This article gives a general overview on the TeamViewer IoT solution and the components that come with the solution
This diagram shows the core components and features of Teamviewer IoT. Sensors and actuators are connected via the MQTT API to the Teamviewer IoT Agent. This Agent can be installed on any edge devices and on the one hand sends the sensor data to the TeamViewer cloud where it can be analyzed in our cloud dashboard and on the other hand allows incoming connections for remote control operations. The connections to the agent are handled by the TeamViewer IoT Global Access Network.
The functionality of all components is explained below in detail.
Core Use cases
To offer our three main use cases
- Remote Operations
- Remote Assistance
- Remote Alarming
there is a base of 2 technical use cases:
Monitoring
Monitoring is used to make any kind of data processed on the edge device available to the TeamViewer IoT solution. Meaning it can be accessed via the cloud dashboard or the AppControl application on the edge device. The data gathered during monitoring helps the user to better understand his use case and appliance better and provides insights in his operations.
Remote Control
The Remote Control module inside the TeamViewer IoT agent enables the customer to access the edge device through the TeamViewer client installed on the user's PC. Once connected the user can have full access over the whole device by using our built-in features (see below). This allows the user to react to the data which was gathered in the monitoring process.
The components
Sensors and actuators
Any device which can be connected to edge device and send or receive data can serve as sensors or actuators. They can be bought from 3rd party vendors where normally all devices are supported by TeamViewer if they are connected to the hardware where TeamViewer is installed on
Edge gateway
The edge gateway can be any computer device which runs a Linux operating system. For detailed platform compatibility check here: Supported platforms by TeamViewer IoT
A very prominent device for PoCs is the Raspberry pi, apart from this one TeamViewer uses the devices from Kunbus, Dell and Systec as reference platform.
TeamViewer IoT Agent
The TeamViewer IoT agent is the component installed on the edge to enable the use cases provided by TeamViewer IoT. It makes the edge gateway and the peripherals attached to it accessible to the outside by sending the data to the TeamViewer Iot cloud and handling incoming connections. The agent provides three possibilities to remote control the edge device.
AppControl
AppControl provides the ability to create a custom user interface for the device or system the TeamViewer IoT agent is installed on. The UI is a HTML page which is stored on the device. The HTML page can be fully customized and can so reflect any use case. All sensors and actuators registered in the TeamViewer IoT agent and can be accessed by this feature.
EdgeManagement
The edge management is one application provided by TeamViewer which is using AppControl. It provides the possibility to:
- view the data processed on the device in real time
- create rules reacting on the data which are processed directly on the edge
- set up the MQTT API and its clients via a graphical user interface and so enabling a very easy way to integrate sensors and other peripherals
Check the knowledge base entry to understand how the edge management application and its feature can be installed and configured here.
Remote Terminal
The Remote Terminal provides access to the Linux shell on the device and so full access to the operating system.
Remote Screen
The remote screen feature allows the user to access a screen which is attached to the edge device. for full flexibility there are 3 different grabbing methods
- Framebuffer grabbing
- Grabbing of a X11 session
- Directly accessing a QT application processed on the device
The X11 and QT method provide the possibility to view the content of the screen and take control over it. While framebuffer grabbing only provides read-only access.
Find out more about the remote screen feature:
System monitoring
The system monitoring agent is a special monitoring module which provides data about the internal system conditions of the device like CPU load or used disk space and many others. Check out how the system monitoring can be set up here.
Cloud Dashboard
The cloud dashboard is the entrance to the TeamViewer IoT solution. It provides the possibility to:
- manage the devices assigned to the TeamViewer account
- set up rules to receive an alert if a metric violates a threshold specified in the rule
- have an overview of all devices and their metrics in operation through dashboard
- find guidelines on further functionalities like to add additional sensors
The TeamViewer IoT dashboard can be reached on this URL: www.teamviewer-iot.com
Web API
The Web API enables the user to interact with the data stored on the TeamViewer IoT and so enables that the data is downloaded or forwarded to another cloud for further enhanced data processing.
TeamViewer can provide example on how to connect to the Thingworx IoT platform and to AWS.
User PC
To connect to the TeamViewer IoT Agent a PC with a TeamViewer client installed is needed. Currently the connection can only be established from Windows PCs. The cloud dashboard to view the data can be accessed from any browser. The Teamviewer Client can be downloaded here: https://www.teamviewer.com/de/download/windows/
Global Access Network
The TeamViewer infrastructure provides a secured and easy to set up point to point connection between PCs and other PCs or devices. For more information about the Global Access Network and its security features click here https://www.teamviewer.com/de/trust-center/sicherheit/
