General architecture
The main goal of creating a Patchwok Tookit was to easily connect various devices into a network and expose their capabilities via a common API (RESTful, SOAP, CoAP, MQTT, etc) that would be easy consume by applications and services. Create a proper infrastructure of interconnected things is the first step towards creating a ubiquitous environment for your needs: a smart home, a smart office or any other hacking projects.
We avoid using a term Internet of Things (IoT) in respect to Patchwork Toolkit on purpose, as we do not solve a global problem of interconnecting isolated distributed environments. Although you can use Patchwork Toolkit in the WAN by running its components on the publicly available machines.
There are 4 majour components required to create a network of things using Patchwork Toolkit:
- Device Gateway
- Device Catalog
- Service Catalog
- MQTT Broker
