There are a lot of options when it comes to implementing an Internet of Things (IoT) system. There are software, hardware and service choices that must be made, and it can be difficult to know how to make the right ones. But don’t worry—you’re not alone. We’re doing our part to help engineers with their IoT decisions, and now a new tool from the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) has been released with the same goal: TPCx-IoT, a benchmark standard for IoT gateway systems.
According to the TPC, TPCx-IoT is the first benchmark standard of its kind. Available in a downloadable kit, TPCx-IoT includes a user guide, a driver program and a set of scripts to set up, run and validate the benchmark, as well as some java code to execute the benchmark load. With this standard tool, engineers will be able to directly compare the software and hardware performance of different IoT gateway solutions.
The benchmark scripts simulate IoT sensor data and send it to the System Under Test (SUT), the IoT gateway system made up of servers, switches and storage systems running a NoSQL database. After running the test, the benchmark generates metrics representing performance (data ingestion capability) and price performance, which takes into account the total cost of the SUT.
“The IoT revolution is transforming virtually every major market segment,” said TPC’s TPCx-IoT committee chairman Raghunath Nambiar. “TPCx-IoT is the first major step in enabling fair comparisons of performance and price performance of hardware and software systems dealing with IoT, demonstrating the commitment of the TPC to come up with standards relevant to the industry and academia.”
To learn more about the TPCx-IoT benchmark, you can read the standard specification here. For more help with your IoT choices, check out “A Scorecard for IoT Platforms.”