AWS IoT SiteWise concepts

The following are the core concepts of AWS IoT SiteWise:

Aggregate

Aggregates are fundamental metrics, or measurements, that AWS IoT SiteWise automatically calculates for all time series data. For more information, see Querying asset property aggregates.

Asset

When you input, or ingest, data into AWS IoT SiteWise from your industrial equipment, your devices, equipment, and processes are each shown as assets. Each asset has associated data. For example, a piece of equipment might have a serial number, a location, a make and model, and an installation date. It might also have time series values for availability, performance, quality, temperature, pressure, and more. Group assets into hierarchies, allowing assets to access data stored in their child assets. For more information, see Modeling industrial assets.

Asset hierarchy

Set up asset hierarchies to create logical representations of your industrial operations. To do this, define a hierarchy in an asset model and associate assets created from that model with the specified hierarchy. Metrics in parent assets can combine data from the properties of child assets, allowing you to calculate metrics that offer insights into your overall operation or a specific part of it. For more information, see Defining asset model hierarchies.

Asset model

Every asset is made using an asset model. Asset models are structures that define and standardize the format of your assets. They ensure consistent information across multiple assets of the same type, allowing you to handle data in assets that represent groups of devices. In each asset model, you can define attributes, time series inputs (measurements), time series transformations (transforms), time series aggregations (metrics), and asset hierarchies. For more information, see Modeling industrial assets.

Decide where your asset model's properties are processed by configuring your asset model for the edge. Utilize this feature to handle and monitor asset data on your local devices.

Asset property

Asset properties are the structures within each asset that hold industrial data. Each property has a data type and can also have a unit. A property can be an attribute, a measurement, a transform, or a metric. For more information, see Defining data properties.

Configure asset properties to compute at the edge. For more information about processing data at the edge, see Enabling edge data processing.

Attribute

Attributes are properties of an asset that typically stay constant, like the device manufacturer or device location. Attributes can have preset values. Every asset created from an asset model includes the default values of the attributes defined in that model. For more information, see Defining static data (attributes).

Dashboard

Each project contains a set of dashboards. Dashboards provide a set of visualizations for the values of a set of assets. Project owners create the dashboards and the visualizations that it contains. When a project owner is ready to share the set of dashboards, the owner can invite viewers to the project, which gives them access to all dashboards in the project. If you want a different set of viewers for different dashboards, you must divide the dashboards between projects. When viewers look at dashboards, they can customize time range to look at specific data.

Data stream

Input, or ingest, industrial data into AWS IoT SiteWise even before creating asset models and assets. AWS IoT SiteWise automatically generates data streams to collect raw data streams from your equipment.

Data stream alias

Data stream aliases help you easily identify a data stream. For example, the alias server1-windfarm/3/turbine/7/temperature indicates temperature values coming from turbine #7 in wind farm #3. The term server1 is the data source name that helps identify the OPC-UA server, and server1- is a prefix attached to all data streams reported from this OPC-UA server.

Data stream association

After you create asset models and assets, associate data streams with asset properties defined in your assets to structure your data. AWS IoT SiteWise can then use asset models and assets to handle incoming data from your data streams. You can also disassociate data streams from asset properties. For more information, see Managing data streams.

Formula

Each transform and metric property comes with a formula that outlines how the property transforms or aggregates data. These formulas include property inputs, operators, and functions offered by AWS IoT SiteWise. For more information, see Using formula expressions.

Measurement

Measurements are properties of an asset that depict the raw sensor time series data streams from a device or equipment. For more information, see Defining data streams from equipment (measurements).

Metric

Metrics are properties of an asset that represent aggregated time series data. Each metric is accompanied by a mathematical expression (formula) that outlines how to aggregate data points and a time interval for computing that aggregation. Metrics generate a single data point for each specified time interval. For more information, see Aggregating data from properties and other assets (metrics).

Packs

SiteWise Edge gateways use packs to determine how to collect, process, and route data. Currently, AWS IoT SiteWise supports the data collection pack and the data processing pack. For more information about the available packs for your SiteWise Edge gateway, see Using packs.

Data collection pack

Use the data collection pack so that your SiteWise Edge gateway can collect your industrial data and route it to the AWS destination of your choice. This pack is automatically added to your SiteWise Edge gateway and can't be removed.

Data processing pack

Use the data processing pack to process your data at the edge and retain it for 30 days for use in local applications.

Portal

An AWS IoT SiteWise Monitor portal is a web application that you can use to visualize and share your AWS IoT SiteWise data. A portal has one or more administrators and contains zero or more projects.

Portal administrator

Each SiteWise Monitor portal has one or more portal administrators. Portal administrators use the portal to create projects that contain collections of assets and dashboards. The portal administrator then assigns assets and owners to each project. By controlling access to the project, portal administrators specify which assets that project owners and viewers can see.

Project

Each SiteWise Monitor portal contains a set of projects. Each project has a subset of your AWS IoT SiteWise assets associated with it. Project owners create one or more dashboards to provide a consistent way to view the data associated with those assets. Project owners can invite viewers to the project to allow them to view the assets and dashboards in the project. The project is the basic unit of sharing within SiteWise Monitor. Project owners can invite users who were given access to the portal by the AWS administrator. A user must have access to a portal before a project in that portal can be shared with that user.

Project owner

Each SiteWise Monitor project has owners. Project owners create visualizations in the form of dashboards to represent operational data in a consistent manner. When dashboards are ready to share, the project owner can invite viewers to the project. Project owners can also assign other owners to the project. Project owners can configure thresholds and notification settings for alarms.

Project viewer

Each SiteWise Monitor project has viewers. Project viewers can connect to the portal to view the dashboards that project owners created. In each dashboard, project viewers can adjust the time range to better understand operational data. Project viewers can only view dashboards in the projects to which they have access. Project viewers can acknowledge and snooze alarms.

Property alias

You have the option to create aliases on asset properties, such as an OPC-UA server data stream path (for example, /company/windfarm/3/turbine/7/temperature), simplifying the identification of an asset property during the ingestion or retrieval of asset data. When you use a SiteWise Edge gateway to ingest data from servers, your property aliases must match the paths of your raw data streams. For more information, see Mapping industrial data streams to asset properties.

Property notification

When you enable property notifications for an asset property, AWS IoT SiteWise publishes an MQTT message to AWS IoT Core each time that property receives a new value. The message payload includes details about the update to that property value. Use property value notifications to create solutions that connect your industrial data in AWS IoT SiteWise with other AWS services. For more information, see Interacting with other AWS services.

SiteWise Edge gateway

A SiteWise Edge gateway is situated on the customer's premises to gather, handle, and direct data. A SiteWise Edge gateway connects to your industrial data sources through OPC-UA protocol to gather and process data, sending it to the AWS cloud. SiteWise Edge gateways can also connect to partner data sources. SiteWise Edge gateways use packs for data collection, edge processing, and more. For more information about available packs, see Using packs.

You have the flexibility to create a SiteWise Edge gateway on any device or platform capable of running AWS IoT Greengrass. For more information, see Using SiteWise Edge gateways.

Transform

Transforms are properties of an asset that represent transformed time series data. Every transform is accompanied by a mathematical expression (formula) that specifies how to convert data points from one form to another. The transformed data points hold a one-to-one relationship with the input data points. For more information, see Transforming data (transforms).

Visualization

In each dashboard, project owners decide how to display the properties and alarms of the assets associated with the project. Availability might be represented as a line chart, while other values might be displayed as bar charts or key performance indicators (KPIs). Alarms are best displayed as status grids and status timelines. Project owners customize each visualization to provide the best understanding of the data for that asset.