Rockwell - Resistence is Futile...you will be Converged!...
Help may be closer to hand than we think, but whether feasible here or not I don't know?
While I don't have any finer "this is how you will implement this" details, I can provide some hopeful news on the possibilities here.
I'll try to be as brief as I can...
As discussed above, this particular wireless Industrial IoT (IIoT) ready device is utilizing the globally expanding IoT Sigfox RF cellular network. While it hasn't reached the four corners of the Globe just yet, it is continuing to grow at a remarkable rate with increasing investment year on year. Last I had read around Summertime it is now available in 60 countries worldwide.
So what can be used to collect such wireless IIoT device data?...
The global market leader in IoT and AR Platforms is the software vendor Parametric Technology Corporation, or PTC. They are out in front of the likes of IBM and Microsoft thanks to their extremely popular and quite robust ThingWorx Industrial IoT Platform -
"
ThingWorx delivers purpose-built industrial IoT applications and the market-leading technology platform, so you can rapidly deliver solutions that solve critical challenges in your industrial business. Ensure connectivity to devices, applications, and data sources across your organization. Access industrial IoT and application data from on-premise web servers, off-premise cloud applications, and hybrid environments for ultimate flexibility.
Say what?
Basically and in a tight little nutshell - it connects, collects and analyses a wide variety of disparate IIoT data to predict outcomes in order to maximize value.
To focus on connecting...
Connection Services
ThingWorx Foundation connection services, software agents, and toolkits are available to establish connectivity between devices or assets and ThingWorx Foundation via the communication method and hardware best suited for each scenario. Connection Services include the following:
• Out-of-the-box connectivity to industrial devices via
ThingWorx Industrial Connectivity
(i.e. PLC/PAC, SCADA/MES, etc.)
• Connection Servers: Support connectivity to devices via several methods, including
3rd party device clouds, direct network connections, Open APIs
(Such as Sigfox/Comet cloud services)
• Device Cloud Adapters: Offer scalable, secure
connectivity and native ThingWorx modeling
for devices connected through device clouds, including Azure, AWS, and GE Predix - enabling enterprises to more fully maximize existing cloud investments
(via extension modules)
PTC's ThingWorx IoT Platform provides such an extension module specifically for Sigfox capable devices -
ThingWorx Sigfox Extension
I'm not really clued in yet on how all that "Worx" in any great detail but to cut to the chase...
Also in the Summertime, I had read about an interesting partnership move where Rockwell Automation were about to make a $1B dollar equity investment in PTC to merge their vast plant floor footprint with the software companies IoT giant that is the ThingWorx Platform. A strategic move intended to keep Rockwell's established Connected Enterprise at the forefront of the "digital transformation" required for IT/OT Convergence within IIoT systems (need to start a dictionary for all these new buzzwords)...
PTC and Rockwell Automation Announce Strategic Partnership
Moving on from then...
Just this month I had watched a Youtube video (recorded Nov 14th) outlining the progress they have made since their strategic partnership in the Summer...
https://youtu.be/jzsyAi97918
...where they discuss the new collaborative offering released just the day before (Nov 13th). This new software product is called "FactoryTalk InnovationSuite, powered by PTC". It essentially combines five separate products between the two partners but the core merged components are FactoryTalk Analytics and ThingWorx Industrial IoT Platform -
Rockwell Automation and PTC Launch Collaborative Offering
So we can now see how Rockwell and PTC have positioned themselves nicely to maximize their involvement and dividends in the IT/OT sector within the IIoT "revolution" that is before us. Whether we fight it or not, Convergence is inevitable.
Where does this leaves you, Harsh Suthar, in regards to the above as an option? Aside from where your at with the Sigfox RF side of things, the new Suite certainly is too new for me, and I'm sure most others here, to say what outlay costs might be involved in such an option. But some here may have heard or discussed this new product's pricing, either directly with their Rockwell vendor or at "very" recent trade fairs. All the same, I'd imagine though that the cost may make it somewhat prohibitive as an option where you just want to poll simple device data in a ControlLogix.
Still, we all "have" to make that first IT/OT Convergence step somewhere, right?
If you are interested then I would contact your own Rockwell vendor and garnish as much information as you can, and then come back here and write a "full" breakdown of how it all "Worx", rather than my "brief" synopsis.
I jest, of course.
Regards,
George