In many instances, IoT edge devices will be under service-level agreements or data caps when using metered data such as 4G LTE. In other situations, the edge router or gateway is a host of other PAN networks and IoT devices. It should serve as a central (but local) authority on the health of the PAN network/mesh. Metrics and analytics are useful for collecting and resolving connectivity and cost challenges, especially as the scale of IoT grows. Typical metrics and collections should include the following:
- WAN uptime analytics: Historical trends, service levels
- Data usage: Ingress, egress, aggregate, per client, per application
- Bandwidth: Random or scheduled bandwidth analysis on ingress and egress
- PAN health: Bandwidth, abnormal traffic, mesh reorganization
- Signal integrity: Signal strength, site survey
- Location: GPS coordinates, movement, location changes
- Access control: Clients attached, administrator logins, router configuration changes, PAN authentication success/failure
- Failover: Number of failover events, time and duration
These types of metrics should be collected and monitored on a scheduled and automatic basis. Additionally, advanced routers should be able to construct rules and alerts when certain events or abnormal behaviors are seen at the edge.