IoT Service (Wireless)

Overview of Cisco Spaces: IoT Service (Wireless)

Cisco Spaces: IoT Service (Wireless) is a platform service within Cisco Spaces that enables you to claim, manage, and monitor IoT devices using Cisco's wireless infrastructure. IoT Service is designed to enable management of IoT devices across vendors, form factors, and technology protocols. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is the first technology available for management using IoT services.

IoT service (wireless) encompasses hardware, software, and partner components to enable the management of devices that support critical business outcomes. IoT service (wireless) uses Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers, Cisco Spaces: Connector, Cisco Wi-Fi6 access points, and Cisco Spaces. IoT service (wireless) adopts a next-generation approach to manage complexity in an enterprise  environment.

Using the IoT service (wireless), you can perform the following IoT management activities:

  • Deploy BLE gateways on supported APs in your network.

  • Claim the BLE beacons that you acquired from Cisco Spaces: IoT Device Marketplace.

  • Configure APs and manage floor beacons.

  • Monitor device attributes such as location, telemetry, battery status, and movement status.

Components of Cisco Spaces: IoT Service

The section describes the various components that work to complete the Cisco Spaces: IoT Service solution.

The Cisco Catalyst 9100 Series Family of Access Points acts as a gateway of communication between Cisco Spaces and the IoT devices. Cisco Spaces: IoT Service can then use a range of common APIs to communicate with edge devices and apps. The Cisco Spaces: IoT Service collects data from devices and apps, and passes it to Cisco-partnered websites that manage these devices far more extensively (referred to in this document as Device Manager websites). These Device Manager websites can use edge-device signals to enable outcomes specialized and targeted for each industry.

Figure 1. Components of IoT Service

Access Points

You can configure access points as gateways in Cisco Spaces. You can find the list of supported APs in the Compatibility Matrix section.

Depending on your Cisco AP model, configure the AP as one of these types of BLE gateways:

  • Base BLE Gateway: This is an AP that does not run Cisco IOx App. You can configure this AP in Scan, Transmit, or Dual mode.

  • Advanced BLE Gateway: This is an AP installed with the Cisco IOx App. The Cisco IOx App brings the ability to connect, configure, and manage third-party BLE floor beacons using the Cisco Spaces dashboard. Moreover, the Cisco IOx App can be used to perform additional BLE filtering on the AP. You can configure this AP in Scan, Transmit, or Dual mode.

Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers

The Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller (Catalyst 9800 controller) combines RF excellence with Cisco IOS-XE benefits, and comes in physical or virtual form factor. This wireless controller is reliable and highly secure. You can manage this Catalyst 9800 controller using CLI, GUI, NETCONF, Yang, or the Catalyst Center.

The Catalyst 9800 controller is the single point for configuring and managing a wireless network and access points. The Catalyst 9800 controller configures and manages APs using the CAPWAP protocol.

The Catalyst 9800 controller receives BLE configuration from Cisco Spaces over NETCONF and passes the configuration to AP over CAPWAP. The feedback path from the AP to the wireless controller is through CAPWAP, and from the Catalyst 9800 controller to Cisco Spaces through Telemetry data logger (TDL) telemetry streaming. The gRPC configuration from Cisco Spaces also goes through the Catalyst 9800 controller, and from there to the corresponding AP. The configuration sets up the gRPC channel between the AP and Cisco Spaces. The AP sends the gRPC channel statistics to the Catalyst 9800 controller, and you can view these statistics on the Catalyst 9800 controller.


Note

  • You can have only one gRPC session between an AP and connector.

  • Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controller running Cisco IOS XE Amsterdam 17.3.x supports only one of the following:

    • IoT service (wireless) with Cisco Spaces.

    • Network Assurance solution on Catalyst Center using Intelligent Capture (iCAP)

IoT service (wireless) and Intelligent Capture (iCAP) can co-exist from Cisco IOS XE Cupertino 17.7.x or higher.

Cisco Spaces: IoT Device Marketplace

Cisco Spaces: IoT Device Marketplace is a platform where you can discover, research, and purchase IoT devices. IoT Device Marketplace is a part of the Cisco Spaces full-stack partner ecosystem. Each device is preconfigured to give the customer an out-of-the-box experience with sensors, tags, wearables, and more. All the devices are compatible with the applications in the App Center. Current devices in the IoT Device Marketplace leverage BLE to transmit telemetry, with plans to add other technology in the future, such as Ultra Wide Band (UWB) and Zigbee.

Cisco Spaces: Connector

Cisco Spaces: Connector allows Cisco Spaces to communicate with more than one

  • Cisco AireOS Wireless Controllers, and

  • Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers.

APs connect to connector using the gRPC framework.

The APs establish a connection to connector using the gRPC protocol. The gRPC protocol configures floor beacons and receives telemetry data from the floor beacons. gRPC is a bidirectional streaming service, and requires a certificate to validate the host connection and a token for authentication. Each AP creates a gRPC connection. Connector can thus support many simultaneous connections.

Compatibility Matrix for IoT Service (Wireless)

Application Name

Support for Cisco Spaces: IoT Service

Supported wireless controllers

  • Supported on Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers, Release 17.9.6 or 17.12.4

  • Not supported on Cisco AireOS Wireless Controller

  • Not supported on Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller on Cisco Catalyst Access Points (Cisco EWC-AP)

  • Supported on Catalyst 9800 Controller running on Catalyst Switches in SD-Access mode (ECA)

    Note

     

    This support is conditional, and dependent on whether you have applied the fix described in CSCwk66790

Cisco Spaces: Connector Docker

2.0.455 and later

Cisco Spaces: Connector OVA

3.x and later

Cisco Prime Infrastructure

Cisco Prime Infrastructure Release 3.8 MR1 and later

Catalyst Center (for map import)

Catalyst Center Release 2.1.1 and later

Access Points for advanced BLE gateway (Wi-Fi 6)

  • Cisco Catalyst 9105 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst 9115 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst 9117 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst 9120 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst 9130 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst 9136 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst 9162 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst 9164 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst 9166 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Aironet 4800 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Catalyst IW9167 (E/I) Heavy Duty Series Access Points

Access points for basic BLE gateway

  • Cisco Aironet 1815 Series Access Points

  • Cisco Aironet 2800 Series Access Points (USB dongle needed. No in-built USB radio)

  • Cisco Aironet 3800 Series Access Points (USB dongle needed. No in-built USB radio)

Cisco IOx App Version

1.0.46 and later

Note

 

For Cisco Catalyst 9800 Series Wireless Controllers Cisco IOS XE Cupertino 17.7.x, ensure that the IoX Application version is upgraded to Version 1.3.x


Note

IoT Service (Wireless) is not supported with a directly connected controller, CMX Tethering, and AireOS connector. The only supported configuration is the Cisco Catalyst 9800 Wireless Controller and the connector.

The following table lists the compatibility of the Advanced BLE Gateway for BLE and the Base BLE Gateway App with various AP modes. This table is not applicable to Cisco Embedded Wireless Controller on Cisco Catalyst Access Points (Cisco EWC-AP).

Table 1. AP Modes and App Support

AP Mode

Advanced BLE Gateway App

Base BLE Gateway App

PI: Local

  • 802.11ax: Supported

  • Wave 2: Not supported

  • 802.11ax: Supported

  • Wave 2: Supported

P1: Flex

  • 802.11ax: Supported

  • Wave 2: Not supported

  • 802.11ax: Supported

  • Wave 2: Supported

P2: Fabric

  • 802.11ax: Supported

  • Wave 2: Not supported

  • 802.11ax: Supported

  • Wave 2: Supported

P3: Mesh

  • 802.11ax: Supported

  • Wave 2: Not supported

  • 802.11ax: Supported

  • Wave 2: Supported

Prerequisites of IoT Service (Wireless)

Open Ports for IoT Service (Wireless)

This section lists the connector ports that must be open for the proper functioning of IoT service (wireless).

Figure 2. Open Ports for IoT service (wireless)

Configure IoT Service (Wireless)

Procedure

Step 1

In the Cisco Spaces dashboard left navigation pane, click Setup and choose Wireless Networks.

Step 2

In the Connect your wireless network window that is displayed, go to the Step 2 area and click View Connectors.

Figure 3. View Connectors

Step 3

In the connector details window that is displayed, click Add Services.

Figure 4. Add Services

Step 4

In the Add Services window that is displayed, choose IoT Wireless and click Add.

Note

 

service-manager is chosen by default.

Figure 5. Connector Details
In the Connector Details window, you can see that the number of services that are enabled has increased.

Verify IoT Streams for Catalyst 9800 Controller

This task is for troubleshooting purposes only. IoT streams are automatically enabled for all the wireless controllers associated with the IoT service (wireless)   service of a connector.

This task helps you troubleshoot IoT streams of a Catalyst 9800 controller. If your APs are not visible, you can manually enable or disable the IoT streams of Cisco Spaces.

Procedure

Step 1

In the Cisco Spaces dashboard left navigation pane, choose Setup > Wireless Network.

Step 2

In the Configure via Spaces Connector area titled Step 2: Add Controllers, click View Connectors.

Step 3

Click the connector of your choice.

Step 4

In the Services tab, in the Actions column, click the gear icon near IoT service (wireless) to open the Manage IoT Streams window.

Figure 6. Troubleshooting IoT Streams

Verify Access Points

This procedure helps you verify if IoT service (wireless) has synchronized and listed the APs in your network on the GUI

Procedure

Step 1

In the Cisco Spaces dashboard left-navigation pane, choose IoT Services > IoT Gateways > AP Gateway.

Step 2

Click the All APs tab.

Figure 7. Verify APs

Step 3

Verify if IoT service (wireless) has synchronized and listed the APs in your network. Check the Floor Beacon Channel Status and AP Beacon Channel Last Heard columns.

Figure 8. Verify APs