Chapter 6 Next Steps

Prerequisites

Ensure you have completed all the steps in the following documents before continuing:

• Chapter 5 Data Visualization

Example Demo Flow

You could demonstrate the power and flexibility of Kinetic EFM using a setup similar to this lab kit,. You could also build a vertical-specific kit or procure a turn-key demo kit. Documentation about these different demo kit options are detailed below. Whichever kit you use, there are some common steps and main points to convey in any live demo about the value of Kinetic EFM to customers and partners.

Prep Work

1. Physically set up the demo kit
2. Confirm connectivity between brokers
3. Open the EFM Dataflow Editor and the dataflows you plan to demonstrate
4. Open the EFM Demo Dashboard and clear any old demo data
5. Test the demo interactions you plan to show and then reset the dashboard

Set the Stage

1. Tell the story of the operational pain-points and problems your customer is facing today as appropriate and relevant. For example:

• Stove piped systems
• Expensive, insecure devices with long replacement cycles
• Disparate communication protocols
• Connectivity challenges
• Retell any compelling public stories about similar customers that ran into these issues and how it impacted productivity, safety, and operational costs

2. Tell how Kinetic EFM and the associated Cisco IoT solutions portfolio help solve these challenges. For example:

• IoT gateways that support multiple connectivity options (fiber, LTE, Wi-Fi, etc.) and run Kinetic EFM at the edge
• A flexible IoT system that can take inputs, apply logic, generate outputs, and aggregate, filter, and store data locally, regionally, and centrally (“north/south”)
• See the Kinetic EFM TDM deck for more examples (linked via SalesConnect below)

Describe the Demo Setup

1. Explain the components of your demo kit, especially any real or simulated IoT “things” (sensors, displays, etc.) and what they are meant to represent
2. Explain the connectivity types and describe the Kinetic EFM tiered architecture (devices, edge, region, datacenter) using a diagram. Refer to Chapter 0 Getting Started for an example diagram.

Show the Use Cases

1. Normalized sensor data flowing through the EFM tiers

• Sensor data is now accessible and usable for any use case in a scalable, secure, standardized fashion
• Show live sensor data in the Dataflow Editor coming in every 3 seconds and being sent upstream (publish-local-sensor)

2. Sampled stored sensor data in the datacenter

• Show sampled 1-minute moving average sensor data in the Dataflow Editor being saved to ParStream (save-sampled-sensor-data)
• Show stored ParStream data and graphs in Dashboard as well as C/F conversion

3. Local control event and policy integration

• Show how we logically connect the control data to the local display in the Dataflow Editor (local-control-display)
• Actuate the Sense HAT joystick (held) to simulate critical real-time operational data (e.g. emergency button) and show how it changes the Sense HAT display
• Explain how even if the local broker is disconnected from the upstream system it will continue to enforce this policy

4. Data sampling at the edge

• Show the large amount of incoming data from the Sense HAT joystick with each movement in the Dataflow Editor (JSON table in publish-local-control)
• Explain how we can filter the data before it is sent upstream by checking for “released” events
• Show the control data entries in the Dashboard

Closing

1. Summarize why this solution is the choice for your customer. For example:

• A single solution for all connectivity options
• Supports all devices and sensors now and in the future
• Drive policy and data at the edge where it is actionable and needed

What’s Next?

If you have completed the lab to this point (congratulations!) and have some time left over you can expand your understanding of Kinetic EFM by reviewing the collateral and documentation or working on the challenges. Feel free to pick and choose based on what sounds interesting.

Further Reading

• Explore the Kinetic section on SalesConnect here, paying close attention to the additional training, Kinetic EFM TDM deck, and available turn-key demo kit
• Review the Kinetic EFM 1.5 documentation here
• See an example of how to create a vertical-specific (transportation) Kinetic EFM demo kit here
• Look through the Raspberry Pi Sense HAT Python script source code used in this lab here

Challenges

• Update the local-control-display dataflow to display different messages for each joystick direction
• Add a dataflow that updates the Sense HAT display with the current temperature when the joystick is held in (the “middle” direction)

Hint: You may also be able to extend an existing dataflow rather than creating a new one

• Add a dataflow that leverages additional Sense HAT display capabilities based on the following JSON message types

Hint: You used one of these in the local-control-display dataflow.

{ "action": "clear" }

{ "action": "text", "text": "Hello world!", "color": [0, 255, 0] }

{ "action": "draw", "color": [0, 0, 255], "x": 0, "y": 0 }

• Connect your remote broker to another station’s remote broker and exchange data

You will need to coordinate this activity with the other station.

• Add a ParStream table to keep track of Sense HAT display history
• Extend the DGLux dashboard to include a real-time representation of the Sense HAT display