultimately be limited by the IoT's ability to continue to proliferate, and of course by the overall cost of implementing intelligent systems. There have been many breakthroughs in smart cities in just the past 10 years, and we can all look forward to how connected and efficient cities will change our lives in the coming years.