If the IoT is to prosper, it will need to scale massively. Devices old and new, complex and simple, intelligent and, well, not so intelligent will all need to work together without getting in one another’s way. One of the IoT’s main challenges will be the design of devices and their gateways to support interoperability.

As I mentioned in my last blog, the essential function of any IoT gateway is to establish and maintain a secure, robust, fault-tolerant connection between a cloud service and edge devices. Essentially, the gateway is the traffic cop of the IoT. It manages all the on-ramps and makes sure the traffic flows into and out of the cloud smoothly.

Here are some thoughts to consider when designing a modern IoT device.

Please talk to me
Respond quickly
Don’t be chatty
Never just go away
Tolerate multiple masters