In an industrial IoT system, industrial gateways reliably transmit large amounts of data generated by devices in the field to a cloud or monitoring platform. To ensure data integrity while reducing bandwidth pressure and energy consumption, industrial gateways usually support a variety of signal processing modes, of which “noise reduction mode”, “pass-through mode”, and “off mode” are the most common. Among them, “noise reduction mode”, “pass-through mode”, and “shutdown mode” are the most common. In this paper, we will systematically interpret these three modes from three dimensions: technical principle, realization architecture, and application strategy. On this basis, we will discuss how to combine on-site requirements and equipment functions for reasonable selection.
Overview of Signal Processing Modes
The three core modes of industrial gateways have their own focus:
Noise Reduction Mode: After collecting raw data, the industriële poorten first perform local pre-processing, including outlier elimination, data smoothing and duplicate data filtering, and then uplinks the data. This mode significantly reduces network traffic and back-end processing pressure while retaining sensitivity to trends and key events.
Transmission Mode: Also known as “transparent transmission”, the gateway is only responsible for protocol conversion and encapsulation, without any changes to the data content. It is suitable for scenarios that require very high data integrity, such as passing the serial port data of the device to the remote system for professional analysis.
Shutdown Mode: When the device enters maintenance or non-production hours, the industrial gateways can completely stop data upload to further save energy consumption. This mode is often combined with a timing or remote control strategy to ensure that data collection resumes at critical moments.
Technical Implementation and Architecture Highlights
Implementing the above modes requires co-design at both the hardware and software levels.
Edge preprocessing engine: In noise reduction mode, the gateway’s built-in preprocessing engine needs to support programmable filtering algorithms, such as sliding-window smoothing, threshold filtering and duplicate data merging. Some products also provide a logical configuration platform based on JavaScript or graphical drag-and-drop, which allows users to flexibly define rules such as “discard when values are out of range” and “upload only once when multiple readings are consistent”.
Protocol Conversion and Data Encapsulation: The pass-through mode requires the gateway to retain the original message structure, with minimal encapsulation at the network layer. The gateway needs to support protocols such as Modbus RTU/TCP, IEC 104, OPC UA, MQTT, etc., and seamlessly interface with web configuration or cloud platforms on HTTP or WebSocket channels.
Network and cache management: regardless of the mode, the gateway should be equipped with multi-network intelligent switching and network disconnection function. In the process of network disconnection or switching, the cache queue module needs to differentiate the data in different modes: noise reduction mode only caches the streamlined data after preprocessing; pass-through mode caches the original data messages; and the shutdown mode does not cache the data for the time being.
Example of Product Function Mapping
Taking IOTRouter’s mainstream industrial gateway (such as EG8200Mini) as an example, its function modules cover the above requirements:
Multiple Interfaces and Protocols Compatible: Equipped with RS485/RS232/Ethernet/Wi-Fi/4G multiple access modes, and supports Modbus, MQTT, HTTP, MQTT, HTTP, WebSocket and other protocols, to meet the diversified access needs in transmission and noise reduction modes.
Visual programming and zero-code configuration: Built-in graphical logic programming platform allows users to drag and drop components directly in the browser to quickly realize data filtering, threshold judgment and uplink control, simplifying secondary development in noise reduction mode.
Intelligent Multi-Network Switching and Network Disconnection: When the main network is disconnected, the device can automatically switch to the backup network and continue to transmit the cached data in accordance with the pattern strategy to ensure data integrity.
Mode Selection and Scenario Strategy
Different production environments and business requirements place different emphasis on modes.
Preferred Scenarios for Noise Reduction Mode: In large-scale production lines, environmental monitoring and energy consumption management scenarios, equipment data is updated frequently and most of it is trend information. In this case, by eliminating outliers and duplicate readings, noise reduction mode can reduce the burden of cloud storage and computation and improve overall system performance.
Preferred scenarios for pass-through mode: In medical equipment monitoring, remote PLC programming or security authentication scenarios, there are strict requirements on the integrity and order of the original message, and any local modification may lead to parsing failure. The pass-through mode ensures “zero change” of data while realizing accurate docking with the upper system.
Preferred scenarios for shutdown mode: During nighttime maintenance, maintenance downtime or low-power standby, the industrial gateways can be switched to shutdown mode to avoid invalid data uploads and prolong the life of the equipment.
Operation and Maintenance and Security
Regardless of the mode chosen, the security and operation and maintenance capabilities of the industrial gateway are crucial.
Remote management platform: A centralized operation and maintenance tool allows online monitoring, configuration issuance and firmware upgrade of the gateway, ensuring timely mode switching and policy update.
Data encryption and authentication: In both noise reduction and pass-through modes, the gateway should support TLS/WSS encryption channels and Token authentication mechanisms to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks and data tampering.
Logging and Auditing: The industrial gateways should record mode switching, network status and data upload logs for subsequent failure analysis and compliance auditing.
Conclusie
Building an Efficient and Controllable Data Channel The noise reduction, pass-through and shutdown modes of the industrial gateway provide a multi-dimensional performance and power consumption trade-off for field data collection. Dynamically adjust the data uplink strategy through flexible configuration and refined management. Combined with modern gateway devices that support visual programming and multi-network access, it not only reduces bandwidth and storage costs, but also achieves a more efficient and controllable industrial digital pipeline under the premise of safeguarding data integrity. Choosing the right model and equipment is precisely the first step in building a smart manufacturing and industrial internet platform.
